And yes, the little mermaid dies in the original story — she dissolves into sea foam. This was of course absent in Disney’s version.

When I think about it, Wall-E was clever – not the usual Disney good and evil, but a little tribute to the truisms of mankind. Disney seems to have moved with the times – a smarter audience calls for a smarter movie, something I really commend now, as compared to such stuff as Yatterman. Which one could actually call precocious as well, but for all the wrong reasons.

Sugar coating is really what Disney does; you’re right, it’s ridiculous, but people expect it from them anyways. To call it mass-deception would mean there’d be political implications; Disney is less that and more of a bona fide cash cow. People like love and cheeriness and good prevailing over evil, and thus Disney prospers. With how modern-day media perpetuates a ‘culture of fear’, with so much violence and war coverage, I don’t think many are being caught up in a fantasy utopia.

The Ariel Little Mermaid? When does she die O.O?

That much I can take, since most the of audience probably don’t want a DESPAIR ending. But when you think about it, there is a disturbing lack of a sense of consequence in the film: humans lay waste to the earth, escape to space where they live shallow but blissful lives, and eventually return to fix things and everything will be a-okay. Why bother giving a damn about humanity’s destructive habits when everything works out in the end?

Here is where Wall-E’s death comes in. He and Eva are the only characters in the entire film from whom the audience is able empathize with. In other words, they are the only pathways through which emotional response can be achieved in the audience. The “death” scene is the perfect opportunity to make the audience feel the pangs of consequence for the actions of humanity. Even if he is just a silly junk robot, his death would be a sacrifice from which the viewer would be able to extract some meaning. Yet what did they do? COMPLETELY UNDERMINE the opportunity to take the film’s message to a higher level.

There’s no question that Disney has produced a great number of classics over the years, but their insistence on sugar-coating everything really bugs me sometimes. Hell, I bet Disney would somehow make Romeo and Juliet live if they ever decide to adapt Shakespeare. LITTLE MERMAID DIES — that’s what makes the story powerful! Would it kill them to have actually have tragic, or at the very least a bittersweet ending?

A professor I once had called Disney the “Evil Empire” and Disneyland a tool of mass deception. While few people took him seriously, I’m starting to buy into the crazy old coot’s argument. Disney’s Panglossian optimism is like a drug targeted at children to make them see the world through rose-tinted goggles. However, escapism from reality can only take you so far before the road runs out.

I understand your fascination with android characters; it stands much the same for me. They do have that unchanging innocence, and moreover, they try their best, often futilely, to carry out what they were programmed to do no matter what. Such powerlessness yet selfless determination really resonates within me. I say, if there ever comes a day where robots will become smart enough and advanced enough to mirror and serve humans, the world will become a very sad place.
Time of Eve presents an alternative that’s a bit more comforting, though.

There’s always two things at the top of my mind that I employ every ani-fan to do: watch Tengen Toppa, and read Planetarian. Of all things, that KN simply struck me the hardest. Gentle Jena breaks me down even today.

I have watched Wall-E, but I didn’t find myself as captured as everyone else, mainly because there was a bit of silliness and Wall-E himself wasn’t quite personified enough for me to be able to relate and feel for him like I could with Hoshino Yumemi. I’ll never forget her name, by the way. Impossible.

I don’t quite remember the ending of Wall-E though; I recall them colonizing the Earth again. Why did it irritate you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geUeWJfoLJE

It loses the 8-bit charm, but the sequence when she rusts at the end of her journey is given a lot of emotional appeal in the newer version.

This video makes me cry at times — literally cry. I think I have some sort of fascination with android characters. I am guessing this is because they often possess an innocence that is absolute in their programming, which contrasts with the not-so-pleasant images of the present and future, as well as the less sightly facets of human nature.

Planetarian (which turns my face into a loose water faucet every time without fail) is definitely within the same vein as this song, especially in their environmental message. Disney’s Wall-E also deals with a similar premise (lonely robot on a ruined Earth), but although I enjoyed the movie very much, I couldn’t help but to be irritated by the ending. Before I go any further into spoiler territory, have you watched Wall-E?

Sorry about making you go through it again. :p

And dammit blur, I promised myself never to see it again ;-;

Still a little lost.
To summarize… In the end, she only get to see her loved one up in heaven? Or are there hidden meanings I fail to grasp?