Movie Review: Wall-e -- Can We Please Stop Putting Blatant Political Messages in Children's Movies?!

So this weekend I took my 3-year old son to see Wall-e. In case you've been in a cave, that's the new Pixar-Disney robot movie. Here's all I have to tell you to review this movie: both me, and my 3-year old fell asleep during the movie. However, we both managed to catch enough of the movie to get the gist. Despite his falling asleep, my son did seem to enjoy the movie.

The plot summary is that in the year 2700, due to man's negligence, the Earth is a garbage dump incapable of supporting life. Wall-e is a robot left behind to help clean up the garbage in anticipation of an eventual recovery. People have left the Earth and live in some sort of huge space ship. The human race has become a bunch of fat, blubbering, spineless blobs that do nothing but float around in levitating chairs and eat. Eventually, plant life is discovered on Earth, and the humans come back.

This was one of the most political children's movies I have ever seen. The message is right from the "environmentalist-whacko" handbook. Man is bad. We are destroying the Earth. Fortunately, my son is young enough to not really understand the undertones of the message.

This would not bother me so much, except it is right on the heels of another blockbuster children's movie with an environmental message. Happy Feet was another movie that attempts to infiltrate our kid's minds. Can it please stop?! Whether you agree or disagree with the message, do our kids need to be slyly bombarded with politics when they go to the movies? Adults can typically see when they are being sold to. However, children are not able to distinguish the difference.

Growing up, the most political movie I can recall was Bambi, but that message came nowhere near breaching the political firestorm pushed upon our kids in Wall-e and Happy Feet.

In the future, I'm going to be more careful about exposing my children to political messages in their entertainment. I anticipate some difficulty when my son wants to see the latest movie that "everyone" is seeing. Perhaps I'll cave, but I hope to at least be on-alert for these tactics in the future. I hope I can let my kid be a kid. He has his whole adult life ahead of him to complain about politics.

To the film makers: Stop trying to save the world! Do your job and entertain us. Make it worth the $10.50. If not, at least make it hold my attention enough to keep me awake through the entire film. Thanks.