Environment Themes in WALL-E
Andrew Stanton Directs Disney/Pixar Film, Coming June 27th
In Part 2 of this this roundtable interview, WALL-E director Andrew Stanton talked about using science fiction conventions and Hello Dolly in his film.
In this installment, he delves into the the creative atmostphere at Pixar, and why WALL-E is not a message movie.
Is there tension when people are working on a Brad Bird picture or an Andrew Stanton picture, or a John Lasseter picture, as opposed to a Pixar picture? Is there conflict between a director's vision and what Pixar does?
“It’s like working on an athletic team; I’ll use baseball as an analogy. You’re all on the same team, you’re all trying to win the game, but you’re still an individual player when you’re out there on the field. And so you do, in the best sense, push each other competitively, because everybody wins if we all play the best. And you’re inspired, if you see somebody do great work, to want to do that yourself.
“Fortunately, we don’t have negative competition and, because we’re very mixed together, there aren’t these physical clubs. We’re all mixed in the hallways; the cross-pollination is very encouraged in the day-to-day. So every individual director has his vision, but he sees everybody else as backup. And we have built-in check-ins about every 3 or 4 months where we screen what we have, to keep on a deadline.
"And that’s how we give each other opinions and advice, and you definitely want to hear from somebody who’s doing the same job you do, and you trust it when it comes from another filmmaker who knows exactly what you’re going through, how hard it is, and what it is you’re trying to do. And we become 10 times smarter when we’re in the room together, and we’re able to solve problems that we couldn't by ourselves.”
What can you tell me about the environmental themes in WALL-E?
“I co-wrote this with Jim Reardon, who spent 12 years directing The Simpsons, and he and I went to college together. It’s hard not to be satirical about the world around you.
“Honestly, the reason I picked trash was because it didn’t require any narration to explain. You get it, you see it, it’s right there, it’s stuff in the way, and you’ve got to pick it up. And it’s detritus of humanity; it allows my main character to show you that he’s curious about what we’re all about by going through our stuff.
“I remember – before I even had an Act 2 or Act 3 – that I wanted him to find a plant. I love the idea: it’s like a dandelion pushing through a sidewalk, there’s all this man-made material and something real is forcing its way through.
"And that’s a cousin to WALL-E: WALL-E is this man-made thing that’s encasing a soul, a real desire to live that nobody else in the universe is grabbing onto anymore. And so, in a weird way, that made more sense to me and I ran with it because it was so iconic. And it makes me freaked out that me, of all people – anyone who knows me knows that I would never be accused of having a message movie or any kind of ecological bent. All I do is recycle, that’s it! (laughs)
“Frankly, I did everything from the sincere reasons of that premise, and I hope it comes across to anyone who watches the film.”
There seems like there should be this whole back-story–
“Which didn’t interest me, frankly. Everything came through the back door of this character. Honestly, the brain fart was ‘What if everybody left Earth and there was this robot doing the same thing every day’ and that was the ultimate definition of futility to me, you can’t get a sadder character than that. So everything started from that: ‘How do I get to this spot, and how do I start the movie, and explain to you, by the time he’s walked home, how it works?’ So everything was driven by that.
“I've been asked: how did he get a character and I don’t know, and I don’t really care (laughs). What interested me is where it started.”
(Next up: Directing animation versus directing actors, and the importance of mistakes)
