For a Disney Pixar film what surprised me most about WALL-E is just how dark it is. Yes, there’s the fast-paced motion-based comedy and quick visual jokes, but there’s also a different kind of tone in regard to the human characters. There’s none of the comfortable security present in so many children’s films. In fact one could even argue if WALL-E is primarily a children’s film, there’s none of the colourful backdrop (at least in the earth segments) of Cars and Finding Nemo, no array of funny sub characters chipping in quick–witted comments, and an image of the world that’s shockingly grim and cynical. This is all very beneficial to WALL-E, its Pixar’s most ambitious film to date; they have raised the bar yet again in what they will focus on and how they tell their stories, if anything it’s more like an art film than a multiplex blockbuster. Yet it retains the core elements of all the best Pixar films, a daring world-of-it’s-own universe, strikingly fluid and astounding animation and genuine emotional development and depth in its characters.
WALL-E himself is one of Pixar’s most lovable, engaging and well-drawn (literally and in terms of personality) characters. His little mannerisms and mechanical features are so thoroughly articulated and designed, his clunky tyre tracks and jittery head giving him all the dimensions and expressions of a person. The only human facial feature that WALL-E retains are his prominent eyes- no mouth to smile or frown with, and he still manages to be as emotive as any of Pixar’s weird spins on real-world objects or creatures. Ben Burtt, the man responsible for recording and orchestrating the sounds of WALL-E and other robots deserves credit for the life he has breathed into these characters just through sound. WALL-E’s curious whirring noises and beeping squawks help to give the little robot presence and a heartfelt endearing quality.
WALL-E is the one and only individual left in a world full of robots controlling humans and turning them into lazier, fleshy robots. The society of the future is basically nonexistent, there’s no socialising to speak of. Screens are projected in front of everyone’s faces 24/7, they play virtual golf and in classic sci-fi fashion, eat entire meals in liquid form. It’s a very dark image, and while done to poke fun at the stupidity of the humans, it’s slightly depressing. Advertising screens are never out of frame when we board the new home for earthlings, the space ship Axiom. There’s a gloomy paradox in WALL-E present in many Sci-Fi films, that once humans have reached and explored the depths of the universe, they’re unfazed and even ignorant of the limitless freedom of it all. There’s a lovely montage of WALL-E marvelling at galaxies and stars, reaching out and being in awe of it all – on the space ship, the humans simply sit in their hover-chairs and have even begun to forget where they are.
With all these political views underpinning the entire film, at heart WALL-E is a classic love story. The opening section of WALL-E shows us just how alone the little robot is – the impressive photo-realistic animation of earth, the towering structures of garbage and dusty wastelands surrounding the city give the film a very dystopian and gloomy atmosphere. The quick zooms and pans, wide tracking shots of WALL-E bobbing along doing his daily chore, and the detailed tour of his job and trinket-filled home paint a picture of a very isolated little robot, who over 700 years has evolved within himself and extracted all of the best human qualities through our devices, games and even movies. We see WALL-E watching the 1969 musical Hello, Dolly!, focusing on a song involving two partners holding hands, an important gesture that WALL-E in his advanced state instantly recognises as a sign of love. When EVE, a robot sent to look for vegetation, shows up its delightful and exciting to watch WALL-E do his best to keep up (literally) and connect with EVE. The way their relationship evolves is excellently handled and very involving, they barely speak a word to each other yet the relationship is crafted in a believable, gradual way as they learn how they learn to relate to each other.
WALL-E is so successful because of how challenging it is, the dialogue-less opening segment and its political message, simultaneously mixed with a beautiful love story and typically imaginative Pixar twist on the world. I’ve noticed that in all of Pixar films there are several clearly defined processes at work – In Toy Story, the rigorous regime of surveying Andy’s birthday presents, in Monsters Inc, the structure and organisation of the monsters’ work – In WALL-E, what makes it so unique in Pixar’s canon is that it its processes directly relate to our own. While put to the extreme, the vision of the future, with its blatant commercialist control exerted so subtly so the humans don’t even know its happening – Is tragically all too reminiscent of the corporations of today. The environmental message is just as relevant and important. Hopefully, as the message is so well handled and masterfully blended with a terrific story it will manage to influence the people of today – and tomorrow, and of many generations to come.
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