Therapist Reacts to WALL-E

Why is curiosity so important? How do we stop being complacent?

Licensed therapist Jonathan Decker and filmmaker Alan Seawright are reacting to WALL-E and comparing and contrasting curiosity and complacency. Jonathan talks about how WALL-E’s contagious curiosity affects everyone he meets and shakes them out of complacency. He also explains why curiosity is so important for our mental health. Alan is in awe of Pixar’s filmmaking and storytelling expertise in conveying so much with so few words. Pixar is so good that he’s kind of upset. Damn you, Pixar!

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Cinema Therapy is:
Written by: Megan Seawright, Jonathan Decker, and Alan Seawright
Produced by: Jonathan Decker, Megan Seawright, Alan Seawright, and Corinne Demyanovich
Director of Photography: Bradley Olsen
English Transcription by: Anna Preis

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[dragonbretheren]

One thing I find unmeasurably astounding is how cute Wall-E's design is. Conventional wisdom dictates that cute design needs to be round, and smooth (or otherwise fluffy), and soft. In conventional design, Eve is the prototypical "cute" design, but she doesn't read that way on screen. Wall-E on the other hand is about as far opposite that conventionally "cute" design aesthetic as you can get - he's hard, and boxy, with lots of sharp angular corners and rigid rusty texture, yet he reads a cute IMMEDIATELY.

[gadflyeducator]

The opening of this movie is some of the best filmmaking I’ve ever seen. It’s sets the scene and tone of the world perfectly without a single word. It’s the epitome of “show, don’t tell.”

[WistyFish]

I frickin love the scene when all the people start passing the plant to Eve, because they easily could have made the humans bumbling obstacles and the robots fix everything. But this little bit shows that even in their cartoonishly complacent state, people are compassionate and try their best to be good. They don’t know Wall-e or even what’s going on, really, but they’re eager to help.
I don’t know I just really love how this movie portrays the people as lost, but good.

[delaneymosley]

I love how prominent character growth through curiosity is with the Captain. He went from being so through the motions to delivering the most chilling line, "I dont want to survive, I want to live!" Gosh i adore this movie!

[patrickshaw]

Eve screaming no when wall-e gets crushed will always be gut-wrenching. It's such a visceral sound that conveys her pain, grief, and absolute panic on par with any other similar scene. The work that they had to do storytelling wise to make that one word hit like a truck is incredible. Love this movie

[zoevalk]

"When my emotions are too big they leak out my eyes."

Same, Alan. Same.

Be it movies, books, music, real life... Tears aren't always sad. Joy, wonder, awe, things you don't understand but feel it so hard and you can't do anything but hit the waterworks.

[ajrodriguez]

I always viewed Eve as like a really cool, intelligent, and career-driven person while Wall-E is very relationship and partner-focused person. In the beginning, they both are at the extreme levels of their respective traits, and it isn't until they both inherit a little of what the other person values that their relationship finally flourishes. Under the many marvelously written themes, there's a story of two people who in the beginning seemingly are completely different, but let their curiosity guide them to learn and accept one another and find the beauty in each other. Love takes work with a spark of curiosity, and once you find it you flourish.

[meileg]

I've always loved how everyone who meets Wall-E learned how to wave because of him 😊 he's teaching them how to be more social whether they realize it or not

[experiment]

I have to say, I love when Mo challenges WALL-E when they first meet, like he is saying "come on, I dare you to try that again", and wall-e puts dirt on his face, and Mo just freaks LOL!

[kukalakana]

What really impressed me about Wall-E is how much they were able to convey with almost no dialogue.

Also, when I see dirt on something I just cleaned, it's like, "foreign contaminant."

[trinaq]

My all-time favourite Pixar film. I love how much EVE gradually softens the more time she spends with WALLE. Initially, she's singularly focused her directive, but over time, WALLE becomes more important to her, to the point where she chooses to try to fix WALLE. By contrast, AUTO never strays from his mission, and tries to kill WALLE.

[mikat]

as a young animator, it means so much to me how much you both appreciate and respect animation as a medium of storytelling! with much to stress and worry about in this industry, your refreshing takes give me hope and remind me of why i love what i do!

[jennaheiser]

EVE’s “No!” when WALL-E is smashed gives me the most violent, abrupt tear in my eye every time. You can HEAR how shattered she is!

[zuzb]

When I was a kid, my dad took me and my little brother to the cinema to see Wall-e and then afterwards drove us to the nearest waste collection point. It was a while ago and a lot has changed since then, but at the time waste collection composed of hills and mountains of garbage being formed outside of cities. I still remember the smell, the dirt and the overpowering grayness. It was exactly like in the Wall-e movie, but in real life. I am so thankful that he did this, it was the biggest lesson I have ever learned.

[Racecar]

Curiosity is a trait that often feels squashed by life. Glad you’re talking about it ❤

[torqueoz]

Something I learned about the "Directive?" scene. The first three times she asks him in other languages are German ("Weisung?"), Japanese ("Meirei?"), Swahili ("Ayimonkos?") then, of course, English. Took me 'years' to find that out. So thought I'd drop that here, just in case people were curious

[AbisexualCarpenter]

Also it’s great that the villain is basically just a manifestation of tradition and orders from long ago which still keeps everyone complacent

[Olivia_Dreamrider]

I used to know people who hated this movie because, and I qoute, "it was boring because there was no talking in the first 30 minutes."

I still dont understand how they missed how beautiful wordless storytelling can be, and WALLE is a pperfect example of show, dont tell.

[laviniasnow]

Two scenes in this animated movie make me cry *EVERY SINGLE TIME* even if I get to see the scenes without the rest of the movie and they are:
1. The scene where Eve sees the camera footage and understands that Wall-E took care of her.
2.When Wall-E was getting crushed and Eve screamed. This one has me bawl my eyes out.
I totally cry when I'm overwhelmed with emotion (good or bad, doesn't matter) too so don't ever be embarrassed for crying. It's a mechanism of rebalancing emotionally. ☺️

[Geeksdanz]

As a dancer, “define dancing” has always been one of my favorite scenes in any movie, ever. It’s just such a beautiful depiction of the power of art to foster emotional connection. This whole movie is a dance, starting from the first act that’s pretty much entirely non-verbal. Dance is powerful for its ability to communicate complex emotions that often don’t have precise words, and this movie is a thesis on that idea. Thanks so much for your commentary ❤️