Usually sometime in late May, my school's Enviro Club usually screens a movie with an environmental message in the auditorium. Eventually and inevitably, we will run out of quality, family-friendly eco-films, and then will resort to documentaries. And documentaries, as we all know, are notorious among kids and teenagers for being inexpressibly dull.
Not to say all documentaries are awful ... Disneynature has pulled off some amazing ones, with stunning visuals and quite a bit of emotional investment. But documentaries as a whole have a poor reputation for entertainment. As such, I present to you readers the Top Five Eco-Films. We had to narrow this list down quite a bit, so the qualifications are as follows: family-friendly, a direct environmental message, (nothing subliminal like Up) and no book-to-film adaptations.
Whether you're playing these to motivate people to help an environmental cause or just sitting at home on a Friday night with your six-year-old, here are films that you will certainly enjoy while also noting the importance of protecting the earth.
Without further ado ...
Coming in at 5 is a mixture of Avatar and Pocahontas. I choose both because the plotline is extraordinarily similar. Avatar has even been quoted as "Pocahontas in Space." However, they are targeted toward entirely different audiences. If you're watching the film with your seven-year-old on a lazy Friday night, then Pocahontas is perfect for that Romeo and Juliet romance, (albeit historically incorrect) with more than a dash of environmentalism. The visuals in Pocahontas are stunning, especially objects in the foreground and during the iconic song, "Colors of the Wind".
Avatar, on the other hand, is more focused on an teen/adult audience, and as such is a bit more violent. There are also a handful of cliches that have also been run into the ground, such as a living, breathing forest spirit (Princess Mononoke, anyone?) and a hardened soldier who learns to find the beauty in nature and life. Avatar is not, however, without its cinematically gorgeous moments -- after all, this James Cameron film is reknowned for its use of 3D technology. The six-legged creatures move realistically, the Na'avi have familiar human features, and the motif of a forest as an entity rather than individual creatures is demonstrated through a type of biological neural network that runs throughout the forest.
Ultimately, the plotlines of Pocahontas and Avatar are the same. Both have its flaws, but in technicality and execution, are very well done. Choose as you will based on your audience.
There are a few flaws with the 2012 version. It suffers from a "Hollywoodifying" -- it doesn't have the nostalgic charm of Dr. Seuss's rhymes, and instead of having an open ending where the viewer is left to wonder what happens to the last seed, the 2012 version is tied up nicely and all of the forest blooms back to life. Like the much more flawed Ferngully: The Last Rainforest, it imparts a tale of how important it is to save forests, but with the ending, does not emphasize the fragility of such an ecosystem.
In 3rd place lands a largely comedic story: Over the Hedge, once again produced by Dreamworks Animation and based off a comic strip. It tells the story of a handful of woodland creatures who wake up from hibernation to discover half of their forest is now replaced by American suburbia. By 2006, Dreamworks had drifted toward more slapstick humor, and this is what Over the Hedge consists of. The jokes are family friendly, not to mention hilarious, and the kids will enjoy the insane squirrel and cantankerous turtle.
Of course, that's not why it's on the list. Over the Hedge has been quoted as a satire of American consumerism. In one memorable scene, a raccoon explains to the creatures that a seemingly monstrous SUV only 'fits' one human. The animation for these suburbs is very clean and crisp, compared to the furry, soft, and loveable animals. Over the Hedge focuses more on the characters adapting to their surroundings rather than preaching how awful the scenario is. As surprising as it sounds, kids don't need -- and often don't want -- an environmental message shoved down their throats. They get it. And in the process, why not have a bit of fun?
In second place is Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, made by the then up-and-coming Dreamworks Animation Studio. With a blend of hand-drawn and computer-generated animation, this film transports young viewers back to the 19th century American West. There are no words necessary to depict Spirit's untameable ... well, spirit. Once rounded up, this wild horse refuses to cooperate in any way, shape or form in a hilarious montage, and the few supporting characters lead to a much more streamlined, straightforward story.
As for its environmental message? Spirit is the leader of the herd of wild horses in a lush valley. One day, he is taken by wranglers to a US cavalry post. Through a series of somewhat confusing transitions, Spirit ultimately stops a locomotive from encroaching on his homeland and earns the respect of the head colonel. Overall, Spirit pits the harshness of a human-made world against the raw beauty of nature and emphasizes the need for its preservation. It is humorous, poignant, but most dominantly represents the wild spirit of the American West.
Finally, first place -- you all should have seen this coming -- is WALL-E, made by Pixar Animation Studios. The story follows a robot named WALL-E, who is designed to clean up a waste-covered Earth far in the future. Humans have departed aboard a giant spacecraft due to the toxic atmosphere. WALL-E meets EVE, a robot who is searching for life on Earth so that the humans can return.
This movie is simply well put together. The contrast between a dusty, worn-out Earth and the cold sterility of the Axiom is highly apparent. The tragic future of Earth that Pixar portrays is childish, with its 'building blocks' of trash, but still foreboding. Since the two main characters are robots, there is very little dialogue, which only brings out more emotion for every whirr, whistle, or beep. As for the reason it's on this list, WALL-E excels in comparison to other films because its environmental message takes a backseat to the love story between the two robots, but the theme of protecting our planet is still very apparent. Preaching to save the earth is where many environmental films go wrong, because usually the plot seems trite, obvious, and cliched. WALL-E sets up its story against an environmental backdrop, and expands from there. And that is why it is Number 1 on this list.
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