Wall-E

WALL-E, promoted with an interpunct as WALL•E, is a 2008 computer-animated science-fiction film

produced by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Andrew Stanton. The story follows a robot named WALL-E,

who is designed to clean up a waste-covered Earth far in the future. He eventually falls in love with another robot

named EVE, and follows her into outer space on an adventure that changes the destiny of both his kind and

humanity.
After directing Finding Nemo, Stanton felt Pixar had created believable simulations of underwater physics and was

willing to direct a film largely set in space. Most of the characters do not have actual human voices, but instead

communicate with body language and robotic sounds, designed by Ben Burtt, that resemble voices. In addition, it is

the first animated feature by Pixar to have segments featuring live-action characters.
Walt Disney Pictures released it in the United States and Canada on June 27, 2008. The film grossed US$23.1

million on its opening day, and $63 million during its opening weekend in 3,992 theaters, ranking #1 at the box

office. This ranks as the fourth highest-grossing opening weekend for a Pixar film as of May 31, 2009. Following

Pixar tradition, WALL-E was paired with a short film, Presto, for its theatrical release. WALL-E has been met with

overwhelmingly positive reviews among critics, scoring an approval rating of 96% on the review aggregator Rotten

Tomatoes. It grossed $534 million worldwide, won the 2008 Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film,

the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form,[3] the Academy Award for Best Animated

Feature as well as being nominated for five other Academy Awards at the 81st Academy Awards.
Contents

• 1 Plot
• 2 Cast and characters
• 3 Production
o 3.1 Writing
o 3.2 Design
o 3.3 Animation
o 3.4 Sound
o 3.5 Music
• 4 Themes
• 5 Reception
o 5.1 Release
o 5.2 Reviews
o 5.3 Awards

[edit] Plot
Throughout the 21st century, Earth was governed by the Buy n Large megacorporation (BnL), causing mass

consumerism and covering the planet in trash by 2105. In an attempt to resolve the situation, Earth's population

was evacuated on fully automated luxury BnL starliners for five years while an army of trash compactor robots called

WALL-E's were left behind to clean up the planet. The plan largely failed, however, forcing humanity to remain in

space indefinitely. Seven hundred years later, in 2805, only one WALL-E unit functions, having survived by

salvaging parts for himself from other defunct WALL-E units. This unit has developed sentience and a sense of

emotion, particularly curiosity, as shown by his quirky habits of collecting knickknacks from the mountains of trash.
One day, WALL-E finds a seedling plant growing among the trash and returns it to his home inside an old

transport truck. Later, a spaceship lands and deploys an advanced probe robot named EVE. WALL-E is instantly

mesmerized by EVE as she carries out her directive of searching for signs of plant life. Initially aloof and hostile,

EVE begins to warm up to WALL-E and takes a liking to him. During a dust storm, WALL-E takes EVE to his

truck and shows her the plant, causing her automated systems to store the plant inside her, activate a homing

beacon, and deactivate her. WALL-E goes to great lengths to try to revive and take care of her, even going on a

date with the inactive robot. When her ship returns to collect her, WALL-E desperately clings to the hull of the ship

as it returns to the Axiom, the flagship of the BnL fleet.
Upon docking, WALL-E follows EVE as she is taken to the bridge of the ship. As he progresses through the Axiom

it becomes apparent that after centuries of living in microgravity and relying on the ship's automated systems, the

human passengers have suffered severe bone loss and become obese. The Captain himself does little, leaving

control of the ship to the autopilot, Auto. When EVE is brought to the bridge, the Captain learns that by placing

her plant sample inside the ship's holo-detector as a sign of Earth being habitable again, the Axiom will enter

hyperspace and return to Earth to allow its passengers to repopulate the planet. However, when EVE is opened, the

plant is missing. EVE is considered defective and taken to the robot repair ward along with WALL-E, though the

Captain's curiosity is piqued and he begins researching Earth history.
At the repair ward, WALL-E causes chaos and accidentally releases a horde of malfunctioning robots to roam the

ship, resulting in the ship's security designating him and EVE as "rogue robots." Annoyed with WALL-E's disruptive

influence, EVE attempts to send him back to Earth on an escape pod. However, they see Auto's assistant GO-4

deposit the missing plant into the escape pod and set it to self-destruct. WALL-E manages to save the plant, and

EVE gratefully gives him a "kiss" in the form of an electric spark. The two robots celebrate on a spacewalk around

the Axiom before returning the plant to the Captain. The Captain reviews EVE's visual records of the devastated

Earth, and vows to return there to restore the planet. EVE, meanwhile, sees WALL-E's commitment to her

well-being while she was inactive and falls in love with him. However, Auto reveals that he was given a final

directive to keep humanity in space, as Earth had been deemed uninhabitable at the time he was given the

directive. The Captain argues the plant is proof that life is once again sustainable on Earth, but Auto stages a

mutiny, locking the Captain in his quarters, electrocuting WALL-E and sending him down a trash chute with EVE

and the plant.
With WALL-E severely damaged, EVE realizes the only parts to repair him are on Earth, which they can reach

quickly if they can activate the hyperjump. With the help of M-O, the other rogue robots and the human

passengers, WALL-E and EVE attempt to place the plant in the holo-detector, but Auto's control of the ship

prevents them from doing so, and WALL-E is further damaged in the process. The Captain breaks free of his

quarters and deactivates Auto, allowing the holo-detector to activate, sending the ship back to Earth. EVE quickly

takes WALL-E back to his truck and attempts to repair him, but his memory and personality appear to have been

erased as he reverts to his original trash-compacting duties. Heartbroken, EVE gives him a farewell "kiss", which

causes another spark that inadvertently restores WALL-E to his unique personality, happily reuniting the two robots.

WALL-E and EVE rejoin the humans and robots as they begin working together to restore Earth, taking care to

plant the seedling that brought them back home.
[edit] Cast and characters
• Ben Burtt produced the voice of WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth Class), the titular character

and protagonist of the film. WALL-E is a sentient, 700 year old solar-powered mobile trash compactor robot, and

is presumably the only functional robot on Earth. He is designed as a small compactor box with all-terrain treads,

three-fingered shovel hands, and binocular eyes. He is equipped with a cutting laser between his eyes and a

recording device which he uses to record and play his Hello Dolly music. He is very curious, lonely and endearing,

and always puts others, namely EVE, before himself on his journey to earn her love. He also collects objects that

have been left on Earth, like a Rubik's cube for example, has a pet cockroach named Hal, and is very interested

in music. The truck is his only home.
Burtt also created the voice of M-O (Microbe Obliterator), as well as most other robots in the film. M-O

is a tiny, obsessive compulsive maintenance robot who cleans the ship and inspects incoming shipments for foreign

contaminants. Meeting WALL-E turns his life upside-down, however, when he sees not only how much filth is on

his body, but how much he leaves behind. M-O spends a portion of the film following and cleaning WALL-E's

tracks throughout the Axiom, leading him to the garbage depot where he unintentionally saves WALL-E and EVE

from being jettisoned into the vacuum of space through the airlock and befriends them.
• Elissa Knight as EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), a sleek, state-of-the-art robotic probe whose

main function is to locate vegetation on Earth to verify its habitability. She is designed with a white, egg-shaped

body with levitating pivot points (fingers, arms, and head) and blue LED eyes. EVE moves around by a form of

antigravity technology, and is equipped with scanners, a specimen storage compartment with a tractor beam, and a

plasma cannon in her right arm (which she is quick to use, and harshly, at even the slightest provocation). She is

initially a cold and hostile robot who is only concerned with her mission but does display basic emotions. However,

when she opens up to WALL-E she learns to convey her emotions and eventually to understand his deep feelings

for her, becoming more humane and considerate and finally reciprocating WALL-E's love.
Jeff Garlin as Captain B. McCrea, the sole commander of the Axiom. Throughout his duties as Captain, he

is bogged down by daily routines and boredom. Meeting WALL-E, however, has sparked his interest in Earth, and

he becomes enthusiastically engrossed in researching the home he never knew before, ultimately paving the way for

a more dynamic leadership role. His name is never mentioned in dialogue, but is shown on a holographic

commemoration in his cabin along with his predecessors.
• Fred Willard as Shelby Forthright, historical CEO of the Buy n Large Corporation. Known for his seemingly

unending optimism, Forthright proposed the plans to evacuate, clean up and recolonize the planet. However, he gave

up hope after realizing he underestimated just how toxic the planet had become. Fred Willard is the only cast

member in this film who plays a live-action character with a speaking role, and the first to do so in any Pixar film.
• MacInTalk, the text-to-speech program for the Apple Macintosh, was used as the voice of Auto (short for

Autopilot), the Axiom's intelligent autopilot built into the ship's robotic helm. Auto serves as the antagonist of the

film, following the BnL CEO's final directive A113 to keep the human ships in space, thus to maintain the status

quo. The characteristic qualities of this voice are retained even in other languages.
• John Ratzenberger and Kathy Najimy as John and Mary, respectively. John and Mary are both humans

who live on the Axiom and have been largely unaware of their surroundings for most of their lives (not even

realizing that the ship they had been living on all their lives had a pool), constantly talking to their friends on

computer screens in front of them. However, they are brought out of their trances after chance encounters with

WALL-E, eventually meeting face-to-face for the first time and falling in love.
• Sigourney Weaver as the Axiom's computer.
Production
[edit] Writing
BACK ON M-O AND WALLY [sic]
M-O just finishes cleaning the floor.
Wally is fascinated.
Impishly makes another mark.
M-O compulsively cleans it. Can’t resist.
M-O (bleeps): [Look, it stays clean. You got that?]
Wally wipes the bottom of his tread on M-O’s face.
M-O loses it.
Scrubs his own face.
—Stanton wrote the screenplay to focus on the visuals
and as a guide to what the sound effects needed to convey[4]Andrew Stanton conceived WALL-E during a lunch

with fellow writers John Lasseter, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft in 1994. Toy Story was nearing completion and the

writers brainstormed ideas for their next projects – A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., and Finding Nemo – at this lunch.

Stanton asked, "What if mankind had to leave Earth and somebody forgot to turn off the last robot?"[5] Having

struggled for many years with making the characters in Toy Story appealing, Stanton found his simple Robinson

Crusoe-esque idea of a lonely robot on a deserted planet very strong.[6][7] Stanton made WALL-E a waste

collector as the idea was instantly understandable, and because it was a low-status menial job that made him

sympathetic.[8] Stanton also liked the imagery of stacked cubes of garbage.[9] He did not find the idea dark

because having a planet covered in garbage was for him a childish imagining of disaster.[10]
Stanton and Pete Docter developed the film under the title of Trash Planet for two months in 1995, but they did

not know how to develop the story and Docter chose to direct Monsters, Inc. instead.[11][12] Stanton came up with

the idea of WALL-E finding a plant, because his life as the sole inhabitant on a deserted world reminded Stanton

of a plant growing among pavements.[13] Before they turned their attention to other projects, Stanton and Lasseter

thought about having WALL-E fall in love, as it was the necessary progression away from loneliness.[10] Stanton

started writing WALL-E again in 2002 while completing Finding Nemo.[14] Stanton formatted his script in a manner

reminiscent of Dan O'Bannon's Alien. O'Bannon wrote his script in a manner Stanton found reminded him of haiku,

where visual descriptions were done in continuous lines of a few words. Stanton wrote his robot dialogue

conventionally, but placed them in brackets.[7] In late 2003, Stanton and a few others created a story reel of the

first twenty minutes of the film. Lasseter and Steve Jobs were impressed and officially began development,[15]

though Jobs stated he did not like the title, originally spelled "W.A.L.-E."[16]
While the first act of WALL-E "fell out of the sky" for Stanton,[10] he had originally wanted aliens to plant EVE to

explore Earth and the rest of the film was very different. When WALL-E comes to the Axiom, he incites a

Spartacus-style rebellion by the robots against the remnants of the human race, which were cruel alien Gels

(completely devolved, gelantinous, boneless, legless, see-through, green creatures that resemble Jell-O). James

Hicks, a physiologist, mentioned to Stanton the concept of atrophy and the effects prolonged weightlessness would

have on humans living in space for an inordinately extended time period.[5][17][18] Therefore, this was the

inspiration of the humans degenerating into the alien Gels,[19] and their ancestry would have been revealed in a

Planet of the Apes-style ending.[20] The Gels also spoke a made-up gibberish language, but Stanton scrapped this

idea because he thought it would be too complicated for the audience to understand and they could easily be

driven off from the storyline. [21] The Gels had a royal family, who host a dance in a castle on a lake in the

back of the ship, and the Axiom curled up into a ball when returning to Earth in this incarnation of the story.[21]

Stanton decided this was too bizarre and unengaging, and conceived humanity as "big babies" (an idea Peter

Gabriel compared to neoteny).[20] Stanton developed the metaphorical theme of the humans learning to stand

again and "grow[ing] up",[20] wanting WALL-E and EVE's relationship to inspire humanity because he felt very few

films explore how utopian societies come to exist.[22] The process of depicting the descendants of humanity as the

way they appear in the movie was very slow. Stanton first decided to put a nose and ears on the Gels so the

audience could recognize them. Eventually, fingers, legs, clothes, and other characteristics were added until they

arrived at the concept of being fetus-like to allow the audience to see themselves in the characters.[21]
In a later version of the film, Auto comes to the docking bay to retrieve EVE's plant. The film would have its first

cutaway to the Captain, but Stanton moved that as he found it too early to begin moving away from WALL-E's

point-of-view. As a homage to Get Smart,[23] Auto takes the plant and goes into the bowels of the ship into a

room resembling a brain where he watches videos of Buy n Large's scheme to clean-up the Earth falling apart

through the years. Stanton removed this to keep some mystery as to why the plant is taken from EVE. The Captain

appears to be unintelligent, but Stanton wanted him to just be unchallenged, otherwise he would have been

unempathetic.[19] One example of how unintelligent the Captain was depicted initially is that he was seen to wear

his hat upside-down. In the finished film, he merely wears it casually atop his head, tightening it when he assumes

real command of the Axiom.[21]
Originally, EVE would have been electrocuted by Auto, and then be quickly saved from ejection at the hands of the

WALL-A robots by WALL-E. He would have then revived her by replacing her power unit with a cigarette lighter he

brought from Earth. Stanton reversed this following a 2007 test screening, as he wanted to show EVE replacing her

directive of bringing the plant to the Captain with repairing WALL-E, and it made WALL-E even more heroic if he

held the holo-detector open despite being badly hurt. Stanton also moved the moment where WALL-E reveals his

plant (which he has snatched from the self-destructing escape pod) from producing it from a closet, to immediately

after his escape, as it made EVE happier and gave them stronger motivation to dance around the ship.[19] Stanton

felt half the audience at the screening believed the humans would be unable to cope with living on Earth and died

out after the film's end. Jim Capobianco, director of the short film Your Friend the Rat, created an end credits

animation that continued the story – and stylized in different artistic movements throughout history – to clarify an

optimistic tone.[24]
[edit] Design
WALL-E was the most complex Pixar production since Monsters, Inc. because of the world and the history that had

to be conveyed.[6] Whereas most Pixar films have up to 75,000 storyboards, WALL-E required 125,000.[25]

Production designer Ralph Eggleston wanted the lighting of the first act on Earth to be romantic, while the second

act on the Axiom to be cold and sterile. During the third act, the romantic lighting is slowly introduced into the

Axiom environment.[5] Pixar studied Chernobyl and the city of Sofia to create the ruined world; art director Anthony

Christov was from Bulgaria and recalled Sofia used to have problems storing its garbage.[26][27] Eggleston

bleached out the whites on Earth to make WALL-E feel vulnerable, as if he requires sunglasses to survive the

harsh sunlight. The overexposed light makes the location look more vast. Because of the haziness, the cubes

making up the towers of garbage had to be very large, otherwise they would have lost shape (in turn, this helped

save rendering time). The dull tans of Earth subtly become soft pinks and blues when EVE arrives. When WALL-E

shows EVE all his collected items inside the truck he lives in, all the lights he has collected light up to give an

inviting atmosphere, like a Christmas tree. Eggleston tried to avoid the colors yellow and green so WALL-E – who

was made yellow to emulate a tractor – would not blend into the deserted Earth, and to make the plant more

prominent.[28]
WALL-E finds a bra. Roger Deakins and Dennis Muren were consulted on realistic lighting including backgrounds that

are less focused than foregrounds.
Stanton also wanted the lighting to look realistic and evoke the science fiction films of his youth. He felt Pixar had

captured the physics of being underwater with Finding Nemo, so for WALL-E he wanted to push that for air. It was

while rewatching some of his favorite science fiction films he realized Pixar's films lacked the look of 70 mm film

and its barrel distortion, lens flare and racking focus.[6] Producer Jim Morris invited Roger Deakins and Dennis

Muren to advise on lighting and atmosphere. Muren spent several months with Pixar, while Deakins hosted one talk

and was requested to stay on for another two weeks. Stanton said Muren's experience came from integrating

computer animation into live-action settings, while Deakins helped them understand not to overly complicate their

camerawork and lighting.[22] 1970s Panavision cameras were used to help the animators understand and replicate

handheld imperfections like unfocused backgrounds in digital environments.[5] The first lighting test consisted of

building a three-dimensional replica of WALL-E, filming it with a 70 mm camera, and then trying to replicate that in

the computer.[29] Stanton cited the shallow lens work of Gus Van Sant's films as an influence, as it created

intimacy in each close-up. Stanton chose angles for the virtual cameras that a live-action filmmaker would choose if

filming on a set.[10]
Stanton wanted the Axiom's interior to resemble Shanghai and Dubai.[6] Eggleston studied 1950s and '60s NASA

paintings and the original concept art for Tomorrowland for the Axiom, to reflect that era's sense of optimism.[5]

Stanton remarked "We are all probably very similar in our backgrounds here [at Pixar] in that we all miss the

Tomorrowland that was promised us from the heyday of Disneyland," and wanted a "jet pack" feel.[6] Pixar also

studied the Disney Cruise Line and visited Las Vegas, which was helpful in understanding artificial lighting.[5]

Eggleston also based his Axiom designs on the futuristic yet comforting architecture of Santiago Calatrava. Eggleston

divided the inside of the ship into three sections; the rear's economy class has a basic gray concrete texture with

graphics keeping to the red, blue and white of the BnL logo. The coach class with living/shopping spaces has 'S'

shapes as people are always looking for "what's around the corner". Stanton intended to have many colorful signs,

but he realized this would overwhelm the audience and went with Eggleston's original idea of a small number of

larger signs. The front, premier class is a large Zen-like spa with colors limited to turquoise, cream and tan, and

leads on to the captain's warm carpeted and wooded quarters and the sleek dark bridge.[28] In keeping with the

artificial Axiom, camera movements were modeled after those of the steadicam.[30]
Having chosen to show live-action footage from Hello, Dolly!, Stanton continued the precedent of showing historical,

normal humans in live action footage, while creating their bloated descendants in the rest of the film with

animation.[20] The use of live action was a stepping stone for Pixar, as Stanton was planning to make John Carter

of Mars his next project.[6] Storyboarder Derek Thompson noted introducing live action meant they had to make the

rest of the film look even more realistic.[31] Eggleston added that if the historical humans had been animated and

slightly caricaturized, then the audience would not have recognized how serious their devolution was.[28] Stanton

cast Fred Willard as the historical Buy n Large CEO because "He's the most friendly and insincere car salesman I

could think of."[20] The CEO says "stay the course," which Stanton used because he thought it was funny.[32]

Industrial Light & Magic did the visual effects for these shots.[5]
Animation
WALL-E went undeveloped during the 1990s partly because Stanton and Pixar were not confident enough yet to

have a feature length film with a main character that behaved like Luxo Jr. or R2-D2.[7] Stanton explained there

are two types of robots in cinema: "human[s] with metal skin", like the Tin Man, or "machine[s] with function" like

Luxo and R2. He found the latter idea "powerful" because it allowed the audience to project personalities onto the

characters, as they do with babies and pets: "You're compelled ... you almost can't stop yourself from finishing the

sentence 'Oh, I think it likes me! I think it's hungry! I think it wants to go for a walk!'"[33] He added, "We

wanted the audience to believe they were witnessing a machine that has come to life."[5] The animators visited

recycling stations to study machinery, and also met robot designers, visited NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to

study robots, watched a recording of a Mars rover,[14] and borrowed a bomb detecting robot from the San

Francisco Police Department. Simplicity was preferred in their performances as giving them too many movements

would make them feel human.[5]
Stanton wanted WALL-E to be a box and EVE to be like an egg.[34] WALL-E's eyes were inspired by a pair of

binoculars Stanton was given when watching the Oakland Athletics play against the Boston Red Sox. He "missed the

entire inning" because he was distracted by them.[35] The director was reminded of Buster Keaton and decided the

robot would not need a nose or mouth.[36] Stanton added a zoom lens to make WALL-E more sympathetic.[36]

Ralph Eggleston noted this feature gave the animators more to work with and gave the robot a child-like

quality.[28] Pixar's studies of trash compactors during their visits to recycling stations inspired his body.[5] His tank

treads were inspired by a wheelchair someone had developed that used treads instead of wheels.[34] The animators

wanted him to have elbows, but realized this was unrealistic because he is only designed to pull garbage into his

body.[5] His arms also looked very flimsy when they did a test of him waving.[34] Animation director Angus

MacLane suggested they attach his arms to a track on the sides of his body to move them around, based on the

inkjet printers his father designed. This arm design contributed to creating the character's posture, so if they wanted

him to be nervous, they would lower them.[37] Stanton was unaware of the similarities between WALL-E and

Johnny 5 from Short Circuit until others pointed it out to him.[7]


Auto, the Captain and EVE
Stanton wanted EVE to be at the higher end of technology, and asked iPod designer Jonathan Ive to inspect her

design. He was very impressed.[6] Her eyes are modelled on Lite-Brite toys,[36] but Pixar chose to not make

them overly expressive as it would be too easy to have her eyes turn into hearts to express love or something

similar.[34] Her limited design meant the animators had to treat her like a drawing, relying on posing her body to

express emotion.[5] They also found her similar to a manatee or a narwhal because her floating body resembled

an underwater creature.[34] Auto was a conscious homage to HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the

usage of Also sprach Zarathustra for the showdown between the Captain and Auto furthers that.[7] The manner in

which he hangs from a wall gives him a threatening feel, like a spider.[38] Originally, Auto was designed entirely

differently, resembling EVE, but masculine and authoritative; the Steward robots were also more aggressive

Patrol-bots.[19] The majority of the robot cast were formed with the Build-a-bot program, where different heads,

arms and treads were combined together in over a hundred variations.[5] The humans were modelled on sea lions

due to their blubbery bodies,[28] as well as babies. The filmmakers noticed baby fat is a lot tighter than adult fat

and copied that texture for the film's humans.[39]
To animate their robots, Pixar watched a Keaton and a Chaplin film every day for almost a year,[36] and

occasionally a Harold Lloyd picture.[7] Afterwards, the filmmakers knew all emotions could be conveyed silently.

Stanton cited Keaton's "great stone face" as giving them perseverance in animating a character with an unchanging

expression.[36] As he rewatched these, Stanton felt that filmmakers – since the advent of sound – relied on

dialogue too much to convey exposition.[7] The filmmakers dubbed the cockroach WALL-E keeps as a pet "Hal", in

reference to silent film producer Hal Roach (as well as being an additional reference to HAL 9000).[5] They also

watched 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Black Stallion and Never Cry Wolf, films that had sound but were not reliant

on dialogue.[31] Stanton acknowledged Silent Running as an influence because its silent robots were a forerunner to

the likes of R2-D2,[22] and that the "hopeless romantic" Woody Allen also inspired WALL-E.[11]
[edit] Sound
Producer Jim Morris recommended Ben Burtt as sound designer for WALL-E because Stanton kept using R2-D2 as

the benchmark for the robots.[23] Burtt had completed Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and told his wife

he would no longer work on films with robots, but found WALL-E and its substitution of voices with sound "fresh

and exciting".[5] He recorded 2500 sounds for the film, which was twice the average amount for a Star Wars

film,[14] and a record in his career.[5] Burtt began work in 2005,[40] and experimented with filtering his voice for

two years.[41] Burtt described the robot voices as "like a toddler [...] universal language of intonation. 'Oh', 'Hm?',

'Huh!', you know?"[42]
During production Burtt had the opportunity to look at the items used by Jimmy MacDonald, Disney's in-house sound

designer for many of their classic films. Burtt used many of MacDonald's items on WALL-E. Because Burtt was not

simply adding sound effects in post-production, the animators were always evaluating his new creations and ideas,

which Burtt found an unusual experience.[43] He worked in sync with the animators, returning their animation after

adding the sounds to give them more ideas.[5] Burtt would choose scientifically-accurate sounds for each character,

but if he could not find one that worked, he would choose a dramatic if unrealistic noise.[43] Burtt would find

hundreds of sounds by looking at concept art of characters, before he and Stanton pared it down to a distinct few

for each robot.[6]
Burtt saw a hand-cranked electrical generator while watching Island in the Sky, and bought an identical, unpacked

device from 1950 on eBay to use for WALL-E moving around.[44] Burtt also used an automobile self starter for

when WALL-E goes fast,[43] and the sound of cars being wrecked at a demolition derby provided for WALL-E's

compressing trash in his body.[45] The Macintosh computer chime was used to signify when WALL-E has fully

recharged his battery. For EVE, Burtt wanted her humming to have a musical quality.[43] Burtt was only able to

provide neutral or masculine voices, so Pixar employee Elissa Knight was asked to provide her voice for Burtt to

electronically modify. Stanton deemed the sound effect good enough to properly cast her in the role.[32] Burtt

recorded a flying ten-feet long radio-controlled jet plane for EVE's flying,[5] and for her plasma cannon, Burtt hit a

slinky hung from a ladder with a timpani stick. He described it as a "cousin" to the blaster noise from Star

Wars.[46]
MacInTalk was used because Stanton "wanted Auto to be the epitome of a robot, cold, zeros & ones, calculating,

and soulless [and] Stephen Hawking's kind of voice I thought was perfect."[22] Additional sounds for the character

were meant to give him a clockwork feel, to show he is always thinking and calculating.[43] Sigourney Weaver was

cast as the Axiom's computer voice as a nod to the Alien films.[5]
Burtt had visited Niagara Falls in 1987 and used his recordings from his trip for the sounds of wind.[45] He ran

around a hall with a canvas bag up to record the sandstorm though.[5] For the scene where WALL-E runs from

falling shopping carts, Burtt and his daughter went to a supermarket and placed a recorder in their cart. They

crashed it around the parking lot and then let it tumble down a hill.[47] To create Hal (WALL-E's pet

cockroach)'s skittering, he recorded the clicking caused by taking apart and reassembling handcuffs.[5]
Music
See also: WALL-E (soundtrack)
Thomas Newman recollaborated with Stanton on WALL-E since the two got along well on Nemo, which gave

Newman the Annie Award for Best Music in an Animated Feature. He began writing the score in 2005, in the hope

that starting this task early would make him more involved with the finished film. But, Newman remarked that

animation is so dependent on scheduling he should have begun work earlier on when Stanton and Reardon were

writing the script. EVE's theme was arranged for the first time in October 2007. Her theme when played as she

first flies around Earth originally used more orchestral elements, and Newman was encouraged to make it sound

more feminine.[48] Newman said Stanton had thought up of many ideas for how he wanted the music to sound,

and he generally followed them as he found scoring a partially silent film difficult. Stanton wanted the whole score to

be orchestral, but Newman felt limited by this idea especially in scenes aboard the Axiom, and used electronics

too.[49]


A live-action clip of the song "It Only Takes a Moment" from Hello, Dolly!, which inspires WALL-E to hold hands

with EVE
Stanton originally wanted to juxtapose the opening shots of space with 1930s French swing music, but he saw The

Triplets of Belleville (2003) and did not want to appear as if he were copying it. Stanton then thought about the

song "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" from Hello, Dolly!, since he had portrayed the sidekick Barnaby Tucker in a

1980 high school production.[50] Stanton found that the song was about two naive young men looking for love,

which was similar to WALL-E's own hope for companionship. Jim Reardon suggested WALL-E find the film on

video, and Stanton included "It Only Takes a Moment" and the clip of the actors holding hands, because he

wanted a visual way to show how WALL-E understands love and conveys it to EVE. Hello Dolly! composer Jerry

Herman allowed the songs to be used without knowing what for; when he saw the film, he found its incorporation

into the story "genius".[51] Coincidentally, Newman's uncle Lionel worked on Hello, Dolly![5]
Newman travelled to London to compose the end credits song "Down to Earth" with Peter Gabriel, who was one of

Stanton's favorite musicians. Afterwards, Newman rescored some of the film to include the song's composition, so it

would not sound intrusive when played.[5] Louis Armstrong's rendition of "La Vie en rose" was used for a montage

where WALL-E does not get EVE's attention on Earth. The script also specified using Bing Crosby's "Stardust" for

when the two robots dance around the Axiom,[4] but Newman asked if he could score the scene himself. A similar

switch occurred for the sequence in which WALL-E attempts to wake EVE up through various means; originally, the

montage would play with the instrumental version of "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head", but Newman wanted to

challenge himself and scored an original piece for the sequence.[52]

Themes
Stanton felt the moral of the film was "Irrational love defeats life's programming." He continued "That's a perfect

metaphor for real life. We all fall into our habits, our routines and our ruts, consciously or unconsciously to avoid

living. To avoid having to do the messy part. To avoid having relationships with other people, of dealing with the

person next to us. That's why we can all get on our cell phones and not have to deal with one another."[20]

Stanton noted many commentators placed emphasis on the environmental aspect of humanity's complacency in the

film, because "that disconnection is going to be the cause, indirectly, of anything that happens in life that's bad for

humanity of the planet".[53]
Stanton said that by taking away effort to work, the robots also take away humanity's need to put effort into

relationships.[38] Christian journalist Rod Dreher saw technology as the complicated villain of the film. The humans'

artificial lifestyle on the Axiom has separated them from nature, making them "slaves of both technology and their

own base appetites, and have lost what makes them human". Dreher contrasted the hardworking, dirt covered

WALL-E with the sleek clean robots on the ship. However, it is the humans and not the robots who make

themselves redundant, and during the end credits humans and robots are shown working alongside to renew the

Earth. "WALL-E is not a Luddite film," he said. "It doesn't demonize technology. It only argues that technology is

properly used to help humans cultivate their true nature – that it must be subordinate to human flourishing, and

help move that along."[54]


EVE and the Axiom have been compared to Noah's Ark and the dove in that story.
Stanton, who is Christian,[8] named EVE after the Biblical character because WALL-E's loneliness reminded him of

Adam, before God created his wife.[55] Dreher noted EVE's biblical namesake and saw her directive as an

inversion of that story; EVE uses the plant to tell humanity to return to Earth and move away from the "false god"

of BnL and the lazy lifestyle it offers. Dreher also noted this departure from classical Christian viewpoints, where

Adam is cursed to labor, in that WALL-E argues hard work is what makes humans human. Dreher emphasized the

false god parallels to BnL in a scene where a robot teaches infants "B is for Buy n Large, your very best friend",

which he compared to modern corporations such as McDonald's creating brand loyalty in children.[54] Megan

Basham of World magazine felt the film criticizes the pursuit of leisure, whereas WALL-E in his stewardship learns

to truly appreciate God's creation.[8]
During writing, a Pixar employee noted to Jim Reardon that EVE was reminiscent of the dove with the olive branch

from the story of Noah's Ark, and the story was reworked with EVE finding a plant to return humanity from its

voyage.[56] WALL-E himself has been compared to Prometheus,[23] Sisyphus,[54] and Butades: in an essay

discussing WALL-E as representative of the artistic strive of Pixar itself, Hrag Vartanian compared WALL-E to

Butades in a scene where the robot expresses his love for EVE by making a sculpture of her from spare parts.

"The Ancient Greek tradition associates the birth of art with a Corinthian maiden who longing to preserve her lover’s

shadow traces it on the wall before he departed for war. The myth reminds us that art was born out of longing

and often means more for the creator than the muse. In the same way Stanton and his Pixar team have told us a

deeply personal story about their love of cinema and their vision for animation through the prism of all types of

relationships."[57]
[edit] Reception
[edit] Release
Continuing a Pixar tradition, WALL-E was paired with a short film for its theatrical release: the attached film was

Presto. The film was dedicated to Justin Wright (1981–2008), a Pixar animator who had worked on Ratatouille and

unfortunately died of a heart attack before WALL-E's release.[5]
The film premiered at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on June 23, 2008,[58] and opened in 3,992 theaters in

the United States and Canada on June 27. It grossed $63 million in its first weekend, ranking number one at the

box office.[59] It was the third-best opening weekend for a Pixar film.[60] The movie crossed the $200 million

mark in its sixth week with a total gross of more than $204 million on the first weekend in August 2008.[61] In

total, the film grossed $223,808,164 domestically with a worldwide overall of $521,268,237, making it the ninth

highest grossing film of 2008.[2]
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on November 18, 2008. The various editions included Presto, a

new short film BURN-E, the Leslie Iwerks documentary film The Pixar Story, shorts about the history of Buy n

Large, the behind-the-scenes special features and a Digital Copy of the film that can be played through iTunes or

Windows Media and compatible devices.[62]
Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) built animatronic WALL-Es to promote the picture, which made appearances at

Disneyland Resort;[63] the Franklin Institute; the Miami Science Museum; the Seattle Center; and the Tokyo

International Film Festival.[64] Due to safety concerns, the 700 lb robots were always strictly controlled and WDI

always needed to know exactly what they were required to interact with. For this reason, they generally refused to

have their puppets meet and greet children at the theme parks in case a WALL-E trod on a child's foot. Those

who wanted to take a photograph with the character had to make do with a cardboard cutout.[65]
Very small quantities of merchandise were sold for WALL-E, as Cars items were still popular, and many

manufacturers were more interested in Speed Racer, which was a successful line despite the film's failure at the box

office. Thinkway, which created the WALL-E toys, had previously made Toy Story dolls when other toy producers

showed disinterest.[64] Among Thinkway's items were a WALL-E that danced when connected to a music player, a

toy that could be taken apart and reassembled, and a groundbreaking remote control toy of him and EVE that had

motion sensors that allowed them to interact with players.[66] There were even soft toys.[67] The "Ultimate

WALL-E" figures were not in stores until the film's home release in November 2008,[64] at a retail price of almost

$200, leading The Patriot-News to deem it an item for "hard-core fans and collectors only".[66]
[edit] Reviews
WALL-E has received nearly unanimous acclaim by film critics since its release.[68] Rotten Tomatoes reported that

96% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based upon a sample of 200 reviews, with an average rating of

8.4/10.[69] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film

has received an average score of 93, based on 39 reviews.[68] indieWire named WALL-E the 3rd best film of the

year, based on their annual survey of 100 film critics,[70] while Movie City News shows that WALL-E appeared in

162 different top ten lists, out of 286 different critics lists surveyed, the most mentions on a top ten list of any film

released in 2008.[71]
Richard Corliss of Time named WALL-E as his favorite film of 2008, noting the film succeeded in "connect[ing]

with a huge audience" despite the main characters' lack of speech and "emotional signifiers like a mouth, eyebrows,

shoulders [and] elbows". It "evoke[d] the splendor of the movie past" and he also compared WALL-E and EVE's

relationship to the chemistry of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.[72] Other critics who named WALL-E as

their favorite film of 2008 included Tom Charity of CNN,[73] Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune, Lisa

Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly, A. O. Scott of The New York Times, Christopher Orr of The New Republic,

Ty Burr and Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe, Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal, and Anthony Lane of

The New Yorker.[74]
Todd McCarthy of Variety called the film "Pixar's ninth consecutive wonder", saying it was imaginative yet

straightforward. He said it pushed the boundaries of animation by balancing esoteric ideas with more immediately

accessible ones, and that the main difference between the film and other science fiction projects rooted in an

apocalypse was its optimism.[75] Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter declared that WALL-E surpassed the

achievements of Pixar's previous eight features and probably their most original film to date. He said it had the

"heart, soul, spirit and romance" of the best silent films. Honeycutt said the film's definitive stroke of brilliance was

in using a mix of archive film footage and computer graphics to trigger WALL-E's romantic leanings. He praised

Burtt's sound design, saying "If there is such a thing as an aural sleight of hand, this is it."[76]
Roger Ebert writing in the Chicago Sun-Times found WALL-E "an enthralling animated film, a visual wonderment,

and a decent science-fiction story". Ebert said the scarcity of dialogue would allow it to "cross language barriers" in

a manner appropriate to the global theme, and noted it would appeal to adults and children. He praised the

animation, saying the color palette was "bright and cheerful [...] and a little bit realistic", and that Pixar managed

to generate a "curious" regard for the WALL-E, comparing his "rusty and hard-working and plucky" design favorably

to more obvious attempts at creating "lovable" lead characters. He said WALL-E was concerned with ideas rather

than spectacle, saying it would trigger stimulating "little thought"s for the younger viewers.[77] He named it as one

of his twenty favorite films of 2008 and argued it was "the best science-fiction movie in years".[78]
The film was interpreted as tackling a topical, ecologically-minded agenda,[69] though McCarthy said it did so with

a lightness of touch that granted the viewer the ability to accept or ignore the message.[75] Kyle Smith of the New

York Post, wrote that by depicting future humans as "a flabby mass of peabrained idiots who are literally too fat to

walk", WALL-E was darker and more cynical than any major Disney feature film he could recall. He compared the

humans to the patrons of Disney's Parks and Resorts, adding, "I'm also not sure I've ever seen a major corporation

spend so much money to issue an insult to its customers."[79] Maura Judkis of U.S. News & World Report

questioned whether this depiction of "frighteningly obese humans" would resonate with children and make them prefer

to "play outside rather than in front of the computer, to avoid a similar fate".[80] The interpretation led to criticism

of the film by conservative commentators such as Fox News' Glenn Beck, and contributors to National Review Online

including Shannen W. Coffin and Jonah Goldberg (although he admitted it was a "fascinating" and occasionally

"brilliant" production).[81]
Some notable critics have argued that the film is vastly overrated,[82] claiming it failed to "live up to such blinding,

high-wattage enthusiasm",[83] and that there were "chasms of boredom watching it", in particular "the second and

third acts spiraled into the expected".[84] Other labels include "unimaginative", "surprisingly trite",[85][unreliable

source?] "preachy"[82] and "too long".[83]
Child reviews sent into CBBC were mixed, some citing boredom and an inadequate storyline.[86]
Patrick J. Ford of The American Conservative said WALL-E's conservative critics missed lessons in the film that he

felt appealed to traditional conservatism. He argued that the mass consumerism in the film was not shown to be a

product of big business, but of too close a tie between big business and big government: "The government

unilaterally provided its citizens with everything they needed, and this lack of variety led to Earth's downfall."

Responding to Coffin's claim that the film points out the "evils of mankind", Ford argued the only evils depicted

were those that resulted from "losing touch with our own humanity" and that fundamental conservative

representations such as the farm, the family unit, and "wholesome" entertainment were in the end held aloft by the

human characters. He concluded, "By steering conservative families away from WALL-E, these commentators are

doing their readers a great disservice."[87]
[edit] Awards
Main article: List of awards and nominations received by WALL-E
WALL-E won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Best

Original Score, Best Original Song, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing at the 81st Academy Awards.[88] Walt Disney

Pictures also pushed for an Academy Award for Best Picture nomination,[89] but it was not nominated, provoking

controversy as to whether the Academy deliberately restricted WALL-E to the Best Animated Feature category,[90]

Peter Travers commented that "If there was ever a time where an animated feature deserved to be nominated for

best picture it's Wall-E."[91] Only one animated film, 1991's Beauty and the Beast, has ever been nominated for

the Academy Award for Best Picture, after which the category of Best Animated Feature was created. A reflective

Stanton stated he was not disappointed the film was restricted to the Best Animated Film nomination because he

was overwhelmed by the film's positive reception, and eventually "The line [between live-action and animation] is

just getting so blurry that I think with each proceeding year, it's going to be tougher and tougher to say what's an

animated movie and what's not an animated movie."[13]
WALL-E made a healthy appearance at the various 2008 end-of-the-year awards circles, particularly in the Best

Picture category, where animated films are often overlooked. It has won the award, or the equivalent of it, from the

Boston Society of Film Critics (tied with Slumdog Millionaire),[92] the Chicago Film Critics Association,[93] the

Central Ohio Film Critics awards,[94] the Online Film Critics Society,[95] and most notably the Los Angeles Film

Critics Association, where it became the first animated feature to win the prestigious award.[96] It was named as

one of 2008's ten best films by the American Film Institute and the National Board of Review of Motion

Pictures.[97][98]
It won Best Animated Feature Film at the 66th Golden Globe Awards, 81st Academy Awards and the Broadcast Film

Critics Association Awards 2008.[99][100] It was nominated for several awards at the 2009 Annie Awards, including

Best Feature Film, Animated Effects, Character Animation, Direction, Production design, Storyboarding and Voice acting

(for Ben Burtt);[101] but was beaten out by Kung Fu Panda in every category.[102] It won Best Animated Feature

at the 62nd British Academy Film Awards, and was also nominated there for Best Music and Sound.[103] Thomas

Newman and Peter Gabriel won two Grammy Awards for "Down to Earth" and "Define Dancing".[104] It won all

three awards it was nominated for by the Visual Effects Society: Best Animation, Best Character Animation (for

WALL-E and EVE in the truck) and Best Effects in the Animated Motion Picture categories.[105] It became the first

animated film to win Best Editing for a Comedy or Musical from the American Cinema Editors.[106] In 2009,

Stanton, Reardon and Docter won Nebula Award, beating The Dark Knight and the Stargate Atlantis episode "The

Shrine".[107][108] It was nominated for Best Animated Film and Best Director at the Saturn Awards.[109]
At the British National Movie Awards, which is voted for by the public, it won Best Family Film.[110] It was also

voted Best Feature Film at the British Academy Children's Awards.[111] WALL-E was listed at #63 on Empire's

online poll of the 100 greatest movie characters, conducted in 2008.[112]