Written by: Sinead Vaz
Collectively, we’ve been facing the issues of climate change and children today are introduced to its detrimental effects at a very early age. Maybe it’s my pessimism, but it’s very hard to maintain hope when trash around us grows and trees are felled. However, a conversation with the children who came to watch Wall-E brought back some of that hope.
They hadn’t seen the Pixar movie before, which was a win. The story of a robot whose only directive is to protect the little sapling in a boot but ends up finding love is a heartwarming story of the underdog. As we settled in to watch the 2008 movie I introduced its themes, which they were familiar with. The overarching theme and question of taking care of our planet and the impact of garbage was not a new one to any of the children attending. I introduced the movie with the question of whether one little robot can save the entire earth. Skepticism brewed but they were very excited nonetheless.
Even though I had watched the movie several times before the energy was contagious. Their soft giggling and gasps drew me in. Wall-E, a retro, analogue robot, protecting Eva, his sleek, button-less, crush from a storm was adorable. The simplicity of caring for someone or something is something I hope the children picked up on. The gendering of the robots irked me a little but it’s a Disney movie from 2008. Kailash’s question, “how do they communicate with each other?” reminded me that it’s a movie from close to two decades ago, and make appropriate allowances while staying critical.
In our post movie discussion, children were very vocal about the fact that we cannot be lazy if we want to protect our earth. The second half of the movie takes place on a spacecraft that the human race has confined itself to. The ship takes care of itself and them, tuning them to soft, round people that never get off their hover-chairs. The children were affected seeing fully grown adults learning to walk for the first time, which was interesting to me.
What about taking care of our planet? Why should we take care of the Earth? There was a basic understanding of our relationship with it, our dependence on it. The movie reinforced actions of change they were already familiar with- do not litter, plant trees and keep garbage out of our oceans. However, I am grateful I got to bring up the topic of effective change on a bigger scale. Broaching the topic of how our money goes to big companies that pollute our oceans and the Earth was received with much more enthusiasm than I thought it would be. Some of them responded with factories being the biggest polluters and they are absolutely right. Building on a fact they already knew helped me bridge the gap between them and daunting topics such as intentional consumption and how choosing what to buy and not to buy makes a big difference. There was a little push back on my example of McDonalds polluting the earth, but when we scaled it up from one happy meal to several hundred happy meals in several hundred branches the children understood where I was coming from.
Wall-E and his gentleness was reflected in how the children talked about their own homes, gardens and the trees they have, which they help take care of. Eva’s fierceness and protectiveness shone through in their vow for change and effective action. I’m glad I got to rewatch Wall-E with them.