WALL-E

Now the folk at Pixar have created perhaps their most endearing character ever. And he's a robot. How do they do it? Neil Davey tries to work it out with Sigourney Weaver.


“It's so sweet!” exclaims Sigourney Weaver. She's talking about WALL-E's “voice” - if, indeed, you can call it that. “It's like a baby calf, and it imprints on your heart like you're its mother.”

WALL-E, as you probably know by now, is the hero of Pixar's latest – and probably greatest – animation. He's a Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth class (hence the name). With the planet in the midst of an ecological disaster, the humans have been evacuated while robots like WALL-E clean up. However, that was hundreds of years ago. Now the humans are long gone, WALL-E is the last of his kind and something strange has happened in the interim. He's developed a personality. And he's lonely. Then along comes a probe robot called Eve. Its love at first sight for WALL-E and that leads to an adventure that will ultimately change everything...

For Sigourney Weaver, who plays the voice of a spaceship's computer, getting involved was a no brainer.

'I'm a stalwart fan of Pixar,' she explains. 'I was delighted to be asked. Even when I found out why I was cast, which was not for my talent but because I was in Alien,' she laughs.

'The ship's computer has a limited number of lines but all of the robot entities, all of the electronic entities in this movie, have so much character, and soul and heart. Being a computer I feel like I start as the voice of this evil corporation that's got us into this mess and by the end I too want to go back to earth. It's a wonderful world to enter. Even as a computer.'

Even with Pixar's impressive record, WALL-E has generated perhaps the best reviews of the studio's career. The word “masterpiece” has been thrown around a lot and Sigourney can understand why.

“I think it's a perfect movie. To me, a movie that succeeds at its best is about much more than just the characters. What I admire so much is it has this totally endearing and captivating story and adventure and romance but, within such a striking context, shows an earth as it might be if we don't take care of it. I had so much admiration for the way they've taken this on and how they've gone for it. That's why it's such a pleasure to talk about it. There's nothing negative you can say about this picture.

“I don't have a stake in it; I can just state objectively, as someone who's seen it twice, and who fell in love with every element that it's a wonderful, wonderful story.”

When production started, the film's creator / director Andrew Stanton was keen to get an ecological message across. However, in the interim years, that message has become what he calls a “hot button”. Sigourney's happy that this side of the film has, coincidentally, risen in importance and also thinks the timing is vital.

“In a way it's perfect that the film is coming out now,' she explains, ' because we need something loving and entertaining. The issues are introduced with compassion and a lack of judgement, and WALL-E doesn't give up. He's dogged and devoted and whatever he does he tries to do well.
“One of the reasons I'm happy the movie is coming out now is that the news is so dire and this is such an encouraging movie to watch.”

WALL-E is on general release from 18 July 2008.