WALL-E (2008)
WALL-E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction 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 waste covered Earth far in the future. 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. It grossed $533 million worldwide, won the 2009 Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, and the 2009 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and was nominated for five other Academy Awards.
Plot
In the early 29th century, the Earth is deserted and covered in trash. 700 years earlier, the world was governed by the Buy n Large (“BnL”) corporation, who evacuated humanity to live aboard fully automated luxury starliners for five years while garbage compacting WALL-E robots cleaned up the planet. Rising toxicity levels caused the evacuation to be extended indefinitely, and all of the WALL-E units broke down except for one, who survived by salvaging parts off his defunct brethren. He eventually developed sentience and became curious about love after watching a video of the film Hello, Dolly!. One day, a spaceship lands and deploys an advanced, feminine probe robot named EVE, with whom WALL-E falls in love at first sight. During a dust storm he brings her to his truck, showing her his collection of abandoned items. When WALL-E shows her a seedling plant he found earlier, EVE stores the plant inside herself and goes into standby. WALL-E protects her motionless body, even taking her out on dates, hoping that she will reboot, but to no avail.
When EVE’s ship returns to collect her, WALL-E desperately clings to the hull of the ship as it launches into space and returns to the Axiom, the flagship of the BnL starliners. WALL-E follows EVE as she is taken to the bridge. Along the way, it becomes apparent that after centuries of being reliant on the machinery around them, microgravity, and consuming liquid food, humanity has suffered severe bone loss, becoming extremely obese and unable to walk, reclining on moving chairs and communicating only through video messaging; even piloting the ship is handled by its computerized autopilot, Auto, rather than the human Captain. WALL-E perplexes several humans and robots with his peculiar behavior, particularly a cleaning robot named M-O, who obsessively follows and cleans WALL-E’s filthy tracks, and two humans, John and Mary, who talk to each other face to face for the first time when WALL-E distracts them. On the bridge, EVE is reactivated and shown to the Captain, who learns from a video recording by BnL CEO Shelby Forthright that if EVE’s plant sample is scanned by the ship’s holo-detector, the ship will make an automatic hyperjump back to Earth so that humanity can recolonize the planet. When EVE is opened, however, the plant is missing: she is deemed defective and sent to a repair ward with WALL-E whom the Captain orders to be cleaned.
In the repair ward, WALL-E mistakes EVE’s repairs for torture and tries to free her, but accidentally releases a host of malfunctioning robots, causing him and EVE to be designated “rogue robots” by security. Annoyed with WALL-E, EVE tries to send him back to Earth on an escape pod. Traveling to the pod launch room, they see GO-4, Auto’s security assistant, deposit the missing plant in a pod that he sets to self-destruct. WALL-E sneaks into the pod to retrieve the plant as the pod is ejected, and narrowly escapes with the plant. Overjoyed that WALL-E is alive and has recovered the plant, EVE dances with him around in space before returning to give the plant to the Captain. In his excitement, the Captain has EVE replay a visual recording of her mission on Earth, and discovers the planet is still devastated. During the replay, EVE realizes WALL-E protected her while she was inactive, and finally understands his feelings for her. The Captain realizes humanity must restore Earth and orders Auto to assist. Auto refuses and shows the Captain a secret recording from Shelby Forthright codenamed A113 that was made when the cleanup operation failed, in which Forthright ordered the autopilots to keep humanity in space. When the Captain resists, Auto imprisons him in his quarters, electrocutes WALL-E, and sends him and EVE down a garbage chute.
In the Axiom’s garbage hold, WALL-E and EVE are almost jettisoned into space with the trash until M-O – having followed WALL-E all this time in the hopes of cleaning him – arrives to rescue them. EVE, M-O and WALL-E fly to the holo-detector and rally the malfunctioning robots to their aid. The Captain escapes captivity by tricking Auto and battles him while the damaged WALL-E struggles to keep the holo-detector open, only to be jammed inside and crushed. The Captain summons the strength to stand up unaided and deactivates Auto, and with the help of the humans and robots, EVE places the plant in the holo-detector, releasing the damaged WALL-E. The Axiom makes a hyperjump to Earth and lands; EVE repairs and revives WALL-E with the spare parts he kept in his truck. Unfortunately, his memory and personality are corrupted, reverting him to his original programming as an unfeeling waste compactor. Heartbroken, EVE takes his hand and gives him a farewell “kiss”, causing an electric spark that restores his memory. WALL-E and EVE happily reunite as the humans and robots place the plant in the ground, and begin working together to rebuild their home.
Awards
WALL-E won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing at the 81st Academy Awards. Walt Disney Pictures also pushed for an Academy Award for Best Picture nomination, but it was not nominated, provoking controversy as to whether the Academy deliberately restricted WALL-E to the Best Animated Feature category, Peter Travers commented that “If there was ever a time where an animated feature deserved to be nominated for best picture it’s Wall-E.” Only one animated film, 1991′s Beauty and the Beast, has ever been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, after which the category of Best Animated Feature was created. A reflective Stanton stated he was not disappointed the film was restricted to the Best Animated Film nomination because he was overwhelmed by the film’s positive reception, and eventually “The line [between live-action and animation] is just getting so blurry that I think with each proceeding year, it’s going to be tougher and tougher to say what’s an animated movie and what’s not an animated movie.”
WALL-E made a healthy appearance at the various 2008 end of the year awards circles, particularly in the Best Picture category, where animated films are often overlooked. It has won the award, or the equivalent of it, from the Boston Society of Film Critics (tied with Slumdog Millionaire), the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Central Ohio Film Critics awards, the Online Film Critics Society, and most notably the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, where it became the first animated feature to win the prestigious award. It was named as one of 2008′s ten best films by the American Film Institute and the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.
It won Best Animated Feature Film at the 66th Golden Globe Awards, 81st Academy Awards and the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2008. It was nominated for several awards at the 2009 Annie Awards, including Best Feature Film, Animated Effects, Character Animation, Direction, Production design, Storyboarding and Voice acting (for Ben Burtt); but it won none. It won Best Animated Feature at the 62nd British Academy Film Awards, and was also nominated there for Best Music and Sound. Thomas Newman and Peter Gabriel won two Grammy Awards for “Down to Earth” and “Define Dancing”. It won all three awards it was nominated for by the Visual Effects Society: Best Animation, Best Character Animation (for WALL-E and EVE in the truck) and Best Effects in the Animated Motion Picture categories. It became the first animated film to win Best Editing for a Comedy or Musical from the American Cinema Editors.
At the British National Movie Awards, which is voted for by the public, it won Best Family Film. It was also voted Best Feature Film at the British Academy Children’s Awards. WALL-E was listed at #63 on Empire’s online poll of the 100 greatest movie characters, conducted in 2008.
Cast & Credits
- Directed by: Andrew Stanton
- Produced by: Jim Morris, Lindsey Collins (co-producer), John Lasseter (executive producer)
- Written by: Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon (screenplay), Pete Docter (story credit)
- 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
Other Information
- Studio: Pixar Animation Studios
- Distributed by: Walt Disney Pictures
- Release dates: June 27, 2008 (USA); July 18, 2008 (UK); September 18, 2008 (AUS), (NZ)
- Running time: 98 min
- Country: United States
- Language: English
- Budget: $180 million
- Gross revenue: $533,692,120
Links
- Official site
- WALL-E at the Big Cartoon DataBase
- WALL-E at the Internet Movie Database
- WALL-E at Allmovie
- WALL-E at Box Office Mojo
- WALL-E at Rotten Tomatoes
- WALL-E at Metacritic
Reese Witherspoon