Humanity Cannot Be Saved in Wall-E

Disney/Pixar's latest CGI confection, Wall-E, is an oddly moving love story about a sanitation robot abandoned on the garbage-caked Earth for 700 years after humans have been wiped out or fled to space. Billed as a sweet, eco-friendly kid's movie, Wall-E's message is dark as hell: Humans as a species are doomed to extinction, and robots will inherit our planet. Rarely have I seen a more pessimistic movie aimed at children. Director Andrew Stanton has said the movie explores how "love defeats programming," and yet the only creatures who embrace love over an implicitly bad program are the robots. The humans cannot overcome their programmed greed and laziness. They never learn, and they never change: They grow fatter, weaker, and more hideous, redeemed only by the hope that they'll eventually be replaced by their industrious mechanical creations. Spoilers ahead. More »