This newest addition to Disney/Pixar canon presents numerous awe-inspiring visuals, but ultimately it is the studio’s laborious attention to detail that allows WALL–E to gain traction. The astonishing anthropomorphic quality of the titular robot is able to transcend most animated characters through the brilliant use of subtle gestures. Through WALL–E’s focusing eyes and body language, he is imbued with humanistic qualities that evince surprising emotion. However, the visual aspect only represents one side to this wonderfully layered film with the sound department adding a new dimension in creativity.
With only a smattering of intelligible dialogue in the script, director Andrew Stanton turned to sound pioneer Ben Burtt to give the robots a meaningful language. This longtime Lucas and Spielberg collaborator (best know as R2D2 in Star Wars) puts his genius on display as the robots emit peculiar sounds steeped in human inflection. These sounds, created mostly by Burtt himself, complete WALL–E’s transformation to a being that the audience can truly care about.
This seemingly puerile and simplistic tale of robotic romance is anything but. In fact, WALL–E provides a biting multi-themed commentary covering a broad range of environmental, social, and political issues. The film’s antagonist comes in the form of a monolithic retailer named Buy n Large (BnL) that is largely responsible for the downfall of Earth. Eerily similar to a well-known purveyor of rolled back goods, BnL is a symbol of corporate greed that preys on our hedonistic tendencies. This corporate conglomerate has taken over everything, including the government, and its lack of environmental awareness has transformed the world into a contaminated wasteland. However, WALL–E attributes a fair share of blame to humans whose lack of self-restraint has them morbidly obese and addicted to oversized soft drinks.
WALL–E brings us through a myriad of potent topics that are for young and old alike. Although no issues are of the truly nascent variety, it is admirable that Disney/Pixar still attempts to reinforce important messages that have been largely ignored. Attached to film, however, is a sense of optimism for Earth brought about by Thomas Newman’s moving score and an uplifting soundtrack featuring Louis Armstrong and Peter Gabriel. All elements of the film work together to create a stellar network of design that uncovers an uncommon purity behind WALL–E’s tattered and rusted exterior.