Pixar Pint #9: WALL-E

The year is 2805. Is this one of the films that's lasted to be discovered by future robots?

Welcome back to Pixar Pints, our summer-long journey through all 25 Pixar films in release order.

As with Cars, there’s a universe in which WALL-E was a completely different product. This film was among the first projects the Pixar executive team thought up, and work on it originally began in 1995 as Trash Planet, but it was scrapped because the writers didn’t really have an idea for a story, then just kinda got left on the back burner while they worked on other movies. When it eventually resurfaced as the movie we know today, it was immediately heralded as one of the best films – animated or not – of the entire decade.

Let’s get into it.

WALL-E quick facts

Release date: June 27, 2008 | Director: Andrew Stanton | Music: Thomas Newman

Starring: Ben Burtt (WALL-E and M-O), Elissa Knight (EVE), Jeff Garlin (Captain), Fred Willard (Shelby Forthright), Apple MacInTalk text-to-speech (AUTO) [no, that last one isn’t a joke]

John Ratzenberger as: John

Budget: $180 million | Box office: $521.3 million

Academy Awards: Won Best Animated Feature; nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Original Song (“Down to Earth”)

Eli

Aesthetic: 9/10 | No Pixar film has nailed its settings quite like this one. The dystopian take on future Earth is chilling (though, minor nitpick: I couldn't help but notice that all depictions of the globe ignored rising sea level projections because movie), and the sprinkles of live action hammer it in even further. Space looks great and the Axiom looks exactly like what I would imagine a futuristic spaceship utopia to be. Not a single set is misconceived. WALL-E and EVE have iconic designs, but the rest of the robots and pretty much all of the humans just blend together for me. In the latter case, I think that's somewhat on purpose, but in the former, some of the robots are pretty important to the plot and some aren't, and sometimes I had trouble discerning which were which.

Animation: 9/10 | Aside from the immaculate space dance scene, the highlight for me was the dust storm scenes on Earth. Everything, from the storm forming and barreling toward WALL-E to all of his possessions shaking around and falling down as he retreated into his home, was done beautifully and realistically. Additionally, given the lack of much dialogue in the first act, expressive character animations are crucial in helping tell the story, and these are executed perfectly.

Story: 6/10 | Before discussing the story itself, I'd like to (mostly) praise how it was told: the first act is just A+ work in showing, not telling. That's really, really easy to screw up, but Pixar didn't here. My only complaint in this regard is with the pacing. It's not clear what the central conflict is until over halfway through the film, which is partly due to the crypticity it employs in the first act, but also because I think the end of said act is a little bloated; I think there's one, maybe two too many scenes of WALL-E/EVE exposition after the latter lands on Earth. As for the story itself, I think I like it, but a lot of the human part doesn't parse to me. The Captain's arc starts after finding out how much cool stuff Earth has to offer, but a lot of the stuff he evidently learns is, like, elementary to life as a human, even on the ship. The humans are all brainwashed by Buy-n-Large tech apparently from the day they're born, which seems to benefit no one (least of all the Captain, and I'm not really sure what AUTO gets out of it either). Finally, knowing how desolate Earth is, knowing how good they have it on the Axiom if they can escape the grasp of technology, and knowing that no one any living human has ever met has any recollection of Earth...why did they not just try to rebuild society on the Axiom? An uncharitable reading of this story is that it's anti-environmentalist in that it peddles the harmful notion that no matter how bad matters get, Earth is still salvageable. I don't really agree with this – I think "an entirely new population of humans has to rebuild the planet from scratch 700 years later" is a fitting punishment – but the conflict and resolution make so little sense to me that I can't fault anyone for thinking it.

Characters: 9/10 | WALL-E and EVE make the movie, and it's great that, for each of them, their selfless actions make sense in context and aren't just there to forward the plot. AUTO's villainy is foreshadowed well, M-O and the WALL-As are cute, and I thought it was neat that Ratzenberger got to voice a character named John for once. I wish the background characters gave us a little more.

Acting: 8/10 | The VAs for the robots get the most out of the least, and the vocal effects they're given definitely help. The VAs for the humans aren't noteworthy in any way.

Music: 10/10 | With such little dialogue, the euphony lives and dies on the strength of the score, and I think it was a home run. The way they used "Sonnenaufgang" was hilarious.

Final score: 9/10 | The third act of this film isn't canon to me. It's a movie about two robots falling in love, nothing more.

Leah

Aesthetic: 10/10 | There is so much to love about the way this movie looks. Gorgeous space scenes, expressive robots, dramatic desolation... It shows the emotions around the settings. The scene where WALL-E and EVE dance in space might be the most gorgeous scene I've seen yet for this. I also thought the incorporation of live action was well done, showing the dramatic shift in the world.

Animation: 9/10 | I love the way WALL-E moves, and the robots are really fun to watch (shoutout to M-O)! There were some great effects in this movie too (so many explosions)!

Story: 9/10 | I feel like there's a charitable and an uncharitable way to read the morals of this story. The charitable way is that this is a movie about keeping hope and enjoying life to the fullest, even if it's difficult. The uncharitable way is that this movie implies that there is no point of return for the environment, and that humans will always be able to come back and fix it. I think the charitable reading is closer to how I view the movie, but there were some implications that felt weird thematically. I liked following along with WALL-E and EVE's journey and the way their love story intertwined with the story of returning to Earth.

Characters: 9/10 | I love WALL-E and EVE as a duo. They had great chemistry and complementary character development. The misfit robots were a ton of fun. The Captain worked well enough as a representation of the humans.

Acting: 9/10 | The robots may not be human, but a lot of work is put in to conveying their emotions. In animation, the visuals themselves are part of the acting, and this movie excels at that. The voice work complemented the visuals nicely.

Music: 10/10 | Soooo, am I the only one who absolutely loves Hello Dolly? 13-year-old me flipped out when I saw this in theaters and heard “Put on Your Sunday Clothes” in the opening. It fits so well with the story. I also thought the score worked well.

Final score: 9/10 | This was a really good movie! It's fun to watch, the story is engaging, and it's got a banger of a soundtrack.

Maddy

Aesthetic: 10/10 | The human world is ugly as shit, space looks amazing, and the character designs are great. I think they achieved what they wanted to do here.

Animation: 8/10 | It feels kinda stiff in some aspects, mostly with humans.

Story: 8/10 | We are in a stretch of Pixar movies that do something unique with their storytelling. Ratatouille uses a more indie film structure and pacing style. WALL-E has no real dialogue between main characters for the first half of the movie and, my god, it is one of Pixar’s greatest works. WALL-E doesn’t speak at all yet he is the most understanding character in Pixar lore. WALL-E and Eva’s relationship feels real and genuine and so well written. Pixar is at its best when telling a story using animation’s greatest strength: its visuals. The second half of this movie with more human involvement is very lackluster and the villain is whatever, and that’s what drops my score here, but the first half of this movie? Pixar masterclass.

Characters: 9/10 | WALL-E and Eva. That’s it.

Acting: 8/10 | The characters who do have voice lines are played well, but nothing astonishing.

Music: 6/10 | Kinda forgettable for me. Nothing really stuck.

Final score: 48/60 or 8/10 | If I was only judging the first half, this is Pixar’s #1 in my heart. As a whole package, it’s still really good and it’s crazy how many hits in a row Pixar had in the mid-’00s (including Cars). And it’s not ending for at least a few more movies.

Fun Maddy note: WALL-E was the first Pixar movie to get a Super Bowl ad.

David

Aesthetic: I always adored this movie because of the setting: a desolate post-apocalyptic Earth, too far gone to save from a climate crisis, and a glimmering spaceship, the home of what remains of humanity some 800 years down the line. The Axiom fit my imagined vehicle for a purpose like this brilliantly, slotting right in to my list of "big ol’ ships in SPACE" that I keep in my head at all times. There's a bit of sameness to some of the designs, but that's to be expected a bit for the background characters, so I'm not too picky over it.

Animation: The space dance scene should have won literally every award that could be given to a single scene. More on the gorgeous accompanying music down below. I think the environmental effects were also brilliantly utilized - the minor details are what has always set Pixar apart even among like studios with similar goals and budgets, and Wall-E is full of those little touches that give it the edge.

Story: This movie accomplishes everything it does almost entirely without dialogue - and what dialogue we do have comes almost entirely in the second half of the film. It is artistic storytelling at its absolute finest. The way that they make the relationship between WALL-E and EVE work despite never having the words to draw that connection is a testament to the skillful nature of the design of this film. This film will always make me so happy, so emotional - and it's all over two goddamn robots falling in love.

Characters: WALL-E and EVE are so wonderfully written. It's a case where they both have clear directives, clear purposes, and beyond that, what they do makes sense in the context of the film but also for their own personal journeys. It's one thing for the story to need them to act a certain way for it to progress, but it's another entirely that they've managed to weave a story where the characters act of their own volition and still manage to put the story together. M-O rocks, the big WALL-As always seemed cool as shit to me, and the rest of the background cast fill out the empty space nicely.

Acting: ... Doesn't really apply, I guess.

Music: Thomas Newman absolutely nailed this entire score, but the shining star, a diamond among jewels, has to be “Define Dancing”. I put it on and I'm not only immediately transported to the scene, but even now, I get chills. The way that the song takes a sweeping string introduction with the plucky melody, tying the two together in a beautiful demonstration of dance. Of movement. Of love. That's the good shit, man.

Final score: Finally, we have a 10/10 from me. This is a truly outstanding movie. To accomplish what this movie does across the board with dialogue would be impressive in its own right - but to do so almost entirely without? That's what separates it from anything we've watched so far.

Nik

Aesthetic: With the success of Ratatouille, Pixar realized that they could get away with films that were not necessarily bright and joyous-looking all the time, as long as the story delivered, which it definitely did. From the trash-filled empty world to the deep expanses of space to the futuristic ship, every scene in this movie was visually pleasing. From a setting so desolate, it is amazing how a single robot was able to give it so much life.

Animation: The way WALL-E moves is unlike any animation we’ve seen in a Pixar movie. There is something enticing to his robotic movement. Even the way EVE moves is not as thought out, and I think this is because of the futuristic aspect. We think of the future as clean and simple when it comes to technology. What this movie has taught me is the more futuristic the animation is meant to look, the less individual character it has.

Story: As already hinted at, the first half of this movie was desolate in many ways. Despite the emptiness, the individual journey of WALL-E is perhaps the best individual part of any one Pixar film. The story really only lacks once the human characters are added. They aren’t necessarily bad, but the way that WALL-E steals the show, it is hard to watch any other characters. The scenes without him are spent anticipating the return to his plot line.

Characters: WALL-E is perhaps the most intriguing Pixar character across all films. It truly is amazing how there is so much character in just one robot. Not many characters could single handedly carry half of a film, but WALL-E did that. He has so much emotion in his movements, his eyes, and his sounds. A room full of junk and the corpses of past WALL-E robots show exactly how alone he is.

Acting: Do I just leave this section blank? Obviously there were voices for the human characters but they were merely a small part of the plot. The real stars were the non speaking characters.

Music: When there are environments that are vast, or there are not many individual characters, the music is palpable in Pixar films, especially for the first half of this one. With no one for WALL-E to interact with aside from the cockroach, the music almost acted as a secondary character at times.

Final score: 9/10 | I think this movie is fantastic, and the only thing that takes away from it are some of the human parts. I just have always thought the fact humans become so fat and boneless was a bit silly. They were definitely going for that silly factor, but for a movie that is otherwise so rich with emotion, it feels out of place. As a kid I enjoyed this more, so in the end Pixar is definitely getting their best messages to the targeted age group.

Final notes

WALL-E is an acronym for Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Earth-class. Early in the process once the film resumed development, the first L was not a part of his name, and the film was titled W.A.L.-E., which is…clunky. Steve Jobs (who many forget was closely involved with the founding and initial success of Pixar) remarked that he didn’t like the title, so it was reworked to add another L and more closely resemble a human name.

Other robot characters whose names are acronyms include EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) and M-O (Microbe Obliterator).

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