WALL-E (2008) | Sci-Fi Saturdays

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A tale of love, dystopia, and robots.

Pixar Animation’s WALL-E is a heartwarming sci-fi film about a robot who finds love while he also saves the human race. It’s a film that’s rooted in classic science-fiction works from anthropomorphic robots to humans in space. But it also creates a film that mixes in some very unexpected attributes.

First Impressions

In this animated trailer, the narrator mentions that humans left the planet Earth 700 years ago. A lone robot continues to go about its programming on the planet, watching old human movies, and feeling lonely. A rocket lands with a sleek, futuristic robot which WALL-E falls in love with. That is until his love is blasted back into space. WALL-E goes for a ride on the rocket and encounters even more robots that are looking to arrest him–or worse. It’s love amongst the stars for WALL-E.

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

The Fiction of The Film

The film starts in outer space looking at a dirty planet Earth, the camera races through a field of debris before arriving above the ruins of a derelict city which contains mountains of trash taller than many skyscrapers. A lone robot WALL-E (which stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth Class) cleans up the debris into small cubes which he stacks diligently as a small cockroach watches him. WALL-E returns to his residence which contains junk he has collected during his work. There are things like lighters, Rubik’s cubes, and hubcaps. He puts on a videotape of Hello Dolly watching an opening number with two characters holding hands in the park. Video billboards that still function indicate that humans left the planet on Starliners for a five-year cruise while the planet was cleaned up. It has now been more than 700 years since they left.

The next morning WALL-E charges his solar battery and goes about his daily routine of cleaning up. He finds a small green sprout of a plant in an otherwise desolate environment and decides to take it home with him. A rocketship lands, nearly crushing the small robot, and releases a sleek, white, egg-shaped robot named EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator). WALL-E becomes enamored and builds a model of the other robot, but when he makes a sound the new visitor pulls out a laser gun and blasts towards WALL-E nearly vaporizing him. When a dust storm arrives, WALL-E takes her back to his shelter, showing off his junk collection. He plays the videotape and dances for her, but she doesn’t seem interested until he shows her the plant. She switches modes and puts the plant into a chest cavity, activating a green flashing “leaf” light on her chest.

WALL-E is no longer able to communicate with EVE, who seems to be catatonic. He takes care of her, going on “dates,” and protecting her from the rain and the snow. One day, sometime later, the rocket she arrived in returns and she is collected. WALL-E climbs the side of the ship which blasts off into outer space, entering hyperspace, and intercepting a human colony ship, the Axiom. Inside the giant cruise liner, other robots remove EVE from the rocket and prepare her for transport. M-O, a small scrubber robot, cleans “foreign contamination” off her shell. WALL-E follows the caravan of robots, and M-O follows him cleaning the dirty tire marks WALL-E leaves on the deck. WALL-E discovers a ship full of humans, all obese and oblivious to the robots around them. WALL-E bumps into Mary’s (Kathy Najimy) chair, making her pay attention to her surroundings for the first time.

EVE is taken to the Captain’s (Jeff Garlin) office where her chest cavity is opened revealing…no plant. The Captain is sad that there is no plant to be found, and sends EVE to the repair ward followed by WALL-E, who accidentally releases a number of rogue, malfunctioning robots. The Steward robots set up alerts for the rogue ‘bots, while EVE takes WALL-E to the escape pods to send him home, slightly annoyed that he followed her. There they find the Captain’s assistant, GO-4, putting the plant into an escape pod, which he blasts away, along with WALL-E inside. A self-destruct code counts down and blows up the pod, but WALL-E is able to escape with the plant, which he returns to EVE.

EVE is extremely happy and dances with WALL-E in zero gravity outside the ship. They return to the Captain’s quarters to complete EVE’s mission. He has been watching videos about life on Earth and is excited to potentially return. But EVE’s surveillance videos show a wasteland and not the verdant planet of the past. EVE realizes that WALL-E was diligently watching her while she hibernated, and understands that the little robot cares for her. The Captain decides that humans can, and must, return to Earth, but his second in command, an electronic ship’s wheel named AUTO, has orders that they cannot return and mutinies. WALL-E is damaged while trying to save the plant which was thrown in the garbage chute. EVE ignores her directive and saves WALL-E instead.

AUTO attempts to force the humans to stay in space, but EVE, WALL-E, and the rogue robots help the humans get the plant into a scanning device which sets the ship on a course back to Earth. Arriving on the planet, the corpulent humans struggle to walk off the ship. EVE takes the broken and out-of-power WALL-E back to his shelter and repairs him with spare parts he keeps on hand. But when he is rebooted, he no longer remembers EVE. She holds his hand, humming the song from his videotape and he eventually remembers who she is. The humans and robots begin working together to rebuild humanity and the planet.

“Wait, that doesn’t look like Earth. Where’s the blue sky? Where’s the grass?” – Axiom Captain

History in the Making

WALL-E is the ninth animated film from Pixar Studios, and the third released under the Walt Disney banner since the studio’s acquisition in 2006. It is also the first sci-fi film from Pixar drawing heavy inspiration from adventure stories like Robinson Crusoe and science-fiction films like The Last Man on Earth and 2001: A Space Odyssey. As with many of the Pixar films it shares complex themes in a family-friendly way, teaching audiences about friendship, ecology, and love. The idea was first conceived by writer/director Andrew Stanton back in 1994 prior to the release of Pixar’s first film Toy Story. It got shelved while Stanton went on to co-direct A Bug’s Life and direct the aquatic adventure Finding Nemo.

WALL-E is also the first and only Pixar film to feature live-action segments within the animation. Video screens and billboards present footage of Shelby Forthright, CEO of Buy-N-Large and apparent President (played by Fred Willard), giving news to the people of Earth about the evacuation of the planet. WALL-E also watches footage from Hello Dolly on an old iPod, with other live-action footage being shown to the Captain of the Axiom. This mixture of live-action footage is rare in animated films (with WALL-E being unique by limiting it to appear only on screens), but it is not unheard of. Walt Disney films had featured short live-action segments mixed into primarily animated films, such as Fantasia or Saludos Amigos. And there had been live-action films that mixed in animation such as Anchors Aweigh, Mary Poppins, or Bedknobs and Broomsticks. This mixture works well in the film primarily due to the realism of the animation Earth-side. It may have also been used to contrast the way humans used to look (in the live-action segments) versus their appearance 700 years in the future, as overweight passengers on the Axiom.

Genre-fication

In terms of what the public thinks about when they hear a film is science-fiction, WALL-E is an excellent example. It takes place in a future world where something has devastated the environment (much like the Mad Max films). In this film, the humans had to leave the planet due to its pollution and survive exclusively in space, not choosing to live in the wasteland. They created robots to help them clean up, choosing to enjoy a life of leisure instead. What was to have been a five-year departure while the Earth was cleaned up (much like the 5-year mission by the Enterprise in Star Trek), turned into something much longer. The humans ended up surviving out in space for over 700 years in what became a generational ship. These types of vehicles are meant to host occupants for multiple lifespans–or generations. Future films like Passengers and Interstellar deal with similar technology.

The film also offers the hope of these humans coming back to the Earth. These interstellar travelers have never set foot on an actual planet before and may have even lost an amount of muscle and bone mass. Most probably don’t understand anything about working to grow crops or creating a society since all their needs have been met by the automated systems of their spaceship. A ship that presents a utopia. The Axiom provides everything that they need, without want, presenting a stark contrast to the planet of their origin. However, as many sci-fi stories depict, they are also prisoners of this perfect system. The humans in the film have no drive or goal other than consuming calories and watching holographic videos. They have lost that innate spark that makes humans human. In essence, their utopia is more of a prison that prevents them from living to their potential.

WALL-E’s protagonist is an anthropomorphic robot that is obsessed with human society. His roots are based on other fan-favorite robot characters, especially R2-D2 from Star Wars and Johnny-5 from Short Circuit. WALL-E’s vocalizations are even created by the same sound designer who developed Artoo’s distinctive vocals, Ben Burtt. But there’s an entire subculture of robots in this world, each with its own directive and a personality based around that directive. WALL-E cleans up trash but becomes interested in the things he finds. M-O is an OCD scrub-bot who becomes anxious at any speck of dirt. AUTO is the second in command but has slowly been taking over more of the duties from the Captain as the years have progressed. Being an animated film allowed the filmmakers to make a much larger cast of these characters than would have been possible in a live-action film. Building the film with a non-human character as the lead allows for a closer examination of what it means to be human, and how an artificially intelligent device would be able to achieve such sentience, showing audiences the wonder of such discovery.

Societal Commentary

The idea of robots gaining sentience has been around for generations. Besides characters from Star Wars, which never questioned the autonomy of its droids, films such as The Iron Giant, AI Artificial Intelligence, and I, Robot has recently addressed similar themes. WALL-E is the last surviving version of his “species.” He has a set of instructions (his directives) to clean up the planet, which he does as his job during the day. But he also has room in his programming for exploring other aspects of the planet. He is obsessed with human contraptions that he finds, keeping a collection of various junk organized in bins. It may have started as a way for WALL-E to scavenge replacement parts for his system. Audiences are shown that he has multiple threads, batteries, and optical sensors tucked away when one of his parts wears out. Perhaps his programming altered over time to the point where he became obsessed with understanding more about the people that used to exist. By the time the film starts, WALL-E has a distinct personality that is focused on understanding the need for humans to hold hands. His viewing of Hello Dolly shows him that this was a common occurrence, but has not explained why–or at least he hasn’t figured it out himself. As the film progresses and WALL-E meets EVE, he begins to understand what caring for another means and uses the technique he learned by watching this old film to express his feelings to both EVE and the audience.

The other major theme of the film is consumerism. The film sets the scene for a planet beleaguered by consumption in its first few minutes, depicting a planet that has debris floating in orbit and a dusty and barren landscape where piles of garbage tower over the largest skyscrapers. “Stuff” was obviously the most important aspect of the human’s lives. As the camera follows WALL-E on his day job, it passes giant mile-long warehouses for Buy-N-Large, a shopping superstore. Everything on the planet is branded with the BNL logo, which appears to be one multinational corporation that makes everything from vehicles to spaceships, to robots. It’s like an animated version of Idiocracy with its garbage quakes and city-sized Costco stores. It soon becomes apparent that humans needed to leave the planet because they trashed it. The consumers consumed everything and all that was left was their trash. WALL-E creates an interesting parable about needing to take care of the planet and be a steward of the environment without being too preachy to audiences.

WALL-E also shows the decline of humanity. While they were once a great society that invented interstellar travel, AI Robots, and amazing technology, humans are now portrayed as obese individuals who have let both their minds and bodies go. No one remembers anything about the Earth. The Captain of the ship must use his computer (voiced by Sigourney Weaver) to get information about what farming is and other human activities. But unlike films, like Idiocracy, it doesn’t make fun of humanity for this. The decline of humans is seen as something pitiable; showing that they have lost something innate to the species. The human spirit no longer thrives in this new generation. But it’s also not something that was completely lost. WALL-E, as a character, with his wonder and curiosity acts as a catalyst to return that same wonder and curiosity to each person, or robot, that he encounters. He bumps into Mary, awakening her from her short-sightedness. She eventually bumps into John, awakening him as well. Together they marvel at the stars, the robots, and the pool (we have a pool?), all things that they never noticed before. WALL-E also awakens, EVE and M-O by getting them out of their rut dictated by their “directives.” By the end of the film, humanity stands up for itself and demands to return to their planet and to begin putting in the hard work together in order to create a better society.

The Science in The Fiction

WALL-E demonstrates the ability of humans to use technology for both destruction and creation. Humanity is good at many things, but moderation does not seem to be one of them. Things that tend to be good for people tend to be done to extremes. We hunt animals to extinction. We decimate forests and crops. We poison the air and the water with runoff from the machines that make life easier for some people. But not to worry, because humans can design robots to do the hard work of cleaning up while everyone flies away from the planet on a space yacht to enjoy their time away from the planet. They were able to program the ships with amazing automation in order to not have to worry about anything ever again.

Unfortunately, the automation worked too well. The robots that were supposed to serve the humans became their jailers instead. There wasn’t anything malicious about the creation of these systems, but their programming worked against each other. In the same way that HAL-9000 slowly went mad in 2001: A Space Odyssey from his contrary orders, that’s what happened to the computers on the Axiom. The ship’s computer was searching for plant life on Earth, while AUTOuto was tasked with never returning the humans to the planet. Their directives clashed, which nearly led to the humans never reclaiming the planet of their birthright.

The Final Frontier

WALL-E is a great film, but it’s made better by a fun and uplifting song during the closing credits. “Down to Earth,” written by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, and performed by Gabriel with the Soweto Gospel Choir, leaves audiences with a positive piece of music as the credit animations show society rebuilding itself from the ground up. It leaves the film on a high note, which is really what the film is about. While it might seem a bit depressing to have a world that has been destroyed, the hope and positivity in the film show that humanity can overcome these obstacles and that things are going to be okay.

As with most Pixar films, WALL-E is designed for families. That means it has elements that are designed for both kids and adults alike. It has engaging characters and funny moments, but will also pull at the heartstrings of even the most cynical viewer. It provides a clear message about responsibility to the environment without being too heavy-handed while showing that it’s never too late to correct the course of the world.

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