How 'Wall-E' Director Got Film's Idea At A Baseball Game

“Wall-E” is perhaps one of the most emotional and lovable animated movies of all time. The story about a trash compacting robot falling in love with Eve, a modern scanning robot, won universal acclaim and many even listed it as one of the most romantic movies ever made.

But what was the inspiration behind the film? How did the filmmaker get the idea of making a love story about two robots? Let’s find out what Andrew Stanton, director of the movie, has to say about these burning questions.

Speaking in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, the acclaimed filmmaker revealed that he always wanted to make a film about the last robot on Earth, but he did not know how to conceptualize it on the drawing board. He further added that he got the inspiration for making “Wall-E” by completely studying his friend’s “binoculars.”

Shedding light on that particular moment, Stanton noted that he was attending a baseball game with one of his pals and borrowed his binoculars. He started to make faces with them and this is when he got the inspiration for the film’s main character.

“I borrowed his binoculars and then I missed an entire inning just looking at them and starting to make them look happy and mad and sad. That cracked it open for me. That is pretty much what I did: I put binoculars on top of a trash compactor,” Stanton said.

Stanton further explained how he managed to get the voice for the trash compacting robot and revealed that he was lucky to work with iconic sound designer Ben Burtt, who was behind the voices of characters like R2-D2 and Darth Vader in the “Star Wars” franchise.

“I kept saying for about two years to my producer: ‘I need it like R2-D2.’ Finally, he said, ‘Why do not we just get the guy who did R2-D2?’”

The movie turned out to be a huge success for Stanton and Pixar. It received six Academy Award nominations and won Best Animated Feature. The film went on to become the Best Animated film at the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs.

The movie was regarded as the Best Movie of the 2000s by Time Magazine. It edged out movies like “Lord Of The Rings Trilogy,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” and “Avatar” to claim the top spot. It was also voted 29th out of 100 films regarded as the best of the 21st century by 177 critics around the world.