I’ve been trying to watch more movies lately. Recently, I’ve watched 10 Things I Hate About You, Peter Pan (1953), and some Japanese animated films, too. But sometimes, I develop an itch to watch things from my childhood. Let me show you what some of them are: the foundations of my film expertise.
Robots is a 2005 film about the journey of Rodney Copperbottom, an inventor who pursues his dream of working in the city for his childhood idol. When he gets there, though, he’s not only discombobulated by the swarming metropolis around him—but also the fact that his idol, Mr. Bigweld, has actually been missing for years. Now, Bigweld’s company is controlled by Phineas T. Ratchet, a capitalist whose goal is to scrap all older robots for parts and charge exorbitant prices for replacements.Â
This movie is about a member of the working class as he fights for what’s right in a developing world occupied by people who want to exploit the impoverished for their own fiscal gain. It holds up not only as a comedy, but as a reflection of what it’s like to leave what you know to follow your ambitions and to have the resilience to change the unknown for the better. Robots has great humor, voice actors, and animation, and it proves to be a glimmer of hope in a world we increasingly find to be so dark.
Another favorite of mine is Surf’s Up, an absolute fever dream. Released in 2007, Surf’s Up is Cody Maverick’s coming-of-age story, rife with romance, moving away from home, the shifting of family dynamics, and discovering oneself. By the way, did I mention almost all of the characters are talking, animated penguins? In Surf’s Up, Cody Maverick leaves his hometown of Shiverpool, Antarctica, for Pen Gu Island to enter a surfing competition in celebration of the late “Big Z”, Cody’s idol and inspiration for becoming a surfer. In a hilarious sitcom-style presentation, Cody walks the audience through his tribulations with friendship, heartbreak, and how to swim back up to the surface, even when you’ve hit rock bottom.Â
To continue this non-human trend, let’s pivot to Shark Tale. It might be from 2004, but you recognize the voice actors: Will Smith, Angelina Jolie, Jack Black. In hindsight, this movie is just like Surf’s Up: when Oscar, a simple fish who works at a whale (car) wash, loses a bet—and subsequently all of his boss’s money—he is left stranded in the open ocean, where a shark just so happens to be killed by an anchor while attempting to devour Oscar. When found, Oscar declares he slayed the shark, earning the title, “Oscar the Shark-Slayer”. Meanwhile, that shark’s little brother, a vegetarian-shark named Lenny, is struck by grief and tired of living in his (now passed) brother’s shadow, leading him to leave his mafia-boss-father’s territory and try to befriend fish. You can guess which fish it is. I won’t tell.
The film is hilarious, and Will Smith and Jack Black have great comedic chemistry. Shark Tale reminds us that it’s okay to be “average”, revealing the consequences, both internal and external, of not only lying to others, but trying to be someone we’re not.Â
I’m not one to judge others’ film tastes—I’ve never been a film buff myself—but you have to watch 2008’s Wall-E if you haven’t yet. It, like Robots, has a diverse cast of machines, plus a cockroach character who lives in a Twinkie and some humans who’ve lived in space so long that they’ve never seen Earth.Â
Wall-E’s story is one of a survivor, one of the last robots helping to remedy the ecocide that has ravaged planet Earth. One day, he meets EVE, a robot sent from megacorporation Buy n Large’s mothership to locate and retrieve the last plant on Earth, which will help send the humans aboard ship back “home.”
Wall-E details an underdog’s attempt to immerse himself in a new world, fight for the people he loves in it, and collaborate with others to make Earth a better place. It’s heartbreaking, beautiful, full of life, and doesn’t require a human main cast to be as such.Â
I hope you’ve got some new movies to add to your watchlist. Or re-watchlist. I’ve seen almost all of these films ten times each, but I always learn something new—about my society, myself, and my peers upon every rewind.