WALL-E: Cast & Crew Interview

We sat down with the creators of what is already one of our films of the year, the charming and highly original animation; WALL-E. Director Andrew Stanton and producer Jim Morris explain how the seed of the idea blossomed into fruition, the voice of the ships computer, Sigourney Weaver, tells of her delight at high-jacking the film at the last minute whilst Ben Bertt, the legendary sound designer, explains just how he got a pile of tin to sound like a baby calf…

LOVEFiLM: Andrew, as the director, could you take us through your initial idea for WALL-E to its creation?

Andrew Stanton: It did have a long journey. It was this one lunch in ‘94 and we were in the middle of making Toy Story; and it was simply; ‘what if mankind left earth and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off?’ And the idea of something doing the same thing forever to me was like the ultimate definition in futility; and I just thought it was the saddest character I’d ever heard of.

It took for us to make 5 or 6 more movies and for me to be more confident as a filmmaker and for the technology to improve [to make the film]. About 7 years later I’m in the middle of Finding Nemo and I find my brain drifting to this little lonely robot; wondering who he is and what the story should be. By then I knew a lot more; I realised that it was the loneliness that appealed to me and that the opposite of loneliness is love. Then I was just hooked. I found myself even at my busiest schedules, hiding in my office starting to write this and that is always a good sign.

LF: Did you purposely focus upon the key issues of our time; such as the obesity crisis, consumerism or environmental issues when making the film?

AS: Well I knew all of those were hot button issues. But I firmly believe if you as a story teller truly understand your premise - and come to all onuses in the story honestly, for a singular purpose - then they’ll all fit into place regardless of how plausible they might be. I’m the least political guy and the last thing I want to do is to be preached to when I see something. They were all for the larger issue of the love story which was what’s the purpose of living? When you say something like that; it incorporates everything.

What I’ll stand behind is that I picked everything in order to reinforce this premise I had which is irrational love defeats life’s programming. That it takes a random act of kindness or love to get you out of your habits or routines. I loved the idea that WALL-E was this man made machine that had something real inside of him that had been lost on the rest of the world and in the universe. So the fact that it came from an honest place – I took comfort in.

LF: Sigourney, you were late to join the production as the voice of the ship’s computer – but is it true that you are such a fan of Pixar that you would have worked unpaid?

Sigourney Weaver: Yes; better late than never I always say. I was absolutely delighted; I’m a stalwart fan of Pixar. I was delighted even when I found out why I was cast; not because of my talent but because I was in Alien!

It was a wonderful world to enter; even as a computer, and I really thoroughly enjoyed it. They also really let you play around, and I just told Andrew I wanted to have an arc for my character and have levels, and he was very indulgent and we had a very good time.

LF: Do you have a take on the ecological and environmental elements in this film?

SW: WALL-E is dogged and devoted and whatever he does he tries to do well. He brings his best self to whatever the situation is. And that’s what you see the humans doing. So whatever is happening in the environment I think one of the reasons I’m so happy the movie is coming out now is that all the news is so dire. This is actually such an encouraging movie to watch about the environment.

LF: Ben, how did you come up with WALL-E’s voice?

Ben Bertt: I would audition things for Andrew, sets of sounds that might have just been motors and beeps. But something I’ve never told him is that after he showed me maybe ten minutes of storyboards cut together with some music and some sound effects in it, and it was that opening song; the voice in that Hello Dolly vocal, that appealed to me in a way that I connected it to the WALL-E character.

There was a feeling there – to some extent the pitch of the voice started out that way, that kind of there’s something out there feeling. And that was a thread I picked up on. There was something obviously appealing and charming about that song – I couldn’t quite pin it down.

LF: Legend has it that you use everything in your life eventually as part of the sounds that you create for the screen?

BB: Well, I’ve always found that when you’re trying to create illusions with sound - especially in science fiction or fantasy movies - that pulling sounds from the world around us is a great way of cementing that illusion. You can go out and record an elevator in George Lucas’ house or something, and it will have that motor sound that you might associate it with ,but if you use it in a movie, people will believe that it’s a force field or a space ship door opening. It’s forging those connections between familiar sound and illusionary sound that I think is the basis for the success for a lot of the sounds that the designers have put in this movie.

LF: Could you all tell us what your favourite particular moment from the film is?

SW: So Many! I think my favourite moment is when you see Eve destroy that ship. She’s like my dream action-woman figure. She’s so offhandedly emotionally destructive. You don’t really understand Eve until she giggles and her eyes do that funny thing. Then you fall in love with Eve too. And the fact that he’s not intimidated by this gorgeous, sleek destructive woman, gives us hope you know!

BB: I really love the scene when they’re out in space together with the fire extinguisher. I think it’s the lyrical nature, the calm in the middle of the storm. Two characters out there dancing in space, which takes me back to Peter Pan when I was a kid. It’s that wonderful ability to be transformed to a magical place and feel warm and completely secure.

JM: I think my favourite moment is the first time we see WALL-E go back to the truck he lives in. He’s still by himself, you haven’t seen any other characters, you don’t really know what’s going on. You start to learn these things about his personality. All these things he’s collected and the fact that he’s watching Hello Dolly. He’s even starting to dance a little bit. It’s so bitter sweet; he’s trying, but it’s so lonely and desolate. I think that scene really captures a lot of different things.

AS: I can say that there is a sequence that is special to me because it was the first one where I went, ‘that’s what I’ve been trying to get this whole time’. It’s a very small moment, but for me it’s one of the most powerful. It’s when Eve’s in the truck with him and she discovers what his lighter does. And you catch him privately staring at her while she’s looking at the lighter. And to me that was a kind of maturity in using the camera to tell so much emotion that I felt I always get out of great movies but never see in animation; and I felt we finally tapped into it.

Helen Cowley