WALL-E

The computer-animated story of a robotic trash compactor alone on a deserted Earth is funny, touching and compelling.

The Plot:

WALL-E (voice of Ben Burtt) is a “Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Earth-class” robot on a deserted Earth, the last of what were once many built to clean up the overflowing trash on Earth while the people took a five-year cruise in outer space. With all his fellow robots having broken down, WALL-E alone continues his task of compacting trash into cubes and stacking them. Occasionally he finds objects he sees as having value, and he collects them in his “home,” a transport unit that once housed many of his kind.

WALL-E examines some of his new acquisitions

Some of what WALL-E considers valuable is odd: he once finds a jewelry box containing a diamond ring and throws the ring away but finds the box fascinating. WALL-E has a companion in a cockroach, and spends his free time watching movies he has found and listening to music he has recorded.

WALL-E watches a movie

One day WALL-E finds a small plant, perhaps the only one left on Earth, and takes it home. Outside his home, he sees a spot of red light that moves, and chases it, only to end up underneath a huge spaceship that lands on Earth.

The mysterious spaceship

The spaceship deposits a hovering white robot that begins scanning items on the ground, and then leaves. After the spaceship leaves, WALL-E watches from a hiding place as the new white robot takes off on a flight through the air. WALL-E accidently causes a small rock to hit the ground, startling the new robot, which produces a ray-gun weapon that blast a huge hole through the rock WALL-E was hiding behind. WALL-E was narrowly missed and he keeps hiding and the new robot continues its task.

The new robot

WALL-E keeps watching the new robot. His cockroach companion approaches the new robot, and after narrowly avoiding being shot, is accepted by the new robot. WALL-E is then discovered and shot at several times, before the new robot approaches him. The cockroach jumps from the new robot back to WALL-E. The new robot scans WALL-E and gets a negative result, so it continues scanning, and WALL-E follows, watching from a distance. WALL-E tries to impress the new robot, even going so far as to build a sculpture of it, to no avail.

The new robot gets frustrated, unable to find whatever it is looking for. Eventually, WALL-E works up the courage to approach it. It asks WALL-E in a somewhat-female voice (voice of Elissa Knight) “Directive?” and WALL-E demonstrates his ability to compact trash into cubes. WALL-E approximates the word “directive” himself, and the robot replies “classified.” The robot asks WALL-E “Name” and WALL-E manages to tell it. The new robot tells WALL-E its name is EVE and is amused at WALL-E’s attempts to speak.

WALL-E meets EVE

WALL-E notices a dangerous dust storm coming. WALL-E takes EVE back to his home to wait out the storm and shows her his collection.

EVE examines an eggbeater in WALL-E's collection

Unlike WALL-E, EVE is able to figure out some of WALL-E’s items: she can light up a light bulb, complete a Rubik’s cube, and operate a lighter, but she can’t quite grasp the idea when WALL-E tries to teach her to dance like the humans in his movies. WALL-E notices EVE’s interest in the humans in the movie, her having tried to scan the image on the screen, so he shows her the plant he found. EVE scans the plant and gets a positive result. She suddenly captures the plant inside her body and shuts down, emitting a signal.

EVE and WALL-E check out a lighter

WALL-E tries to get EVE to reactivate: he leaves her in the sun hoping it will recharge her (as he is solar powered), tries unsuccessfully to jumpstart her, and he takes her around the area on “dates” despite her being completely unresponsive. Eventually, he sadly goes back to work, leaving EVE in the sun.

EVE and WALL-E catch some rays

As WALL-E is working, he sees the spaceship return. He races toward it as it collects EVE and jumps on to it and clings to the outside as it launches into space and leaves Earth behind.

WALL-E sees Earth from space

WALL-E clings to the spaceship as it travels through the solar system, able to see EVE, who is still deactivated, through a window.

WALL-E during his trip

The spaceship rendezvous with a much larger ship that turns out to be the Axiom: one of the starliners that took humans off Earth for their five-year cruise. Robots service the ship and the EVE robots on it. WALL-E is encountered by one of the cleaning robots called M-O (voice of Ben Burtt).

WALL-E's tracks annoy M-O

A diminutive security robot and two steward robots come and take still-unpowered EVE away and WALL-E follows them through the ship, causing robot traffic problems and encountering humans for the first time. All the humans are overweight, spending all their time in hovering chairs to the point that they can’t even get back into the chair if they fall out, and having their every need and comfort provided by the robots. As WALL-E chases after EVE, he meets human passengers John (voice of John Ratzenberger) and Mary (voice of Kathy Najimy). Meanwhile M-O pursues WALL-E, cleaning up the tracks he left behind on the floor.

EVE is taken to the ship’s bridge, where a robot scans her and wakes the human captain, B. McCrea (voice of Jeff Garlin), who has slept in and first has to make the morning announcements for Day 244,642, the 700th anniversary of the beginning of their 5-year cruise.

Captain B. McCrae of the Axiom (with AUTO in the background)

The bridge robot, AUTO (voice of MacInTalk), reactivates EVE and presents her to Captain McCrea, saying that “Probe One” has come back positive. McCrea doesn’t know what to do, as a probe has never returned positive before, but fortunately there is a video introduction by former Buy N Large CEO Shelby Forthright (Fred Willard in live-action) that tells him that a positive probe means Earth can again support life and humans can now return (and reveals that EVE is an acronym for “Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator”), and presents an operation manual (which confuses the McCrea a little, as he’s never seen a book before). WALL-E gets EVE’s attention, and she tries to hide him. McCrea follows the manual, which guides the computer to open EVE, but the plant is gone, surprising everyone.

EVE is as surprised as anyone that the plant's missing

EVE suspects WALL-E of stealing the plant, but he doesn’t have it. McCrea and Auto decide it’s a false alarm and that EVE’s memory is defective, and McCrea has the security robot, GO-4, take EVE to the repair ward. EVE is led away, revealing WALL-E, who introduces himself to McCrea and shakes his hand, leaving dirt in his palm. McCrea says to have WALL-E cleaned. As WALL-E and a sulking EVE are taken to the repair ward, McCrea has the computer (voice of Sigourney Weaver) analyze the dirt WALL-E left in his hand, which leads him to begin learning about Earth.

Captain McCrae meets WALL-E as AUTO looks on

In the repair ward, EVE is taken for a diagnostic while WALL-E is put in a “cell” for malfunctioning robots, which surround him in other cells. WALL-E misinterprets EVE’s diagnostic as a dismantling and escapes his cell to rescue her. WALL-E sets off EVE’s weapon, which strikes a computer panel, deactivating the robot arms and releasing the malfunctioning robots, who carry WALL-E through the ship as a hero until they are stopped by steward robots, who identify WALL-E and EVE as “rogue robots.” EVE picks up WALL-E and flies him through the ship to an life pod to send him back to Earth, but WALL-E doesn’t want to leave her. GO-4 comes in and EVE and WALL-E hide. GO-4 places the plant in the life pod and starts the launch. WALL-E goes in to get the plant for EVE and is trapped inside as the life pod launches. EVE goes out an airlock after WALL-E, while in the life pod WALL-E discovers that the pod’s self-destruct system has been activated. EVE sees the life pod explode but WALL-E managed to escape just in time with a fire extinguisher, which he uses to propel himself back to EVE. WALL-E also reveals that he rescued the plant. EVE happily takes back the plant and hugs WALL-E.

EVE happily hugs WALL-E

WALL-E and EVE fly around outside the ship, dance-like, until WALL-E’s extinguisher is empty and they reenter the ship through an open airlock. Passengers John and Mary see WALL-E and EVE outside and meet each other.

Mary and John wave to WALL-E and EVE

EVE leaves WALL-E behind as she goes up the trash chute and delivers the plant to Captain McCrea to complete her directive. The excited McCrea wants to see what Earth is like and replay’s EVE’s memory, and he sees the desolate condition of Earth. A leaf falls from the plant, and McCrea realizes it needs water.

Captain McCrae sees his first live plant

Meanwhile, EVE’s memory replays WALL-E’s romantic movie and shows how WALL-E cared for her while she was deactivated, and EVE realizes her feelings for WALL-E. Meanwhile, WALL-E goes up the trash chute after EVE and McCrea decides they have to go back to Earth despite its condition. McCrea calls for AUTO, who tries to take the plant, saying they can’t go back to Earth. McCrea orders him to say why, and AUTO shows him a classified recording from Shelby Forthright that was sent to the Autopilots of all the ships, telling them that Earth had become unsustainable and ordered them never to return. McCrea protests, saying he’s the captain and that they are going back. AUTO calls GO-4, who takes the plant from McCrea. McCrea orders EVE to arrest GO-4, and EVE points her weapon at him and demands that he give her the plant.

EVE threatens GO-4

Instead of handing over the plant, GO-4 throws the plant into the trash chute. Just then, WALL-E emerges from the trash chute, having saved the plant without realizing it. WALL-E tries to protect the plant from AUTO, but AUTO shocks WALL-E causing him to fall down the trash chute with the plant. AUTO deactivates EVE and throws her down the trash chute as well, and confines McCrea to his quarters.

WALL-E saved the plant

EVE is reactivated by sentient computer mice in the trash hold, where WALL-A robots, giant versions of WALL-E, compact the trash into huge cubes before it is ejected out an airlock. A WALL-A robot compacts EVE in a cube, and she sees heavily-damaged WALL-E as part of another. Their stack of cubes is pushed into the airlock, and EVE frees herself and tried to free WALL-E.

A WALL-A robot

Just then M-O, who has tracked WALL-E through the ship by the tracks of dirt he left behind him, chases them into the airlock and jams the door, just as the trash is released. EVE holds on to WALL-E and fights against the escaping air to grab onto M-O. The WALL-A robots see this and close the airlock to save them.

EVE, carrying WALL-E, grabs onto M-O

WALL-E and M-O are formerly introduced as EVE searches the trash for a replacement for the circuit board that was damaged when Auto shocked WALL-E, but can’t find a suitable replacement.

M-O and WALL-E are formerly introduced

WALL-E conveys to EVE that there are replacement parts on Earth, and she, WALL-E and M-O round up the malfunctioning robots they freed earlier to fight off the steward robots and get the plant scanned by the ship’s holo-detector on the lido deck, while Captain McCrea fights AUTO to activate it, leading all the humans aboard to be brought to it to witness the event.

Captain McCrae fights AUTO

AUTO causes the ship to list to one side, causing everyone to slide to that side of the ship, and EVE has to protect humans from falling debris. AUTO tries to close the holo-detector, but WALL-E tries to hold it open, jamming it with his body but being damaged even more. Captain McCrea gets to his feet and attacks AUTO again, knocking open a panel to switch off AUTO, which he does and rights the ship. Humans and robots work together to get the plant to EVE and into the holo-detector, and the ship automatically sets a course back to Earth and lands in its old berth.

As the humans from the Axiom take their first steps onto Earth, EVE rushes WALL-E back to his home and rapidly repairs him with spare parts. But, when WALL-E is reactivated, he seems to remember nothing but his original programming and goes to work compacting trash into cubes and ignores his cockroach, his collection, his movie and EVE. EVE tries to get WALL-E to remember to no avail and, holding his hand, comes to the realization that the WALL-E she knew is gone.

EVE sadly realizes that WALL-E doesn't remember her

EVE sadly turns to leave, but her hand is caught on WALL-E’s. Slowly, WALL-E closes his hand around hers, and says her name. She says his, and suddenly WALL-E remembers.

The humans start farming and rebuilding, and WALL-E and EVE settle in WALL-E’s home.

The humans start farming

My Review:

Like all Disney/Pixar features, WALL-E is great fun suitable for all ages. The characters of WALL-E and EVE are surprisingly expressive, considering they are robots with a limited vocabulary: I think WALL-E can say only “WALL-E,” “EVE,” “Directive,” “M-O” and “Earth” and EVE can say the same plus “Name,” “Classified,” “Plant” and “No.” WALL-E’s voice is that of Sound Designer Ben Burtt (who also performs the voice of M-O) modified with a synthesizer, and EVE’s voice is that of Elissa Knight similarly modified. It is really through the computer animation and Ben Burtt’s sound effects that portray the characters however. Burtt did sound work for the Star Wars films, and there are some noticeable similarities sound-wise between WALL-E and the Star Wars films. Interestingly, the voice of AUTO is that of MacInTalk, Apple’s voice simulator, and thus that character is even more computer-generated than most. There is some more traditional voice acting is performed by Jeff Garlin, Sigourney Weaver, Kathy Najimy and Pixar regular John Ratzenburger, and all do well. WALL-E also features a little live action acting depicting recorded messages from the past featuring Buy N Large CEO Shelby Forthwright, played by an entertaining Fred Willard as 50/50 president/salesman. The film is visually stunning, especially in the design and movements of the robots, and the backgrounds of space and the ruined cities on Earth. As with other Pixar films, the computer-generated humans are the biggest weakness of the film, and the use of live-action scenes makes it more noticeable than usual. There is a fairly significant plot hole in the film: AUTO basically runs the entire ship and has orders that humans can never return to Earth, which is follows so strictly it tries to destroy the plant, yet EVE probes were still being sent to Earth to search for signs of life, presumably by AUTO. It doesn’t make sense for AUTO to keep sending EVE probes to search for signs of life AUTO doesn’t expect or even want to find, or does AUTO follow its orders so blindly that it has to keep sending the EVE probes just because it is an order? Another minor plot issue is that there doesn’t seem to be an opportunity for the plant to be stolen from EVE, unless it was while the captain was waking up. The film never makes clear when the plant was stolen, and it can almost seem like there was never an opportunity for the plant to disappear. And wasn’t there a faster and easier way for GO-4 to destroy the plant rather than launching it into space in an escape pod rigged to self-destruct? From a science point of view, since the Axiom has its own gravity and there’s no “up” in space, AUTO causing the Axiom to list shouldn’t have had any effect on anyone inside. And, what was the point of those inflatable helmets when all the people were moved to the lido deck for the plant verification. The overall story and the high level of workmanship let the film overcome these issues, though. This is, after all, intended as a children’s movie that adults can also enjoy, so the plot can’t be too complex. I don’t have a problem with the fact that I could almost immediately tell EVE was searching for the plant, as kids might actually be surprised by that revelation. The film has funny moments, often incidents of physical comedy and other visual humor since the main characters have limited dialogue (though my favorite joke is Captain McCrea’s voiceprint: “Uhhh…”), but I found the dramatic elements of the story to be more compelling. The scene near the end of the film where EVE thinks WALL-E has lost all his memories (a good twist to what would otherwise be a very formulaic ending) is heartbreaking, which is all the more impressive since EVE’s emotions have to be portrayed entirely by the shape of her lighted eyes, her “body language” and her saying WALL-E’s name. There is a little social commentary in this film, in the condition of the Earth and the condition of the humans on the Axiom, but it is integral to the plot and I think it is subtle enough to go over kids’ heads.

All Pixar films are fun to watch, but WALL-E, with its high level of workmanship, creativity and emotional resonance is one of the best.