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WALL-E
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Andrew Stanton
Produced by	Jim Morris Lindsey Collins (co-producer) John Lasseter (executive producer)
Written by	Screenplay: Andrew Stanton Jim Reardon Original Story: Andrew Stanton Pete Docter
Starring	Ben Burtt Elissa Knight Jeff Garlin Fred Willard John Ratzenberger Kathy Najimy Sigourney Weaver
Music by	Thomas Newman Peter Gabriel
Editing by	Stephen Schaffer
Distributed by	Walt Disney Pictures
Release date(s)	June 27, 2008 (USA) July 18, 2008 (UK) September 18, 2008 (AUS), (NZ)
Running time	98 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$180 million1
Gross revenue	$521,806,889 (worldwide)2
Official website • IMDb • Allmovie

WALL-E (promoted with an interpunct as WALL·E) is a 2008 computer-animated-science fiction-romance film produced by Pixar Animation Studios. The film was directed by Andrew Stanton. It follows the story of a robot named WALL-E who is designed to clean up a polluted Earth. He eventually falls in love with another robot named EVE, and follows her into outer space on an adventure.

After directing Finding Nemo, Stanton felt Pixar had created believable simulations of underwater physics and was willing to direct a film 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 $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 the third highest-grossing opening weekend for a Pixar film as of July 2008. Following Pixar tradition, WALL-E was paired with a short film, Presto, for its theatrical release. WALL-E has achieved highly positive reviews with an approval rating of 96% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3.1 Story 3.2 Design 3.3 Animation 3.4 Sound 3.5 Music 4 Release 4.1 Box office 4.2 Reception 4.3 Commentary 4.4 Top ten lists 5 Awards and nominations 6 Home media 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

Plot

By the early 22nd century, the Buy n Large Corporation took control of every government and every economic service on Earth, covering the planet in un-recycled trash. In an effort to save the planet, Buy n Large CEO Shelby Forthright proposed that humanity evacuate and spend the next five years in space on fully automated luxury starliners while an army of garbage compactor robots called "WALL-E" would be left behind to clean the planet. However, Earth seemed beyond saving in five years time and was deemed uninhabitable, and thus Forthright had humanity remain in space. After 700 years, humanity has grown increasingly reliant on the machinery around them and suffered severe bone loss from centuries of living in micro-gravity and consuming liquid food, becoming obese and unable to walk. Even command duties are entrusted to the ships' computerized autopilots instead of the human captains.

Back on Earth, only one WALL-E unit remains active. This lone unit still performs his duties, but has since developed a sentient personality and a strong sense of curiosity, as shown by his habit of collecting interesting knickknacks from the trash, spare parts for himself salvaged from non-functional WALL-E units, as well as his fascination with the old musical film Hello, Dolly! that teaches him emotions such as love, but also makes him realize how isolated and lonely he is. One day, WALL-E's loneliness is requited when a spaceship arrives and deploys an advanced, feminine probe robot named "EVE", sent from the starliner Axiom, flagship of the human starliners, as part of her directive of scanning Earth for plant life. WALL-E falls in love with EVE on first sight, though EVE initially appears to be a cold and unfeeling robot who is only concerned with her directive. However, she eventually takes to his unique personality and knickknack collection and befriends him. When WALL-E shows her a seedling plant he had found earlier, her directive takes over, causing her to store the plant inside herself and shut down. WALL-E goes to great lengths to protect EVE's motionless body, even taking it out on a date, in the hopes that she will reawaken, but to no avail. When her ship returns to collect her, WALL-E desperately clings to the hull of the ship as it launches deep into space to the Axiom.

WALL-E follows EVE as she is taken to the bridge of the Axiom, perplexing several humans and robots along the way with his peculiar behavior, including a cleaning robot named M-O, who obsessively cleans WALL-E's filthy tracks in the hopes of cleaning WALL-E himself. On the bridge, EVE is reactivated and the ship's Captain learns that when EVE's plant sample is scanned by the ship's holo-detector, the ship will make an automatic hyperjump back to Earth, allowing humanity to recolonize the planet. However, the ship's autopilot, Auto, has his assistant GO-4 secretly steal the plant, having received a final directive from Shelby Forthright to keep humanity in space by any means necessary. EVE is subsequentially deemed defective and sent to the robot repair ward with WALL-E, who is sent to be cleaned. Believing that EVE is being tortured, WALL-E breaks out of the repair ward and causes chaos, releasing all the malfunctioning robots and marking themselves "rogue robots". Annoyed, EVE tries to send him back to Earth on an escape pod until they witness GO-4 deposit the missing plant in the pod, setting it to self-destruct and launching it with WALL-E inside. WALL-E manages to safely escape with the plant and returns it to EVE, who gives him a grateful "kiss" in the form of an electric spark, and dances with him in space around the ship.

The plant is returned to the Captain, who surveys EVE's visual recording of Earth and realizes they must return to restore the devastated planet. EVE also witnesses footage of WALL-E protecting and caring for her while she was inactive on Earth, and begins to reciprocate his love. But before the plant can be brought to the holo-detector, Auto stages a mutiny and electrocutes WALL-E when he tries to protect the plant, sending him down a garbage chute with EVE. Awakening in the Axiom's garbage depot, WALL-E and EVE are nearly jettisoned into space with the trash until M-O arrives, having followed WALL-E all this time, and keeps the airlock open with his body. With WALL-E in dire need of repair, the three robots escape the garbage depot and make their way to the holo-detector, as WALL-E keeps spare parts for himself on Earth. With the aid of the malfunctioning robots and the Captain, WALL-E, EVE and M-O reach the holo-detector, though Auto attempts to thwart them by closing it. While trying to hold it open, WALL-E is jammed inside and crushed. The Captain manages to stand up unaided and deactivates Auto, allowing the plant to be placed in the holo-detector and releasing the gravely damaged WALL-E. Returning to Earth, EVE manages to repair WALL-E's body. Unfortunately, his memory and personality seem to have been erased, turning him into a cold, mindless waste compactor, until EVE sadly gives him a farewell "kiss," causing another electric spark that reboots and restores him to his old self. WALL-E and EVE happily reunite as the humans and robots begin working together to rebuild their home.

Cast

Ben Burtt is the sound designer for WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class), the titular character and protagonist of the film. WALL-E is a mobile trash compactor, the last operational unit in a massive line created by the Buy n Large Corporation to gather and compact the waste created by the humans that used their products. WALL-E is solar-powered and constantly replaces his worn parts with those scavenged from non-functional WALL-E units. He can retract his limbs and head into his body and form a cube or burrow into the ground when he senses danger (although he is armed with a laser beam between his eyes, he uses this chiefly as a cutting tool, with which to manipulate waste). He may also fold into a cube when he is resting. WALL-E's long and lonely existence has granted him sentience and emotion.

Burtt also produced the voice for M-O (Microbe Obliterator), as well as all 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. M-O is annoyed by the amount of filth on WALL-E, and learns to act on his own accord by following WALL-E in an attempt to clean both him and the dirt he tracks everywhere. His trek eventually leads him to save WALL-E and EVE from certain doom in the waste disposal chamber of the Axiom and befriend them, and he accompanies and assists them throughout the rest of their adventures on the ship.

Elissa Knight as EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), a sleek, ergonomically advanced robotic probe whose main function is to locate vegetation on Earth to verify its habitability. She is equipped with scanners and a retractable plasma cannon in her right arm, the latter of which she is quick to use, let alone brandish, at the slightest provocation. EVE initially appears to be an unfeeling, stoic robot concerned with nothing more than fulfilling her directive, though she does display basic emotions early on in the film. As she spends more time with WALL-E throughout the film, she learns how to convey her emotions even more, eventually leading her to put others, namely WALL-E, before her programming.

Jeff Garlin as Captain B. McCrea, the sole leader and commander of the Axiom, who becomes enraptured by the images of Earth as it was before the rise of Buy n Large and therefore assumes dynamism and a leader's position among the humans who recolonize Earth. His name is never mentioned in dialogue, though it is shown on a holographic commemoration in his cabin along with his predecessors.

Fred Willard as Shelby Forthright, CEO of the Buy n Large Corporation. In the film, a global cleanup project is initiated by Shelby Forthright as humanity is evacuated into space; the project goes awry when he finds he had underestimated just how toxic the Earth has become, persuading him to forsake hope. 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, the Axiom's internal autopilot, built into the ship's steering wheel. Auto has a single red eye and serves as the antagonist of the film. His responsibilities are following Directive A113, which is to ensure that the ship never returns to Earth. Upon discovering a small plant retrieved by EVE, Auto seeks to dispose of it in order to follow the A113 protocol, thus maintaining the status quo.

John Ratzenberger and Kathy Najimy as John and Mary, respectively. John and Mary are both humans who live on the Axiom and, as such, are largely unaware of their surroundings. However, after chance encounters with WALL-E, they are awakened to the world around them and to each other, and fall in love.

Sigourney Weaver as the Axiom's computer. Other than for monitoring the ship's features, the computer is used to advertise products on the ship.

Production

Story

BACK ON M-O AND WALLY M-O just finishes cleaning the floor. Wally is fascinated. Impishly makes another mark. M-O compulsively cleans it. Can’t resist. M-O: [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 convey3

Andrew Stanton conceived WALL-E during a 1994 lunch with John Lasseter, Pete Docter and Joe Ranft. Toy Story was nearing completion and the writers conceived ideas for their next projects – A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo – at this lunch. Stanton said, "What if mankind had to leave Earth and somebody forgot to turn off the last robot?"⁴ Having struggled with making the characters in Toy Story appealing for many years, Stanton found his simple Robinson Crusoe-esque idea of a lonely robot on a deserted planet very strong.⁵⁶ Stanton and Pete Docter developed the film for two months in 1995, but they did not know how to develop the story and Docter chose to direct Monsters, Inc. instead.⁷ Stanton started writing WALL-E again in 2002 in his spare time, while completing Finding Nemo.⁸

Stanton chose to make the story into a romantic film, as falling in love was the solution to the plot of a lonely robot.⁴ He also made WALL-E a waste collector as it was instantly understandable why he was doing what he was doing, and he also liked the imagery of stacked cubes of rubbish.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 formatted his script in a manner reminiscent of Dan O'Bannon's Alien. O'Bannon wrote his script in a manner Stanton found reminiscent 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.⁶ In late 2003, Stanton and a few others Pixar created a story reel of the first twenty minutes of the film. Lasseter and Steve Jobs were impressed and officially began development,¹¹ though Jobs unenthusiastically stated he didn't like the title, originally spelled "W.A.L.-E."¹²

Stanton conceived the idea of aliens planting EVE to explore Earth.¹³ However, NASA's John Hicks – who was consulting on the robot designs – mentioned the concept of atrophy and the effects of prolonged weightlessness would have humans living in space for a long amount of time.⁴ This inspired the idea of the humans devolving into Jello-like organisms.¹⁴ They would have not been aware they originated from Earth and a Planet of the Apes-styled twist would have revealed this.¹⁵ When WALL-E comes to the Axiom, he incites a Spartacus-style rebellion by the robots against the cruel "gels". The "gels" had a royal family, who host a dance, and the Axiom curled up into a ball when returning to Earth in this incarnation of the story.¹³ Stanton found this too bizarre and unengaging, and reconceived them as "big babies". Peter Gabriel compared the idea to neoteny.¹⁵

In an later version of the film with humanity as "gels", 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,¹⁶ 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.¹⁴ One example of how the stupid the Captain came across initially is that he wore his hat upside down. In the finished film, he just tightens it when he assumes command.¹³ Stanton then developed the metaphorical theme of the humans learning to stand again and "grow[ing] up".¹⁵ Stanton decided WALL-E and EVE's relationship should inspire humanity because very few films explored how utopian societies come to exist.¹⁷

Originally, EVE would have been electrocuted by Auto, and was rescued by WALL-E from being dumped into space by the WALL-As. WALL-E revives her by replacing her power unit with the cigarette lighter he took from Earth. Stanton reversed this following a 2007 test screening, as he wanted to show EVE replaces 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 although he was damaged. Stanton moved the scene where WALL-E reveals he saved the plant from the exploding escape pod from a closet to just after his escape, as it made EVE happier and gave them more reason to dance around the ship.¹⁴ 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.¹⁸

Design

WALL-E was the most complex Pixar production since Monsters, Inc. because of the world and the history that had to be conveyed.⁵ Whereas most Pixar films have up to 75,000 storyboards, WALL-E had 125,000 created.¹⁹ Stanton wanted the Axiom's interior to resemble Shanghai and Dubai.⁵ Production designer Ralph 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.⁴ 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.⁵ Pixar also studied the Disney Cruise Line and visited Las Vegas, which was helpful in understanding artificial lighting. 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.⁴

Stanton wanted the lighting to look realistic and evoke the science fiction films of his youth. He felt Pixar had captured the psychics 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.⁵ 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 intergrating computer animation into live-action settings, while Deakins helped them understand not to overly complicate their camerawork and lighting.¹⁷ 1970s Panavision cameras were used to help the animators understand and replicate handheld imperfections like barrel distortion and unfocused backgrounds in digital environments.⁴ 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.²⁰ 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 chose if filming on a set.¹⁰

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.¹⁵ The use of live action was a stepping stone for Pixar, as Stanton was planning to make John Carter of Mars his next project.⁵ Storyboarder Derek Thompson noted introducing live action meant they had to make the rest of the film look even more realistic.²¹ 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."¹⁵

Animation

Partly why WALL-E went undeveloped during the 1990s was 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-D2.⁶ 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 them, 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!'"²² He added, "We wanted the audience to believe they were witnessing a machine that has come to life."⁴ 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,⁸ 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.⁴

Stanton wanted WALL-E to be a box and EVE to be like an egg.²³ 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.²⁴ The director was reminded of Buster Keaton and decided the robot would not need a nose or mouth. He added zoom lens to make him more sympathetic.²⁵ Pixar's studies of trash compactors during their visits to recycling stations inspired his body.⁴ His tank treads were inspired by a wheelchair someone had developed that used treads instead of wheels.²³ The animators wanted him to have elbows, but realized this was unrealistic because he is only designed to pull garbage into his body.⁴ His arms also looked very flimsy when they did a test of him waving.²³ Instead, they attached his arms to a track on the sides of his body to move them around.⁴ Stanton was unaware that WALL-E wound up a homage to Short Circuit until others pointed it out to him.⁶

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.⁵ Her eyes are modelled on Lite-Brite toys,²⁵ 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.²³ Her limited design meant the animators had to treat her like a drawing, relying on posing her body to express emotion.⁴ They also found her similar to a manatee or a narwhal because her floating body resembled an underwater creature.²³ Auto was a conscious homage to HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey.⁶ The manner in which he hangs from a wall gives him a threatening feel, like a spider.²⁶ Originally, Auto was designed entirely differently, resembling EVE, but masculine and authoritative; the Steward robots were also more aggressive Protectobots.¹⁴ 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 different variations.⁴

To animate their robots, Pixar watched one Charlie Chaplin and one Buster Keaton film every day for almost a year,²⁵ and occasionally a Harold Lloyd picture.⁶ 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.²⁵ As he rewatched these, Stanton felt that filmmakers – since the advent of sound – relied on dialogue too much to convey exposition.⁶ They also watched 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Black Stallion and Never Cry Wolf, films that had sound but were not reliant on dialogue.²¹ Stanton acknowledged Silent Running as an influence because its silent robots were a forerunner to the likes of R2-D2,¹⁷ and that the "hopeless romantic" Woody Allen also inspired WALL-E.⁷

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.¹⁶ 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".⁴ He recorded 2500 sounds for the film, which was twice the average amount for a Star Wars film,⁸ and a record in his career.⁴ Burtt began work in 2005,²⁷ and experimented with filtering his voice for two years.²⁸ Burtt described the robot voices as "like a toddler [...] universal language of intonation. 'Oh,' Hm?,' Huh!,' you know?"²⁹

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.³⁰ He worked in sync with the animators, returning their animation after adding the sounds to give them more ideas.⁴ Burtt would choose scientifically-accurate sounds for each character, but if he could not find one that worked, he would chose a dramatic if unrealistic noise.³⁰ Burtt would find hundreds of sounds by looking at concept art of characters, before he and Stanton parred it down to a distinct few for each robot.⁵

Burtt saw a hand-cranked World War II electrical generator in a John Wayne film,³¹ and bought an identical device on eBay to use for WALL-E moving around.³² Burtt also used an automobile self starter for when WALL-E goes fast,³⁰ and the sound of cars being wrecked at a demolition derby provided for WALL-E's compressing trash in his body.³³ The Macintosh computer chime was used to signify when WALL-E has fully recharged his battery.³⁴ For EVE, Burtt wanted her humming to have a musical quality.³⁰ 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.³⁵ Burtt recorded a flying ten-feet long radio-controlled jet plane for EVE's flying,⁴ and for her blaster, 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.³⁶

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."¹⁷ Additional sounds for the character were meant to give him a clockwork feel, to show he is always thinking and calculating.³⁰ Sigourney Weaver was cast as the Axiom's computer voice as a nod to the Alien films.³⁷

Burtt had visited Niagra Falls in 1987 and used his recordings from his trip for the sounds of wind.³³ He ran around a hall with a canvas bag up to record the sandstorm though.⁴ For the scene where WALL-E runs from falling trolleys, Burtt and his daughter went to a supermarket and placed a recorder in their trolley. They crashed it around the parking lot and then let it tumble down a hill.³² To create Hal (WALL-E's pet cockroach)'s skittering, he recorded the clicking caused by taking apart and reassembling handcuffs.⁴

Music

See also: WALL-E (soundtrack)

Thomas Newman – who collaborated with Stanton on Finding Nemo – began composing in 2005. It was hoped that by starting it early would make him more involved with the finished film, although Newman remarked because animation is so dependent on scheduling that he should have begun work earlier on when Stanton and Reardon was 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.³⁸ Newman travelled to London to compose the 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 during the film's end.⁴

Stanton originally wanted to juxtapose the opening shots of space with 1930s French swing music, but he saw Les Triplettes de Belleville (2003) and did not want to appear like he was copying it. When Stanton heard the song "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" from Hello, Dolly! and recognized the song was about two naive young men looking for love, which summed up WALL-E's desires. 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".³⁹ Coincidentally, Newman's uncle Lionel worked on Hello, Dolly!⁴ The film plays Louis Armstrong's rendition of "La Vie en rose" for a montage where WALL-E fails to get EVE's attention on Earth. The script also specified using Bing Crosby's "Stardust" for when the two robots dance around the Axiom, but this was dropped.³

Release

Continuing a Pixar tradition, WALL-E was paired with a short film for its theatrical release. The attached film was Presto.⁴⁰ The film was dedicated to Justin Wright (1981–2008), a Pixar animator who had worked on Ratatouille and died of a heart attack before WALL-E's release.⁴¹

Disney built animatronic WALL-Es, which made appearances at Disneyland Resort;⁴² the Franklin Institute; the Miami Science Museum; and the Seattle Center. 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 of the box office. Thinkway, which created the WALL-E toys, had previously made Toy Story dolls when other toy producers showed disinterest.⁴³ Among Thinkway's items were a WALL-E that danced when connected to a music player, a toy that could be taken part and reassembled, and a groundbreaking remote control toy of him and EVE that had motion sensors that allowed them to interact with players.⁴⁴ The "Ultimate WALL-E" figures were not in stores until the film's home release in November 2008,⁴³ at a retail price almost $200, leading The Patriot-News to deem it an item for "hard-core fans and collectors only".⁴⁴

Box office

The film premiered at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on June 23, 2008.⁴⁵ WALL-E opened in wide release in the United States and Canada on June 27, 2008 and grossed $23.1 million in its opening day.⁴⁶ In its opening weekend, the film grossed $63 million in 3,992 theaters, ranking number one at the box office.⁴⁷ The opening weekend gave the film the third-best opening weekend for a Pixar film.⁴⁸ The movie crossed the $200 million mark for the first time in its sixth week with a total gross of more than $204 million on the first weekend in August 2008.⁴⁹ As of December 23, 2008, the movie has grossed $223,779,827 domestically and $283,479,310 internationally, giving it a total worldwide gross of $507,259,137.²

Reception

WALL-E received universal acclaim from film critics.⁵⁰ Rotten Tomatoes reported that 96% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based upon a sample of 200 reviews, with an average rating of 8.6/10.⁵¹ 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.⁵⁰

Todd McCarthy of Variety called the film "Pixar's ninth consecutive wonder", saying it was imaginative yet straightforward. Citing WALL-E's "adroit" borrowing from other works, McCarthy said it pushed the boundaries of animation in managing to balance 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. McCarthy also praised the score and the visuals, for which he cited cinematographer Roger Deakins' input as a visual consultant as a possible factor.⁵²

Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter declared that WALL-E surpassed the achievements of Pixar's previous eight features, saying that the film had the "heart, soul, spirit and romance" of the best silent films. He said that the filmmakers managed to tell a terrific story through visual and aural ideas, which enabled the robotic characters to convey "a rainbow of emotions". He said the visuals were arguably Pixar's best and praised the creation of a ruined Earth city and a human spaceship as "fantastically imaginative". 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". Honeycutt concluded by saying that despite the film's acknowledged nods to other works (2001: A Space Odyssey, moments where robots "run riot" bringing to mind Monsters, Inc., and the cave wall pictures in the end title sequence paying homage to the main title sequence of Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind), WALL-E could be Pixar's most original work to date.⁵³

Roger Ebert writing in the Chicago Sun-Times said WALL-E succeeded in three areas: as "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 he had praise for the visual effects, saying the color palette was "bright and cheerful... and a little bit realistic". He cited early Disney animations that successfully translated human expressions onto non-human characters as an influence on the title character. He said the film managed to generate a "curious" regard for the WALL-E, comparing his design ("rusty and hard-working and plucky") favorably to more obvious attempts at creating "lovable" lead characters. Ebert called the storytelling "enchanting" and said the film could be enjoyed by adults and children alike. He said WALL-E was concerned with ideas rather than spectacle, saying it may require "a little thought" on the part of the audience, and that this could be particularly stimulating to younger viewers.⁵⁴ He named it as one of his twenty favorite films of 2008 and argued it was "the best science-fiction movie in years".⁵⁵

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.⁵⁶

Commentary

The film was interpreted as tackling a topical, ecologically-minded agenda.⁵¹⁵²⁵³ Todd McCarthy said it did so with a lightness of touch that granted the viewer the ability to accept or ignore the message.⁵² Jessica Jensen, blogging at The Huffington Post, while praising the film overall, felt it did not make enough of a point with its environmental themes. She suggested it should have had environmental advice or a website link during the end credits, adding it was "troubling" that by the end "humans return to Earth and it seems as if everything will just be hunky-dory".⁵⁷ The film's ecological theme was criticized by conservative commentators such as CNN's Glenn Beck, and contributors for National Review Online;⁵⁸ Shannen W. Coffin said that the film was "leftist propaganda about the evils of mankind",⁵⁹ and Jonah Goldberg wrote that he agreed with the charges of hypocrisy and "Malthusian fear mongering" leveled at the film by others, but said that it was "fascinating" and occasionally "brilliant".⁶⁰

Patrick J. Ford of The American Conservative said WALL-E's conservative critics were missing lessons in the film that he felt were appealing 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".⁶¹

Andrew Stanton commented on the reaction to the film by denying any specific agenda beyond telling the story about 'the last robot on Earth'.⁶²⁶³ He said that people were making connections that he "never saw coming", and that the circumstances of humanity's abandoning the Earth arose merely as a way of telling the story, "reverse-engineered" from the initial concept of using refuse as both a visual shorthand that would be easy for children to understand, and as a way of depicting the title character as holding a low-status, menial job.⁶⁴

Kyle Smith, author and columnist for the New York Post, wrote that in depicting humans of the future 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 in the film to the patrons of Disney World, adding, "I'm also not sure I've ever seen a major corporation spend so much money to issue an insult to its customers".⁶⁵ Maura Judkis of U.S. News & World Report questioned whether this depiction of "frighteningly obese humans" would resonate with children, making them more likely to "play outside rather than in front of the computer, to avoid a similar fate".⁶⁶ Stanton denied that his intention was to pass comment on obesity, saying the purpose was instead to portray human overdependency.⁶⁴

Top ten lists

The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008.⁶⁷

1st - Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly 1st - Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal 1st - A.O. Scott, The New York Times 1st - Anthony Lane, The New Yorker 1st - Noel Murray, The Onion AV Club 1st - Tom Charity, CNN68 1st - Richard Corliss, Time Magazine 1st - Ty Burr, Boston Globe 1st - John Serba, The Grand Rapids Press 1st - Rafer Guzman, Newsday 1st - Melissa Starker, Columbus Dispatch69 1st - Peter Debruge, Variety70 1st - Anne Thompson Variety71 1st - Carol Cling, Las Vegas Review-Journal72 1st - Paul Byrnes, The Sydney Morning Herald73 1st - J. Hoberman, Village Voice–L.A. Weekly Poll74 2nd - David Edelstein, National Public Radio75 2nd - Keith Phipps, The Onion AV Club 2nd - Tasha Robinson, The Onion AV Club 2nd - Scott Tobias, The Onion AV Club 2nd - Ann Hornaday, Washington Post 2nd - Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle76 2nd - Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun77 3rd - James Beradinelli, Reel Views

3rd - Stephen Holden, The New York Times 3rd - Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette78 3rd - Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly79 3rd - Sight and Sound80 4th - Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly 4th - Nathan Rabin, The Onion AV Club 4th - Lawrence Toppman, Charlotte Observer81 5th - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone 5th - Peter Howell, Toronto Star82 6th - Ella Taylor, LA Weekly83 7th - Jake Hamilton, KHOU-TV 84 9th - David Ansen, Newsweek 10th - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times 10th - Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly85 Robert Wilonsky, Phoenix New-Times86 Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen, The Hollywood Reporter Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News87 Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch88 Roger Moore, The Orlando Sentinel Dana Stevens, Slate89 Richard Crouse, Canada AM90 Kenneth Turan, NPR91 Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (unranked top-20) 92

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards won or nominated by Pixar

WALL-E made a healthy appearance at the various 2008 end of the year awards circles, particularly in the Best Picture category, which is surprising considering animated films are often overlooked. It has the won the award, or the equivalent of it, from the Boston Society of Film Critics (tied with Slumdog Millionaire), the Chicago Film Critics Association, and most notably, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, where it became the first animated feature to win the prestigious award.

Academy Awards

Walt Disney Pictures has already sent WALL-E, alongside Bolt as their entries in the category for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards,⁹³ but they are also pushing for an Academy Award for Best Picture nomination; chairman Dick Cook felt "If we didn't do it, I don't think we'd be giving the movie its due." Only one other animated film, 1991's Beauty and the Beast, was nominated for that award.⁹⁴

Award	Category	Winner/Nominee	Result
American Film Institute	Top 10 of 2008		Won
Annie Awards 200995	Best Animated Feature		Nominated
	Animated Effects	Enrique Vila	Nominated
	Character Animation in a Feature Production	Victor Navone	Nominated
	Directing in an Animated Feature Production	Andrew Stanton	Nominated
	Production Design in an Animated Feature Production	Ralph Eggleston	Nominated
	Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production	Ronnie Del Carmen	Nominated
	Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production	Ben Burtt as WALL-E	Nominated
Austin Film Critics Association	Top Ten Films of the Year		Won
	Best Animated Feature		Won
Boston Society of Film Critics96	Best Film[a]		Won
	Best Animated Film		Won
British Academy Children's Awards97	Best Feature Film		Won
21st Chicago Film Critics Association Awards (2008)98	Best Picture		Won
	Best Animated Feature		Won
	Best Original Screenplay	Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon	Won
	Best Original Score	Thomas Newman	Won
Critics Choice Awards99	Best Picture		Nominated
	Best Animated Feature		Won
	Best Song	"Down to Earth", Peter Gabriel & Thomas Newman	Nominated
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Awards	Best Animated Film		Won
	Top 10 Films		9th
EDA Awards100	Best Original Screenplay	Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter & Jim Reardon	Won
Florida Film Critics Awards	Best Animated Feature		Won
66th Golden Globe Awards (2009)101	Best Animated Feature		Nominated
	Best Original Song	"Down to Earth", Peter Gabriel & Thomas Newman	Nominated
51st Grammy Awards (2009)102	Best Score Soundtrack Album	WALL-E, Thomas Newman	Nominated
	Best Song	"Down to Earth", Peter Gabriel & Thomas Newman	Nominated
	Best Instrumental Arrangement	"Define Dancing", Peter Gabriel & Thomas Newman	Nominated
Houston Film Critics Awards103	Best Animated Feature		Won
	Best Original Song	"Down to Earth", Peter Gabriel & Thomas Newman	Won
LA Weekly/Village Voice Poll	Best Film of 2008		Won
Las Vegas Film Critics Awards	Best Animated Film		Won
London Film Critics Circle Awards 2009	Film of the Year		Nominated
Los Angeles Film Critics Association104	Best Film		Won
National Board of Review of Motion Pictures105	Top Ten Film of the Year		Won
	Animated Feature		Won
The National Movie Awards	Best Family Film		Won
	Special Honorary Award		Won
New York Film Critics Circle	Best Animated Feature		Won
35th People's Choice Awards (2009)	Favorite Family Film		Won
Phoenix Film Critics Awards	Top Ten Films of the Year		Won
	Best Animated Feature		Won
San Diego Film Critics Awards	Best Animated Feature		Won
Satellite Awards 2008106	Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media		Won
	Original Score	Thomas Newman	Nominated
	Original Song	"Down to Earth", Peter Gabriel & Thomas Newman	Nominated
	Sound (Mixing & Editing)	Ben Burtt & Matthew Wood	Nominated
Southeastern Film Critics Awards	Best Animated Feature		Won
Spike TV's Scream Awards	Breakout Performance	WALL-E	Won
St. Louis Film Critics Awards	Best Animated Film		Won
2008 Teen Choice Awards107	Best Summer Comedy Movie		Nominated
Toronto Film Critics Awards	Best Animated Feature		Won
Utah Film Critics	Best Animated Feature		Won
	Best Director	Andrew Stanton	Won
Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards 2009	Best Film		Nominated
Washington D.C Film Critics Awards	Best Animated Film		Won
Women Film Critics Circle Awards	Best Family Film		Won
	Best Animated Female	EVE	Won
World Soundtrack Awards 2008108	Best Original Score of the Year	Thomas Newman	Nominated

• ^a  Shared with Slumdog Millionaire

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in regions 1 and 3 on November 18, 2008 and was released in region 2 on November 24, 2008—both in a standard and special edition version.¹⁰⁹ The special editions of WALL-E include a second disc with special features, and a third disc that includes a bonus digital copy of the film. Special features include several deleted scenes, an audio commentary with director Andrew Stanton, the short film Presto, a new short film BURN-E, an animation sound design featurette, and the Leslie Iwerks documentary film The Pixar Story.¹¹⁰ The DVDs come packaged in "Earth (and Space) Friendly" eco-packaging.

See also

• List of Pixar film references lists references made by WALL-E to other Pixar films.

References