No One Talks About The Only Pixar Movie Deserving A Sequel
With the success of the Toy Story sequels, Pixar seems to continue to chase that kind of success with their other films. Unfortunately, their other attempts at sequels have been anything but stellar, as evidenced by the attempts to make more Cars movies. But there is actually one great Pixar movie that could lend itself very well to having a follow up, and that is 2008’s WALL-E.
WALL-E
Admittedly, WALL-E seemed like a pretty complete film when it was originally made. WALL-E and EVE are able to bring humans back to Earth, teach them to stop being destructive to the planet, and live active lives to nurture the world again. It was a great pro-environmental and anti-consumerism message that worked well for the time. But here in 2024, we have some new global issues that a WALL-E 2 could tackle.
Technology
One of the big modern real life fears is people being afraid that technology is making them obsolete in their roles. And the humans of WALL-E have even more valid reason to feel that way, as over reliance on technology made them lazy and obese to the point of helplessness. So it seems like a natural side effect that a sequel could focus on a subset of humans who become vocally anti-technology to the point of being hostile against helpful robots like WALL-E and EVE.
Artificial Intelligence
WALL-E 2 could address how people and technology could coexist in an era where the capabilities of robots makes humans look obsolete. It could deal with the realities of AI being so advanced that it has its own personalities, like WALL-E does. But it could also deal with WALL-E facing resentment from some humans for doing things better than we can.
The movie’s core message could be about appreciating the unique capabilities of humans that technology can never replicate (like our emotions and creativity), while also acknowledging that advancements in robots are not our enemy and can be something we respect and befriend.
Pixar Knows How To Handle Tough Subjects Well
To be fair, those would be difficult messages to convey in a movie for children. But the first WALL-E handled similarly complex topics with tact and nuance, so I think Pixar could pull it off. The sequels to Toy Story are all known for how emotionally engaging they are, so Pixar clearly has the capability to do it. It is just unfortunate the studio hasn’t had such luck with finding that success with something like Incredibles 2 that did not live up to its predecessor.
WALL-E 2 Should Only Happen With Something Substantial To Say
WALL-E is perhaps one of the greatest animated movies ever made. The first 30 minutes of it can be understood perfectly by anyone regardless of language because the story is almost all told through actions. I would not ask for it to have a follow-up unless there was something more worth saying.
But I think we can all agree that with the current problems the world is facing, there is plenty of commentary left about the state of the Earth and the role technology is playing in it. If anything, we are overdue for a WALL-E sequel to address how much the world has changed since 2008.
