It’s pretty cool how so many Pixar movies incorporate themes of transcendentalism. The Incredibles is basically about how Mr. Incredible and his family saves the world from the evil Syndrome. This is the complete story plot from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_incredibles. Mr. Incredible and his family are nonconformists. Transcendentalism supports nonconformists in society. Mr. Incredible was born with super strength, his wife is extremely stretchy and flexible, their daughter can become invisible, their older son has super speed, and their baby boy can morph into different creatures. Obviously, the family did not fit in with the society. Mr. Incredible loved helping people with his power; but after superpowers were banned, he had to hide his true identity. After pretending to be normal for a few years, Mr. Incredible decides that he cannot conform to society any longer. He sets out secretly help people with his superpower. He eventually ends up caught by Syndrome, an evil scientist that was jealous of superheroes. Syndrome invents technology that allows him to do things that superheroes can and he tries to destroy all of the real superheroes. While Mr. Incredible was tied up, Syndrome says, “When everyone’s super, no one is!” Syndrome wants to be the only superhero in the world, and when he’s satisfied, he wants to make it possible for everyone to become superheroes. This way, no one can have super powers and everyone will be the same. This idea is anti-transcendentalism. Mr. Incredible, who represents the idea of nonconformity, fights and eventually wins against Syndrome, an anti-transcendentalist. I guess that was a completely new way of looking at The Incredibles. In the end, individualism beat conformity.
Tag Archives: freedom
Transcendentalism in Wall-e
Wall-e, the famous pixar robot, exhibited many traits of transcendentalism during his journey to bring life back to earth. Wall-e was designed to be a waste-collecting robot. However, because of a short circuit, he has the ability to think freely. Free thought is an important trait of transcendentalism. With this ability, Wall-e is able to fix his own broken parts and stay functionable as all the other wall-e robots broke down. While collecting and compressing trash, Wall-e also collects interesting human artifacts. One day, as he was searching around, Wall-e found a plant. It was the first one he had ever seen. Here is a video of when Wall-e collects items he finds interesting and discovers the plant.
He became fascinated with the plant and took great care of it. Soon, another robot named Eve comes down to earth to see if she could find any form of life. As soon as she saw Wall-e’s plant, she stored inside herself and went into standby mode. When humans came back to take away Eve and do tests on her, Wall-e follow Eve onto the spaceship. On the ship, the ship’s autopilot robot , Auto, tries to destroy the plant so humans could not return to Earth. Wall-e and Eve work together to protect the plant. The importance of the plant displays a huge theme of transcendentalism: the importance of nature. Without nature, man cannot survive. The plant was what brought humans back to recolonize their destroyed home in the movie. This movie shows the transcendentalist view of the relationship between nature and man: nature is just as important as man, and man needs nature. For a more complete synopsis and more information about the movie, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall-e. The movie credits end with an adorable scene of Wall-e and Eve holding hands under the tree they protected together
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Transcendentalism and Pop Culture 