Story
| BACK ON M-O AND WALLY [sic] M-O just finishes cleaning the floor. Wally is fascinated. Impishly makes another mark. M-O compulsively cleans it. Can’t resist. M-O: [Look, it stays clean. You got that?] Wally wipes the bottom of his tread on M-O’s face. M-O loses it. Scrubs his own face. —Stanton wrote the screenplay to focus on the visuals and as a guide to what the sound effects needed to convey[3] |
Andrew Stanton conceived WALL-E during a 1994 lunch with John Lasseter, Pete Docter and Joe Ranft. Toy Story was nearing completion and the writers conceived ideas for their next projects – A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo – at this lunch. Stanton said, "What if mankind had to leave Earth and somebody forgot to turn off the last robot?"[4] Having struggled with making the characters in Toy Story appealing for many years, Stanton found his simple Robinson Crusoe-esque idea of a lonely robot on a deserted planet very strong.[5][6] Stanton made WALL-E a waste collector as it was instantly understandable why he was doing what he was doing, and he also liked the imagery of stacked cubes of rubbish.[7] He did not find the idea dark because having a planet covered in garbage was for him a childish imagining of disaster.[8]
Stanton and Pete Docter developed the film for two months in 1995, but they did not know how to develop the story and Docter chose to direct Monsters, Inc. instead.[9] Stanton came up with the idea of WALL-E finding a plant, because his life as the sole inhabitant on a deserted world reminded him of a plant growing among pavements.[10] Before they turned their attention to other projects, Stanton and Lasseter thought about having WALL-E fall in love, as it was the necessary progression away from loneliness.[8] Stanton started writing WALL-E again in 2002 while completing Finding Nemo.[11] Stanton formatted his script in a manner reminiscent of Dan O'Bannon's Alien. O'Bannon wrote his script in a manner Stanton found reminiscent of haiku, where visual descriptions were done in continuous lines of a few words. Stanton wrote his robot dialogue conventionally, but placed them in brackets.[6] In late 2003, Stanton and a few others Pixar created a story reel of the first twenty minutes of the film. Lasseter and Steve Jobs were impressed and officially began development,[12] though Jobs unenthusiastically stated he didn't like the title, originally spelled "W.A.L.-E."[13]
While the first act of WALL-E "fell out of the sky" for Stanton,[8] he had originally wanted aliens to plant EVE to explore Earth and the rest of the film was very different. When WALL-E comes to the ship, he incites a Spartacus-style rebellion by the robots against the cruel alien "gels" (who resemble Gelatin desserts).[14] James Hicks, a physiologist, mentioned to Stanton the concept of atrophy and the effects of prolonged weightlessness would have humans living in space for a long amount of time.[4][15][16] This inspired the idea of the humans devolving into the gels,[17] and their ancestry would have been revealed in a Planet of the Apes-style ending.[18] The gels had a royal family, who host a dance, and the Axiom curled up into a ball when returning to Earth in this incarnation of the story.[14] Stanton decided this was too bizarre and unengaging, and reconceived humanity as "big babies" (an idea Peter Gabriel compared to neoteny).[18] Stanton developed the metaphorical theme of the humans learning to stand again and "grow[ing] up",[18] wanting WALL-E and EVE's relationship to inspire humanity because he felt very few films explore how utopian societies come to exist.[19]
In an later version of the film with humanity as "gels", Auto comes to the docking bay to retrieve EVE's plant. The film would have its first cutaway to the Captain, but Stanton moved that as he found it too early to begin moving away from WALL-E's point-of-view. As a homage to Get Smart,[20] Auto takes the plant and goes into the bowels of the ship into a room resembling a brain where he watches videos of Buy n Large's scheme to clean-up the Earth falling apart through the years. Stanton removed this to keep some mystery as to why the plant is taken from EVE. The Captain appears to be unintelligent, but Stanton wanted him to just be unchallenged, otherwise he would have been unempathetic.[17] One example of how the stupid the Captain came across initially is that he wore his hat upside down. In the finished film, he just tightens it when he assumes command.[14]
Originally, EVE would have been electrocuted by Auto, and was rescued by WALL-E from being dumped into space by the WALL-As. WALL-E revives her by replacing her power unit with the cigarette lighter he took from Earth. Stanton reversed this following a 2007 test screening, as he wanted to show EVE replaces her directive of bringing the plant to the Captain with repairing WALL-E, and it made WALL-E even more heroic if he held the holo-detector although he was damaged. Stanton moved the scene where WALL-E reveals he saved the plant from the exploding escape pod from a closet to just after his escape, as it made EVE happier and gave them more reason to dance around the ship.[17] Stanton felt half the audience at the screening believed the humans would be unable to cope with living on Earth and died out after the film's end. Jim Capobianco, director of the short film Your Friend the Rat, created an end credits animation that continued the story – and stylized in different artistic movements throughout history – to clarify an optimistic tone.[21]
[edit] Design
WALL-E was the most complex Pixar production since Monsters, Inc. because of the world and the history that had to be conveyed.[5] Whereas most Pixar films have up to 75,000 storyboards, WALL-E had 125,000 created.[22] Stanton wanted the Axiom's interior to resemble Shanghai and Dubai.[5] Production designer Ralph Eggleston studied 1950s and '60s NASA paintings and the original concept art for Tomorrowland for the Axiom, to reflect that era's sense of optimism.[4] Stanton remarked "We are all probably very similar in our backgrounds here [at Pixar] in that we all miss the Tomorrowland that was promised us from the heyday of Disneyland," and wanted a "jet pack" feel.[5] Pixar also studied the Disney Cruise Line and visited Las Vegas, which was helpful in understanding artificial lighting. Eggleston wanted the lighting of the first act on Earth to be romantic, while the second act on the Axiom to be cold and sterile. During the third act, the romantic lighting is slowly introduced into the Axiom environment.[4]
Stanton wanted the lighting to look realistic and evoke the science fiction films of his youth. He felt Pixar had captured the physics of being underwater with Finding Nemo, so for WALL-E he wanted to push that for air. It was while rewatching some of his favorite science fiction films he realized Pixar's films lacked the look of 70 mm film and its barrel distortion, lens flare and racking focus.[5] Producer Jim Morris invited Roger Deakins and Dennis Muren to advise on lighting and atmosphere. Muren spent several months with Pixar, while Deakins hosted one talk and was requested to stay on for another two weeks. Stanton said Muren's experience came from integrating computer animation into live-action settings, while Deakins helped them understand not to overly complicate their camerawork and lighting.[19] 1970s Panavision cameras were used to help the animators understand and replicate handheld imperfections like barrel distortion and unfocused backgrounds in digital environments.[4] The first lighting test consisted of building a three-dimensional replica of WALL-E, filming it with a 70 mm camera, and then trying to replicate that in the computer.[23] Stanton cited the shallow lens work of Gus Van Sant's films as an influence, as it created intimacy in each close-up. Stanton chose angles for the virtual cameras that a live-action filmmaker would chose if filming on a set.[8]
Having chosen to show live-action footage from Hello, Dolly!, Stanton continued the precedent of showing historical, normal humans in live action footage, while creating their bloated descendants in the rest of the film with animation.[18] The use of live action was a stepping stone for Pixar, as Stanton was planning to make John Carter of Mars his next project.[5] Storyboarder Derek Thompson noted introducing live action meant they had to make the rest of the film look even more realistic.[24] Stanton cast Fred Willard as the historical Buy n Large CEO because "He's the most friendly and insincere car salesman I could think of."[18] The CEO says "Stay the course," which Stanton used because he thought it was funny.[25] Industrial Light & Magic did the visual effects for these shots.[4]
[edit] Animation
Partly why WALL-E went undeveloped during the 1990s was because Stanton and Pixar were not confident enough yet to have a feature length film with a main character that behaved like Luxo Jr. or R2-D2.[6] Stanton explained there are two types of robots in cinema: "human[s] with metal skin", like the Tin Man, or "machine[s] with function" like Luxo and R2. He found the latter idea "powerful" because it allowed the audience to project personalities onto them, as they do with babies and pets: "You're compelled ... you almost can't stop yourself from finishing the sentence 'Oh, I think it likes me! I think it's hungry! I think it wants to go for a walk!'"[26] He added, "We wanted the audience to believe they were witnessing a machine that has come to life."[4] The animators visited recycling stations to study machinery, and also met robot designers, visited NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to study robots, watched a recording of a Mars rover,[11] and borrowed a bomb detecting robot from the San Francisco Police Department. Simplicity was preferred in their performances as giving them too many movements would make them feel human.[4]
Stanton wanted WALL-E to be a box and EVE to be like an egg.[27] WALL-E's eyes were inspired by a pair of binoculars Stanton was given when watching the Oakland Athletics play against the Boston Red Sox. He "missed the entire inning" because he was distracted by them.[28] The director was reminded of Buster Keaton and decided the robot would not need a nose or mouth. He added zoom lens to make him more sympathetic.[29] Pixar's studies of trash compactors during their visits to recycling stations inspired his body.[4] His tank treads were inspired by a wheelchair someone had developed that used treads instead of wheels.[27] The animators wanted him to have elbows, but realized this was unrealistic because he is only designed to pull garbage into his body.[4] His arms also looked very flimsy when they did a test of him waving.[27] Animation director Angus MacLane suggested they attach his arms to a track on the sides of his body to move them around, based on the inkjet printers his father designed. This arm design contributed to creating the character's posture, so if they wanted him to be nervous, they would lower them.[30] Stanton was unaware that WALL-E wound up a homage to Short Circuit until others pointed it out to him.[6]
Stanton wanted EVE to be at the higher end of technology, and asked iPod designer Jonathan Ive to inspect her design. He was very impressed.[5] Her eyes are modelled on Lite-Brite toys,[29] but Pixar chose to not make them overly expressive as it would be too easy to have her eyes turn into hearts to express love or something similar.[27] Her limited design meant the animators had to treat her like a drawing, relying on posing her body to express emotion.[4] They also found her similar to a manatee or a narwhal because her floating body resembled an underwater creature.[27] Auto was a conscious homage to HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey.[6] The manner in which he hangs from a wall gives him a threatening feel, like a spider.[31] Originally, Auto was designed entirely differently, resembling EVE, but masculine and authoritative; the Steward robots were also more aggressive Patrol-bots.[17] The majority of the robot cast were formed with the Build-a-bot program, where different heads, arms and treads were combined together in over a hundred different variations.[4]
To animate their robots, Pixar watched one Charlie Chaplin and one Buster Keaton film every day for almost a year,[29] and occasionally a Harold Lloyd picture.[6] Afterwards, the filmmakers knew all emotions could be conveyed silently. Stanton cited Keaton's "great stone face" as giving them perseverance in animating a character with an unchanging expression.[29] As he rewatched these, Stanton felt that filmmakers – since the advent of sound – relied on dialogue too much to convey exposition.[6] They also watched 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Black Stallion and Never Cry Wolf, films that had sound but were not reliant on dialogue.[24] Stanton acknowledged Silent Running as an influence because its silent robots were a forerunner to the likes of R2-D2,[19] and that the "hopeless romantic" Woody Allen also inspired WALL-E.[9]
[edit] Sound
Producer Jim Morris recommended Ben Burtt as sound designer for WALL-E because Stanton kept using R2-D2 as the benchmark for the robots.[20] Burtt had completed Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and told his wife he would no longer work on films with robots, but found WALL-E and its substitution of voices with sound "fresh and exciting".[4] He recorded 2500 sounds for the film, which was twice the average amount for a Star Wars film,[11] and a record in his career.[4] Burtt began work in 2005,[32] and experimented with filtering his voice for two years.[33] Burtt described the robot voices as "like a toddler [...] universal language of intonation. 'Oh,' Hm?,' Huh!,' you know?"[34]
During production Burtt had the opportunity to look at the items used by Jimmy MacDonald, Disney's in-house sound designer for many of their classic films. Burtt used many of MacDonald's items on WALL-E. Because Burtt was not simply adding sound effects in post-production, the animators were always evaluating his new creations and ideas, which Burtt found an unusual experience.[35] He worked in sync with the animators, returning their animation after adding the sounds to give them more ideas.[4] Burtt would choose scientifically-accurate sounds for each character, but if he could not find one that worked, he would choose a dramatic if unrealistic noise.[35] Burtt would find hundreds of sounds by looking at concept art of characters, before he and Stanton pared it down to a distinct few for each robot.[5]
Burtt saw a hand-cranked electrical generator while watching Island in the Sky, and bought an identical, unpacked device from 1950 on eBay to use for WALL-E moving around.[36] Burtt also used an automobile self starter for when WALL-E goes fast,[35] and the sound of cars being wrecked at a demolition derby provided for WALL-E's compressing trash in his body.[37] The Macintosh computer chime was used to signify when WALL-E has fully recharged his battery.[38] For EVE, Burtt wanted her humming to have a musical quality.[35] Burtt was only able to provide neutral or masculine voices, so Pixar employee Elissa Knight was asked to provide her voice for Burtt to electronically modify. Stanton deemed the sound effect good enough to properly cast her in the role.[25] Burtt recorded a flying ten-feet long radio-controlled jet plane for EVE's flying,[4] and for her plasma cannon, Burtt hit a slinky hung from a ladder with a timpani stick. He described it as a "cousin" to the blaster noise from Star Wars.[39]
MacInTalk was used because Stanton "wanted Auto to be the epitome of a robot, cold, zeros & ones, calculating, and soulless [and] Stephen Hawking's kind of voice I thought was perfect."[19] Additional sounds for the character were meant to give him a clockwork feel, to show he is always thinking and calculating.[35] Sigourney Weaver was cast as the Axiom's computer voice as a nod to the Alien films.[4]
Burtt had visited Niagara Falls in 1987 and used his recordings from his trip for the sounds of wind.[37] He ran around a hall with a canvas bag up to record the sandstorm though.[4] For the scene where WALL-E runs from falling shopping carts, Burtt and his daughter went to a supermarket and placed a recorder in their cart. They crashed it around the parking lot and then let it tumble down a hill.[40] To create Hal (WALL-E's pet cockroach)'s skittering, he recorded the clicking caused by taking apart and reassembling handcuffs.[4]
[edit] Music
- See also: WALL-E (soundtrack)
Thomas Newman – who collaborated with Stanton on Finding Nemo – began composing in 2005. It was hoped that by starting it early would make him more involved with the finished film, although Newman remarked because animation is so dependent on scheduling that he should have begun work earlier on when Stanton and Reardon were writing the script. EVE's theme was arranged for the first time in October 2007. Her theme when played as she first flies around Earth originally used more orchestral elements, and Newman was encouraged to make it sound more feminine.[41] Newman said Stanton had thought up of many ideas for how he wanted the music to sound, and he generally followed them as he found scoring a partially silent film difficult. Stanton wanted the whole score to be orchestral, but if Newman felt limited by this idea especially in scenes aboard the Axiom, and used electronics too.[42]
Stanton originally wanted to juxtapose the opening shots of space with 1930s French swing music, but he saw Les Triplettes de Belleville (2003) and did not want to appear as if he were copying it. When Stanton heard the song "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" from Hello, Dolly! and recognized the song was about two naive young men looking for love, which summed up WALL-E's desires. Jim Reardon suggested WALL-E find the film on video, and Stanton included "It Only Takes a Moment" and the clip of the actors holding hands, because he wanted a visual way to show how WALL-E understands love and conveys it to EVE. Hello Dolly! composer Jerry Herman allowed the songs to be used without knowing what for; when he saw the film, he found its incorporation into the story "genius".[43] Coincidentally, Newman's uncle Lionel worked on Hello, Dolly![4]
Newman travelled to London to compose the end credits song "Down to Earth" with Peter Gabriel, who was one of Stanton's favorite musicians. Afterwards, Newman rescored some of the film to include the song's composition, so it would not sound intrusive when played.[4] Louis Armstrong's rendition of "La Vie en rose" was used for a montage where WALL-E does not get EVE's attention on Earth. The script also specified using Bing Crosby's "Stardust" for when the two robots dance around the Axiom,[3] but Newman asked if he could score the scene himself. A similar switch occurred for the sequence in which WALL-E attempts to wake EVE up through various means; originally, the montage would play with the instrumental version of "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head", but Newman wanted to challenge himself and score an original piece for the sequence.[44]
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