First of all, if you haven’t seen this movie yet… you should.  I almost never go to the movies ($8 for a matinee?  For REAL?), but last week we cut out early and went to the picture show, excessively high ticket prices and all.  I love Pixar, but I’ve only seen one other Pixar film in the theater before this. (The Incredibles in case you’re wondering, but I wish I’d seen Finding Nemo in the theater.  It’s so pretty.) Wall-E is certainly one of those films you want to see on the big screen.  Visually, it’s absolutely stunning.  The rendering of Earth with towers of garbage standing alongside the tallest skyscrapers is both bleak and strangely beautiful.  Scenes that take place among the stars rival any Imax movie. 

Wall-E would be worth seeing just for its beauty, but because you’re a writer, you have another reason to see it: it’s a perfect exampleof character wants (Robert Olen Butler would say yearning) and gesture driving a plot.  If you’ve ever taken a class with Jill, you know these are two of her favorite topics: Wants and Gestures.  (Maybe we should get her to teach a single session class on them!) Jill’s always saying that every character should want something in every single scene, even if it’s just a glass of water.  In Wall-E, this little robot has one simple, profound want that carries much of the plot.  He just wants to hold Eve’s hand.  That’s all.  You could extrapolate abstractions from this want: he wants to connect, he wants to find companionship, he wants love.  But at its most simple, Wall-E just wants to hold her hand.

…Which brings me to Jill’s other favorite topic, Gesture.  We’ve all heard the axiom “Actions speak louder than words” a million times, but in the case of narrative, it’s almost always true.  After all, Hamlet doesn’t get credit for planning to kill his uncle.  Romeo & Juliet wouldn’t have been such a tragedy if Mercutio hadn’t stepped in front of Tybalt’s sword, and it wouldn’t have been such a romance if Romeo hadn’t pressed his palm to Juliet’s.  Wall-E is a brilliant study in the importance of gesture, as it has almost no dialogue in the first half of the film.  In the absence of dialogue (both external and internal) to learn about character, we have only gesture.  Incredibly, it works, and we feel we understand the little robot perfectly. 

When (not if) you see this movie, pay attention to the way character is realized through gesture, and plot is carried by character wants.  It’s a wonderful lesson in storytelling. 

Have you seen Wall-E?  Agree with me?  Want to gush?  Fervently disagree?  Want to bash?  Throw in your two cents in the Writer’s Lounge