Analysis of Ice Age: The Meltdown by Carlos Saldanha and WALL-E by Andrew Stanton - Movie Review Example

With the rapid development of science and technology, more and more pollution is produced, such as water contamination, ecological disruption, and greenhouse gas. Especially, greenhouse gases, which lead to global warming, recently become one of the gravest environmental issues in the United States. Greenhouse gases are a gas in an atmosphere that varies in their ability to absorb and hold heat, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Meanwhile, according to United States Environment Protection Agency, in 2012, The United States is the second emitter of greenhouse gas emissions by 18 percent of the world. Thus, in the film Ice Age: The Meltdown, director Carlos Saldanha appeals and warns us that we should pay more attention to protect against global warming by narrating the story of creatures fleeing due to the melting of the ice caps because of global warming. While in WALL-E, director Andrew Stanton shows as a world that is inhabitable and where people live in outer space and their lives is run by robots. These films show us that the past teaches us that we must personally take care of our one and only planet, or else, we might have to face a future without our home. The past is a great reflection of the future to which we are heading. The simple fact that history repeats itself remind that we have to learn from the lessons of yesterday. This was shown in Ice Age: The Meltdown where the animals are now enjoying the effects of the melting glaciers. The weather is much more bearable than the cold and some parts are actually melting into water. But everything is melting and the world as they know it is rapidly changing. They will soon be taken over by flood that the only way to survive is to reach the other side of the valley as suggested by the vulture (Ice Age: The Meltdown). Cycles of ice ages and the subsequent cooling periods are naturally occurring and spans for millions of years. Currently, from what began some 3 million years beforehand, we are in the third cooling period. But this movement toward hotter temperatures is faster than nature directs due to the evolution of human beings that led to the catastrophic environmental changes occurring right now. “Changes in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are a strong candidate to explain the overall pattern of climatic change” (Maasch). These greenhouse gases will displace people from their homes as temperatures and weather phenomenon become unbearable. Similar to the displacement that was occurring in Ice Age, human beings will have to relocate as effects of global warming affect their environment. As the sea level continues to rise, low-lying areas will be wiped out by the water and heavy rains could lead to total destruction. This had been seen in many of the recent natural tragedies in coastal areas where hundreds of lives have been claimed. According to a report by the United Nation’s the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the rise in the sea level within the century was from .26 meters to .82 meters that can be linked to carbon dioxide emissions. There are short-term and long-term effects due to the melting of the ice caps where lands from the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean seas are in danger of disappearing by a rise of the sea level by 1 meter. People from these areas will be displaced or they would otherwise perish due to massive floods or severe drought (Wynn). Mrs. Start says in the movie, “This is too “hot”, the Ice Age was too “cold”, what will it take to make you happy? Aahhh!” (Ice Age: The Meltdown). But the reality is that creatures have to live in sustainable environments for which to flourish. Humans cannot live with an atmosphere that is either too cold or too hot. The failure of men to take care of nature is now eminent in our surroundings. Mother Nature can be a great provider but she can also bring great harm and danger depending on how people live. There is a great difference between man and animals and this is the ability of reasoning. A wooly mammoth, a saber tooth tiger and a sloth have no control over the situation that they were in. The events were simply a result of the natural changes that the earth was going through. This is unlike the effects of global warming that we are presently facing today. The natural hazards that are happening right now can be directly attributed to human beings and their disregard for the care of the planet. The advances in technology brought about the rapid increase in carbon emissions as a by-product of industrialization. The need for development gave way to the need for caring of the environment. Over the last centuries, factories became a rampant site where production became to norm to satiate overconsumption. Technology became the main concern in the minds of people and it is in acquiring things that economies thrive. Of course, these things such as cars, gadgets and other so-called necessities had to be produced in factories that use machines which are fueled by unsustainable sources of energy. These emit greenhouse gases which depleted the ozone layer and eventually aggravated global warming. Comparatively, James Howard Kunstler in The Long Emergency talked of the lost in species as a result of changes in the earth as a naturally occurring event. Though he believes that this may take a long time to happen, “Environmental scientists speak of an ‘omega point’ at which the vast interconnected networks of Earths ecologies are so weakened that human existence is no longer possible” (8). This may not be immediate and the “long emergency” is not yet at our midst but the fact that seeing a wooly mammoth and a saber tooth tiger is now only possible in animated films is proof that extinction is not far from happening. In Ice Age, Manny is in denial of being the last of his kind. One of the animals even points out to him, “Say buddy, not to cast aspersions on your survival instincts or nothin’ but havent mammoths pretty much gone extinct?” (Ice Age: The Meltdown).Talking about the omega, this refers to the end where man will no longer have a suitable environment which leads to extinction. This same scenario of an earth without any possible life form was what was envisioned in Wall-E. The futuristic animated film portrays an earth which is filled with nothing but garbage and without any living creature except for a cockroach and a robot named WALL-E who cleans up day in and day out and watches old movies. WALL-E which literally translates to “Waste Allocator Load Lifter Earth Class” then meets EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Examiner), who is searching for a living plant on earth. This was so that the people in Axiom may “recolonize” the earth. The people in outer space enjoy a synthetic life where all of them are morbidly obese and that their everyday existence is on the hands of the robots and the computer that run the entire ship. They had zero physical activity and are taken from one place to another through mechanical chairs that provide for their every need. The food served is all artificial and everything on the menu comes in large cups which they gulp. The captain of the ship really had no authority and Auto or the auto drive function has taken control over the entire operation. This was upon directive around 700 years ago from BnL CEO Shelby Forthright that the cleanup operation is a total disaster and that “it’ll just be easier for everyone to remain in space” as the toxicity level in the air made life on the earth unsustainable (WALL-E). The Captain looks at the portraits of all the captains before him and sees that each one has autopilot beside them. The transition of the body weight from normal to heavy is also emphasized where the current captain can no longer fit into his uniform. The override function of the auto pilot signifies how technology has taken over human force. Rather than being tools to make tasks easier, they have taken over human will itself in the film. When an announcement over the huge projector screens suggested that they, “Try blue, it’s the new red!,” everyone immediately switched colors although these were all just projections and not real that were made possible by the machines (WALL-E). Their comfortable yet meaningless existence in the Axiom propelled the captain, together with EVA, WALL-E and the other rogue robots, to take charge and ensure that the plant takes them back to earth to reclaim Operation Recolonize. The films Ice Age: The Meltdown and WALL-E show us two distinct alternate worlds, one of the past and one of the future, that portray what the world was like and what it will be like if people do not heed the threats of nature. The amount of greenhouse gases remains to be the most pressing issue in the fight against global warming. Reuters reports that the United States greenhouse gas emissions had decreased by 3.4% in 2012 from the previous year consistent to its commitment to reduce emissions by 17% by the year 2020. However, emissions that are linked to energy increased 5.4% since 1990 and the hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) skyrocketed to 309%. Nevertheless, the United States called on other industrial countries emitting even larger amounts of greenhouse gases such as China and India to implement efforts to reduce their emissions (Volcovici). Human complacency continues to be the custom as the earth changes before our very eyes. Kunstler similarly called for changes that will revert to the localization of resources and of a simpler way of life in order to adapt to the changes that are coming. The reliance on technology must not be to the extent that nature itself brings risks because of human whims. Without learning from the past coupled by the unwillingness to change, we will face a dire future where the earth totally becomes uninhabitable. Works Cited Ice Age: The Meltdown. Carlos Saldanha. Twentieth Century Fox Animation, 2006. DVD. Kunstler, James Howard. The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century.New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005. PDF File. Maasch, Kirk. “What Triggers Ice Ages?.” NOVA, PBS, 1 Jan. 1997. Web. 24 June 2014. Volcovici, Valerie. “U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Fell 10 Percent Since 2005; Halfway Towards 2020 Goal.” Huffington Post. The Huffington Post, 15 Apr. 2014. Web. 24 June 2014. WALL-E. Dir. Andrew Stanton. Walt Disney Pictures, 2008. DVD. Wynn, Gerard. “Some 15% of Pacific islands wiped out by 1m sea level rise – IPCC .” RTCC.org. Responding to Climate Change, 27 Mar. 2014. Web. 24 June 2014. Read More