Why 'WALL-E' Is The Perfect First Movie For Movie Fans To Watch With Their Kids

I always imagined that Hayao Miyazaki's "My Neighbor Totoro" would be the first movie I would show my son. But last summer - about 30 minutes into an eight-hour flight, or about 29 minutes after his 2-year-old mind grew tired of sitting inside a huge steel tube as it streaked through the sky at 300 mph - I delegated the honor of choosing Asa's first film to the knowledgeable people who program Delta's in-flight entertainment.

The options were pretty uninspiring (you can't bring a bottle of water to security, but "Sing 2" is safe?), and even the premium fare seemed to fry my kid's brain. It wasn't until I neared the end of my AZ search that something jumped out at me as a viable option. Not only was it a great movie, but its often wordless narration also meant I could watch from the next seat without a headset. But the real deciding factor was that – despite my deep-rooted resentment of the look and gentrifying energy of computer-generated Hollywood cartoons – this one somehow promised not to betray my pretentious and ridiculously parent plan of introduce Asa to the movies by showing him one that reflects the most fundamental essence of their magic. Even with the entire Disney library at my disposal, it's hard to imagine I could have found a better choice.

The movie, of course, was "WALL-E," and my son watched it something like six times in a row before he landed (he alternated between taking serene naps and doing Spielberg facing the folder screen) . In the months that followed, I watched at least half of Andrew Stanton's fantastical post-apocalyptic fable about once a day - twice if it rains - and was quick to turn off my Apple TV before it automatically plays "Cars" more times than I can count.

This may sound masochistic, but I regret to inform you that this is a distressing standard media diet for someone with a young child and a Disney+ account; most toddlers would ask for the Ludovico technique by name if they knew what it was called. In truth, the only weird thing about it is that I haven't had enough of "WALL-E" either.



And when it was unexpectedly announced that the film would be inducted into the Criterion Collection with a 4K UHD Deluxe Edition, placing it alongside canonical masterpieces such as 'Pather Panchali', 'The Passion of Joan of Arc" and "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" - it was as if the universe itself was validating my first major cinematic parenting decision.

But it wasn't until I got the Criterion disc in my hands that I realized how lucky I had been to find "WALL-E" on our flight that day. For obvious reasons, "WALL-E" is often seen as a cautionary tale about the ravages of climate change and/or a child-friendly critique of the same consumer capitalism that helped Disney foot the bill for its $180 million budget. dollars in the first place. . But its deepest joys are rooted in something much simpler: robots acting like humans to teach humans to stop acting like robots (and giant babies).

Stanton literally spent years trying to turn that notion into a specific phrase that could keep his huge team at Pixar on the same page during production. "It sounds stupid," he told me on a recent Zoom call, "but sometimes you don't see your work for weeks or months as it moves through the pipeline; when you can [spell the theme of a project] like a slogan on a coffee mug, you know the army of people along the line don't put the wrong clothes on your child Everyone can help you towards the same polar star."

The catchphrase that Stanton eventually came up with is "irrational love goes against the programming of life". Seeing his notebook page recreated in the Criterion Blu-ray liner notes, I finally understood why "'WALL-E" is such a perfect movie for parents to watch 900 times with their kids: under a some day it's a movie about parenthood.

Specifically, it's a film about the sweet vertigo of that transition between experiencing the world firsthand and showing it to someone else; a film that shakes up the inertia of life as its characters strive to cling to the past without locking themselves in and make room for tomorrow without forgetting yesterday...