I just saw this film today and I found it to be the one of the strangest animated films I have ever seen. This is good by the way. It is nice to see a film that it so daringly different. However, there is something in particular that I just did not like about Wall-E. That has to do with Wall-E the robot himself; mainly his characterization. There were many robots in this film and I found that with most all of them, their design followed their function somehow. Almost as if the animators of this film had the Bauhaus on their minds. I found it remarkable. However, my issue with Wall-E has to do with his large Bambi-like dewey eyes. They seem so out of place for a robot whose directive is to collect trash. It became very bothersome to me. If his eyes were just two rounded cameras without the anthropomorphic qualities of human eyes, I would have had much more empathy for Wall-e as a character and as a machine. Late in the film, Wall-E comes face to face with a group of Wall-Rs. The later model machines did not have the mannered design that Wall-E had and I much preferred them. I was sitting there watching the film, hoping at least that there was a huge debate amongst the Pixar animators about this issue. The big men in charge won out. They were wrong as far as I am concerned. For me, the Incredibles is Pixar’s masterpiece…
Andrew Stanton actually got the idea for WALL-E’s eyes himself. He’s said so in multipule interviews. He actually got the idea when someone handed him a pair of binocular’s at a baseball game, and he started playing around with them, and seeing how he could make them look mad, or sad, and stuff like that. I believe that’s where the idea came about.
Personally, I love WALL-E’s eyes. The point is that he’s different from all the other robots, and I think his eyes showcased that. They gave him more personality, and I like that.
Yes, I understand the binocular reference. But it is interesting that Andrew Stanton took the binocular’s and he made them look sad or happy, whereas Wall-e’s eyes “are” sad or happy. The binoculars are subtle. Wall-e is blatant. His eyes were too big, too white, too human. A far cry from binoculars. Wall-e was way too anthropomorphic for me. That’s why is wasn’t even a slight surprise when he came back to life in the end. I’m not knocking the movie. Just this one aspect of Wall-e. I think the Wall-r’s were a better design concept.
“If his eyes were just two rounded cameras without the anthropomorphic qualities of human eyes, I would have had much more empathy for Wall-e as a character and as a machine.”
But that’s exactly what they were, it’s just that WALL-E had become so close to human his eyes took on a more human role.
You have to give a character some touch with humanity, no matter what they are, or the audience isn’t going to care about them.
Well I guess over time a machine made out of metal and used to collect trash can morph its eyes into being human. Darwin’s Evolution of the Species at work here.
Exactly. Like I said before, it was to show he was different from you average bot, and had in a sense become almost human. Just having typical robot eyes would have made it harder for people to relate to him, I think.
I’m not knocking your opinion, you’re allowed to have one. ^^; I just see why they took the direction they did with WALL-E’s character design, and I think it was a smart move.
…I was going to write something else, but I’m very tired right now. @_@
Well I guess its time to dig a grave for R2-D2.
I don’t know. I really liked his eyes. THey are just too adorable on a robot. BUt davidhunternyc, I can agree with your last sentence of the first post/
Actually, WALL-E’s eyes are quite functional. What are binoculars for? Focusing in and out, looking between different distances, fine tuning a vision, etc. and this is something a portable trash compactor left to clean up earth would most definately need. The only additions to WALL-E’s eyes that I do not think serve a truely purposeful function are the ‘eyelids’ but actually, one could even argue that they ARE in fact needed as ‘lense shields’. The coolest thing about WALL-E’s personable eyes is that they just look like camera lenses that move more than camera lenses usually do, but his move more and faster because he is a more advanced machine. So honestly, I very strongly disagree and besides- the fact that you dislike WALL-E’s eyes shouldn’t lower your opinion of the film as much as it seems to have.
Okay, firstly, MAJOR lack of spoiler tags here. So, please, please, PLEASE, if you’re going to say something that could spoil the movie for other users of PP, put spoiler tags around your quote! It isn’t that difficult.
Secondly, this is a difficult one. I see your point, david, as for WALL-E’s purpose, perhaps the eyes do seem a little out of place. But Pixar wanted people to be able to relate to WALL-E, and the eyes of a character are so important. One of the key successes of this film is that it seems as though everyone knows what he’s feeling, especially kids, and personally, I don’t find his eyes to be too out of place.
If you think about it, there might be more to his eyes than you think.
The fact night be that there are more components inside of the eyes than you realize. Other than that. There was a point that I noticed [spoil]when Wall-E sleeps…or hides, he puts the back of his eyes into the front, effectively collapsing his eyes down[/spoil] I think that there is more of a purpose to them than just being cute. [spoil]Sure he develops a personality and his eyes show that very well.[/spoil] But because of this, I don’t think that they aren’t efficient.
well people little kids enjoy pixar films because the characters are recognisable, his eyes are the way wall-e stands out to kids
Everyone is saying that the eyes have to be more human-like so people can relate to Wall-e. Like I said before, people related to R2-D2. Even the whites of Wall-e’s eyes are overdone to me. Maybe if the whites were the color of metal it would be better. Or just smaller binocular shapes. They seem so sweetly sacherine to me. Not the eyes of a trash collector. And the shape of real binoculars are formed for use in the hands. Wall-e’s eyes are not constantly being adjusted by human hands. Also, because of the overly cute factor, it has been impossible for me to get my adult guy friends to go see the movie. They loved the Incredibles but they are sitting this one out. Too cutesy for them. How many animated films are going to be made where the protagonist is this overtly cutesy thing. It is never ending. We are still living in a world of Hello Kitty and E.T. And of course, they can conquer all the ills in the world, past, present, and future.
Well WALL-E’s eyes aren’t meant to be binoculars, they are designed after binoculars, meant to work like binoculars- but obviously they are not actual binoculars placed on a stem and hotwired to the robot. His eyes are actually very simple- if they were complicated he would have eyes like EVE with very advanced mechanics- the fact that he has binocular-shaped eyes tells you that the humans designed him truely designed him to be purposeful and not pretty. But yes, those camera-shaft pupils did have to be dolled up just a bit to make WALL-E more relatable.
People like R2D2, but people don’t RELATE to R2D2. People think R2 is cute, but they don’t think “He’s just like me!” WALL-E had to have ‘human’-like eyes so that the audience could truely connect with him. The audience has to spend an hour and forty+ minutes with this little guy, and if his eyes were two dots on a metal frame, everyone would have walked out. If the movie was going to tell us that the robots would become more human-like than the humans, the robots had to be easily appealing. If WALL-E was not ‘cutesy’- no one would have liekd him the first time they saw him. They would have had to gain a taste for him as the movie progressed. With a film this short and with such little dialogue, that main character had to be appealing from the first second the audience set eye on him. Or should I say, with him. When the music stops and we really see him for the first time, those eyes are what keep us interested. In the end when he ‘loses his memory’, the audience can instantly tell that something is wrong because WALL-E’s eyes are so lifeless. Without this, there would have been no connection with the audience, that moment would have been completely lost.
The fact that your friends won’t go see WALL-E because it looks cute is not the film’s fault. PIXAR makes family films. Their movies appeal to the young and the old. This movie wasn’t made for you and your friends, it was made for everyone. Little kids couldn’t have enjoyed this film if WALL-E looked like an emotionless tin can. It isn’t just cool noises that bring WALL-E to life, it is a combination of his emotional eyes, antics and the sounds given him by the amazing sound designer. Subtract one of the three, and WALL-E isn’t WALL-E, he’s just some robot.
Look at the recent Transformers movie. Optimus Prime never had a mouth in the original cartoons, and yet they gave him a fully functional face for this movie. Why? Because without it, the audience wouldn’t have developed such a trust in his character. When people see something so far removed from the human form, they unconsciously label it as either inferior, untrustworthy, alien, evil, etc. Think about how people view snakes as opposed to how they view cats. Think about how most people feel about sharks as opposed to their pet dog. Sharks are stupid and evil, and their faces are ugly- right? Actually, sharks are remarkably intelligent, and they are not evil. If robots like Optimus Prime or WALL-E were not designed to look more human, people would unconsciously find them less appealing than other more humanoid robots they’ve seen.
So there’s a very long explanation for why WALL-E’s eyes are the way they are. 
Saying you don’t like WALL-E’s eyes because they are too cartoony or out of place is like saying you don’t like Nemo, because fish don’t talk, you don’t like Lightning McQueen, because cars don’t have eyes, you don’t like Remy, because rats don’t cook. It’s a caricature!!
WALL-E is an example of great character design, and his eyes have been shown to be true to their function while also making the character relatable.
No offense but if your friends don’t want to see WALL-E because of his eyes, or cus it’s cute, then that’s completely immature.
If WALL-E didn’t have those eyes, he’d be emotionless, I’m sure you’d also be complaining if he was super robotic, because you couldn’t relate to him, he’s better of “cute” than cold and heartless.
I’m actually somewhat surprised by this conversation, because when I watched the film I was very impressed with how these two cameras, with their complex mechanical design, which first off looked completely practical to me, were able to be manipulated by a robot with a metaphorical heart to appear human. The shiny, protective shield over them was probably the most brilliant design move, because it gave them a gloss that enable them to reflect Wall-E’s surroundings, and when these surroundings are space or the futuristic city, the eyes seem so alive. And in that sense you are right, they looked almost human, however, what I think you’re missing is that if you look closely you’ll see that they are actually designed very practically, and it’s only because of how Wall-E inherently manipulates them that they seem alive. The beauty of this is seen when Wall-E reboots and becomes lifeless, the eyes reveal the flatness of their inherent function. The complexity of their design is what allows them to be so well manipulated.
And btw, in regards to this being a family film and that being to cutesy for people to go see, I feel like mentioning that yes, this is appropriate for all ages, but that doesn’t mean it dumbs itself down for children. Children get a lot more than many people give them credit for, and Wall-E respects that by giving them a legitimate film. This isn’t a movie designed to babysit, it’s an art piece directed with passion and with legitimate emotional intent. Just because a child can enjoy a legitimately good film doesn’t suddenly make it below adults. This film is one of those unique films that everyone can digest, but perhaps means different things to different people, and is chock full of deeper messages. So, yes, it is immature to disregard this film because it’s rated G or looks like a kids film (which it’s not, it’s just a good film with childhood sensibilities, and that’s also part of its beauty.)
You really captured the essence of what Wall-E really is, its not only the practicality of the design with his eyes being one of his features. But how he controls them to become more human. He developed that over time. The look [spoil]at the end of the film[/spoil] has more of the feel of what is the original Wall-E figure.
As for the cutsey, I would also claim that if you aren’t going to see this film because of it being rated G or because it looks like a kids film is a very shallow remark. I know plenty of people that wanted to go see this movie, not because they had kids, but because the characture is something that made you want to see the movie. Watching the movie also really showed how its MUCH deeper than what a kids movie should feel like. It doesn’t babysit, I saw kids and adults glued to the screen all the same. Not because they had to, but because they wanted to. This is a film for all ages to enjoy. I will gladly show this to my kids when I have them and still enjoy every minute of this film.
Apparently, I am the only one on this thread who doesn’t like Wall-E’s eyes. Oh well. But to say that Pixar had to make his eyes cute, or more human like to make the audience relate to Wall-e is just plain old pandering. What, is the audience stupid? Can we not demand of ourselves to stretch a little? Its not like Pixar would be asking the audience to tackle Picasso. We do not know what would have happened if Pixar made Wall-E look more like a trash collecting robot rather than E.T. covered in metal. I am sure that Star Wars followers would defend Jar Jar Binks too. So fish can talk. Fine. But those big sappy eyes. Sorry. For me. No. It seems that everyone could relate to the Incredibles, and not one of them in the family looked like Hello Kitty.
Thanks for saving me a lot of typing, ominousorb. You took almost every word out of my mouth!
Well, while everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, I don’t think that Wall-E’s “cute” eyes were intended to insult the audience’s intelligence. The first thing that they will teach you in Cartooning 101 is that expression is all in the eyes. Draw a simple face with a smile. This represents happy. Put a diagonal line from higher to lower and you get an evil/plotting face. Put a diagonal line from lower to higher, and you get a sort of relieved face. Put a horizontal line on each of the eyes and you get sort of an “I’m tired” face. We got a wide range of emotions just by changing the positions of the eyelids on the character.
When you have a character who can’t talk, and has extremely limited body motion (thus canceling out body language), the eyes are really the only way to communicate with the viewer. Plus, the eyes help differentiate Wall-E from the other trash collecting robots. He has a personality, and he’s not afraid to show it.
My two cents. Don’t stone me 