WALL-E
WALL-E (stylized with an interpunct as WALL·E) is a 2008 American animated science fiction film[5] produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Andrew Stanton, produced by Jim Morris, and written by Stanton and Jim Reardon. It stars the voices of Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy, with Sigourney Weaver and Fred Willard. The film follows a solitary robot named WALL-E on a future, uninhabitable, deserted Earth in 2805, left to clean up garbage. He is visited by a robot called EVE sent from the starship Axiom, with whom he falls in love and pursues across the galaxy.
This article is about the animated film. For the title character, see WALL-E (character). For other uses, see WALL-E (disambiguation) and Walle.WALL•E
- Andrew Stanton
- Jim Reardon
- Andrew Stanton
- Pete Docter
- Jeremy Lasky
- Danielle Feinberg
- June 23, 2008 (Greek Theatre)
- June 27, 2008 (United States)
97 minutes[1]
United States
English
$180 million[2]
After directing Finding Nemo, Stanton felt Pixar had created believable simulations of underwater physics and was willing to direct a film set largely in space. WALL-E has minimal dialogue in its early sequences; many of the characters in the film do not have voices, but instead communicate with body language and robotic sounds that were designed by Burtt. The film incorporates various topics including consumerism, corporatocracy, nostalgia, waste management, human environmental impact and concerns, obesity/sedentary lifestyles, and global catastrophic risk.[6] It is also Pixar's first animated film with segments featuring live-action characters. Thomas Newman composed the film's musical score. The film cost $180 million to produce, a record-breaking sum for an animated film at the time. Following Pixar tradition, WALL-E was paired with a short film titled Presto for its theatrical release.
WALL-E was released in the United States on June 27, 2008. The film received critical acclaim for its animation, story, voice acting, characters, visuals, score, sound design, screenplay, use of minimal dialogue, and scenes of romance.[7][8] It was also commercially successful, grossing $521.3 million worldwide and becoming the ninth-highest grossing film of 2008. It won the 2008 Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Long Form Dramatic Presentation,[9] the final Nebula Award for Best Script,[10] the Saturn Award for Best Animated Film and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature with five additional Oscar nominations. The film was widely named by critics and organizations, including the National Board of Review and American Film Institute, as one of the best films of 2008,[11][12] and to be considered among the greatest animated films ever made.[13][14][15]
In 2021, WALL-E became the second Pixar feature film (after Toy Story) to be selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[16] In September 2022, at the request of Stanton, Disney licensed WALL-E to The Criterion Collection, who re-released the film as a special edition 4K Blu-Ray-standard Blu-ray combo pack on November 22, 2022, marking the first Pixar film to ever receive such an honor.[17][18]
Plot
In the 29th century, Earth is a garbage-strewn wasteland due to an ecocide, caused by rampant consumerism, corporate greed, and environmental neglect.[19]
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, seven hundred years prior. The 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 rocket 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, 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 in fear of losing her. 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. 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 rogue robots. Frustrated, EVE tries to send WALL·E home in an escape pod, but before she can, the two witness McCrea's first mate robot, GO-4, stowing the plant in a pod set to self-destruct, revealing that WALL·E did not steal the plant. WALL·E enters the pod to retrieve the plant just as it launches, but both he and the plant survive unscathed. EVE catches up to him and they reconcile, celebrating with a dance in space around the Axiom.
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 he has been programmed with the secret no-return directive A113 issued after BnL CEO Shelby Forthright inaccurately said Earth could not be saved, also revealing that 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 since his arrival, inadvertently jams the door and saves the two, 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 him 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 releases a static electricity shock, restoring him to his normal self. WALL-E and EVE reunite as the Axiom inhabitants take their first steps on Earth. Humans and robots turn the ravaged planet into a paradise, and the plant grows into a mighty tree, which WALL·E and EVE rest beneath.
Reception
Box office
WALL-E grossed $223.8 million in the United States and Canada and $308.7 million overseas, for a worldwide total of $532.5 million,[3] making it the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2008.[97]
In the US and Canada, WALL-E opened in 3,992 theaters on June 27, 2008.[98] The film grossed $23.1 million on its opening day, the highest of all nine Pixar titles to date.[99] During its opening weekend, it topped the box office with $63,087,526.[98] This was the third-best opening weekend for a Pixar film after Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, and the second-best opening weekend among films released in June, behind Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.[99] The film grossed $38 million the following weekend, losing its first place to Hancock.[100] WALL-E crossed the $200 million mark by August 3, during its sixth weekend.[101]
WALL-E grossed over $10 million in Japan ($44,005,222), UK, Ireland and Malta ($41,215,600), France and the Maghreb region ($27,984,103), Germany ($24,130,400), Mexico ($17,679,805), Spain ($14,973,097), Australia ($14,165,390), Italy ($12,210,993), and Russia and the CIS ($11,694,482).[102]
Critical response
The American Film Institute named WALL-E as one of the best films of 2008;[103] the jury rationale states:
Robotic recreations
In 2012, Mike McMaster,[154] an American robotics hobbyist, began working on his own model of WALL·E. The final product was built with more moving parts than the WALL·E which roams around Disneyland. McMaster's four-foot robot made an appearance at the Walt Disney Family Museum and was featured during the opening week of Tested.com[155] a project headed up by Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage of MythBusters. Since WALL-E's creation, Mike and the popular robot have made dozens of appearances at various events.[156]
In the same year, Mike Senna completed his own WALL·E build.[157] He also created an EVE. They were present at a photo op at Disney's D23 Expo 2015.[158]