There have been some good posts lately in the fatosphere about some of the OMG OBESITY implications of WALL-E.

Well, as I posted in response to stitchtowhere's post,I saw a screening tonight. I would say the character concept has changed from the October reference (and talking with the friend at Pixar who got me in, that is indeed the case - "we had some problems with the humans" in the initial concept, he said.)

Humans, at least the ones of 2700, are not the villains, and obesity is not the cause of the Earth's demise (the people shown fleeing Earth in the past are all depicted as slim). It is consumption, and the trash produced by an endless array of consumable goods, that destroys the earth. While I wouldn't say the portrayal that made it to screen is size-positive, the year 2700 humans are pretty friendly and supportive of WALL-E. There is even a brief scene with a newly-formed couple frolicking (fatly) in the pool, which is pretty flirtatious in a way I thought was charming.

My Pixar friend said that essentially, the idea is that humanity was supposed to spend just 5 years on the luxury spaceship, but got trapped for 700 years, and because of the super-artificial situation (it was meant to be a total vacation to recruit people into going), got dependent in an artificial way. Originally they were apparently designed to be rather more gross and creepy, and had no intelligible lines; both of those were changed by the team working on the movie because of concerns about what it would suggest about fat people.

Now, the equation of sloth + fast food = fatties is still at the heart of this, and is undeniably problematic. There is a bit where one of the humans is knocked out of his floating chair and can't get up without help, so he just flops around on the floor like a turtle on its back or a huge infant. That really sucks.

But I would say that I liked the film much more than I'd expected based on reading the warnings about it. And I am impressed that Pixar-owned-by-Disney can take what sounds like it was undoubtedly a totally offensive initial character concept, re-work it based on concerns about size-ism, and make an improvement, even if it's not ultimately ideal. The friend whom I talked to is a fellow of size himself, and it was clear that he felt loyal to the film but also understood it could still have issues. I'm just glad to know the conversation is even happening inside a media company of this stature.