Designing Change: Wall E

The Disney Pixar movie Wall E is a movie that tries to change society by analyzing the road we are traveling into the future, but my focus is not to look at the warnings that Wall E seeks to provide, but rather to look at the construction of the case for the DVD. The entire case for the Wall E DVD is made of cardboard. There is not one bit of plastic. The case says on it's back that it is "Earth (and Space) Friendly Eco-Packaging." When searching for information on this packaging I came across a lot of negative reactions. People want their plastic cases, but Wall E stuck with it's principle and created the environmentally friendly packaging. 

From Jon Taplin's Bloghttp://jtaplin.wordpress.com/2008/06/

I think to be a designer of any packaging at all is to take responsibility for the trash you will serve to create. When a new innovation is made people always resist, but I hope to see many more of these cases in the future (at least until everything is digital online, with no packaging whatsoever). Wall E shoves a mirror in the face of our consumer driven society, and asks us to take a look at what we are doing with all of the trash we create. I think that by sticking to it's message and creating a recyclable, biodegradable package that Pixar has once again used it's medium to make people think and learn, and it was done in a non-hypocritical manner. Changing society takes small steps. Designing change is a process of balancing what people want with what the world needs. This package heads in a good direction.