WALL-E and PRESTO

The creations that come out of Pixar Animation Studios are a puzzling assortment. Invariably, the feature length presentations are technically spectacular collage pastiches composed of every conventional, sentimental and banal plot twist and character type imaginable assembled into a gleaming and self-canceling entity that attempts to exhaust critical observation into slave-like obedience and acquiescence laced with good humor. Cartoon logic is not employed but rather exploited.

Character A takes out a “loaded” gun and shoots character B between the eyes; a neat circle marks the bullet’s point of entry. Brain and skull are colorfully splattered on the wall behind or, perhaps, bolt out the back of the victim’s head like a speeding car. No matter; character B scoops it all up and pats it back into place, moving on to the next round of visual merriment.

In other words there is no such thing as consequence or non sequitur. Meaning is impossible in a world without consequence or limitation, for what could differentiate one act or state from another if the results are always interchangeable?

If only this were true and could tell us something about real life, arms and warfare would have no meaning or occasion and hospitals and doctors would be unnecessary. "WALL-E" trivializes the very buzzword topics it purports to engage and makes a parody of the very notion of the miracle of life in its “pizza-plant” finale.

The cute little rolling box with the blinking binoculars eclipses any real concern that the Earth has been devastated. That this is a love story can only be the case because WALL-E and EVE neither eat nor drink nor breathe and, therefore, can afford romance. They are not engaged in any struggle or even desire for survival, let alone franchise purchasing power. Their “lives” are mechanical operations.

The idea that the roly-poly illiterate Captain, barely able to lift his cup of morning coffee, could physically wrestle into submission a state-of-the-art technological computerized device is not an image of man overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds, but rather a drowsy bed-time story for somnambulant adults who cannot face the world they have helped to create, wittingly or not, and cannot begin to imagine, let alone effect, any way out of this nightmare.

In absolute contrast to "WALL-E", the preceding short, “Presto”, is a work of cunning observation in which cartoon logic is employed to illustrate and illuminate a dark vision of reality and human resourcefulness.

Presto is a turn of the last century magician preparing for his evening performance in a grand old vaudeville theater. In the Dressing Room backstage a plump carrot rests on a mirrored vanity just out of reach of a famished white rabbit locked in a gilt cage. The rabbit furiously lunges for the carrot but to no avail. Presto enters and quickly locks the Dressing Room door. Ignoring the rabbit’s pleas for food he removes a gleaming key from his pocket and unlocks a drawer with a secret compartment containing two sparkling magical hats: a black satin top hat and a purple pointed Sorcerer’s cap emblazoned with silvery stars and the moon. Suddenly the bell rings for Curtain Time and Presto grabs the rabbit, plunking the Sorcerer’s cap on its head, and rushes off to the stage.

The hats are a magical device: the magician reaches into the top hat and his hand comes out of the sorcerer’s cap- no matter where it is, inches, feet, or perhaps, a universe away.

On stage Presto removes the top hat and reaches in to pull out the white rabbit sitting out of view in the wings. But the hungry and wily rabbit has taken the cap off his head and holds it just far enough away that the magician’s disembodied hand cannot reach him, and therefore cannot pull him out of the top hat. A series of vignettes ensues in which the rabbit continually foils the magician’s attempts to perform banal and predictable gags. As a result the performance actually becomes an inspired, unscripted dialog between the two dueling partners. The rabbit refuses to tamely cooperate because he has not been fed; Presto continues, unsuccessfully but to stunning effect, to attempt to assert his dominance.

Finally a show-stopping near-death finale elicits a spontaneous moment of awestruck silence from the theater audience before a round of rapt applause and, at last, the rabbit is fed the measly carrot. Presto takes a bow for a performance he did not intend, comprehend or appreciate and cannot repeat. In fact it was not a performance but life itself, a struggle within a context of actual consequences. Sated, the rabbit is content to be tricked back into the cage.

As the cartoon version of Nature, the rabbit wants only what nature always wants: to be fed. Man, the magician Presto, has no special talent except through his creative determination to persist. He happens to possess a device, which he can use but cannot control, the pair of enchanted hats. These hats allow him, as it were, to be in two places at once.

The hats are a metaphor of technology as opposed to the mechanical. They operate like a telephone- which is a machine and also the simplest form of technology. The salient feature of a machine is that it and its operation are limited to a specific place and time.

A visual depiction of a machine or mechanical operation is a cohesive image, commonly referred to as a “view”, whether representational or abstract. The visual depiction of technology is collage, which unites disparate elements to create an entity or understanding different from either part and that must be “read” to be comprehended, mixing speeds as well as types of perception. A collage is a visual depiction of the eradication of space and time.

For the “human” population of the orbiting spaceship in "WALL-E" the bumps on the road of life must be obliterated or smoothed out for them to roll into the future. Presto is a fully alive representation of the artist, or any person who responds creatively to the challenges of life.

Presto’s limitations and human frailty are plainly evident in his pride and the low conception of his intended performance. His true artistry and vitality are revealed in his spontaneous improvisation with the ups and downs provided by the abundantly resourceful rabbit. The creativity that springs from engagement within limitation and resistance is the true miracle of life.