Dear Disney-Pixar,
I am sad that I can not see any of your movie re-releases this weekend in anticipation of ‘Brave’. Four years ago, I was left in awe of ‘WALL-E’. I had seen the film with a group of twenty actors in Upstate New York. Color me surprised when, the next day, I began leading my workshop by discussing the film, the conversation turned into one about the environment.
That’s not how I watched the film at all.
My viewing was about the communication, or lack thereof, from one being to another. Here was this garbage compacting robot finding connection to everything around him but having no one he could truly share them with (the cockroach was his bud, but not ‘the’ connection). WALL-E found romance in everything around him, yet had no romance himself.
Enter Eve. Love at first sight. And yet, WALL-E’s biggest challenge was in establishing that connection – breaking through the barriers. The same barriers the humans were having on the Axiom. The technological ones. At its core, ‘WALL-E’ was a story about contact, about communication, about the human need to not be alone. It made me want to run away in fear, not wanting my life to turn out this way. But that would be counter-productive.
Here’s my pitch Disney-Pixar.
I love Spaceship Earth in EPCOT. I love the tour through the history of communication. I loved listening to Walter Cronkite, I loved listening to Jeremy Irons, I love listening to Judi Dench. Do I take a nap on the ride sometimes? Sure. But that is usually out of comfort rather than boredom (::cough:: Hall of Presidents)… even with the suspect backwards journey.
Disney-Pixar, you have made The Seas with Nemo & Friends a goto every time I visit EPCOT. You have taken a rather dormant attraction and colored it just enough to bring the peace & tranquility it was so desperately needing. If WALL-E took us on a tour of the history of communication maybe we can all take the moment to not communicate through our smart phones, Facebooks, Tweeters, and the like, but with each other.
But, a warning, please be careful of incorporating any environmental message on the ride as you may end of with that E.T. attraction at Universal where they creepily say your name at the end.
Thanks.
Brother Dillo
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