Trivia for
WALL·E (2008) More at IMDbPro »

• The teaser trailer contains part of Michael Kamen's score for Brazil (1985). Michael Kamen was going to score another Pixar film, The Incredibles (2004), but died before he could.
  
  
• Jim Reardon left his position as supervising director of "The Simpsons" (1989) television series to do animation on this film. On the DVD audio commentary for "The Simpsons: Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo (#10.23)" (1999), Reardon finally confirmed the title of the film he was working on - prior to that he would only say that it was due in 2008. In the film, the name of the first captain of the Axiom is Reardon, who piloted the ship from 2105 to 2248.
  
  
• The main character's name is actually an acronym, standing for "Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth-class." EVE stands for "Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator" (even though she specifically evaluates earth's vegetation) and M-O stands for "Microbe Obliterator."
  
  
• Most of the robots are voiced by Ben Burtt through mechanical sounds of his creation.
  
  
• First instance of a Pixar feature-length film using live-action.
  
  
• The makers consulted with a live-action director of photography, Roger Deakins, to learn how Deakins would light and shoot a scene if it were a live-action movie.
  
  
• The film contains numerous references to Apple computers: -when WALL-E is fully charged by the sun, he makes the same "boot up" sound that most of Apple's Macintosh computers have made since circa 1996. -WALL-E watches his favorite movie every night on the screen of an iPod -The villainous Autopilot's voice is provided by Apple's text-to-speech system, MacinTalk -EVE's sleek design as an evolution of WALL-E's parallels the sleek iMac design having evolved from the boxy, beige Apple IIe. Steve Jobs, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Apple Computer, was CEO of Pixar until its acquisition by Disney in 2005, and as a shareholder and member of the Disney Board of Directors is still actively involved with the company.
  
  
• The sound of insect clicks was made locking handcuffs. The cockroach chirps were sped-up raccoon sounds. The wind sounds were Niagara Falls.
  
  
• The logo on Eve's chest that appears after she obtains the plant is the same logo used by Disney Epcot's The Land pavilion up until 2005.
  
  
• The last piece of debris that clears away from WALL-E as he leaves Earth's atmosphere is the Russian satellite Sputnik I, which in 1957 was the first man-made object to be placed in earth orbit.
  
  
• The end-credit montage traces artwork from the past, in historical order, starting with cave paintings, then progressing through Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Renaissance, then mimicking certain Impressionists (such as Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, and Auguste Renoir ). It finishes with depictions of the main robots in the style of early computer games.
  
  
• The film has a dedication to Justin Wright, a 27 year old Pixar animator who died from a heart attack.
  
  
• The name of the ship that the humans are living on is "Axiom." In logic and math, an axiom is something unquestionable or taken for granted.
  
  
• Sound wizard Ben Burtt recorded many of the sounds for this film in a junkyard.
  
  
• Within the first 5 minutes there is monologue via the holographic billboards. The first dialogue between WALL·E and EVE begins 22 minutes into the movie. The first human dialogue begins 39 minutes into the movie.
  
  
• Film shipped to some theaters under the name "Sundaye".
  
  
• In the Captain of the Axiom's cabin, there is a lit curio cabinet with a 1980's era white NASA Space Shuttle launch helmet with red and blue pin striping.
  
  
• Andrew Stanton and the Pixar team watched every single Charles Chaplin and Buster Keaton movie (the short films and the features) every day during lunch for about a year and a half. This was to inspire the possibilities of pure visual storytelling.
  
  
• Famed cinematographer Roger Deakins was brought on to consult on the film's highly sophisticated lighting schemes. Much of the film's first half bears an atmospheric, sepia-hued look that characterizes much of Deakins' film work.
  
  
• EVE was co-designed by Apple's Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Jonnathan Ive, the man responsible for the design of the iPod.
  
  
• In previews for the movie, and at the end of the DVD, the Pixar intro features WALL-E fixing the broken light bulb in the bouncing Lamp. He replaces the older style round incandescent bulb with a newer energy-friendly spiral tube fluorescent light bulb.
  
  
• The vacuuming robot that follows WALL-E and EVE has a robotic version of the song "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" (from the film Hello, Dolly! (1969) that WALL-E watches on his iPod) as its voice. It's the first two lines of the song's chorus in electronic form.
  
  
• As described in a special feature on the film's DVD and Blu-ray releases, the inhabitants of the Axiom were originally going to be aliens led by a royal family with a penchant for mistreating its robots. Andrew Stanton eventually scrapped the alien idea, and the design of the Axiom's passengers changed from gelatinous green blobs to more-solid grey blobs to the final "big baby" concept.
  
  
• Director Andrew Stanton explained why he used excerpts from Hello, Dolly! (1969) in an interview: "When I got to 'Hello, Dolly!' and I played 'Put on Your Sunday Clothes', and that first phrase 'Out there...' came out, it just fit musically... I finally realized, 'You know what, this song is about two guys that are just so naive, they've never left a small town, and they just wanna go out in the big city for one night and kiss a girl. That's my main character.' And then my co-writer, Jim Reardon, said, 'You know what, he could actually discover an old tape in the trash, and that's how he got inspired by it, and it's a great way to show that he's got a romantic slant.' So we started looking at the movie, and when I found the other song, 'It Only Takes a Moment', and saw the two lovers holding hands, I realized, 'That's a perfect way for my main character to express the phrase 'I love you' without being able to say it.'"
  
  
• Andrew Stanton and Pete Docter outlined the film before Toy Story (1995) was completed, but production would not resume until after Stanton completed Finding Nemo (2003).
  
  
• WALL-E's shelves contain several figurines of gnomes, designed by Dutch artist Rien Poortvliet.
  
  
• Ground paths in the Axiom are color coded; light-blue for humans, white for robot workers, red for stewards.
  
  
• The seats on WALL-E's earthbound space pod has pull-down restraints just like a Disney ride.
  
  
• According to the DVD extras, the Axiom is a "General Dynamics Type Three Hull configuration" which is similar in name and shape to the "General Products Number Three Hull" featured in the classic science fiction novel, "Ringworld", by Larry Niven.
  
  
• The People Mover transportation system is an homage to the old Disneyland attraction "The Goodyear PeopleMover," which was located in Tomorrowland from 1967 to 1997. It was eventually replaced by a short-lived attraction called Rocket Rods, but today the original PeopleMover track is still standing vacant. The PeopleMover was also built for Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom park, and while it is still in operation, it has since been renamed the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (TTA).
  
  
• WALL.E collects numerous objects from the 1960s-1980s including a VCR tape of Hello, Dolly! (1969) (featured prominently in the film), a Rubik's Cube, and even an Atari 2600 with the game Pong (1972) (VG). Despite the film taking place over 800 years after these objects were created, all the objects are still in working condition.
  
  
• WALL-E is the first Pixar film to be nominated for 6 Academy Awards. This ties it with the only other animated film to garner this many nominations: Beauty and the Beast (1991).
  
  
• All robots in WALL·E follow the Three Laws of Robotics, originally conceived by sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov. Several bad bots have dilemmas in following those laws.
  
  
• The actual year the movie takes place is not specifically mentioned in the movie itself, but in the animated short movie BURN-E (2008) (V) (about another robot and takes place at the same time as the events of this movie) which was included as a DVD extra, it mentions that this movie takes place in A.D. 2805.
  
  
• EVE completes the Rubik's Cube in a little bit more than 3 seconds.
  
  
• The survival of both the Twinkie and the cockroach perpetuates the urban myth that even should the world end, both will survive indefinitely.
  
  
• Director Andrew Stanton went to great lengths to create a "filmed" look by simulating various lens artifacts. One example is a "focus-pulling" error in the supermarket scene when Wall·E is crushed by shopping carts; the image goes out of focus momentarily as the lens is zoomed in on Wall·E at the doors. There are also lens flares and numerous focus shifts between foreground and background subjects.
  
  
• According to Andrew Stanton's director's commentary, the names and (caricatured) likenesses of past Axiom captains are from Pixar writing team members. The years listed for each captain seems to be term of service, not lifespan, as there is no overlap of years. The average term of service is 135 years. The years add up to 666. Within the portraits, Auto develops from a small light and becomes brighter with each succeeding captain. The obesity of the captains grows at the same rate, showing a correlation between reliance on autopilot versus actively moving.
  
  
• Andrew Stanton is a big fan of Peter Gabriel, who was very enthused to write the song "Down to Earth" because he loved Finding Nemo (2003), also by Pixar.
  
  
• When EVE tries to send WALL-E back to Earth on one of the Life Pods, the deck that she goes to is 1.9 12, or 1912. The Titanic sank in 1912 and thousands lost their lives because there weren't enough lifeboats aboard.
  
  
• WALL-E only ever pronounces EVE's name correctly once throughout the entire film.
  
  
• EASTER EGG: On the 'Main Menu' screen, scroll down to 'SET UP'. Once there, press LEFT on you remote twice, and then press UP. This should highlight the BnL logo at the top of the screen. Press OK to watch a short Documentary title 'Geek-o-Rama' about the people and Robots that they had working on this film.
  
  
• EASTER EGG: On the 'Main Menu' screen, scroll down to 'BONUS FEATURES'. Once there press RIGHT on your remote control twice, and then press UP once. This should highlight a circle at the top of the screen with a W inside of it. Press OK to watch the first 'Title Animation Test' for the original 'WALL-E'.
  
  

• SPOILER: WALL·E, as a character, is a perfect example of the Ship of Theseus Paradox. It's hinted that every single piece of the original WALL·E, except his main chip, has been replaced by himself prior the story. By the end of the film, EVE replaces WALL·E's main chip, revealing that the original WALL-E is gone until she restores his "mind".
  
  

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