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When Robots… Save The Earth?: Connection, Individuality, and Humanity in Disney Pixar’s

Wall-E

Lauren Aemmer & Aly Fisher

4-Year Undergraduates

Regis University

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Abstract

While Disney Pixar’s animated film Wall-E has had its share of praise, critics often

fault the film for its supposed ecological predictions that consumerism will turn the Earth

into an uninhabitable dump. While interesting, these claims miss the mark in terms of

theme and story. The ecological conditions operate merely as a backdrop for a narrative

that explores what it means to be human through the search for connection and

individuality, as shown through the media aesthetic principles of light, color, depth, and

visualization.

Introduction

Ask just about anyone what kind of film Disney Pixar’s Wall-E is and the answer is

likely something to the effect that it’s just a children’s movie . And yet, for a film admittedly

aimed at younger viewers, it possesses both an astounding amount of narrative depth and

critical acclaim. Set in a future where a trash strewn Earth has forced what’s left of the

human population on a 700 year space cruise, Wall-E tells the story of a robot with a

personality. Wall-E (short for Waste Allocation Load-Lifter: Earth Class) spends his days

crushing trash into cubes, piling those cubes into huge towers of trash, and occasionally

rescuing lose odds-n-ends like Zippo lighters, sporks, and light bulbs. That is, until Eve (an

Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) shows up. In Eve, Wall-E thinks he’s found the one

thing that can’t be found on Earth, another being with whom to connect. But when one of

Wall-E’s latest finds, a lone, tendril-like plant, trips Eve’s programming, both she and Wall-

E are whisked off to the last refuge of humanity. There, they find people who have morphed

into technology dependent babies and robots who will stop at nothing to keep them from

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returning to Earth. While no one can completely argue away the ecological implications of

the film, critics seem to have become stuck on the subject. In order to dig down into those

themes actually being presented, a closer examination of the aesthetic components of the

movie needs to be made. Looking into the media aesthetic elements of light, color, depth,

and visualization exposes the film’s deeper implications about isolation and connection;

individuality and set systems; and what it truly means to be human.

Reception

Since its theater debut, Wall-E has been, for the most part, well received by

audiences and critics alike. Mike LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle declared,

“philosophically and emotionally, [Wall-E] is probably the most profound animated film

ever made or attempted.” Apparently the film industry agreed. Included in its

approximately eighty-two awards and sixty nominations (according to IMDb.com) are an

Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year (2009), a Golden Globe for Best Animated

Film (2009), and a BAFTA Film Award for Best Animated Film (2009).

Yet in spite of these glowing accolades, some critics, particularly those with a

conservative mindset, take issue with the film’s apparent ecological and sociological

themes. “Unless you want to pay good money to have your kids propagandized into a

Marxist, Eco-Theological worldview, stay far, far away from [Wall-E]” reads a Red State

Network blogger’s quote in The Washington Times review by Scott Galupo, who likened

such criticism to that “usually reserved for documentaries by Michael Moore or Al Gore.”

Vehement though these reviews may be, it isn’t hard to understand why people have

reacted so passionately against Wall-E’s setting. The image of a desolate, trash engulfed

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earth devoid of human life and the apparent de-evolution of that life into soft, babyish

blobs that are almost completely dependent on the technology around them does not paint

a complementary or desirable image of humanity’s possible future. However, if Wall-E can

be said to have a purpose, then its purpose was never to investigate or dwell upon how

humanity got to the state it’s in at the beginning of the movie. It’s not meant to be a warning

or a wake-up call. The purpose behind Wall-E’s narrative is to reveal the power of human

connection to create renewal and rebirth in the face of loneliness and alienation.

Light

Within the context of applied media aesthetics, light is a critical component in

establishing mood and emotion. In Wall-E’s case, the moods and emotions elicited through

the film’s lighting play an important part in expressing the theme of connection. To begin

exploring this idea, it is first important to understand what lighting is and how it is used in

film media. According to Herbert Zettl’s book Sight, Sound, Motion: Applied Media Aesthetics,

light is a “key element of visual perception, and it orients us in space and time. It also

affects our emotions. Light is the agent that makes things visible” (19). Light is perceived of

in degrees of intensity and complexity, where intensity is understood as lighter or darker

areas and complexity is understood as the interplay or contrast of these lighter and darker

areas. This is light at its most basic, what we see and experience every day. Its use in film is

very strictly controlled and manipulated to help the audience see and interpret not only the

physical representation of the events taking place (the outer environment), but also the

emotional tone of those events (the inner environment) (Zettl 20). The lighting in Wall-E,

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for example, not only defines the spaces Wall-E finds himself in, it helps viewers identify

the emotion of each location.

Broadly speaking, there are two separate and distinct lighting environments in the

film: Earth and space. At times, these environments intrude on each other, but each retains

its own physical and emotional lighting characteristics. The lighting on Earth is

predominantly chiaroscuro, but because the main light source is the sun there is a great

deal of fill light throughout the environment. This high-key lighting, which is an abundance

of “bright, slow-falloff illumination (Zettl 30), is diffused by the omnipresent quantities of

dust in the atmosphere. Since all of this light comes from the sun, high-key lighting is only

intensely present when the sun is at its highest. Gradually, this light fades and gives way to

deeper shadows with faster falloff. As these conditions shift, they not only indicate the

passage of time, they create an astounding amount of emotional depth. For example, a

number of the scenes that depict Wall-E taking care of Eve after she effectively shuts down

upon seeing Wall-E’s plant take place at sunset. The softer environmental lighting

conditions coupled with the colorful string lights Eve’s been wrapped in evokes the

romantic feeling of being on a date. Viewers are drawn into Wall-E’s attempts not only to

take care of Eve, but to romance and develop a connection with her. However, the steady

bright flash of Eve’s vegetation indicator and the eventual return of the sun’s high-key

lighting belie Wall-E’s attempts at connecting with Eve and leave him lonelier than ever.

Interestingly, the lighting conditions present on Wall-E’s Earth also affect the color

environment’s color scheme. Light becomes so intense when the sun is high in the sky and

so diffuse due to the atmospheric dust that covers the planet that most of Earth’s color is

effectively washed out or desaturated. This particular effect is best understood through the

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Desaturation Theory. According to Zettl, when event colors become desaturated, “the event

becomes more transparent. It also makes the audience apply psychological closure, that is,

fill in the missing elements of the low-definition images” (81). While saturation technically

falls under the purview of color in media aesthetics, the influence of light is the stronger

affiliation in this situation. In the movie, this desaturation occurs very specifically in the

first part of the film to emphasize Wall-E’s isolation and alienation. It can be very specific

because this desaturation occurs as a condition of the lighting. An example of this control

and use can be seen at the beginning of the movie. As viewers are first exposed to Wall-E’s

earth and to Wall-E himself, things are very desaturated. Even Wall-E’s coloring doesn’t

stand out. This forces viewers to pay more attention to any movements or so unds, which

primarily come from the little robot. Thus this desaturation magnifies Wall-E in such a way

that viewers understand him better. He’s the only thing to focus on, so the investment is in

him.

While the movie’s second lighting environment, outer space, possesses the same

kind of vast spatial effect that was present in the first environment, both the physical and

emotional effect changes for the audience. Higher levels of color saturation and a greater

emphasis on flat lighting gives the viewer a sense of hyper-reality, and shifts the inner

perspective away from emotion and towards action. We can see stars, galaxies, and a big,

wide-open space without any kind of blockage or separation. The colors immediately

become brighter and more vivid. Viewers are left wondering, not so much about Eve’s and

Wall-E’s relationship, but what is going to happen to them next. This begins to play into the

theme of connection. We no longer feel disconnected and desolate. We feel some gleam of

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hope that Wall-E is no longer going to be alone and he will finally get to have the

connection he so desperately wants.

Color

The next aesthetic concept that plays a large role in the overarching themes is color.

As already mentioned, the high and low saturation of colors creates the understanding of

light and how it is used to establish physical spaces and emotional feelings for the viewer.

Therefore, this section will focus on the use of color and how it can influence our

perceptions and emotions, specifically by looking at how it develops character

personalities and underlying symbolisms (Zettl 75).

The two main characters of the film are Wall-E and Eve. Wall-E’s color scheme is

yellow with some brown rusted parts. His brown rusty parts suggest the idea that there is a

natural element to this robot. It makes him used and worn, but also gives him some sort of

human likeness because literally rust suggests the natural decaying of metal but on a

deeper level it refers to his human child-like personality (a natural being and not a cold stiff

robot). The yellow is an important color to understanding Wall-E. Yellow is a warm color

that is considered to have high energy (Zettl 68). It suggests happiness, optimism, hope,

and knowledge, which are all a part of who Wall-E is as a character. He is a happy robot

who optimistically wants to have a connection with Eve. He hopes that he will find some

sort of connection to another being and he is knowledgeable because he thinks outside of

his set directive.

Eve’s character consists of three colors, white, black, and blue. Eve is mostly white

which suggests purity, cleanliness, innocence, youth, and birth. The blue suggests

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technology and faith. Again this color choice refers to her personality and her directive. She

is the robot that humans faithfully send out to find some sort of fertility on earth so that

they know it is safe to return. Therefore she symbolizes the new purity and rebirth of earth.

The white also refers to her innocence and naive personality to stay true to her directive

and not get distracted by Wall-E. The white, black, and blue combination gives her a

youthful appearance to match her innocence and her advanced technology, especially when

compared to Wall-E and his color scheme.

Other characters that are important to note their color schemes are the Captain B.

McCrea (the captain of the Axiom) and Auto (autopilot). The captain is dressed in white,

which is similar to Eve, suggesting his innocence and naiveté to what is really going on

aboard the Axiom and his lack of knowledge about what has happened to earth. Auto’s

colors are red, black, and white. The red and black combination suggests evil and the white,

in this case, suggests coldness. This matches Auto’s character because it shows his lack of

emotion and persistence to follow his directive to keep humans submissive to robots and

technology.

The use of color is important for character development but also for underlying

symbolism. The most prominent and noticeable color in Wall-E that reaches into the

themes of reconnecting and rebirth is green. Green is always highly saturated and is only

used when there is reference to the plant. This high saturated hue and specific use states

the importance of this little plant to the story. Green suggests healing, perseverance,

environment, renewal, youth, and fertility. This goes with the obvious idea that earth is

becoming sustainable again, in addition to having a deeper meaning that there is an

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opportunity for new beginnings. It is through this rebirth that humans are getting a second

chance to respect the earth and reconnect with each other.

Another use of color is to develop the theme of individuality vs. set systems.

Everyone is characterized as being part of a system because they are all the same color. Eve

is a part of a set of other robot pods that are all the same color: white, black, and blue. All of

the robot cops are white, yellow, and blue. All of the robots that are in charge of putting

makeup on humans are pink. Even the humans (except for Captain McCrea) are part of a

system, all wearing red or blue. Color also shows the change from going against or changing

the system to becoming an individual. For instance Wall-E is clearly set apart as an

individual because he is the only yellow-rusted robot. Then there are a couple of instances

where Wall-E separates a human from the technology. As soon as he does this, the human’s

clothes change from blue to red. This change of color represents the awakening of humans

and their desire to leave the set system, to become their own individual.

Depth

Although light and color clearly depict and expand several of Wall-E’s underlying

themes, there are two more aesthetic components that further develop them. One of these

is depth. Depth, in film, is best understood through what is known as the z-axis. According

to Zettl, it is a “value that describes a point located away from the frontal plane… [or] how

far an object seems to be from the camera” (161). There are a few ways to recognize the z-

axis and how it works to create depth. These cues are the overlapping of planes, relative

size, height in plane, and aerial perspective (Zettl 164-169). Some of the most obvious

examples of depth in Wall-E can be found in those scenes that utilize the inductive visual

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approach (Zettl 222). For instance, in the beginning of the movie, when Wall-E is on his way

home from work, the camera backs up to an extreme long shot. In this shot there is an

overlap between planes. As Wall-E is rolling along his path in the middle ground he

overlaps with the background plane of the towers of trash behind him. Looking at relative

size, we understand Wall-E to be a small robot in world with a huge problem that he alone

is expected to take care of. We also see an aerial perspective because a thick layer of dust in

the atmosphere clouds our perception of how far the towers of trash go across the world;

the father away the tower the less defined and clear the shape is. This is combined with

selective focus, which occurs when Wall-E is in focus in the foreground but the towers in

the background are out of focus. Focusing the shot in this way enhances the appearance of

distance. All of these depth cues work together to do one thing, emphasize Wall-E’s utter

isolation.

Contrasting this use of the extreme long shot are the scenes which use extreme close

ups. Throughout the movie, various characters (though primarily Wall-E and Eve) are

depicted holding hands, whether their own or someone else’s. Both extreme close ups and

close ups are the most common way this hand holding is presented, so that all the focus is

on the connection being formed. The resulting depth in these scenes is completely different

than that of the extreme long shots. Where the extreme long shot generally imparts a

feeling of alienation, loneliness, and smallness, the extreme close up emphasizes empathy,

connection, and humanity. Zettl refers to this as looking into an event, which means “to

scrutinize it as closely as possible, to look behind its obvious outer appearance, to probe its

structure and, if possible, its very essence. Looking into means communicating to the

viewer aspects of an event that are usually overlooked by a casual observer and providing

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an insight to the nature and the emotions of the event” (Zettl 224). While the extreme close

ups and selective focus on the hands creates a small amount of physical depth in the frame,

it creates a rich emotional depth and desire for connection with another. It should be noted

that hand holding is especially important to Wall-E, and that it is his desire to hold hands

with Eve that drives all the other hand holding that happens in the movie. That image of

holding hands starts with Wall-E holding his own hands, then trying to hold Eve’s, then

other people holding hands, and finally Eve bringing Wall-E back to life while holding his

hand. It’s a cascade of connections that blossoms outward from one little robot, effectively

challenging and changing the system that both the robots and humans in the movie are

supposed to adhere to.

This idea of challenging set systems doesn’t stop with merely holding hands. Rather

it is an expression of humanity and the power of that humanity to change set systems.

Generally it is believed that desire and intimacy, those things inherent in hand holding, are

ideas that separate living beings from technology, however, Wall-E blurs this distinction. As

Wall-E strays, at first in little ways, from his directive, he begins to gain humanity. Eric

Herhuth observes this in his article "Life, Love, And Programming: The Culture And Politics

Of WALL-E And Pixar Computer Animation." He states that, “the character Wall-E passes

through a phase of forgetting his directive… Wall-E moves from desiring to fill himself with

object, to desiring other objects, to desiring intimacy with another, to desiring Eve

specifically… It is an example of the demotion of contemplative rationality, and it suggests

that this habitual rationality is an essential quality of humanity that the character Wall-E

epitomizes and synthesizes with a robot form” (58-60). While Wall-E is the first character

to develop human-like emotions, he’s not the only one who does so. In fact, Wall-E is

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responsible for sparking that humanity in others, even other human beings. One example of

this would be M-O (short for Microbe-Obliterator), a little robot on the Axiom in charge of

cleaning the probes that come back to earth. When M-O comes across Wall-E’s dirty skid

marks, he’s faced with a dilemma. He feels compelled to clean it because it is his directive,

but to do so means derailing from his assigned track. What does he do? At first he hesitates,

but then abandons the track to clean Wall-E’s trail. This is the first spontaneous response

Wall-E elicits from his fellow robots but it’s far from his last. Later the rogue robots do the

same straying from their directive and following Wall-E after he accidently sets them free

from the mechanical bay. Eventually Eve abandons her directive as well when Captain

McCrea initiates her memory to show him more about Earth. Robots aren’t the only one

Wall-E changes either. Again Herhuth observes that “Wall-E presents a story about humans

who have embraced media and automation to the extent that they no longer have intimate

human relationships, and then it is their robots who save them from this plight” (Life, 66).

It begins with John, Mary, and Captain McCrea, but eventually Wall-E re-humanizes every

person aboard the Axiom. Interestingly, every case of re-humanization, for lack of a better

word, coincides with leaving one’s original pattern of being (i.e. their set system).

There is just one more aesthetic that should be recognized and evaluated that

contributes greatly to Wall-E’s humanization. Animation is key to understanding the

humanness of the robots and main characters. There is a combination of both animation

and real life cinematography that creates a different relationship between humans and

technology.

Visualization

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Besides the use of camera angles and selective focus to create visualization, there is

a specific animation style that Pixar chose to use in Wall-E. Animation itself has taken long

roads to become what it is today. Originally, animation in the US and Europe was inspired

by avant-garde, modernist art, and thereafter it was reduced to two dimensions because

the cultural desire was for flat mediums. “Cartoons could construct rather than represent,”

according to Herhuth in the article "Cooking Like A Rat: Sensation And Politics In Disney-

Pixar's Ratatouille" (470). From there, animation moved to more realistic representation as

technology improved. One improvement was the multiplane camera, which gave depth to

animation because it enabled cartoons to live in a more realistic world. This camera

contributed to the success of Disney and it’s feature length films. Pixar then took animation

a step farther by introducing CGI technology and “hyper-real” animation to bring their

stories to life. In Herhuth’s analysis of the animation of Pixar’s Ratatouille, he states,

“[Pixar] presents a world not dissimilar from our own that is radically changed by forms of

the new” (Cooking, 471). In this case Herhuth is relating these “new forms” to the

development of a relationship between the main character, a rat named Remi with human

abilities to read and cook who dreams of becoming a world famous chef, and his

accomplice, a human named Linguini who works in the Gusteau’s famous restaurant as the

garbage boy. While the world Remi and Linguini inhabit could be our own, the

personification of Remi as a thinking, feeling, human-like character is revelatory. Pixar’s

CGI form of animation presents a world that lifelike enough to the audience that the

characters seem to be real and exist in a real space, even if they are robots or rats.

The animation in Wall-E is truly amazing and is quite similar to the animation style

used in Ratatouille. Both of these films also develop the same “new form” relationships

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Herhuth writes about, however there is one major difference. Wall-E uses both animation

and real life cinematography, whereas Ratatouille is fully animated. Do these two films

really fall under Herhuth’s hyper-realistic films, or does the live cinematography hinder

Wall-E’s because the audience is comparing animation to real human people we recognize,

like Barbra Streisand in Hello Dolly or Fred Willard as the BnL CEO? Building upon the

argument Norman Taylor puts forth in “Screening the Future: Ground/Figure Relations and

Media Inheritance in WALL-E," the answer would seem to be no. According to Taylor, “Hello

Dolly functions as a ‘talisman’ for Wall-E—that is an object that beings good luck and is

prized for its supposed magical powers—that carries extra-diegetic associations that

comprise the ground of the film” (113). In other words, Hello Dolly, acts as another agent

that humanizes Wall-E. He strives to be like the characters in the film and have a

relationship like the one presented in the musical. What’s more, the storyline in Hello Dolly

is about a wealthy widow (Barbra Streisand) trying to get the affections of a wealthy

bachelor, Horace Vandergelder (Walter Matthau). The two end up getting married because

they fall in love, but more than that they share a common human fear of dying alone.

Although Wall-E does not get into the detailed storyline of Hello Dolly, Wall-E as a character

also shares this fear of dying alone because even technology is finite. The re lationship of

Hello Dolly is mimicked by Wall-E and Eve’s ‘robot love’ in the closing moments of the

movie, and, as Taylor states, “as a text-within-the-text therefore, Hello Dolly conflates

screen cultures, lending an obscure charm to the old, while using its figure to strive for

depth in the ground of the new” (113). This choice of visualization adds to the

humanization of Wall-E’s characters, as well as their search for connection.

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Conclusion

Though addressed individually, the aesthetic components discussed here, light,

color, depth, and visualization, work together to evoke and develop themes of alienation

and loneliness, rebirth, connection vs. disconnection, and individuality vs. set systems.

They show us Wall-E’s initial isolation and loneliness, his desire for connection, his ability

to make those connections once given a chance, and the influence those connections have

upon the rebirth and renewal of a human society on earth. While there are certainly

depictions of possible ecological and sociological mishaps, what is more important to the

story are the actions that occur because of and in spite of these occurrences. It is these

actions and their deeper meanings, their themes that truly matter to the story, and the lens

of media aesthetics is, in part, what allows us to find and explore them.

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Works Cited

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Ford, Patrick J. “WALL-E’s Conservative Critics.” Rev. of Wall-E dir. Andrew Stanton. The

American Conservative 30 June 2008: n. pag. Web.

Galupo, Scott. “GALUPO: ‘Wall-E’s critics miss point.” Rev. of Wall-E dir. Andrew Stanton.

The Washington Times 11 July 2008: n. pag. Web.

Herhuth, Eric. "Cooking Like A Rat: Sensation And Politics In Disney-Pixar's Ratatouille."

Quarterly Review Of Film & Video 31.5 (2014): 469-485. Communication & Mass

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Herhuth, Eric. "Life, Love, And Programming: The Culture And Politics Of WALL-E And

Pixar Computer Animation." Cinema Journal 53.4 (2014): 53-75. Academic Search

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LaSalle, Mick. “Movie Review: ‘Wall-E’ – I, lonely robot.” Rev. of Wall-E dir. Andrew Stanton.

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Mondello, Bob. “‘Wall-E,’ Speaking Volumes with Stillness and Stars.” Rev. of Wall-E dir.

Andrew Stanton. NPR. 27 June 2008: n. pag. Web.

Scott, A. O. “In a World Left Silent, One Heart Beeps.” Rev. of Wall-E dir. Andrew Stanton.

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“Wall-E.” IMDb. Amazon, n. d. Web. 8 Dec. 2014

Zettl, Herbert. Sight, Sound, Motion: Applied Media Aesthetics, 7th ed. Cengage Learning.

2014. eTextbook.