Pixar has consistently released modern masterpieces, especially 2008‘s WALL-E; critics and fans alike have deemed the futuristic love story between two robots one of the animation studio’s best all-around films. While many people might have initially questioned Pixar’s choice to primarily focus on two robot characters that barely utter any dialogue, there is no doubt that the WALL-E and EVE experience much character development over the course of the film, as well as the three major human characters, the Captain of the Axiom, John, and Mary. All of these characters experience change in their way of thinking and in their actions; they realize the importance of following their hearts and not being ignorant as opposed to keeping with the established status quo.
A major influence on their development into three-dimensional and lovable characters along the lines of other Pixar favorites, such as Woody and Buzz from Toy Story or Marlin and Dory from Finding Nemo, is definitely the almost entirely silent opening third of the movie, which results in WALL-E and EVE developing emotionally through their use of facial expressions and body gestures, as well as the film’s music and cinematography. They are personified to convey human emotions such as loneliness, frustration, determination, sadness, and love, and they act like humans, albeit without the ability to talk beyond the repetition of their names. The latter half of the movie occurs away from an uninhabited earth, aboard a spaceship with the last remaining humans, and it is the robots’ interactions with these humans that helps to really flesh out their characters.
WALL-E is the film’s main character, a small robot whose purpose in life is to clean up the toxic, trashed terrain of Earth. He is the last remaining functional robot on Earth, and so while he dedicatedly partakes in his primary function of stacking garbage into blocks, he also collects various items out of pure curiosity. He has developed a human-like personality through his interaction with these human products, such as a cigarette lighter and a Rubik’s Cube, but he is most influenced by a video tape of the Barbara Streisand musical Hello, Dolly, which teaches him about the human emotion of love. He is extremely lonely on Earth and wishes for a partner; his only interaction with another personality before EVE arrives on Earth is the cockroach that he keeps as a pet.
Once EVE arrives, he strives to impress her, but is unable to do so because she is focused solely on her directive: finding sustainable life on Earth in the form of vegetation. Upon her arrival, she is very cold and has quite a tempter, blowing up various rocks and garbage with her arm cannon in the frustration of not locating life. During WALL-E’s attempted courting of EVE, who eventually seems to be lightening up in her opinion of him, he shows her a plant he found and she immediately turns into an inanimate beacon, calling her away from the planet. WALL-E is determined to court her even as she is in this sleep mode, but to no avail; however, he plucks up his courage and holds onto the ship that takes her far away from Earth to the new human habitat, the starship Axiom.
Aboard the ship, EVE is reawakened and the ship’s Captain is told that EVE’s directive, securing the plant, will lead the ship back to Earth. The Captain, like all of the other humans on board, is quite obese and cannot walk, both as result of 700 years of living in zero gravity as well as an extremely lazy lifestyle. All of the humans sit in hover chairs, eat and drink liquified meals in cups, and stare into hologram computers every waking moment of their lives. They are doted on by countless robots and their daily lives are superficial, materialistic, and shallow because of their total reliance on technology. Only through WALL-E and EVE’s actions are the humans exposed to the ignorance in their lives. When the ship’s Autopilot plots against returning to Earth and steals the plant, WALL-E and EVE try to rescue it. While attempting to find it, WALL-E knocks a man named John out of his chair and then turns off a woman named Mary’s computer. Both are totally shocked that anything interesting actually exists beyond their computer screens, but they discover that the Axion has a pool, that the ship’s windows lead to an awe-inspiring view of the stars, and that each of them exists physically and not just through a video chat. The Captain too becomes open to an existence beyond the status quo; he discovers the beauty of the Earth that existed long ago by asking the computer to define various terms from human life before they left on the ship, such as “sea”, “farming”, and “hoedowns”. It is during his wonder at the definition of “dancing” that EVE and WALL-E are totally changed. WALL-E is ejected into space in an escape pod after the plant and EVE is devastated when she thinks that WALL-E has been blown up, but he uses a fire extinguisher to propel himself away from the exploding pod. Her joy that he is alive results in the movie’s most beautiful and poignant scene: the two robots dancing in space to the computer’s voice-over about the world.
After this, WALL-E gets badly damaged aboard the ship but he is willing to sacrifice his life and his love for EVE; he tells her to leave him and to bring the plant back to the Captain rather than save him since it is her directive. EVE, on the other hand, disobeys her directive by putting the plant aside for the moment as she feels that WALL-E and love are more important than returning to Earth. However, EVE realizes that saving WALL-E would be possible if they return to Earth; the Captain courageously helps the two robots by defeating the rogue autopilot in order to bring the plant to the ship’s core so that it may return to Earth. He bravely gets out of his chair and physically walks in order to enable the Axiom to go to home. As soon as the ship steps down on the barren surface of the planet, EVE rushes to repair WALL-E with the various parts he had collected over the years. However, the brave little robot seems to have lost his personality as well as his love for EVE as he fails to acknowledge her presence once fixed. In fact, it appears that he has been reset to his original condition where his only concern is crushing garbage into blocks mindlessly; the “humanity” that he had gained is now gone. EVE, originally a tough and cold robot with little personality herself, is now brought to tears because she believes that WALL-E has forgotten her. A spark from the “kiss” that she gives to the brain-dead robot reawakens him and the two hold hands in joy.
The film ends with the two robots in love; they have learned that love is one of the most important forces in the universe, and that it is even more important than the tasks for which they had originally been designed and programmed: their directives, or the status quo. In the same regard, humanity, which had become so shallow, materialistic, and lethargic, had been revived by John, Mary, and the Captain, who opened their eyes to the possibility of change in their lives and the beauty of the universe, especially over the premise of having their own planet again. The major characters were all able to change during this journey, and they would use the changes in their lives and their personalities in order to make a better life for themselves by rebuilding Earth.
Works Cited
WALL-E. Dir. Andrew Stanton. Pixar Animations Studios. Walt Disney Pictures, 2008. DVD.
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