WALL•E

WALL•E is a love story set in the year 2805. Through excessive consumerism the Earth has been completely covered in trash. To clean up, humans must leave Earth for 5 years and set in place millions of little robots that go around cleaning up the trash to make Earth habitable again. Due to a failure in their programming all the robots have failed except one - WALL•E (an acronym for Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Earth class). After all these years of being alone WALL•E has become very lonely. But things change drastically for WALL•E when another robot, EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetative Evaluator), arrives to check on his progress.

Plot
The year is 2815 A.D. The Earth is a barren dystopia covered in what are literally mountains of trash. About 700 years ago, the mega conglomerate corporation Buy 'n Large took control of the planet's entire economy, including the government, and humanity spiraled into a state of mass consumerism, quickly covering the planet in garbage. In the year 2110, BnL CEO Shelby Forthright (Fred Willard) proposed "Operation Cleanup", a five-year exodus from Earth into space aboard the executive starliner Axiom while hundreds of thousands of WALL•E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth Class) units were left behind to compress the trash into small cubes with which they used to build colossal spires for easy disposal. They were to then initiate "Operation Recolonize" after five years, returning to Earth. This plan failed, however, and as Earth was deemed too toxic to re-inhabit, all the WALL•E units were promptly deactivated, save for one (Ben Burtt).

WALL•E continued the same routine each and every morning for 700 years: each morning he would wake up and recharge his solar cells before setting off to fulfill his directive of constructing trash spires with compressed cubes. But by this time, he had developed a small glitch: a personality. To cope with the boredoms of doing the same day every day, other than his trusty cockroach companion Hal, he has become extremely curious. Whenever he would find anything he finds interesting in the refuse (a Rubix cube, a light bulb, a match lighter, etc.) he would place it in a water cooler and take it back home in his truck at the end of the day, placing it in his ever growing knickknack collection. He would also salvage spare parts for himself from his fellow deactivated WALL•E units should the worst happen. The pride of his collection: a VHS copy of the film Hello, Dolly!, which has taught him how to dance as well as all of his emotions. He loves the film and its music so much that he plays the song "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" while he works, and when he watches the scene with the song "It Only Takes a Moment", he gains a desire to hold someone else's hand. And it is because of this movie that he realizes he is alone. But then one day, he finds something unlike any else he has seen: a seedling plant, which he carefully pots in an old boot.

While returning home from work, WALL•E notices a small red light on the ground, and decides to chase after it, ending up in the middle of a clearing. It turns out that the light is actually a tracking beacon of a landing ship. WALL•E immediately hides and witnesses a small white pod emerging from the ship; the pod opens itself and moves, revealing a sleek, state of the art feminine probe droid, which immediately begins scanning the area as if searching for something. WALL•E is stunned by the elegant-looking robot, but is too timid to speak to her, especially when she demonstrates her unhesitating will to fire her arm cannon at any sudden movements. When the two actually meet, the white robot holds him at a gunpoint demands to know who he is, eventually deeming him non-hostile and thinking nothing else of him, returning to whatever it is she is doing. WALL•E decides to attract her attention as cautiously as possible, but she ignores him. The white robot's mysterious labor bears no fruit, and she soon begins to grow frustrated. WALL•E eventually sums up the nerve to speak with the distressed robot directly, introducing himself. The robot becomes amused by his behavior and similarly introduces herself as EVE (Elissa Knight).

WALL•E invites EVE into his truck for shelter during a sandstorm, and she is fascinated by all the little knickknacks he has collected. He shows her Hello, Dolly! and tries to teach her how to dance, though it gets a little out of hand and she accidentally knocks him away, though he is able to repair himself using his spare parts. He truly begins to fall in love with EVE and tries to hold her hand as he had seen in the film, but EVE does not understand what he is trying to do and thus does not give back his love. WALL•E then decides to show her the plant he found; suddenly, EVE grows excited, taking the plant from him and storing it inside herself, sealing up into her pod form and deactivating. WALL•E does not understand why she will not unlock or speak to him, but nonetheless does everything in his power to keep her motionless body safe from the elemental hazards of the desolate Earth in the hopes she will wake up, taking her out on a series of "dates" in the process. Soon the ship EVE arrived in returns and takes her away. WALL•E is distraught and climbs onto the side of the ship, clinging on as it launches off the planet and into the depths of space. WALL•E gazes in wonder at the wonderful cosmos as he arrives aboard the Axiom.

Still deactivated, EVE is taken to a group of cleaning robots led by a small robot named M-O (Ben Burtt). WALL•E is also taken by accident, dumbfounding and irritating M-O with the amount of dirt on his body. The two robots engage in a brief, mild conflict about his filthy body when a security robot, GO-4, inspects EVE and finds that she is storing the plant inside her, and has her taken away somewhere, with WALL•E giving chase. As M-O prepares to leave to his next assignment, he notices that WALL•E has left an awful amount of filth behind by his tracks. M-O ultimately decides to clean these tracks on his own, knowing they will lead him to WALL•E, and obsessevely hunts him down while cleaning the tracks. Around this time, WALL•E discovers that the humans aboard the vessel are morbidly obese, having adapted after years of living in micro-gravity and liquefied food. They never acknowledge each other in ways other than through holographic screens in front of their faces, and can't even move without the assistance of a hovering chair or other automated assistance. Even piloting the ship is left in the care of the autopilot, aptly named "Auto" (MacInTalk); all the captain, Captain B. McCrea (Jeff Garlin), does is make the morning announcement each and every day. WALL•E accidentally bumps into a human named John (John Ratzenberger), knocking him off his chair, but quickly helps him back up, much to his appreciation. Also by chance, he accidentally turns of the computer screen of a girl named Mary (Kathy Najimy), awakening her to the world around her, which utterly amazes her.

EVE is taken to Captain McCrea, who is suddenly surprised that she has returned "positive" (i.e., with a plant), and learns of Shelby Forthright's "Operation Recolonize"; all he needs to do now is bring the plant to the holo-deck on one of the main passenger decks, and the ship will automatically make a hyperspace jump to Earth. EVE finds WALL•E, telling him to stay hidden. But when McCrea prepares to take the plant, he finds that it is missing. EVE assumes that WALL•E took it, though he was never seen doing such a thing. Auto declares that EVE's memory is faulty, and that things can go back to normal; McCrea similarly dismisses the event as a false alarm and has EVE sent to the repair ward for diagnosis. WALL•E is suddenly discovered, and he shakes hands with McCrea, getting dirt on his hand. McCrea has WALL•E taken with EVE to be cleaned. As they leave for the repair ward, McCrea analyzes the dirt WALL•E left and discovers that he is from Earth. His curiosity about humanity's former home planet is ultimately sparked, and he becomes enthralled in studying about what it was like.

While they are taken to the repair ward with all the other malfunctioning robots on the ship, EVE refuses to speak with or even look at WALL•E, accusing him of being a petty thief, much to his dismay. EVE is fitted with a red strap-on device that deactivates her with the press of a button. She is taken into a room behind a translucent screen as WALL•E is placed in a cell. Her cannon arm is removed and she is cleaned, but while EVE actually enjoys the experience, WALL-E misinterprets it by what he can see and believes she is being tortured. WALL•E escapes his cell and breaks into the diagnosis room, grabbing her cannon arm and accidentally firing it at the power cell of the room, automatically turning off all the robotic arms operating the room and releasing the legitimately haywire robots from their cell, raising the security. EVE tries to take back the arm, but she is photographed by the security drones in a position that makes her appear as if she is going to attack with it, labeling her as a "rogue robot". The two evade security and head to the escape pods.

Infuriated with WALL•E, EVE activates an escape pod set for Earth for him so he can't cause any more trouble. WALL•E wants EVE to come with him but she refuses, stating that she must stay to find the plant. Slightly offended, WALL•E stubbornly refuses to leave, frustrating EVE. They are then forced to hide when GO-4 enters the room and activates the pod's self-destruct sequence. He then places the plant inside, revealing him to be the true thief. WALL•E goes into the pod to retrieve the plant, but GO-4 launches it with him inside. Alarmed, EVE gives chase to try and save him. Realizing that he cannot stop the pod or its self-destruct sequence, WALL•E tries to make an escape, but the pod explodes. Horrified, EVE rushes to the explosion when WALL•E passes her by completely unharmed, having managed to escape thanks to a fire extinguisher. EVE is deeply relieved and reconciles with WALL•E, but before she can react, WALL•E shows her the plant, also unharmed. EVE takes the plant and, overjoyed, gives WALL•E a "kiss", which causes a small static shock, and they proceed to dance around the Axiom. Witnessing this dance are the humans John and Mary, who recognize WALL•E and suddenly notice each other, falling in love.

WALL•E and EVE go onboard the Axiom where EVE is still wanted by security. WALL•E tries to hold her hand again, but EVE, as grateful as she is, is too busy to return his love as she does not truly feel the same way about him. She decides to sneak onto the captain's deck through the garbage chute, telling WALL•E to stay put. She presents the plant to Captain McCrea who, after being completely fascinated with the customs on Earth he had learned about, such as farming and dancing, decides to watch her security recordings on Earth. However, he is shocked and confused to see that Earth is not the green paradise he learned it to be; as they watch the recordings, EVE witnesses footage from Hello, Dolly! video that WALL•E had shown her, though she had previously taken it for granted. She watches the scene with "It Only Takes a Moment" and learns how to hold hands much like WALL•E had. The recording then begins to play security footage of what happened when she took the plant and deactivated, and she sees everything that WALL•E did to protect her motionless body. She is touched by WALL•E's deeds, and her opinions of him change completely as she begins to fall in love with him. Meanwhile, WALL•E grows rather anxious about waiting for EVE, trying to put his feelings for her in the right words, until he decides to follow her, slowly climbing up the garbage chute.

Captain McCrea has an epiphany: a great deal of care and work is needed to benefit Earth, and decides that they must go back to make amends. He prepares to place the plant in the holo-detector, but Auto tries to take it from him. Annoyed, McCrea orders Auto to explain why he wants the plant so badly. Auto is forced to play the recording of an announcement by Shelby Forthright, explaining how "Operation Cleanup" had failed and deeming Earth too toxic to ever support life again. He issued Directive A-113, which was for autopilots to never return to Earth. McCrea is outraged, learning that this video was taken 700 years ago, and that things have now changed: one living plant certainly proves that Earth is now inhabitable. Auto, however, overrules this, being unable to disobey this order. He stages a mutiny with GO-4, who steals the plant and throws it down the garbage chute. However, it lands on top of WALL•E's head. WALL•E and Auto have a brief struggle before Auto electrocutes WALL•E, sending him down the chute with the plant. He then deactivates the distressed EVE with her red strap-on, tossing her down the chute as well, before proceeding to lock McCrea in his quarters.

EVE reactivates when the mice on her body activate her strap-on, which breaks off. She finds herself stuck in a pile of garbage in the waste disposal chamber, inhabited by a pair of giant WALL•A robots, which are much like WALL•E with the exception of size. She is trapped inside a large garbage cube and placed in an airlock, set to be jettisoned into space with the seriously damaged WALL•E and the plant. However, entirely by chance, M-O appears in the chamber, having followed WALL•E there while obsessively cleaning his filthy trail, and uses his body to keep the airlock door open, with the robots inside clinging on to dear life with him as they are being sucked into the vacuum of space. The WALL•A take notice and activate the airlock, saving them. As M-O finally cleans WALL•E and befriends him, EVE finds that WALL•E's encounter with Auto has burned a hole in his hardware, and tries to find replacement parts. WALL•E gives her the plant, telling her to bring it to the holo-deck, but EVE willingly refuses, having become too enamored with him, and decides that their love is more important than saving some plant. However, WALL•E reminds her that if they return the plant, they will return to Earth, where he had stockpiled spare parts for himself. EVE agrees and, with WALL•E, M-O and the plant in tow, they escape the waste chamber.

EVE directly confronts the security drones and attacks, again marking her as a rogue. McCrea views the new security photo from his quarters and notices that they have the plant. He hotwires the communications in his room, directing WALL•E and EVE to the holo-deck before being cut off by Auto. He then takes a holographic image of WALL•E holding the plant and presents it to Auto, tricking him into thinking he has it. Auto enters his chambers where McCrea jumps him, engaging in a struggle that accidentally knocks GO-4 out of the deck and crashing to the ground below. Meanwhile, WALL•E, EVE and M•O recruit the malfunctioning robots that were let loose, who recognize them and decide to help by destroying the security drones in their way before reaching one of the main passenger decks. McCrea activates the holo-deck, but Auto tilts the Axiom to its side, knocking McCrea to the ground, piling all the humans in a corner, and causing WALL•E and EVE to drop the plant. EVE protects the humans from falling trams that threaten to flatten them&mdash;during the chaos, John and Mary save a group of babies, apparently adopting them. Auto tries to close the holo-deck, but WALL•E jams it open with his body, ultimately crushing him; the distraught EVE is unable to help him. Enraged, McCrea manages to stand up on his own and resume his struggle with Auto. He manages to switch to manual control, restoring the tilt to the Axiom and relieving everyone from the menace of Auto once and for all. EVE rushes to WALL•E's aid, retrieving the plant with the aid of the humans and other robots. She places it in the holo-deck, opening it and releasing him, finding that he is mortally damaged. The hyperdrive of the ship is activated, and they immediately return home.

Having arrived on Earth, EVE desperately carries the dying WALL•E back to his truck where she frantically puts him back together with his surplus and recharges him. Surely enough, WALL•E fully reactivates, and EVE is deeply relieved. She proceeds to hold his hand like they desired so many times before, but WALL•E does not recognize her, turning away and preparing to leave. Confused, EVE realizes that WALL•E has lost his memory after the incident but, in a state of blissful denial, does everything in her power to make him remember: she shows him his treasured knickknacks as well as Hello, Dolly!, but WALL•E instead begins to compress his collection into cubes. Each failure makes EVE more and more miserable, and it breaks her heart to ultimately believe that the WALL•E she knew and loved is gone forever. As a parting gesture, the despondent EVE finally takes a hold of his hand and softly hums "It Only Takes a Moment" before "kissing" him again, causing another spark. She prepares to leave, but her hand is stuck to his. Suddenly, WALL•E slowly grasps EVE's hand as he recognizes her; the spark of the kiss had rebooted his memory. EVE is filled with joy, and they clasp hands as they kiss once more. WALL•E and EVE prepare to spend the rest of their lives together alongside their new friends, assisting the humans&mdash;led by the enthusiastic Captain McCrea&mdash;as they work to restore Earth to its former beauty.

Development
WALL•E is Pixar's ninth animated feature film. The beginnings of WALL•E started in the summer of 1994 as production of Toy Story was wrapping up. John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Joe Ranft and Andrew Stanton began bouncing ideas around for new movies, and out of this planning came A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo and WALL•E. Stanton's idea started as a question: "What if mankind evacuated Earth and forgot to turn off the last remaining robot?" After Stanton explained his idea, Docter did additional work on it for a couple of months in 1995 but decided to move ahead with Monsters, Inc. as he was unsure of telling a love story. Stanton continued to play with the story, including during the production of Finding Nemo. Stanton was attracted to making a movie with robots, as it combined 2 elements he loved - the space movie genre and giving life to inanimate objects. Once Finding Nemo was complete, he felt they had the physics worked out where they could move ahead with the development on WALL•E.

The design of WALL•E came from Luxo, Jr. and a pair of binoculars that Stanton was playing with at an A's baseball game. He noticed that he could demonstrate emotions such as happiness or sadness by just moving the binoculars, or the eyes, up or down - that it wasn't necessary to have other parts of the face like a nose or mouth. One of the key design elements of WALL•E was that it should be a machine first and a character second.

In addition, Stanton brought in Apple's design chief Jonathan Ive to help give EVE her sleek, high-tech look.

To get the right look of the sci-fi films of the '60s and '70s, Pixar brought in famed cinematographer Roger Deakins and ILM visual-effects guru Dennis Muren to help the Pixarians create effects like barrel distortion and lens flare. Ben Burtt, the sound designer of Star Wars and Indiana Jones fame, created the "voices" for the robots in the film.

Box office results
According to Box Office Mojo, WALL•E brought in $63.1 million in its opening weekend for the number one spot. This gave WALL•E the third best opening weekend for any Pixar film, only behind The Incredibles ($70.5 million) and Finding Nemo ($70.3 million).

On its opening day, WALL•E grossed $23.1 million, the best for any Pixar film and the best G-rated movie of all time (the previous G-rated record was Finding Nemo at $20.2 million). Of all animated films it had the third best opening day behind Shrek the Third ($38.4 million) and The Simpsons Movie ($30.8 million).

Trailers
The following trailers have been released for WALL•E.
 * 1) Teaser Trailer 1 was released in front of the theatrical release of Ratatouille.
 * 2) Teaser Trailer 2 was released in Fall, 2007.
 * 3) International Trailer was released in Fall, 2007, and is a shortened version of Teaser Trailer 2.
 * 4) Super Bowl Commercial features Woody and Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story.
 * 5) Trailer 3 was released in March, 2008, in front of Horton Hears a Who!.