At first glance "WALL-E" seems nothing more than a clanking hunk of trash-loving junk. But this wide-eyed robot who roams Earth collecting treasure from man's refuse is something more: He's a romantic.
It's hard to believe as Pixar's latest animated marvel begins. Set in a futuristic time when humanity has long abandoned the planet, "WALL-E" is programmed to pick up peoples' garbage. When his fellow trash collecting units inexplicably break down, the cute, sentient creature is left alone to clean up mankind's mess.
The loneliest guy in the universe, however, puts a new twist on trash. He plays with it, builds structures out of it, and sees the beauty in the Zippos, boxes, toys and other discarded gems he collects.
With just a cockroach as his pal, "WALL-E" rumbles and stumbles through the centuries doing his job. Then one day in the year 2700 a strange space ship lands. A swift, shiny, egg-shaped probe named "Eve" emerges looking for signs of life.
Thunderstruck by the sight of her, "WALL-E" is in love.
Everything the slow, dusty old robot is not, "Eve" makes friends with the smitten Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class. Together they set off a galactic adventure that proves "WALL-E's" heroism and his love for "EVE."
"Yeah, frankly the love is really all I was pushing," director Andrew Stanton admits. "What is the real point of living? There's a lot of different ways people can fill their time, but there's really only one reason we're here and it's relationships and loving one another. That's all I was pushing. Everything else was a benefactor of that."
WALL-E's silence is golden
A silent film for the first 30 minutes, Stanton found infinite ways for these two improbable robot lovebirds to communicate -- and for audiences to buy it.
Through bleeps, blips and "WALL-E's" big, vulnerable eyes, Pixar animators convey his feelings, his little joys (like grooving to "Hello Dolly!") and his love for "Eve" with amusing, aching precision.
After directing "Finding Nemo," Pixar's 2003 hit, Stanton felt the animation studio "had really achieved the physics of believing you were really under water." His suggestion: "Hey, let's do that with air."
Stanton's directions for "WALL-E's" robot designs were simple. "See it an as appliance first, then read character into it."
Inspired by a pair of binoculars and a Luxo Jr. lamp featured in the Pixar logo, Stanton and team developed "WALL-E's" expressions by slanting his binocular-shaped eyes up or down. The mechanical misfit suddenly emerged with a human personality locked inside a robot shell.
Animators based "WALL-E's" body on the idea of a turtle sitting on top of tank treads.
As for the film's initial lack of dialogue, executive producer John Lasseter defends the move, saying, "The art of animation is about what the character does, not what it says. It all depends on how you tell the story, whether it has a lot of dialogue or not."
An entertaining environmental message for all ages
Beyond the power of love, another message fuels this Pixar/Disney marvel. Call it the kiddies' version of "An Inconvenient Truth." But the message is clear: Take care of planet before it's too late.
In "WALL-E's" world lazy, resource-guzzling humans left Earth and let someone else worry about cleaning it up.
"Basically, we bought so much stuff that we just filled up the world with trash, almost like a blizzard of snow, and there was just no room," says Stanton.
Sadly, humanity doesn't change its ways. Living now on the planet Axiom, Earthlings have spent 700 years gorging on liquid food and moving around with high-tech wheelchairs, not their legs. With robots to do all their chores, these gluttonous slackers take automation to the max and end up looking like a race of morbidly obese babies.
Yet the irrepressible "WALL-E" proves it's never too late to start over and care for things on Earth, even if it is just a lowly cockroach.
As Stanton says, "I know, it's sort of funny, we didn't design him any differently than a real cockroach. I think it's more of a mirror on "WALL-E" because he finds that worthy of being a pet, and I think that reflects well on it."
