WALL-E is a sanitation robot. His name stands for “Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-class 3”. He was created by the mega-corporation Buy-n-Large. His job is to scoop up trash and compact it. WALL-E is the last robot left operational. As a matter of fact he is the only anything left. Even the people have left the Earth. Due to rampant consumerism and waste they abandoned the trash filled planet centuries ago for giant outer space airliners. Except for the garbage, the rusting metal and WALL-E, the Earth is empty. Well, except for WALL-E’s pet cockroach.
WALL-E spends his days scooping and compacting. He maintains himself by scavenging parts from other machines and soaking up solar rays. When he finds something that strikes his interest he will bring it back to his home base, a large dumpster. He’s collected a lot of things, bowling pins, safety cones, a toaster, a Rubik’s cube, rows and rows of things that struck his fancy. Day after day WALL-E does basically the same thing. One day he finds something unusual. A small green thing coming out of the dirt. A seedling. WALL-E scoops it up and puts it into a small boot that he fancied. He brings it home.
One day a ship comes down and sends out a small probe. WALL-E is fascinated with the white sleek machine. The probe is an Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator, or EVE. EVE begins scanning the landscape. WALL-E watches from a distance. He becomes smitten. Eventually they begin to communicate with each other. To impress her WALL-E gives her his seedling. She puts it in a compartment inside her. The seedling sends EVE into standby mode and a signal is sent to the space ship. Finally the ship returns and collects EVE and the plant. WALL-E, afraid of losing his girlfriend races to save her. As the ship takes off WALL-E clings to it. The smaller ship heads for the mother ship, the Axiom, with WALL-E holding on fast.
When WALL-E and the smaller ship reach the Axiom EVE is taken to the Captain (Jeff Garlin). The fact that EVE has returned with actual living vegetation would result in the Axiom going back home. When EVE’s specimen container is opened there is no plant there. The Captain believes it’s a false alarm and EVE is sent to diagnostics to be fixed. WALL-E mistakenly believes that EVE is in trouble. He races to rescue his love. WALL-E and EVE are designated rogue robots. EVE and WALL-E need to find the plant so she can complete her mission. In the meantime security bots are searching the ship and are out to destroy them.
“WALL-E” was released in 2008 and was directed by Andrew Stanton. The movie is an animated fantasy film. It is the first Pixar film to be nominated for 6 Academy Awards and is Pixar’s ninth feature film.
WALL-E, and to a certain extent EVE are more sentient than most of the blobs on the Axiom. The movie is probably the most enchanting animated love story ever. It’s smart and endearing. The main characters are robots but they have all the characteristics of people. It’s a great story with some thought provoking lessons and humor relayed in an entertaining way. Even the cockroach is adorable. Of course you may have to watch it more than once to get all the subtle humor in it.
The main characters of the film were inspired by Charlie Chaplin films. The poor downtrodden everyman who ends up getting the smart cute girl. WALL-E's pet cockroach was nicknamed Hal by the Pixar artists. An homage to silent film producer Hal Roach and HAL 9000 the computer from “2001: A Space Odyssey” 1968. Hal’s clicks were made by locking handcuffs. His chirps were raccoon sounds speeded up. Wind was made by dragging a bag along a carpet and EVE’s laser blasts were partially created by tapping a slinky spring.
The voice of Auto, the autopilot, is that of a word synthesizer called a Macintalk which is a text to speech program that was included in the original 1984 Apple Macintosh computer. It’s also been used in a few other movies, shorts and television programs. The shape of Auto is similar to the computer used to pilot the ship in “Flight of the Navigator” 1986. The Axiom ship’s computer voice is done by Sigourney Weaver.
Both the existence of cockroaches and Twinkies seven hundred years in the future are proof that they both will last forever. What would life be without them?