Adult Formation: Wall-E

36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40 (NRSV-U)

Do you have the sense that you have a directive – a centering mission and purpose of your life? It could be art, it could be family, it could be knowledge, it could be sacred. The sense of directive and purpose, and changing that understanding based on the unveiling of both love and villainy is a question that moves the film. In the larger spatial sketches it asks about community directives: who are we and why are we here and how are we to live?

If you haven’t watched the film yet, here are suggestions to guide your faith-based wondering:

• Is this about the future or about the now or about the past?
• What does the name of the ‘new’ robot suggest?
• How is evil and sin glossed over?
• What is most horrifying about the Axiom?
• Is there a moment that lifts your heart and spirit more than any other?
• Do you identify with one of the robots?
• What does the movie want us to do?
• Is there a scriptural story that the movie reminds you of?

(spoilers below)

Wall-E is a sneakily provocative film. It is animated, it’s about cute robots, there were toys: but at its heart it is about adult capitulation to evil, and rising from that wickedness. The opening music is jaunty: but then it dives into depravity and devastation. There is no complex dialogue for the first 20 minutes of the movie – a daring move for a family film. All that near silence, it emphasizes the scorched landscape.

“Movies like Wall-E and Up deftly evoke complicated emotional responses in adults in a way that most children’s films don’t, speaking to adults on their own level through smart, subtle storytelling that’s often amazingly, heartbreakingly simple.” Bridget McGovern, Wall-E: Pixar’s Lasting Tribute to the Power of Art

Earth is an outward and visible reality of collapse: collapse of responsibility, moderation, charity, mutuality. This could be an update of the visions of the Exilic and apocalyptic prophets. It is also easy to see it as a prediction of our future if we do not amend our ways. And it is a conviction of the now. This is who some of us are becoming: not caring about our attachment to disposability, assuming someone else will take care of the dirty job, morphing into boneless blob people in our hover chairs with our screens.

In the middle of all this grime and loss, newness emerges. Life finds a way. And it goes unrecognized by one not trained to notice it. Learning to appreciate the gems in the rubble, the value of the oddball, the duplicity of the actor, are all lessons of this film: all Epiphanic. The season of ordinary time after the Epiphany continues the two stellar surprises of both the episode of the Magi, and Jesus’ baptism. There are several points where this story echoes the journey of the Magi. An expert looking for something precious and new; when it is found there is betrayal before the despotic desire to hold on to power, to not change who is in charge. We tell of Jesus’ baptism and cannot easily avoid connecting it to the church practice of baptism. We say that we baptize people into Jesus’ death and resurrection. Is Wall-E (the character) an example of humility, self-sacrifice, death and resurrection? Is the Captain’s journey also one of enlightenment leading to some of the same?

So where are you in this film? Do you feel like Wall-E? One of the Axiom passengers? What is you directive, and how does it connect to our prime directive from God?

In the passage from Matthew Jesus gathers two directives from our Jewish heritage. His blended answer isn’t mind blowing for the audience he is with – much less of a shock than the twists and turns of this film. It is however a centering word we need to hear and repeat often. We have a directive. Loving God by loving neighbor, by loving what is precious to God. Wall-E asks where did all the good people go – and part of the answer is that they were numbed into complacency by the hand of selfish powers that be. We have a directive – this is the directive. We are asked to follow it with the same commitment as these robots. We are asked to get up out of our chairs and claim it when it enters our path. We are sent, into the river with Jesus, out to the unknown with the Magi, into the muck of loss and neglect. And that is all that love is about.