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Gearing up for Wall-E

Jab robots met A scene from WALL-E

You may have noticed cut-outs of animation’s newest star in multiplexes around the country. This robot the world knows as WALL-E took the U.S. by storm. CNN called it the best film of the year and one of America’s most popular critics, Roger Ebert, said WALL-E was “an enthralling animated film, a visual wonderment and a decent science-fiction story.”

The review compilation portal, Rotten Tomatoes, recorded 97 per cent positive reviews for the film. In fact, WALL-E raced to the top 10 films in IMDB’s list within a few days after its release and still stays put at No.26 as the best rated animation film in the top 250 list.

Interestingly, this film is by Andrew Stanton, who gave us Finding Nemo, Toy Story, Bugs Life and Monsters Inc. “I started writing WALL-E while I was supposed to be writing Finding Nemo instead, which would have made a lot of people mad if they’d known what I was doing,” the director reveals in an interview transcript supplied by the producers of the film.

The movie is said to be silent for most of its first act and has very little dialogue. “To me, the point was that people would end up being so caught up in the story they wouldn’t even notice it, and I think that’s the case with audiences who have seen the film…

For a long time that’s how films were made, with literally no sound. In fact Wall-E does have sound and dialogue, but there is certainly something pure about it I think and something very direct. It sort of speaks to the heart without needing too many words. I mean, in the end it’s a love story and all good love stories are pretty universal,” he says.

“I wanted Annie Hall,” he adds, referring to that heartbreaking Woody Allen classic. “You know, he’s a tractor and she’s a Porsche. I also thought it was a great way to do this range of cool animation to show one character who’s all about old-fashioned engineering, all cogs and gears and in need of oiling, and this other character who’s so sleek and embodies high-end technology.”

Wall-E is a favourite for the Oscars next year, and imagine how cool it would be if a robot were to walk up the stage to collect a Best Actor award. Director Andrew Stanton has emerged as one of the best filmmakers of the medium — making films with computers. “I was the kind of kid that would look at a train set and imagine that I was there with the people at the little station, next to the track, just part of that world. And that’s what animation is about for me: creating and being part of these worlds that, if we do a good job, feel like they don’t just exist on screen but go beyond the boundaries of the screen. That’s always been very exciting to me, and right now I think animation has got to a place where pretty much anything you can imagine can be brought to life.”

Who is WALL-E?

WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) is the last robot left on Earth, programmed to clean up the planet, one trash cube at a time. However, after 700 years he’s developed one little glitch — a personality. He’s extremely curious, highly inquisitive and a little lonely. WALL-E was one of thousands of robots sent by the Buy n Large Corporation to clean up the planet while humans went on a luxury space cruise.

He is alone, except for the companionship of his pet cockroach, and faithfully compacts cubes of trash everyday, uncovering and collecting artefacts along the way.

A bit of a romantic, WALL-E dreams of making a connection one day, certain that there must be more to life than this monotonous job he does every day. And he comes across EVE.EVE (Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), a sleek, state-of-the-art probe-droid. She’s fast, she flies and she’s equipped with a laser gun.

EVE, also called Probe One by the Captain of the Axiom (the enormous luxury mother ship which houses thousands of displaced humans), is one of a fleet of similar robots sent to Earth on an undisclosed scanning mission. EVE has a classified directive and is determined to complete her mission successfully. She hardly even notices her new admirer WALL-E. One day, frustrated with not finding what she is looking for, she takes a break and makes an unexpected bond with this quirky robot. Together, they embark on an amazing journey through space.

SUDHISH KAMATH

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