Tools of Characterization

Characterization in WALL-E

Occupation

A Good Sense of Directive

All of the robot characters, which make up about 95% of the movie's cast, are defined by what they're supposed to do. We have garbage bots, scouting bots, cleaning bots, beauty bots, umbrella bots, golf bots, security bots, welding bots. There's a bot for everything and every bot in its place.

It's the common bots we relate to. WALL-E is a cute little garbage collector, doing a thankless job on Earth and just wanting something more out of life. Isn't that almost everyone?

And EVE… well, EVE is a galactic scout. How many galactic scouts do you know? Exactly. She's exotic in appearance and behavior. And when the two team up and accidentally free the reject bots, it's a stampede of familiar bots that might actually exist in our lifetime that take over the hallways.

Actions

Programming Error

Now we're going to go against what we just said about the robots being defined by what they're supposed to do. What ends up defining all our main characters is what they choose not to do. Every single main robot character—WALL-E, EVE, and M-O—go against their pre-programmed directive. WALL-E follows EVE to find love. EVE tosses aside the plant (if only for a second) to save WALL-E. And M-O leaves his track to clean, clean, clean.

Even the human characters we root for defy their so-called programming. All the humans on the Axiom have been conditioned to be lazy slobs. But the Captain, John, and Mary all step away from their screens (the Captain even takes a dramatic actual step without his hoverchair) for love—either the love of Earth or the love of each other.

That leaves us the move villainous robots—AUTO and GO-4. They're the ones blindly following orders. Their stubborn nature leads GO-4 to an explosive end, and AUTO to being turned off permanently. If other robots can defy their directives, why can't they?

Speech and Dialogue

Because WALL-E is a cartoon, the voices of the characters are very important. In WALL-E it's not what they say (most of the dialogue consists of either "WALL-E!" or "EVE!" in various robot voices) but how they say it.

WALL-E's voice is charming, like an old talking toy (or a certain trash can from the 70s and 80s) if he could talk. EVE's voice is slick, like Scarlett Johansson's in Her spoken through a digital filter. The humans are voiced by well-known voice actors, like Jeff Garlin, Kathy Najimy (Peggy Hill), and John Ratzenberger, who is in every Pixar film ever.

The human voices evoke feelings of warmth and affection, which is the exact opposite of the robots who serve as antagonists in the story. GO-4 is a creepy little robot that simply beeps and hisses like a weasel when angry. And AUTO isn't even voiced by a human. Its voice comes from a Mac computer program called Macintalk. No wonder he's so cold and… robotic.