Pixar is known to fill their films with fun easter eggs and WALL-E is no different. Here are some of the things you probably missed:
The Pizza Planet Truck: The truck has appeared in every Pixar movie since Toy Story (although its pretty hard to find in The Incredibles as its pretty much a blur in a car sequence). “The Pizza Planet actually has a very obvious shot, it’s just probably so quick people aren’t paying attention to it.” The truck can be found in the first 20-minutes of the film as EVE scans the truck as part of her “directive”. It’s really big, almost the full frame on screen.
Hammy: The character John Ratzenberger voiced in Toy Story appeats in WALL-E’s truck. See the photo below, Hammy can be found right to the left of EVE’s head.
A113: What started as an inside joke of CalArts alumni (a reference to the classroom number that was used by Animation students) has been present in not only every Pixar film, but Disney movies, Iron Giant, The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, Powerpuffgirls and Tinytoon Adventures. “A-113 is obvious in this film,” Stanton told /Film. “It’s the most obvious we’ve ever made it.” In Wall-E, A-113 is actually part of Auto Pilot’s “directive” outlined by BuyNLarge CEO Shelby Forthright’s (Fred Willard) video recording. “Directive A-113” is also one of the tracks composed by Thomas Newman for the WALL-E soundtrack.
2001: Auto Pilot is an obvious homage to Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
John Ratzenberger: Pixar considers the actor to be a “good luck charm”, and Pixar actually has a rule stating that Ratzenberger must be in all of the studio’s films. “John Ratzenberger is probably pretty obvious,” Stanton told /Film. And he is. John Ratzenberger voices one of the few human characters in the film, not so coincidentally named “John”.
Apple: Pixar’s history with Apple is a long one. Steve Jobs, who co-founded Apple with Steve Wozniak, bought The Graphics Group (later renamed Pixar) from Lucasfilm’s computer graphics division in 1986, and served as CEO until Pixar was acquired by Disney in 2006. Apple has been featured in previous Pixar productions like on the hood of one of the race cars in Cars. There are several references to Apple in WALL-E, the most obvious is when WALL-E watches Hello Dolly on an older video iPod. Also, when WALL-E is done charging he makes the Mac startup chime.
Eve was actually designed by Apple’s behind-the-scenes design guru Johnny Ive, the guy responsible for the design of the iPod. Andrew Stanton told Fortune: “I wanted Eve to be high-end technology - no expense spared - and I wanted it to be seamless and for the technology to be sort of hidden and subcutaneous. The more I started describing it, the more I realized I was pretty much describing the Apple playbook for design.” Auto’s voice is the creation of MacTalk, Apple’s text-to-speach program. An old mac keyboard can also be found in WALL-E’s truck (photo below)
Button: A BuyNLarge advertising jingle can be found at the conclusion of the credits, right after the Walt Disney Pictures logo is displayed.
Orange Caution Cones: The Orange Cones from Toy Story can be found all over abandoned earth, and inside WALL-E’s truck. See photo below.
Skinner’s Scooter: The scooter Skinner used in Ratatouille can be found in the trashpile early in the film. See photo above.
BURN-E: The DVD release of WALL-E will include a short film would be “very connected to WALL-E.” Pixar has done this in past releases with Mike’s Car on Monster’s Inc, Jack Jack Attack on The Incredibles, Mater and The Ghostlight with Cars, and Your Friend The Rat on Ratatouille. The short film on WALL-E will be titled BURN-E. In the feature film there is a sequence where Eve and WALL-E fly around the Axiom Starliner, and enter through a door locking a poor welder bot on the outside of the ship. The bot bangs his fists against the door after he realizes that he has been locked out. You can watch a clip of the sequence here. Apparently the welder bot is actually named BURN-E, complete with a logo on the side of his head. If I were to guess, I would say the short film will follow BURN-E on his journey to break back into the Axiom.
Hidden Mickey: A subtle formation of a silhouette of the head of Mickey Mouse and his two ears can be found in many Disney films. In The Incredibles, when Mr. Incredible was launched off the airplane to the island, several trees on top of a hill form a hidden Mickey. In WALL-E, a hidden Mickey can be found in the background of a scene on earth (seen above on the upper left corner)
Crush the Turtle: Finding Nemo’s Crush the Turtle can be seen in the animated credit sequence.
Incredible Humans?: /Film reader T-Mack writes: “During one of the introductions to the sedentary humans, there is a Sigurney Weaver voice-over detailing cool new fashions - where a quick shot of a billboard featuring three thin models in red jumpsuits appears. The models are uncannily done in a style similar to The Incredibles, with one of the models looking very much like Mr. Incredible.”
Rex: /Film reader Alex saw the Rex the dinosaur toy from Toy Story can be seen in WALL-E’s truck. /Film reader RageTreb confirms “He’s pretty obvious– seen on one of the first shelves seen in WALL-E’s truck at the beginning of the movie. He’s behind few other items, but it’s a close-up so he’s hard to miss.”
Bird from Bug’s Life: Alex from FirstShowing says the bird from A Bug’s Life appears in the animated ending credit sequence.
And these are only the easter eggs that we have found so far. Find any WALL-E easter eggs? Post them in the comments!
June 27th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
During one of the introductions to the sedentary humans, there is a Sigurney Weaver voice-over detailing cool new fashions - where a quick shot of a billboard featuring three thin models in red jumpsuits appears. The models are uncannily done in a style similar to The Incredibles, with one of the models looking very much like Mr. Incredible.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
If I was not mistaken, early in the film, in Wall-E’s place, there was a dusty Rex toy, from Toy Story.
Also, during the end credits, was that the turtle and Nemo from Finding Nemo?
June 27th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
I also saw Rex. He’s pretty obvious– seen on one of the first shelves seen in WALL-E’s truck at the beginning of the movie. He’s behind few other items, but it’s a close-up so he’s hard to miss.
June 27th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Not seeing the hidden Mickey at all. Can you outline?
June 27th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
I have added a blow-up of the hidden mickey
June 27th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
I saw the Rex too. He was super rusty and dusty… but it made my heart smile, as do all these other things.
How deliberate do you think the orange caution cones and the moped are?
June 28th, 2008 at 12:37 am
There (like most movies) were a few Star Wars sound effects involved. One I can remember explicitly is the sound as the huge doors burst open when the big trash robots were dumping stuff off of the Axiom.
I also swore I saw a Buzz Lightyear blanket/curtain/towel hanging on the far wall in the left rear of Wall-E’s truck house. It was definitely blueish and looked like Andy’s Buzz bedspread from Toy Story.
June 28th, 2008 at 4:21 am
I loved the Mac startup!! When I first heard it, it took me awhile to realize that it was a Mac SFX. That was the best! lol
June 28th, 2008 at 6:03 am
I think you’re stretching with that hidden Mickey.
June 28th, 2008 at 6:22 am
The mirror from Presto is in Wall-e’s truck.
June 28th, 2008 at 8:57 am
You also have the Close Encounters tune when Eve meets WALL-E
June 28th, 2008 at 9:32 am
I haven’t seen the movie yet but the picture you have of Auto Pilot looks a lot like “Max,” the “robot” aboard the alien spaceship in “Flight of the Navigator.” … Which, if I remember correctly, reminds the 12 year old boy (David?) that he can use the “Auto Pilot” to fly the space craft.
June 28th, 2008 at 11:22 am
I like pixars movies a lot.
Where is hidden Mickey ???
June 28th, 2008 at 11:37 am
I caught this at the last minute, not saying that it is, but when EVE messes up the tape with Hello Dolly on it, Wall-E gets this thing to wind the tape back up and it looked like it was in the shape of R2-D2, and I thought well it would make sense cause of Ben Burtt, but it was all white, I need to see it again to make sure.
June 28th, 2008 at 11:42 am
In Wall-e’s truck you can see a red unicycle. This is a reference to one of Pixar’s first shorts titled “Red’s dream.”
June 28th, 2008 at 11:46 am
I spotted Mike from Monsters Inc. in Wall-E’s home not too far from the beginning, I believe he was in the form of an antenna topper.
June 28th, 2008 at 11:46 am
When Wall-E enters space and strikes the satellites, you can see that one of them is clearly Sputnik.
June 28th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Here’s somethin that I noticed.. when wall-e is breaking through the atmosphere and going into space.. the round satellite on his face is sputnik.. the very first satellite ever to be launched in space by the russians.. am i wrong… ???
June 28th, 2008 at 11:53 am
dang i just now spotted kelseys comment.. sorry.. :( .. should have read the comments.. :(
June 28th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Is it just me or do Wall-e’s eyes resemble the binoculars from toy story?
June 28th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
It kind of looks like Wall-E picks up and tosses a Piston Cup (from Cars) when hes cleaning up trash at the beginning.
June 28th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
I thought the HAL homage was more with the binary typing robot Wall-E teaches to wave when he goes up to the bridge on the elevator with EVE. The giant red eye that types on a giant binary keyboard (I laughed pretty hard to this part, and I think I was the only one who noticed).
June 28th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
So, we know that the legendary Ben Burtt did the sound effects for this movie, and he uses the “Wilhelm scream” in every movie he does. So it must be in there somewhere.
I saw the movie twice yesterday (once on a work outing, once with my wife) and was listening for it both times, but I couldn’t spot it. But I’d be willing to bet that Burtt camouflaged it with electronic processing. The hunt is on!
Also, a modified version of the Atari logo appeared on the side of a skyscraper in one of the early scenes on earth.
June 28th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
@Justin - yeah, there were definitely star wars effects. One that I’m 99% sure I heard was when WALL-E first saw the laser dot from eve’s ship, and made a sound that seemed a lot like on of R2’s chirps.
June 28th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
and there was probably at least one wilhelm scream in the movie
June 28th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I was the only guy in the theater who laughed out loud when the captain took his first steps and the music was 2001 a space odyssey, the music from the scene with the apes. I also laughed every time he rebooted, made me miss my G3.
June 28th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
What about the Macbook that WALL-E destroys releasing all the faulty robots.
June 28th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Anyone who attemtps to watch the “WALL-E BONUS Movie” will have their computer infected by ‘Win32/Burgspill!generic’.
June 28th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
During the scene where the ship is being turned on it’s side and the line “Get ready to have some kids” (or something like that) the first baby in the pile appeared to be the baby from the incredibles/the short with the baby. I swear I saw it, but I haven’t seen anyone else talking about it so lets see if anyone else can see it also.
June 28th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
The tree from “A Bug’s Life” also appears in the credits.
June 28th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Oh … and as the image of the tree scrolls upwards in the credits, you can see the root system, with the ant colony tunnels.
June 28th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
I’m pretty sure I saw a label for “Binary Load Lifter” on the side of equipment at one point, but it was off the screen before my brain had fully processed it.
Another Star Wars homage was an entire scene of Wall-e on Earth that was very similar to R2-D2 wandering in the rocky area on Tatooine (shortly before getting zapped by Jawas). Even the musical score was similar at this point.
June 28th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
The Mac chime explains why Wall-e was still operational after 700 years.
The other units had Vista installed. (kidding)
June 28th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I’m a pretty deep Mac guy, so only similar people might notice..
I could swear that the truck door opening noise was taken from Marathon 2/infinity…
June 28th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
The single red eye of the auto pilot is HAL’s eye from 2001
June 28th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
The singing trout in WALL-E’s home sang “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” probably a reference to the Bobby McFerrin soundtrack of Pixar’s “Knick Knack” short.
June 28th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Also, I’d be willing to bet that the circuit boards EVE finds for WALL-E are actual circuit boards from iconic devices, but it would take a serious nerd to figure that one out…
June 28th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Another classic Apple reference::
When Wall-E falls into the trash shoot, a bunch of really old (single click) Apple mice swarm around him on the trash pile!
June 28th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Hey, did anyone happen to notice the Star Ball that appears in every Pixar movie. I was looking for it, but then got distracted by the movie itself. Tis really a great movie.
June 28th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
The reason that his cockroach friend hid in a “KREMIE” (a.k.a Twinkie) was a reference to the joke that both twinkies and cockroaches are the only thing that will survive a nuclear holocaust.
June 28th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
when wall-e is trying to wake eve up and they’re sitting on top of an old metal box/building/machine… it says “h-ell” something.. don’t get the significance except for perhaps the condition of the planet in it’s current state?
June 28th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
One of my friends pointed out that the red tracker laser beams that were used to control things was basically the same weapon Syndrome used in Incredibles. Remember his plan was to sell all his technology, so maybe Syndrome works for BnL. Odd thought, but the technology definitely is the same. The only difference was the beam is red in WALL•E and blue in Incredibles.
June 28th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Did anyone notice like in the first 20 mins into the movie they showed the Leopard OSX wallpaper?
I know its pretty obvious!
June 28th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Also, Auto is the MacinTalk voice called Ralph, and the cleaner bot uses Fred.
June 28th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
@jproductions17
That might be significant in relation to the whole “You’ve loved red, why not try blue!” thing.
June 28th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
I thought the light going around Eve’s neck resembled the loading circle on a Mac, but so far, I am the only one who has thought so…
June 28th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Is everyone totally forgetting the biggest reference of all? WALL-E is clearly based off of JOHNNY-5 from Short Circuit!!!
June 28th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
There’s a point where WALL-E is loading stuff into his lunch basket where you see a bottle of Leak Less brand oil - which was one of the race car sponsors in “Cars”.
June 28th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
@Azar
I didn’t even think about that. If Pixar planned all of that, genius! If we’re just looking too much into it, doesn’t matter its still pretty cool.
June 28th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Take out the W in Wall-E and turn the E backwards makes A-113
June 28th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Just to add to the 2001 references, when we first meet the captain (I’m pretty sure thats the scene) The Blue Danube is playing, which plays when Heywood Floyd is flying in space in the beginning of the future sequence (or whatever you want to call the one right after the apes).
And about HAL/Auto Pilot, they don’t only resemble each other, but have the play the same part of following secret orders that actually harm those the main mission is helping. Also the A-113 protocol video is like the hidden orders tape that plays when Dave disconnects HAL.
Also were they calling the Auto pilot Otto or did it just sound like that to me? Because in Airplane don’t the call the auto pilot Otto?
June 28th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Ya, stretching w/ the Mickey…
Almost all the Disney posters have hidden Mickey’s too…
June 28th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Dont forget wall-e Startup sound which is the apple startup sound
June 28th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
I think that there is another Apple easter egg not listed here. When EVE “kissed” WALL-E out in space (or whatnot) I believe the Apple SFX “Glass” was used. Not sure though
June 28th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Sputnik made a apperence as WALL•E flew out on the spaceship.
June 28th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Peter S.: I think you have made an incredible exaggeration of just how closely involved Ive was in the design of EVE. You move beyond what the interview says happened, and write:
“Eve was actually designed by Apple’s behind-the-scenes design guru Johnny Ive.”
I saw the film tonight and noticed a “Special thanks” to Ive, but I cannot find anything online that attributes design to him. Can you confirm an actual design credit?
June 28th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Not sure if there’s an in-depth significance, but there were several times through out the movie that Wall•E reminded me of E.T.
June 28th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
@Moheeb Zara
Definitely based off Johnny-5. Did you notice they both carry lunch pails around on their backs?
Also, in the credits the art begins with cave drawings, followed by hieroglyphics, and then continues on through through the years to Monet-esque and Van Gogh-esque art. Especially evident with the sunflowers.
June 28th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
at the beginning when walle is chasing eve [in the stretcher thing]in the space traffic i’m pretty sure one of the yellow scream/laugh boxs used in monsters inc. drives by just before he runs onto th traffic
sent from: fav.or.it [FID349647]
June 28th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
@Rob: The fried circuit board EVE pulls out of WALL-E looks an awful lot like an AGP-era graphics card. I didn’t get a long enough look at the assorted boards she grabs from the trash heap but they all looked a little familiar.
Also, when the humans are all getting the “contamination bubble” helmets and being wheeled from their quarters, the leftmost door in one shot is numbered 117. Could be a small Halo reference, or just a random number…
June 28th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
I can confirm a Sputnik-like satellite as well. Odd that it would make an appearance since Sputnik burned up long ago.
June 28th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
intresting.
June 28th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
I see the binocular and the Johnny-5 similarities, also thought how E is the 5th letter in the alphabet.
June 28th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
that mention of Hammy is incorrect. it is just a normal ceramic piggy bank with the makeup on. i had my eye on it the whole time.
June 28th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
New Easter Egg(?):
During the scene where Wall E first enters “traffic”, one of the robots in the road says something to Wall E angrily. The word he says is distorted because it’s a robot voice, but I swear it said “asshole”. Did anyone else hear this?
June 28th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
“Don’t Worry Be Happy” might be referencing Knick-knack, but that sounds like a huge stretch to me. It’s one of two songs that the real Billy Bass sings. See for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTVXfCbos-o
In his Onion AV club interview, Stanton cops to HAL as the Auto Pilot, but denies basing Wall-E on Johnny 5.
June 28th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
@Ralph:
It’s even the screenshot above -
F11 on your Leopard and you’ll see the same wallpaper :)
June 28th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Oops, img tag didn’t work. But you’ll see the Leopard wallpaper in the Eve image in the post.
June 28th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
@Bradon
holy shit dude i thought I was the only one who noticed that… still not sure of that cleaning bot said asshole but it sounded really close to it…
June 28th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
When WALL-E first leaves the docking bay and enters that hallway with all of the robots moving really fast, I think I saw Sally from Cars drive by with them really fast.
June 28th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Terry Gilliam’s film Brazil is also referenced early on. WALL-E watches Hello Dolly on an ipod using a magnifying screen similar to those seen in Brazil. (using the criss-cross style extenders). Additionally, the early trailers for the film used Michael Kamen’s famous “typewriter” score because Kamen did the score for the Incredibles and was set to do this score before his death in 2005.
Additionally, towards the end of the film, the captain makes an “all hands” call to the ship and the whistle sound effect is the same that all the Star Trek’s used for the same calls. In all fairness though, it’s a pretty standard Naval whistle.
June 28th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Ya, a confirmation to the Incredibles “zero point energy” thing.
Also, much of the plot was allegorical to the story of Noah and the ark in the Bible. Noah sent out various ravens, doves until one returned with a sprig from a tree. And this meant that the flood is over and they could “go home” back to living on the Earth’s surface, instead of a ship. I haven’t had an English course in a while, but this is definitely allegorical, whether intentionally or coincidentally.
June 28th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
If we are just picking out any movie and TV references, let’s not forget that the small evil purser robot on the Axiom was called “Gopher”. Fred Grandy played Gopher in “The Love Boat”.
Fred also became a Congressman in 1986. Just another actor turned politician.
June 29th, 2008 at 12:30 am
This may be a bit far, but for a part of the movie Wall E was going around with a few towels on his head. Perhaps a reference to Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?
June 29th, 2008 at 12:53 am
I saw Flounder from The Little Mermaid in WALLE’s collection
June 29th, 2008 at 1:31 am
I thought the Sputnik appearance was funny… and then I was puzzled, too… since it’ dropped from orbit only months after it was sent up.
Then I realized its presence in the film is a historical homage as much as a joke. During the production of *THIS* particular PIXAR film, NASA’s 50th Anniversary of the Space Age commemoration began on October 4th, 2007, the 50th anniversary of Sputnik’s launch into orbit.
http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/SpaceAge/
As far as homages go, this was more than appropriate. It was essential. After all, no Sputnik = no WALL-E !!
June 29th, 2008 at 1:55 am
Lots of Hitchhiker’s Guide references in this. Especially the vapid obese Golgafrinchans in their spaceship tastefully decorated with “Hessian wall weave” (whatever that is) who crash-land on an uninhabited Earth and wander around slowly learning to be practical. The cheery useless captain and the reference to “the ship’s jogging track” have to be intentional nods.
June 29th, 2008 at 2:03 am
I don’t remember hearing the Glass alert sound in the film. Instead, I distinctly heard the Ping sound.
The voice credit for Otto/Auto is given as MacInTalk (not MacTalk) and is essentially the OS X voice called Ralph… perhaps with a few rough edges thrown in for good measure.
Ralph has been telling me the time every 15 minutes for almost 6 years, so I know him well. My friends and family have said all along that his voice is “creepy”. LOL!
June 29th, 2008 at 3:09 am
According to interviews, Jonathon Ive didn’t actually help much on the design of Eve. He only came in for one day, and didn’t say much.
June 29th, 2008 at 3:26 am
BEN BURTT: the Wilhelm Scream it’s definitely not in WALL-E.
[via http://www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_14930.html
June 29th, 2008 at 3:36 am
The toaster in Wall-E’s truck really reminded me of the one from the Brave Little Toaster. Probably wouldn’t have thought that if I hadn’t heard several Pixar teammembers had worked on that movie, but I wonder if recognizable CG versions of the other appliances can be found in the junk as well?
June 29th, 2008 at 4:14 am
@annie
The picture of EVE in the article with the default 10.5 background behind her isn’t a scene taken from the movie; it is an image created by Maximilian Larsson, who created a set of icons for Adium. Check it out at http://mxmln.blogspot.com/2008/04/wall-e-eve-adium-icon.html
June 29th, 2008 at 5:04 am
Did everyone miss the pong score reference to the year of the first Pixar movie (Toy Story 1995)?
June 29th, 2008 at 6:40 am
Although I never saw it in the movie, I kept wondering if one of the cubes of garbage would have the eyeball from Boo’s costume sticking out of it like the compressed cube in Monster’s Inc.
June 29th, 2008 at 7:29 am
I saw a Dinoco lighter in among the BnL lighters in his box.
June 29th, 2008 at 7:51 am
As a bit of historicity it might be appropriate that Wall-E was trying to play pong with EVE, as that is a direct reference to Steve Jobs and Steve Wosniak who worked on the home version of Atari’s Pong.
June 29th, 2008 at 7:56 am
Wall-e’s reboot sound is from the Apple IIc / cx desktops from the late 80s.
June 29th, 2008 at 8:25 am
Eve! Eve Is the EGG.
June 29th, 2008 at 8:51 am
@Matt: “Additionally, the early trailers for the film used Michael Kamen’s famous “typewriter” score because Kamen did the score for the Incredibles and was set to do this score before his death in 2005.”
Giachinno did the score for the Incredibles.
June 29th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Why are we calling the piggy bank character from Toy Story “Hammy”? His name was “Hamm”.
June 29th, 2008 at 9:43 am
@Alec-Kzam,
I’ve never heard an Apple ][ start up. WALL-E sounded like Mac OS X to me.
June 29th, 2008 at 10:46 am
BURN*E the robot that got locked outside…reminded me of Fred Flinstone pounding on the door after getting locked outside by his pet Dino.
June 29th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Did anyone else think that the scene when they first approach axiom was at all similar to the opening credits of Star Trek Deep Space Nine?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsOE73pxpys
June 29th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
@Brandon
Yes! I absolutely heard him say that, it might have been muffled, garbled, but thats what i heard as well. Maybe we just expected to hear it but…
June 29th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
In traditional logic, an axiom or postulate is a proposition that is not proved or demonstrated but considered to be self-evident. Therefore, its truth is taken for granted, and serves as a starting point for deducing and inferring other (theory dependent) truths.
also axiom is an audio company.
June 29th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
“….Also, in the credits the art begins with cave drawings, followed by hieroglyphics, and then continues on through through the years to Monet-esque and Van Gogh-esque art. Especially evident with the sunflowers.”
to continue with this I would note that Wall-e is then rendered in 8-bit graphics that were found on the early atari games, thus catching up with how stories are now being illustrated by humans - the birth of digital story telling - ala PIXAR.
June 29th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Wally B! Anyone remember “Andre and Wally B”? I believe it was John Lasseter’s first project at pixar - in the mid 80’s, when it was still part of lucasfilms. Well, Wally B is breifly shown flying around in the closing credits. “Wally B” is a bee. http://www.pixar.com/shorts/awb/index.html
June 29th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Another Pizza Planet reference - the ship that delivers Eve to Earth (and then takes Wall-E and Eve to Axiom) is shaped exactly like the plastic rocket on top of the Pizza Planet Delivery truck.
June 29th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Another reference to the film Brazil is greeter a desk along with the elevator…
June 29th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Did anyone else notice that in the videos where Fred Willard is speaking as the president, his head obscures the “Buy ‘n Large” seal behind him in just such a way that the letters “BU” and “RGE” stand out pretty plainly for most of the scenes. It seems obvious to me that this was quite intentional, however a Google search turned up only two other individuals suggesting this observation. But I’m so sure of the intention that I’d go so far as to suggest that the name “Buy ‘n Large” was picked specifically so that “BUsh geoRGE” could be plainly highlighted in those scenes. Sort of goes against Lasseter’s statement that there were no intended political statements in this film.
June 29th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Dave S., no offense, but that’s REALLY stretching to try to find an anti-Bush “statement” in the film.
June 29th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
I might be imagining things but when Wall-E is following EVE on Earth, I thought the music sounded like a score from Raiders of the Lost Arc.
June 29th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Is it just me or does AUTO have an uncanny resemblence to GLaDOS from Portal?
June 29th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
The main character is also an homage to Woody Allen, whose eyes look like his and is cleverly named:
W(oody) ALL-E(n)
June 29th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
@Nathanael B.
“The fried circuit board EVE pulls out of WALL-E looks an awful lot like an AGP-era graphics card. I didn’t get a long enough look at the assorted boards she grabs from the trash heap but they all looked a little familiar. ”
I only seen the sequence briefly but when the cards came up I did get a laugh. I have seen them before. One of them (sort of triangle with a trailing strip) is either a modem or 10 mbits network card. I have to double check and I think I still have one around : )
June 29th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
that is NOT hammy beside eve’s head, its a piggy bank, i was waiting for it the whole movie and when i saw it, i was disappointed because it has big blue eyes and lipstick on
June 29th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
When Eve blows a hole through the ceiling of the trash warehouse near the end, the sound of her laser and the explosion is straight out of star wars.
June 30th, 2008 at 12:53 am
The pod EVE tries to sent WALL-E back to Earth in looks an awful lot like the pods from 2001.
I might be stretching on this one, but the scene where EVE and WALL-E get back into Axiom looks like the scene in the original Star Wars when the Millenium Falcon lands on the Death Star.
Anyone else notice any any shots that were homages to other famous sci-fi movie shots?
June 30th, 2008 at 1:00 am
@Nick
That’s funny.
June 30th, 2008 at 7:04 am
In the first part of the movie when Wall-E is driving back to the truck he’s made his home, he rolls over some posters that are on the ground that appeared to have the Monsters Inc logo on them.
June 30th, 2008 at 9:08 am
I saw what I thought was a very obscure Star Wars reference towards the end of the movie. When the Autopilot was electrocuting Wall-E, they cut to a shot of the police robot and he was silently staring at Wall-E almost exactly like Vader stares at Luke when the Emperor is shooting electric bolts at him in ROTJ. I didn’t see any other reason for that shot. I half expected it to grab the Autopilot and toss it down the trash chute.
June 30th, 2008 at 9:43 am
@Watts - I think Dave’s point is right on — one of Willard’s lines when he’s staying in front of the podium is “stay the course” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stay_the_course)
June 30th, 2008 at 9:52 am
@wade: “I might be stretching on this one, but the scene where EVE and WALL-E get back into Axiom looks like the scene in the original Star Wars when the Millenium Falcon lands on the Death Star.”
I think I noticed this too, but I wasn’t sure if it was just coincidental or intentional. Seems like it could be either, actually…
June 30th, 2008 at 10:00 am
When WALL-E and EVE go down the trash chute and almost get pushed out, you’ll notice that the large machines pushing them out are WALL-A, presumably standing for Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Axiom.
June 30th, 2008 at 10:12 am
When Eve’s rocket blasts off the 1st time from Earth…I thought I saw an Apple logo on one of the engine pods/tail fins….
sent from: fav.or.it [FID369982]
June 30th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Not sure if anyone else recognized (or remembers!) this, but at the moment wall-e is trying to get out of the escape pod thats about to self destruct, when he pushes all the buttons and the escape pod deploys all of its functons (i.e. rubber dinghy, flags, etc.), it seemed strikingly similar to a scene in The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine during the Sea of Monsters, as they attempt to save Ringo…
June 30th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
@SoCalian - Funny you should mention that because I thought the sequence when Wall-E is on the ship leaving earth a couple of the shots looked very similar to the Star Trek: Voyager opening sequence (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXCP6lJkDZU)
June 30th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
the bright florescent lines that the robots hover over on the axiom reminded me of tron.
June 30th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
During the “hard turn” sequence on the Axiom, I’m pretty sure that there were a few shots mimicking shots from “Titanic”. I’m thinking in particular when the stern has gone vertical, and people are starting to fall…
June 30th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Another reference to add — on Eve’s neck underneath her head, there is an animation that looks like the gray bars that light-up and chase eachother when a mac boots up or is processing.
June 30th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
For all those interested in the Gilliam/Brazil connection, please Netflix the 1943 Busby Berkeley war flick “The Gang’s All Here” for the ultimate source.
June 30th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
There is NO hidden Mickey. Why is it any time two or more circles appear next to each other someone wants to call it a “hidden mickey.” Unless the animators did it on purpose — which is really doubtful in this instance — it is NOT a hidden Mickey.
June 30th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Ahhh, so WALL-E is “Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth”? I thought the big ones were WALL-R, but I didn’t get a good look and WALL-A makes more sense.
June 30th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
When Eve reprograms Wall-e at the end of the film, a Flounder toy is in one of the bins. It can be seen very clearly. You can also see it near the beginning of the film too.
June 30th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Does anybody know what Fred Willard is doing in a Pixar flick? I mean, isn’t he the first ever non-animated character they’ve included? Was it really necessary? Why would Pixar spoil their record like this?
June 30th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
@NotMickey - Of course the hidden Mickey is on purpose! It’s not like they just happened to shoot Wall-E in front of that trash pile, and the trash pile happened to have something resembling a hidden Mickey. All of it is put there by someone — someone had to decide that the hidden Mickey needed to be there.
June 30th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Wall-E looks like a robot ET and also has very similar characteristics and coloring
June 30th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Jake spotted it up above, but he didn’t know exactly when it happens: Mike from Monsters’ Inc appears on a stick (maybe one of those things you put over the eraser of a pencil) behind and screen right of Wall-E when he’s waking up all drowsy in the beginning before he moves off the shelf.
June 30th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Wall-E looks exactly like Johnny 5 from the Short Circuit movies with the exception of his trash compacting midsection. I noticed it when he adjusts his new eye in his home.
June 30th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
No offense, but you might spell-check your article before posting it.
June 30th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Maybe I just imagined it since I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere else, but there was a brief scene in the Axiom where a trash vehicle tipped away from camera to dump its load down a garbage chute. I could have sworn it was filled with the little green aliens from the claw game in Toy Story.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
I think that Hidden Mickey belongs in the “Wishful Thinking” file.
However, I’m pretty sure the dummy Wall E builds for Eve, uses Luxo Jr as an arm.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Dave S.,
Like you, I took the letters “BU” and “RGE,” rearranged them, and added a few more of my own letters that I pulled out of nowhere, and discovered a subliminal message. Only for me it said, “Dave S’s theories about this movie are completely ridiculous and he’s only going to see an anti-Bush message here if he stretches his imagination to it’s furthest limits and makes on up himself.”
Weird, huh?
June 30th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
No Wilhelm? Sadness.
June 30th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Those interested in the “BU” & “RGE” conspiracy theory, check out the TED talk by Rives who “does 8 minutes of lyrical origami, folding history into a series of coincidences surrounding that most surreal of hours, 4 o’clock in the morning.”
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/rives_on_4_a_m.html
Be prepared to laugh.
June 30th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
In the scene where Wall E first enters robot-traffic,a robot transport the monster inc yellow screams containers
June 30th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
@Brandon: It sounds to me like the robot says something more like “aflac”, or “aak-aak”. It didn’t quite sound like hidden profanity to my ears :P
June 30th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Wall-e’s circuit board is blue, like a Mac’s.
June 30th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
It just occurred to me that EVE is related to the Automator icon in OS X. Anyone looked at the Automator icon closely? Same head as EVE, perhaps not as evolved as EVE, but definitely related.
June 30th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
What, no one’s mentioned the Luxo Jr. lamp in Wall-E’s abode?
June 30th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Fun time waster. I also noticed that the large trash compactors were Wall-A. When the two were side to side, you get “Walla Walla.” I think that’s the joke/reference. Maybe we are reading too much into this. Anyway, great movie by Pixar. They’ve done again.
July 1st, 2008 at 12:25 am
One of the things Wall-E encounters early in the film is a white bobble-head dog that looks just like Bolt from the preview of the movie of the same name (I don’t remember if Bolt was in a trashpile or in Wall-E’s truck, but he’s there).
July 1st, 2008 at 3:16 am
You sad bunch of saddo freaks
July 1st, 2008 at 6:38 am
soooo it says that the pizza truck has been in every pixar movie…and i know where it is in both toystories, and finding nemo, and now in wall-e, however..where is it in ratatoulli??
July 1st, 2008 at 7:10 am
@amanda:
The Pizza Planet truck drive across a bridge that was ‘way off in the background while Skinner was chasing Remy through the foreground while riding on that scooter.
That and loads more Pixar easter eggs here:
http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/jim_hill/archive/2007/12/09/a-special-where-s-wall-e-edition-of-why-for.aspx##
July 1st, 2008 at 8:35 am
Always wondered where they get these specific screen shots so soon after a movie premiered. Request frames from company PR? Take pictures at the theater? Though some of them look a bit too clear for that.
July 1st, 2008 at 8:46 am
Okay, so this is a really hard one to see.
If you look at EVE very closely, between her head and her neck (body), you can see this circular light on the edge of the top of her body (around the neck). It’s on the edge, going in circles, but it’s not a fully connected circle, but it’s a dotted circle, but dotted as in a short vertical line that completes a circle.
This is the same as when you boot up Mac OS X. Where you boot up and your in the gray screen area with the Apple logo. On the bottom of the Apple logo, you have a small circle, which is also composed of vertical lines that lights up and goes around in a circle.
Very Apple.
July 1st, 2008 at 10:05 am
Luxo Lamp is in one of the piles of garbage WALL-E is gathering
July 1st, 2008 at 10:21 am
Haha, I think Ben spent more time and energy than it was worth thinking of a way to badmouth Dave S’s theory.
July 1st, 2008 at 10:56 am
This may be a stretch, but WALL-E is suspiciously similar to (W)A113. I am not sure what the W signifies, but why go to all the trouble of making up a weird acronym if it has no hidden meaning. What do you all think?
July 1st, 2008 at 11:28 am
In the musical scene from “Hello Dolly” that is played throughout the movie - the song “PUT ON YOUR SUNDAY CLOTHES” is featured on the Main Street USA music loop played at Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.
The song is played quite frequently throughout the entire movie.
July 1st, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Also on Wall*E’s shelf, I saw a little figure of “Wally B” from pixar’s first short film, The Adventures of Andre and Wally B. Even the name WALL*E is an homage to that short film.
July 1st, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Anyone notice a Wilhelm scream in the film?
July 1st, 2008 at 2:24 pm
@ Bonnie, see the Ben Burtt interview link from U.S.O. Project’s comment above:
“BEN BURTT: the Wilhelm Scream it’s definitely not in WALL-E.”
July 1st, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Let me just say that I wasn’t in any way looking for an “anti Bush” statement in Wall*E. For whatever reason, when Willard was speaking the BU**RGE just stood out for me. And of course, at first I thought it was a silly coincidence, but then I happened to pay attention to how much his head moved and how it seemed overly orchestrated that his head stay strategically posted over the rest of the letters so BU***RGE stood out pretty plainly throughout his speech.
In fact, I really hadn’t thought this was much of a conspiracy theory. It’s no stretch to see that Willard’s character was modeled after our current president. Especially with his utterance of “stay the course”…not to mention the way one of his “aides” whispers something into his ear similar to the way President Bush was told of the 911 attacks while reading to children. In fact, everyone I’ve spoken to in person about this “Easter Egg” in the film agrees right off the bat that it’s probably true.
I mean, seriously, out of all the Wal-Mart spoof-names you could give a store, the writers choose “Buy ‘n Large” and just happen to situate it on a presidential seal *behind* their actor (not in front where it would normally be) in such a way to highlight BU***RGE as a sudden hint toward their intended satire? Is that really a stretch?
July 1st, 2008 at 7:34 pm
@ James
its WALL-A, Waste Allocation load lifter - axiom class.
July 1st, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Auto / Otto, in addition to looking like HAL, also resembled Glados from portal, primarily through hanging from the ceiling, using flawed logic, and the partially sealed white casing protecting black components. No indicators were apparent that Auto liked cake, however.
July 1st, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Just a fun comment. : )
Sigourney Weaver as the computer.
From Galaxy Quest, her response on repeating the computer. Now she is the computer…
July 1st, 2008 at 11:48 pm
I’d like to address multiple comments on this page. As a close friend of some of the production coordinators in the film, I can confirm and reject a few of your guesses.
Fi