I love Robots, and I love Pixar. Put both of them together and I become as giddy as a little school girl.

However, When I first saw the designs for the main character in Pixar’s upcomming film WALL•E I became very nervous. I mean just look at him.

He looks like a cross between Johnny 5 and the robots from Batteries Not Included. Lame. Nothing about the design has me thrilled about this movie. It looks lazy and sloppy and frankly, very sub-par. This had me very worried about what was going on with this film.

But when John Lasseter described the plot…ah yes, that changed things for me.

WALL-E is the story about the last little robot on Earth. He is a robot, and his programming was to help clean up Earth. You see, it’s set way in the future. Through consumerism, rampant, unchecked consumerism, the Earth was covered with trash. And to clean up, everyone had to leave Earth and set in place millions of these little robots that went around to clean up the trash and make Earth habitable again.

Well, the cleanup program failed with the exception of this one little robot and he’s left on Earth doing his duty all alone. But it’s not a story about science fiction. It’s a love story, because, you see, WALL-E falls in love with [Eve], a robot from a probe that comes down to check on Earth, and she’s left there to check on and see how things are going and he absolutely falls in love with her.

And he follows her back up to her main spaceship, and you see a vision of the space and the future in this movie like you’ve never seen before. It is really spectacular. But with all Pixar films, one of the things we pride ourselves in, not only a great story, but the characters, memorable, appealing characters and these little robot characters that help WALL-E and Eve, these rejected, defective little robots, are the most charming group of characters we have ever created.

And so, in the end, always about Pixar films, it’s about the heart of the story. And this story is one of the most special things. Again, if you liked Finding Nemo, you’re going to love this movie, because Andrew Stanton is one of the most talented filmmakers working today.

-John Lasseter

Now that sounds like a really fantastic film. I love science fiction and this seems like a really unique vision that has never been done before in animation. Much of the science fiction that we get in theaters is second teir action films with little to offer those of us who look to the stars and dream of the future. Its hard to get drawn into a futuristic world when half the stuff on screen is blowing up. I like it when Science Fiction is presented in a softer, more plodding way. Much of the great science fiction is written in a low-key tone, and this film seems to be going that route. There are even rumors that none of the characters talk. How awsome and inovative would that be?

I’ll admit, this film looks to be a big risk. Its very different from what we have come to know and love from Pixar. A bit darker, A bit more cerebral. It could be a big win or a big flop. There is no way to really tell at this point, but following the development of this film over the next couple of years is going to prove really interesting.

Now all they need to do is fix that character design problem.

-Matt

Thanks Character Design Blog!