Wall-EDirector: Andrew Stanton

Created By: Esla Byrholdt, Jazmin Ratcliff, Mollie Krieger, Sun Doan

Group Contributions

Jazmin Ratcliff: Overview, Intro, Video Clip

Mollie Krieger: Slides, History, Discussion Questions

Esla Byrholdt: Characters and Theme

Sun Doan: Storyline, Style/Animation/Film Type,

Cultural Aspect

Intro

Wall-E is a computer animated Pixar/Disney movie. Andrew Stanton, also known for his brilliant work in Finding Nemo, directed Wall-E to become TIME’s best movie of the decade. Wall-E was ranked fifth in the highest gross on opening weekend (June 27th, 2008) coming in at 63.1 million dollars. A movie that is aimed at kids, since it is a Disney movie, caught the eyes of adults too, racking in 521.3 million dollars

worldwide. With so many achievements such as the 2008 Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, 2009 Hugo Award for

Best Dramatic Presentation, and many more Wall –E has been translated into various languages. Not only has it been translated into

Russian, Arabic, and Dutch, Wall-E has also been made into a video game. Wall-E was intended for children with its animated features,

however, it’s underlying problems which might not catch the attention of young kids, does bring to light adult problems. These

problems range from waste management to obesity to corporations monopolies. Wall-E was released in June of 2008 and since then it has

became an American classic.

Video Clip

Wall-E Clip

Click to Watch! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9s7afoYI-M&feature=youtu.be

History Behind Wall-E

“What if mankind had to leave Earth and somebody forgot to turn off the last robot?” –Andrew Stanton

• Wall-E was actually first conceptualized in 1994 by Andrew Stanton at a Pixar/Disney writers meeting as an after project film to the ever popular animated film Toy Story.

• Other films discussed during this meeting were A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc., and Finding Nemo.

History Cont.• Stanton felt that audiences would fall

in love with a lonely robot on a deserted planet. Portraying WALL-E as a menial waste collector would make him not only understandable but sympathetic.

• A world filled with cubes of garbage was in his mind a way to make a disaster child friendly and not too dark.

History cont.• Stanton worked with fellow writer Pete Docter to develop this film under the title of Trash Planet in 1995 but the writers had trouble developing the story line.

• Docter abandoned the film but Stanton came up with the ideas of Wall-E finding a plant and falling in love with Eve in the years before beginning the official script in 2002.

History Cont.

• In 2003, Stanton created the first story reel of the film. It was very different from the finalized product. For example, Wall-E was made to incite a war-like rebellion against the remaining human race on the Axiom, who were now cruel alien Gels (gelatinous, boneless, see through) that spoke a gibberish language.

History Cont.• After realizing this plot was too confusing

and un-engaging, he reconceived humans as big babies who needed to learn to stand again and grow up. These changes allowed audiences to feel a deeper connection and understanding of the films messages of love, consumerism and environmental nostalgia.

CharactersWall-E

Wall-E, the protagonist of the film, is the last old waste collection robot on what is left of a trash-covered dystopian Earth. He works hard all day to continue to compact the trash left on earth long after the humans have left and disengaged the other working robots, leaving him utterly alone. He is a round character striving for more and more knowledge as he goes around picking up interesting items he finds in huge piles of trash, such as movies of dancing he learns to copy. All of his actions and body language suggests that he thinks and acts just like a young human boy would. He’s compassionate and has a big heart, evident from his relationship with a robot who comes to Earth searching for signs of natural life, Eve. When Eve’s programs shut off one day he is shown standing out in a thunderstorm just to keep an umbrella over her head. He has an immense amount of love for Eve and spends the whole film trying to find her and help her with her own personal missions. All in all he is a character motivated by love and curiosity which every viewer can enjoy. 

Characters Cont.Eve

The center of Wall-E’s universe after their first meeting, Eve is a intelligent, driven new robot with a passion for her mission to find

natural life on the depleted Earth. She is equipped with lasers and high tech technology such as biological plant scanners. We first see Eve when she comes to the destroyed future Earth scanning large areas at a time in search of any plants that could possibly have grown. She is largely unsuccessful for the first part of her mission until she meets Wall-E. Although Wall-E’s love and infatuation with Eve was immediate, Eve is completely focused on her mission. Eve is a dynamic character throughout the film as she learns of new things from Wall-E and ends up falling in love with him after she breaks down her work barrier. Although Wall-E and Eve are complete opposites in their outside looks they both have a huge capacity for love, hard work, and knowledge.

Characters Cont.Captain B. McCre

Captain B. McCrea follows a long line of captains before him on the Axiom. His life involves mostly unimportant tasks such as checking unchanging levels of the ship leaving most of the decisions to an autopilot robot named Auto. Although when Captain is first introduced he is shown as a overweight, follow the social quo man he begins to think for himself and take action to make a difference for the rest of the humans. As the story progresses he fights against auto and takes back control of his ship and ultimately decides that they must return to Earth although this is the harder choice.

ThemeMain Theme:

Humans must consider the consequences of industrialization and excessive consumption before the planet Earth is destroyed beyond livability. Aspects of Theme:

ENVIRONMENTAL WASTE: If we neglect to take care of our environment, Earth as we know it will be destroyed/inhospitable.

NOSTALGIA: Fond memories of “old” Earth are displayed through human artifacts that WALL-E collects. These artifacts represent a time of human love, connection, and freedom.

TECHNOLOGY: Dependency on technology can cause a disconnect to nature and an ignorance to what is happening around us.

StorylineThis film follows a young robot named WALL-E(waste allocation load lifter earth-class) who is the last remaining of his kind on Earth. There are no humans and the Earth has been turned into a huge pile of garbage. All that accompanies WALL-E is his friend the cockroach, as he collects different items that were left on earth

StorylineAll humans from Earth are now living on a ship called the Axiom that is run by technology. Everyone in the ship is morbidly obese.

Storyline Another robot named EVE(extraterrestrial vegetation evaluator) comes down to earth and befriends WALL-E. Wall-e then gives her the last remaining plant on Earth, and the adventure begins.

StorylineThe plant is brought to the captain. He surveys EVE's recordings of Earth and concludes that mankind must return to restore their home. However, AUTO reveals his directive, staging a mutiny and tasering WALL-E, severely damaging him. He also incapacitates EVE and confines the captain to his quarters. EVE realizes the only parts for repairing WALL-E are in his truck back on Earth. She helps him bring the plant to the holo-detector.

StorylineEVE brings WALL-E back to his home where she repairs and reactivates him. After the repair WALL-E no longer recognizes EVE, reverting to his original programming - an unfeeling waste compactor. Heartbroken, EVE gives WALL-E a farewell kiss. This jolts WALL-E's memory, and his personality returns. WALL-E and EVE happily reunite as the humans and robots of the Axiom begin to restore Earth and its environment.

Style/Animation/Film type

Animation/Comedy/Family/Romance/Science Fiction

Cultural AspectsThe movie has an emphasis on industrialization with technology relating to obesity in people. People never doing anything for themselves and being too lazy to think and too bloated to walk is causing rapid obesity. In todays culture in America everyone is obsessed with weight and the major obesity problem (Engber, 2008). The western culture has pulled our bodies and our planet down with obesity and ecological catastrophe (Engber, 2008).

Cultural Aspects

Although Wall-E was made to portray love between two robots it also carries some messages toward peoples opinion of the apocalypse.  In a culture where cellular reliability, fatty foods and electronic toys is more important than sustainability, the outcomes would be the Earth become unlivable and pushing people to create a new world somewhere else. The main message is “life centered on productivity (like industrialization) threatens the life forms and  the planet and the planet itself (Clarke, 2010).

Cultural Aspects

Feminism take a step in the movie because EVE, a female robot is the one responsible for saving Earth and finding life on Earth. Feminists had a debate on the movie because they feel the message should have men emphasized just as much as women. American culture and modern ways today focus on equality of women (Clarke, 2010).

Work CitedClarke, Cassandra. "Love in the Time of Pollution: A Look at Eco-Feminism Roots in Disne'ys "Wall-E"." Student Pulse. 2.3 (2010): n. page. Web. 6 May. 2013.

McNaughtan, Hugh. "Distinctive Consumption And Popular Anti-Consumerism: The Case Of Wall*E." Continuum: Journal Of Media & Cultural Studies 26.5 (2012): 753-766. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 May 2013.

Engber, Daniel. "Fat-E." Slate. (2008): n. page. Web. 6 May. 2013. <http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/green_room/2008/07/fate.html>.

Murray, Robin L., and Joseph K. Heumann. "WALL-E: from environmental adaptation to sentimental nostalgia." Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media 51 (2009): n.

Wikipedia contributors. "WALL-E." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 9 May. 2013. Web. 12 May. 2013.

Work Cited"Subtitles for." WALL-E. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2013.

McNaughtan, Hugh. "Distinctive Consumption And Popular Anti-Consumerism: The Case Of Wall*E." Continuum: Journal Of Media & Cultural Studies 26.5 (2012): 753-766. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 May 2013.

"WALL-E." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 05 Nov. 2013. Web. 13 May 2013

"WALL·E." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 13 May 2013.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9s7afoYI-M&feature=youtu.be