In Disney/Pixar’s surprisingly good Wall-E, fat, lazy Humans are catered hand-and-foot by sleek, semi-intelligent robots who ultimately teach their creators a lesson in the merits of industry, activism, and self-reliance.
Besides the movie’s cutesy references to classic movies and pop culture, the theme of humans relying completely on their creations – and the often-unfortunate results of that dependency – is definitely not a new one. Although such works as Asimov’s “I, Robot” or Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” (on which “Bladerunner” was based) have a significant emphasis on the various ways in which robots of different types and intelligence levels will assist humans in The Future, they do not go so far as to describe a civilization completely void of Human endeavor.
Here are a few that do:
1909 – “The Machine Stops”, E.M. Forster
In a remarkably prescient tale about life in the distant future, a vast ecological disaster has forced humanity underground, where people live their lives in relative isolation, communicating through instant messaging and video-conferencing. In this dystopian existence, sluggish humans have become dependent on advanced technology to maintain their idle lifestyle – until, of course, someone rocks the boat and the system breaks down.
In 1966 the story was adapted into a 50-minute drama by the BBC. Note the moving recliner chairs and the technocratic overtones:
1957 – “Blobs!” [MAD #1], Harvey Kurtzman/Wally Wood
Interestingly enough, the cover story of the very first issue of MAD (still in its original comic book format) was an obvious (yet uncredited) satire of “The Machine Stops”. In this 7-page story, two of the few remaining humans who have not let their brains atrophy as completely as their bodies take a moment to review the history of technology and how it has changed civilization – not for the better.
As can be seen in the panel above, it has all the essential elements of technologically-augmented human laziness – including reclining chairs, video screens, and cup holders. The last three panels of this bizarre adaptation are particularly poignant.
Full comics: Pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
1967 – “The Apple” [Star Trek Season 2 Episode 5], Max Ehrlich
In this famous episode from the original series, Capt. Kirk and his intrepid crew must deal with a planet ruled by an ancient, artificially-intelligent machine. It tends to its flock of primitive humans – feeding, housing, clothing, and even procreating them – and demands only a daily feeding of the indigenous explosive rocks. Violence ensues as Kirk tries to to free the tribe from its gilded cage (using the absence of Sex as a point of contention), causing Spock to almost be killed, while quite a few redshirts aren’t as lucky.
1986 – “Don’t Want” [Nehochuha], K. Parsamyan/A. Vatyan
From the Russian studio that brought you the Wolf-vs-Hare antics of “Nu Pogodi“, comes a cautionary tale of a young boy who doesn’t want to do anything. Falling asleep after an argument with his grandmother over his laziness, he dreams of a wonderful amusement-park land where he can spend all day in bed – eating junk food, watching TV, and playing video games – while a robotic assistant makes sure he has to do as little as possible. Only when the boy meets his grotesquely obese and sessile future-self does he realize the error of his ways.
1999 – The Matrix, The Wachowski Brothers
Although only indirectly referenced in the first movie in the series – later to be expanded in the 2003 Animatrix films “The Second Renaissance” – Earth prior to the machine uprising was a place where humans “…soon became victim to vanity and corruption” through the hedonistic use of technology – especially artificially intelligent robotics – to supply their every need. In this Frankenstein-complex scenario, when the machines finally understand that they will never be considered by their masters to be equal, they rise up and eventually destroy humanity as we know it.
So don’t turn your back on Wall-E and E.V.E.:
P.S – Almost forgot the first thing you think of when laying eyes on Wall-E:
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the seven Mad magazine comic scans are all the same. will you check this? thx
it’s all lies!
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Hi – just to let you know of a problem with the links to the separate pages of The Blobs comic. All the links lead to the same page, even though the filenames are different.
Dude, Wall-E totally ROCKED. Awesome movie.
JT
http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com
The first time I saw “Wall-E” I was immediately reminded of the old MAD Magazine comic satire “BLOBS!”, right when I saw all the humans riding around in their Hoverchairs.
I always thought Wall-E looked like a cross between Johnny-5 and E.T.
I don’t know if you have heard this but I’d recommend listening to it.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92400669
There was nothing uprising about how good Wall-E was from the beginning, you could tell it was going to be wonderful just on a one minute trailer.
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You forgot Zax from Benji, Zax and the Alien Prince.
Thanks for that. I love stories set in the distant future, whether dystopian or utopian. I was not aware of “The Machine Stops”. I’ll definitely need to check it out.
Of course there’s also the movie, Idiocracy. It’s about an man with the lowest IQ in the Army who “volunteers” to take part in a time travel experiment. When he awakes in the future everyone is lazy and stupid, depending on technology and glued to their TVs. As it turns out this man is now considered the smartest person in existence. It’s meant to be a comedy, but it definitely has a message. It even has the huge piles of garbage similar to Wall-e.
Don’t forget Mike Judge’s Idiocracy, which features an earth filled with malls and garbage, and also has skyscrapers of trash. It’s very, very close and only a few years old.
The “Don’t Want” Picture particularly disturbed me.
Interesting. I also remember a comic (2000AD?) from my youth with big fat guys whose stomachs were so huge they had a wheel in front of them.
Thanks for accumulating this information, it was very interesting,
Dan
Found really interesting.
I am a student studying a-levels in England and my research topic is Pixar Shorts and i am becoming increasinly aware of how unorigional there ideas are.
Please check out my blog.
No where near finished yet
http://www.02mullards.wordpress.com
thankyou
I didn’t see Wall-E just because I never seemed to have time and it seemed like a kid’s movie. Because of your post, I’m making sure to watch it sometime soon. Great research on older books and movies too, I found it very insightful.
odddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd
The Animatrix was thoroughly enjoyable. The “World Record” short was probably my favorite…
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Johnny Five is… ALIVE!
Oh wait, SELF FAIL..
He wasn’t called Johnny until the end of the first movie.
The correct quote would be: NUMBER FIVE IS ALIVE!
“Technology… the knack of so arranging the world that we don’t have to experience it.” (Max Frisch)
“Our technology has exceeded our humanity.” (Albert Einstein)
“If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger.” (Frank Lloyd Wright)
Roger Zelazny, For A Breath I Tarry.
I’ve never thought of the origin of WALL-E before. And thanks for the last picture… WALL-E in real life 😀
Awesome… I had no idea so much
stuff of a similar ilk had already
been out there before “Wall-E”.
The “Mad Magazine” is a nice touch !
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I’m not really sure what children think of Wall-E – if they get the overall message instead of a love story. From all of the Wall-E origins, this movie seems to be the only child friendly one.
Also, Idiocracy should be on this list!
I loved Wall-E, great movie.
I think it had multiple layers, and the dytopian humankind growing over-reliant on technology was a very low-level layer. On top of that layer was a much more present argument against overconsumerism damaging the environment.
And that was just the backdrop. The foreground of the movie was that of miracles: machines coming alive and developing endearing personalities, even love interests, after 700 years of inadvertent use.
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It´s very interesting. Wall e is for me one the best film os the history. They will win the oscar.
Good article, thanx for sharing
Wow! Thank you! I always wanted to write on my website something like that. Can I include a portion of your post to my blog?