Movie Review

The three movies Wall-e, Helvetica, and Everything Illuminated are all very different but are related to each other through design elements that connect them. Wall-e is about a robot who has been left on a trash filled Earth all alone and has to clean up and compact the trash. Wall-e is a collector and finds a plant that he adds to his collection. Wall-e meets another robot on Earth named Eve who was sent to Earth to find living plants. He shows her the plant and she it is immediately stored in her compartment and her system shuts down. The spaceship comes to get Eve and Wall-E follows realizing that there are humans on the ship along with many other technological devices that make life easier for humans. Wall-e and Eve end up falling in love. Eve has trouble getting the plant to the part of the ship so they can return to earth because of the autopilot. She eventually gets the plant where it needs to be so they can return back to Earth. Helvetica is documentary about a typeface. It described the use of the font Helvetica and how commonly it is used of how simple and easy it is to read. It explains how it is used for magazines, advertisements, billboards and many other ways because of its simple design. The movie Everything Illuminated is about a collector Johnathan who receives a photo from his grandmother of his grandfather and a woman Augustine. He sets out to search for this woman because he knows she saved his grandfather in the war. On his journey he meets a woman named Lista who is also a collector and happens to be Augusitines sister. Lisa gives Jonathan a box so he can understand his grandfather`s past better.

Helvetica shows the use of design through a typeface. The movie describes how the the font helvetica has made reading things clear and easy. It eventually became seen everywhere because it`s plain style. Words and fonts are important when it comes to things like advertising so many people have adopted this font because it is simple and bold. It gets the point across in a very simple manner that everyone can understand.

In everything illuminated design is seen in the collection aspect of the film. Johnathan and Lista both are collectors and the things they collect show insight to who they are. The film shows how simple designed things can have a bigger meaning and have the ability to tell a story. After Johnathan found Lista and received the box he was able to connect with his grandfather and see into his past. This shows how it may not be obvious but the design of something and what someone takes from it can tell a lot about a person.

Wall-e had elements of design throughout the whole movie. The technology that was shown in the movie emphasized how those designed objects were basically essential to humans and their survival because they had become so dependent on the technology. The humans had to have the technology to function because they had become so overweight and unable to move much.  Wall-e himself was a designed artifact because he is a robot. The movie itself is also animated which took a lot of design to put together. All of these features of the film have the idea of design in them.


In each of these movies design is a major part of the movie even if it is not originally seen. Helvetica is about a designed font, Wall-e is about a designed robot, and in Everything Illuminated Johnathan collects designed artifacts. Although the design elements are somewhat different for each of the movies, they still have a connection. This goes to show how design can be influential in a number of different ways whether is be through a font or a artifact.


I think that the biggest lesson I learned from this was how big of an impact design can have without it even really being known. It may not always be obvious but with just about anything you see, there is a design element to it.  I learned that design is in every aspect of life and can be influential in many different ways. Something as simple as the design of a font can allow people to read and understand better. I think watching these movies also showed the number of ways design can enhance the human experience like we`ve discussed in class before. The font made things easier to read, the technology in wall-e made the humans lives easier, and the artifacts Johnathan collected gave him insight to his grandfather`s past. Overall i realized how big of an impact design can have as a whole.