What Do The Critics Say?

"As you'd expect from Pixar, the animation in WALL•E is first-rate. The depth of field in some shots is so impressive it truly feels like you're watching a live-action movie. But it's the emphasis on story and the high quality of the writing, which has always put Pixar far ahead of its animation rivals, that makes "WALL•E" such a fantastic film. The storyline also manages to make its comments about issues like environmental degradation without lecturing." Glen Humphries ILLAWARRA MERCURY "Every so often, amid the sludge that Hollywood pumps out as so-called 'blockbusters', there comes a film that reminds you that mainstream cinema doesn't have to be dumb, boring or unimaginative." Matt Neal THE WARRNAMBOOL STANDARD "WALL•E may be one of the cutest movies of the year, but it's also a profound and moving work of art. If anyone doubted that Pixar is the most creative outfit in modern motion pictures, this movie should convince them. It is a genuine masterpiece, a word I don't use often." Paul Byrnes THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD "The film is full of marvellous invention, and the simple basic story gets it through even when the invention and sense of fun overtakes the filmmakers and confusion reigns for a while. But it's fun confusion, always turning the other cheeky gag, elaborately and brilliantly animated." Andrew L Urban URBAN CINEFILE "There is very little not to like about WALL•E. It looks magnificent, it's clever, it's funny and it keeps things simple. For mine, this is without doubt the most innovative films (both visually and story-telling wise) to hit the mainstream silver screen in years." Sean Lynch THE MOVIE CHANNEL

"The first 40 minutes or so of "WALL•E", in which barely any dialogue is spoken, and almost no human figures appear on screen, is a cinematic poem of such wit and beauty that its darker implications may take a while to sink in. We’ve grown accustomed to expecting surprises from Pixar, but "WALL•E" surely breaks new ground. a disarmingly sweet and simple love story." A.O.Scott NEW YORK TIMES "WALL•E is a movie you want to discover, but without giving too much away, I'll just say that the early 'silent movie' section, quietly enticing as it is, is merely the prelude to an eye-boggling future-shock adventure. It whisks you to a new world, then makes that world every inch our own." Owen Gleiberman ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY "Parents need to know that although this winning Pixar adventure is thoroughly charming and, yes, romantic, the youngest viewers may get a little restless during the atmospheric, virtually dialogue-free first half-hour. Underlying the whole thing are strong environmental messages." COMMON SENSE REVIEWS "Wonderfully inventive, this whimsical sci-fi animation from the wizards at Pixar is topical in its environmental message and full of heart when it comes to its robot/ droid romance. Brilliant execution allows much of the communications throughout WALL-E to be wordless, with smartly used sound effects. The underlying environmental message comes across strongly but never with heavy hands." Louise Keller URBAN CINEFILE "A love letter to science-fiction films of old with a modern environmentalist message, "WALL•E" is another winning confection from Pixar, the folks who have made an art out of wrapping adult themes in childish whimsy and coming out with movies that please both elements." Mariana McConnell CINEMABLEND

The Inside Story "WALL•E" is the latest film from Academy Award ® winning director/writer Andrew Stanton, who joined Pixar in 1990 as its second animator and the fledgling studio’s ninth employee. He was one of the four screenwriters to receive an Oscar nomination in 1996 for his contribution to "Toy Story" and was credited as a screenwriter on subsequent Pixar films, including "A Bug’s Life", "Toy Story 2", "Monsters, Inc." and, "Finding Nemo", for which he earned an Oscar nomination as co-writer. Additionally, he co-directed "A Bug’s Life", executive-produced "Monsters, Inc." and the 2007 Academy Award ® winning "Ratatouille", and won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature for "Finding Nemo". The idea for "WALL•E" came about in 1994 at a now-famous lunch that included Pixar pioneers Stanton, John Lasseter, Pete Docter, and the late storytelling genius Joe Ranft. With their first feature, "Toy Story", in production, the group suddenly realized that they might actually get a chance to make another movie. At that fateful gathering, the ideas for "A Bug’s Life", "Monsters, Inc.", and "Finding Nemo" were first discussed. "One of the things I remember coming out of it was the idea of a little robot left on Earth," says Stanton. "We had no story. It was sort of this Robinson Crusoe kind of little character: like, what if mankind had to leave Earth and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off, and he didn’t know he could stop doing what he’s doing?" Years later, the idea took shape; literally. "I started to just think of him doing his job every day and compacting trash that was left on Earth," Stanton recalls. "And it just really got me thinking about what if the most human thing left in the universe was a machine? That really was the spark. It has had a long journey." Stanton says he was heavily influenced by the sci-fi films of the 1970s. "Films like "2001", "Star Wars", "Alien", "Blade Runner", and "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind"; they all had a look and feel to them that really transported me to another place, and I really believed that those worlds were out there," he explained. "I haven’t seen a movie since then that made me feel that same way when we went out to space, so I wanted to recapture that feeling." In preparation for their assignment on "WALL•E", Pixar’s animation team made field trips to recycling stations to observe giant trash crushers and other machinery at work, studied real robots up close and in person at the studio, and watched a wide range of classic films (from silents to sci-fi) for insights into cinematic expression. Sticking to Pixar’s motto of "truth in materials", the animators approached each robot as being created to perform a particular function and tried to stay within the physical limitations of each design while creating performances with personality. Alan Barillaro and Steven Clay Hunter served as the film’s supervising animators, with Angus MacLane assuming directing animator duties. Production designer Ralph Eggleston ("The Incredibles", "Finding Nemo", "Toy Story") drew inspiration for the look of "WALL•E" from NASA paintings from the 1950s and 1960s and original concept paintings for Disneyland’s Tomorrowland by Disney Imagineers. He recalls, "Our approach to the look of this film wasn’t about what the future is going to be like. It was about what the future could be; which is a lot more interesting. That’s what we wanted to impart with the design of this film. In designing the look of the characters and the world, we want audiences to really believe the world they’re seeing. We want the characters and the world to be real, not realistic, looking, but real in terms of believability." Adding to the believability of the film is the way the film is photographed. Jeremy Lasky ("Finding Nemo" & "Cars"), director of photography for camera, explains, "The whole look of "WALL•E" is different from anything that’s been done in animation before. We really keyed in to some of the quintessential sci-fi films from the 1960s and 1970s as touchstones for how the film should feel and look." Stanton adds, "We did a lot of camera-work adjustment and improvements on our software so our cameras were more like the Panavision 70mm cameras that were used on a lot of those movies in the '70s." The image of a lonely little robot, the last one on the planet, methodically going about his job picking up trash intrigued director/co-writer Andrew Stanton. "I became fascinated with the loneliness that this situation evoked and the immediate empathy that you had for this character. We spend most of our time on films trying to make our main characters likeable so that you want to follow them and root for them. And it didn’t take long to realize that the opposite of loneliness is love or being with somebody. I was immediately hooked and seduced by the idea of a machine falling in love with another machine. And especially with the backdrop of a universe that has lost the understanding of the point of living. To me, that seemed so poetic. I loved the idea of humanity getting a second chance because of this one little guy who falls in love. I’m a hopeless romantic in cynic’s clothing. This movie gave me a chance to indulge in that romantic side a little more than I normally would in public." Jim Reardon, a veteran director and story supervisor on "The Simpsons", who directed thirty five episodes of the show and supervised story on nearly one hundred and fifty episodes, came on board to be head of story for "WALL•E". He ended up co-writing the screenplay for the film along with Stanton. "We started with the idea of making "WALL•E" a comedy, but about a third of the way through, we realized that the film is a love story, too. "WALL•E" is an innocent and child-like little character who unintentionally ends up having a huge impact on the world. The story arc of the film is really about EVE. Her character undergoes the biggest change, and the film is as much about her as it is about him. She’s very sleek, techno-sexy, and very futuristic-looking. He’s totally designed just to do his job and is rusty, dirty, and ugly. But we always thought that would make a great romantic adventure." "This film is a mix of genres. It’s a love story, it’s a science-fiction film, it’s a comedy, it’s a romantic comedy," Producer Jim Morris (whose credits include "Schindler's List", "Forrest Gump" & "Artificial Intelligence: AI") notes. One of the great turning points for Stanton in creating the story for "WALL•E" was stumbling upon the idea of using the musical imagery and songs from the 1969 movie version of "Hello, Dolly!" to help him define WALL•E’s personality. In fact, it is WALL•E’s repeated viewings of an old videotape of that film (the only one in his collection) that have led to the glitch of his romantic feelings. "I had been searching for the right musical elements to go with the film, and stumbling upon "Hello, Dolly!" was the best thing that could have ever happened. The song 'Put on Your Sunday Clothes', with its 'Out There' prologue, seemed to play so well with the themes of the film and yet would normally not be the kind of music you’d expect to find in a film like ours." "Holding hands is the thing that WALL•E’s wanted to do the entire movie, because it’s what he’s learned from watching 'Hello, Dolly!'. It’s the way you show affection in that movie," says Morris. "That’s right. That musical moment in the film showed these two people holding hands, and I knew it was meant to be," says Stanton. WALL•E’s expressive range of robotic voices was created by TWO time Academy Award winner Ben Burtt ("E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" 1983 & "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" 1990), whose memorable work includes creating the "voices" of other legendary robots including R2-D2 from the "Star Wars". Drawing on thirty years of experience as one of the industry’s top sound experts, Burtt was involved from the film’s earliest stages in creating an entire world of sound for all of the robotic characters and the spacecraft, as well as all environments. So who are the robots of this outstanding film. 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, affectionately known within Pixar’s walls as Hal (named after a famous 1920's producer, Hal Roach, and in homage to HAL from "2001: A Space Odyssey"). EVE (Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) is 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 she is determined to complete her mission successfully. M-O (Microbe-Obliterator) is a cleaner-bot programmed to clean anything that comes aboard the Axiom that is deemed a 'foreign contaminant'. M-O travels speedily around the Axiom on his roller ball, cleaning the dirty objects he encounters. AXIOM is the space-docked ship housing humans. Serving as the voice of the ship’s computer is Sigourney Weaver, who coincidentally made her motion-picture debut in "Alien", one of Stanton’s inspirations for the film. And since her character in "Alien" battled Mother, the ship’s computer, casting Weaver in the role was ultimately a nod to scifi for the filmmakers. CAPTAIN is the current commander of the Axiom. Trapped in a routine, like WALL•E, the captain longs for a break in the tiresome cycle of his so-called life. His uneventful duties are simply checking and rechecking the ship’s status with Auto, the autopilot. AUTO is the Axiom’s autopilot, who has piloted the ship through all of its 700 years in space. A carefully programmed robot in the form of the ship’s steering wheel, Auto’s manner is cold, mechanical, and seemingly dutiful to the captain. Unknown to all the Axiom crew, a hidden mandate exists in Auto’s programming. Auto is determined to execute these secret orders at any cost, regardless of the consequences for the inhabitants of the Axiom. REJECT BOTS are the Axiom’s cornucopia of robots that perform every function imaginable to serve the ship’s passengers and keep them in the lap of luxury. However, even hundreds of years in the future, machines are still fallible. Robots that have malfunctioned are sent to the repair ward and branded with a red boot. GO-4 is the Axiom’s first mate, who harbors a secret with the autopilot. A roving pneumatic capsule with a siren light for a head, he is dutiful to a fault. SHELBY FORTHRIGHT is the personable and charming CEO of the Buy n Large corporation, the massive global entity that gained control of the universe with its product line of robots (including the WALL•E line) and luxury space cruisers (like the Axiom). 2001 American Comedy Award winner Fred Willard ("Best in Show") was cast as the face of the company. B n L’s promises of a big, beautiful tomorrow echo on through Forthright’s messages even though things haven’t gone according to plan. Synopsis

It is eight hundred years since mankind abandoned Planet Earth. Pollution, overcrowding and waste products have made the once vital planet inhabitable. The task of cleaning the Earth has been designated to a massive army of highly sophisticated robots. As time passes by, they have slowly broken down until only one robot remains on the job. After hundreds of lonely years doing what he was built for, WALL•E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) discovers a new purpose in life (besides collecting knickknacks) when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE (Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator). EVE comes to realize that WALL•E has stumbled upon the key to the planet’s future and races back to space to report her findings to the humans eagerly waiting aboard the luxury spaceship Axiom for news that it is safe to return home. A love-struck WALL•E follows EVE home.

The Verdict "A wonderful, poignant, inspirational film for which Pixar deserve every accolade. The opening chapter runs for around fourty minutes without dialogue. It doesn't need any, because watching WALL•E at work totally consumes you. It's almost hypnotic. You dare not look away for one fleeting moment in case you miss even the minutest of details. The sky-line of New York appears almost as real as the Big Apple itself. Keeping WALL•E company is an indestructible cockroach named Hal. The sight of these two, scurrying around together reminds one of "The Odd Couple". When EVE arrives, another chapter unfolds. Watching a coy WALL•E trying to express his new found emotions is ...well it's cute. When EVE leaves, the big adventure starts and secrets are revealed. WALL•E is a faultless production. It will charm all who see it, no matter what their age may be. Highest commendation. Is this as good as it gets? 5 STARS." Crew Bytes "WALL•E" was .......
directed by Andrew Stanton ["A Bug's Life"]; screenplay by Andrew Stanton ["A Bugs Life" and "Toy Story"] and Jim Reardon ["Mighty Mouse, the New Adventures" and "Tiny Toon Adventures"]; production design by 2002 Academy Award winner Ralph Eggleston ["For the Birds" & "Finding Nemo"]; edited by Stephen Schaffer ["The Incredibles" and "Osmosis Jones"]; original music by Thomas Newman ["Pay It Forward", "White Oleander" and "Cinderella Man"]. Who's Who

Ben Burtt Elissa Knight Jeff Garlin Fred Willard MacInTalk John Ratzenberger Kathy Najimy Sigourney Weaver Kim Kopf

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WALL•E/M-O EVE Captain Shelby Forthright - BnL CEO AUTO John Mary Ship's Computer Hoverchair Mother

Run Time 98 minutes Rated G [AUST] Copyright ©2008 - Disney/Pixar - All Rights Reserved ©2008 All Rights Reserved - Impact Internet Services & The Movie Pages - Protected by Australian, International, Copyright & Trademark Laws.