WALL•E (2008)
A Pixar original story by Andrew Stanton.
Intro Song (“Put On Your Sunday Clothes”). In the 29th century, Earth is a garbage-strewn wasteland due to an ecocide, caused by rampant consumerism, corporate greed, and environmental neglect.
Humanity is nowhere to be seen, having been evacuated by the megacorporation Buy n Large (BnL) to space on giant starliners, leaving trash compacting robots to clean up the planet, 700 years prior. The cleanup known as Operation Cleanup has failed and the last remaining active robot, named Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Earth Class (WALL·E) has developed a personality. WALL·E remains active by salvaging parts from other inactive robots and lives with his pet cockroach as his only companion in a large truck designed to carry the robots.
One day, WALL·E's routine of compressing trash and collecting interesting objects is broken by the arrival of an unmanned probe carrying an egg-shaped robot named Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator (EVE) which is sent to scan the planet for signs of sustainable life. WALL·E is smitten by the sleek, otherworldly robot, and the two begin to connect (“La Vie en rose” & “It Only Takes A Moment”), until EVE goes into standby mode when WALL·E shows her his most recent find: a living seedling. The probe ship eventually returns and collects EVE and the plant, with WALL·E clinging on. The probe ship then returns to its mothership, the starliner Axiom.
In the centuries since the Axiom left Earth, its passengers have degenerated into helpless obesity due to microgravity and laziness, with robots catering to their every whim. Even Captain B. McCrea is used to sitting back while his robotic AI autopilot helm, nicknamed AUTO, pilots the ship. McCrea is unprepared to receive the positive probe response, but discovers that placing the plant in the ship's Holo-Detector will trigger a hyperjump back to Earth so that humanity can begin recolonization via Operation Recolonize. When McCrea inspects EVE's storage compartment, the plant is missing, with EVE blaming WALL·E for its disappearance.
EVE is deemed faulty and taken to diagnostics. Mistaking the process for torture, WALL·E intervenes and inadvertently releases all the other faulty bots, causing him and EVE to be designated as rogues. Frustrated, EVE tries to send WALL·E home in an escape pod, but before she can, the two witness a small robot, GO-4, stowing the plant in a pod set to self-destruct, revealing that WALL·E did not steal the plant. WALL·E tries retrieving it, but is launched into space. EVE uses an emergency exit to chase after WALL·E, and witnesses the pod explode, although both he and the plant survive unscathed by using a fire extinguisher to fly around. He and EVE reconcile, celebrating with a dance in space around the Axiom (“Define Dancing”).
EVE brings the plant back to McCrea, who watches her recordings of Earth, concluding that they can and must save it. However, AUTO reveals that it has been programmed with the secret no-return, full autopilot Override Directive A113 issued after BnL CEO Shelby Forthright inaccurately said Earth could not be saved due to rising toxicity levels making Earth unsustainable; GO-4 attempted to dispose of the plant on AUTO's instruction. When McCrea countermands the directive, AUTO and GO-4 mutiny, electrocuting WALL·E, forcefully putting EVE into standby, throwing them both down a garbage chute and locking McCrea in his quarters. EVE (having been reactivated by a mouse-like robot) and WALL·E are nearly ejected into space with the ship's refuse, but Microbe Obliterator (M-O), a cleaning robot who had been following WALL·E's dirt trail across the ship, saves the two when he gets stuck when the gate closes, prompting the Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Axiom Class (WALL·A) garbage bots to abort the ejection. As humans and robots help in securing the plant, McCrea and AUTO fight for control of the Axiom. AUTO crushes WALL·E using the Holo-Detector in a last-ditch attempt to keep the human passengers in space; McCrea eventually overpowers and deactivates AUTO by switching it to manual mode, and EVE successfully inserts the plant, initiating the hyperjump.
Arriving back on Earth, EVE quickly repairs WALL·E, but finds that his memory and personality have been erased. Heartbroken, EVE gives WALL·E a goodbye "kiss", which restores him to his normal self. WALL-E and EVE reunite as the Axiom inhabitants take their first steps on Earth (“It Only Takes A Moment”).
During the credits, humans and robots turn the ravaged planet into a paradise, and the plant grows into a mighty tree, which EVE and WALL·E rest beneath (“Down To Earth”).
TRIVIA
Visual Style
Dubbed “The Walk Home,” the intro segment used 10 of the most complicated sets ever created by Pixar, at the time, to tell a wordless, one-minute story—to reveal the planet’s history in entirely visual terms.
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.
The Axiom’s design is inspired by 1960s NASA paintings and the original concept art for Tomorrowland for the Axiom, to reflect that era's sense of optimism. Eggleston also based his designon the futuristic architecture of Santiago Calatrava. He 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". The 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.
Jonathan Ive of Apple was asked to inspect the design of EVE which he was very impressed with.
Auto was a conscious homage to HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey with the song Also sprach Zarathustra from the film being used in the showdown between Captain McCrea and Auto.
The majority of the robot cast were formed with the Build-a-bot program, where different heads, arms and treads were combined in over a hundred variations.
The humans were modeled on sea lions due to their blubbery bodies, 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.
To learn how to animate emotions silently, the team watched a variety of silent films such as Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Harold Lloyd.
In terms of sound design, Ben Burtt, who worked on Star Wars, recored 2,500 sounds for the film.
Music
The soundtrack features excerpts from "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" and "It Only Takes a Moment" (both sung by Michael Crawford) from the soundtrack to the film Hello, Dolly!
Notable Scenes: Intro scene (i.e. The Walk Home); WALL·E and EVE flying through space (“Define Dancing”)
A 2008 Pixar short Burn·E follows a welding bot on the Axiom Starliner who is locked out of the starliner by WALL·E and EVE during the events of WALL·E.