Film: A Computer, Not a Divider

THE most interesting political controversy of the summer involves a polarizing figure with Phil Gramm’s small head and goggling eyes, Bill Clinton’s affinity for dangerous babes, and an oppo researcher’s zeal for picking through other people’s garbage. Superficially endearing but ultimately divisive, this troublemaker has been dropped like a hand grenade into the slow political season between Memorial Day and the conventions, turning conservative against conservative with a ferocity not seen since this year’s South Carolina primary, and opening up a few cracks in liberalism’s united front as well.

I speak, needless to say, of WALL-E, the trash-compacting robot-his acronym stands for Waste Allocation Load-Lifter Earth Class, a piece of trivia worth memorizing if you plan to be a game-show contestant anytime in the 2010s-who lends his name and caterpillar-tracked charm to Pixar’s latest computer-animated confection. WALL-E and its eponymous hero debuted to the sort of rapturous reviews that practically every Pixar effort enjoys, but the critical hosannas were quickly joined by a political backlash-from free-market conservatives annoyed at the movie’s anti-capitalist bent and Inconvenient Truth-y environmental hysteria; from anti-fattist liberals who worry that Pixar is propagating myths about obesity and the environment; and from hypocrisy-scourges of the Left and Right alike who don’t take kindly to being lectured about capitalist greed and conspicuous consumption by anyone associated with the Disney behemoth, which is busy peddling enough WALL-E tie-in merchandise to fill every Eastern Seaboard landfill twice over.

About the Author

Ross Douthat

Ross Douthat is a former National Review contributing editor.

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THE most interesting political controversy of the summer involves a polarizing figure with Phil Gramm’s small head and goggling eyes, Bill Clinton’s affinity for dangerous babes, and an oppo researcher’s zeal for picking through other people’s garbage. Superficially endearing but ultimately divisive, this troublemaker has been dropped like a hand grenade into the slow political season between Memorial Day and the conventions, turning conservative against conservative with a ferocity not seen since this year’s South Carolina primary, and opening up a few cracks in liberalism’s united front as well.

I speak, needless to say, of WALL-E, the trash-compacting robot-his acronym stands for Waste Allocation Load-Lifter Earth Class, a piece of trivia worth memorizing if you plan to be a game-show contestant anytime in the 2010s-who lends his name and caterpillar-tracked charm to Pixar’s latest computer-animated confection. WALL-E and its eponymous hero debuted to the sort of rapturous reviews that practically every Pixar effort enjoys, but the critical hosannas were quickly joined by a political backlash-from free-market conservatives annoyed at the movie’s anti-capitalist bent and Inconvenient Truth-y environmental hysteria; from anti-fattist liberals who worry that Pixar is propagating myths about obesity and the environment; and from hypocrisy-scourges of the Left and Right alike who don’t take kindly to being lectured about capitalist greed and conspicuous consumption by anyone associated with the Disney behemoth, which is busy peddling enough WALL-E tie-in merchandise to fill every Eastern Seaboard landfill twice over.