Wall-E
I’m beginning to see a theme running through most, if not all, the Pixar movies. Since I’m not a film student, just a DVD renter, I turned to Roger Ebert’s site for his review of Wall-E, which recently came out. Ebert doesn’t seem to have made this connection, and that may be an indication that I missed the point of the movie. Be that as it may, the theme I see is, for want of an official term, “Misfits Triumph.” I’m sure this is a very well-known theme, it’s in so many movies, but especially the better kids movies (the ones adults go to see). Think of Babe, the pig that aspired to be a sheep-herding dog. Or how about ET: The Extraterrestrial, perhaps the best example of all, with an alien from space (talk about an outsider!) that no one understands but a little boy. Or the Shrek movies, especially the first one (which is the only one I remember, actually). In Shrek, the heavy-handed lesson is “it’s okay to be who you are.” Which harkens back all the way to Dumbo. In the Pixar movies, to be a misfit is to be better than the rest. In other words, being normal is not a good thing; it’s a disadvantage. I say this without really knowing what to make of it. I am merely pointing it out.
Monsters, Inc.
In Wall-E and The Incredibles, the misfits save the day. In Monsters, Inc. and Ratatouille, the misfits find their way in the world, even though it means going against convention. Wall-E is sort of ET in reverse: the humans have left for space, and he is left behind, on Earth. Wall-E is not so much a misfit as a guy looking for love, but he is soon caught up with his new love’s mission (no plot spoiler here). They rescue (or accidentally release) a bunch of misfit robots from a repair ward, which brings to mind One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (another movie in this genre), and off they go to battle the forces of the entrenched status quo.
The Incredibles
Ratatouille gives us a rat who is born to be a French chef, and we see how he pulls it off. This is Pixar encouraging misfits everywhere to follow their dreams, more so than in any of the movies mentioned here. And in Monsters, Inc., assumptions about the status quo are brought into question. “That’s the way it’s always been done” is seen to be not a good reason for doing things. So again, the message is “Misfits! Unite! The World is wrong and you can change it!”
Ratatouille
So here ends my brief look at Pixar’s “misfit propaganda”. It’s a message that resonates with me, and perhaps helps explain why I love these movies so much. They seem to be talking to me. I wonder why it’s not mentioned by movie critics. Possibly it’s just so common in children’s movies as to be not worth mentioning. What do you think?
