“Wall·E has lots of little motors and squeaks and clicks of his hands; those are all mechanical sounds that come from many different sources,” explains Burtt. “The idea is to orchestrate all those bits of sound to also be a part of his character. So he can cock his head and look at something and you hear a little squeak. In a way that’s an expressive sound effect. That array of sound is used to find his character.”

Despite the film’s amazing technical proficiency, it is still the story above all else that those associated with Wall·E are proud of the most. Actor Jeff Garlin (Curb Your Enthusiasm) says he didn’t have to be asked twice to work with Pixar and Andrew Stanton, who also directed Pixar’s Finding Nemo.

“Pixar works on their stories harder than any other place around,” says Garlin, who provides the voice to the Axiom’s Captain in the film. “They will not move forward unless they’ve got the story right. They also have great constructive criticism … and they are really kind to one another. … They take what they do very seriously. In many other studios laziness runs amuck and dollar signs run amuck. Not that Pixar doesn’t want to make money … they just want to make a great movie first and believe the money will follow.”

Actor John Ratzenberger, who has had some sort of role in all nine of Pixar’s feature films, agrees that with Wall·E Pixar once again outdoes itself. “I’ve got [compromising] Polaroids from a Christmas party …” he jokes when asked how did it happen that he’s been in every Pixar film to date. His voice has been used so much that Pixar jokingly refers to Ratzenberger as their “good luck charm.”

But on a serious note Ratzenberger explains, “They call me. I show up. It’s as simple as that. Because I know … that every single time there is a Pixar movie it’s a part of history somehow. They’ve broken new ground every time. They could have rested on the laurels of their achievement years ago and become a mediocre company that sends out mediocre products. They refuse to do that. They try to outdo themselves with every single project.”

And despite the obligatory humor and quirky characters of the film, transcendent themes make Wall·E more reflective than the average family comedy. Wall·E learns that love means putting the needs of someone else before his own. Humanity decides, as one character puts it in a moment of decision, not just to survive but to “live.”

This tone is obvious in both the art and story of Wall•E, which stands toe-to-toe with Pixar’s earlier celebrated work and is arguably its most thoughtful and mature film to date. Wall•E will surely charm audiences with an endearing robotic protagonist that sets out to find love and ends up, as Co-Producer Lindsey Collins puts it, “teaching humanity how to be human again. It’s that twist and irony combined with real emotion that I think is going to resonate with audiences.”



Featuring the voice talents of  Fred Willard, Jeff Garlin, Sigourney Weaver, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy, Ben Burtt, Wall•E will be released by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios on Friday, June 27, 2008.