WALL•E (Pixar's Character)

**WALL- E** known as (**W**aste **A**llocation **L**oad **L**ifter - **E**arth-Class, with the formal designation N. 62675) is the titular protagonist of the 2008 Disney/Pixar animated feature film of the same name. He is a waste-collector drone created by the Buy n Large corporation initially programmed to haul the garbage plaguing Earth in the distant future. Unexpectedly, his years of loneliness and never-ending work allowed him to gain a consciousness of his own, and a wish for something else in life to come. One day, his world is turned upside-down when he meets another robot from outer space.

## Background

### Personality

Because WALL•E has been alone for 700 years, he has developed a "glitch": sentience and a personality. He has become very curious and he keeps anything interesting he can find. Even though he still obediently follows his directive, WALL•E can get distracted, collecting the trash rather than compacting it. His most prized possession, "Hello, Dolly!", teaches him how to hold hands, which he considers the way to say, "I love you."

He has become very lonely, having nobody but Hal as his company, and is beginning to wonder whether there is more to life than his directive. So when he meets EVE, he quickly falls in love with her. WALL•E is very protective of EVE. When she shuts down after getting the plant, WALL•E places her on top of his transport (thinking she is charged by solar energy just as he is) and protects her from the weather waiting for her to "recharge". At the repair center, he mistakes the equipment there as trying to torture her and rushes to her aid. When EVE was frustrated and discomforted by his intervenes, he quickly remorses about it and knows when to back out in dangerous situations and let EVE handle the dealing, but still insists to follow and help her complete her directive.

When he first learns about love, he is fascinated and wanted to find someone he loves for himself. When around EVE, he sometimes comes off as clumsy, disruptive and naive when trying to attract or help her out. As the film progresses however, WALL-E is able to understand the importance of how love isn't just about holding hands, but taking time to know each other, trusting people and accepting who they are and what they are made to do.

WALL•E's friendly demeanor has an effect on the other robots and humans he meets. For instance, he causes M-O to act on his own, leaving his pre-set travel path to follow WALL•E trying to clean him, and he teaches TYP-E how to wave good-bye. He also breaks John and Mary out of the technology-induced reverie that consumed the lives of all the other passengers aboard the *Axiom*, wherein they learn how to enjoy the world and each other's company for the first time in their lives. Even the dirt on his chassis provided Captain B. McCrea the impetus necessary to become interested in the history of and subsequent return to Earth. Most importantly, he is instrumental in EVE's growth and development, from rigidly following her programming to learning how to love him in return.

WALL-E can also show a little bit of bravery, as such when he proceeds to continue forward, even in the most serious situations or when he is hurt or damaged. As such, when he followed EVE to the Axiom out to space, he didn't have the slightest concern of what space would appear to him and instead admired them, as far as charging himself upon the Sun. He also demonstrated this when attempting to hold the holo-detector from closing for the plant to be placed in. He can also be willing to put others before his wish, as such when he had the chance to hold EVE's hand when she finally returned his feelings, but declined them in the process, instead telling her to complete her directive to return to Earth in order to be fixed.

Possibly due to centuries of living alone, WALL-E used to have a desperate need to please others. This was most likely out of fear of losing the new friend he had made, such as EVE. This is shown when he brought EVE back to his home in the middle of a sandstorm and he showed her all of the knit-knacks he had collected throughout the years. When EVE had deactivated after collecting the plant he had found, WALL-E not only protected her from the environmental harms that had occurred while she was offline, but took her sightseeing and out on dates, which was what caused EVE to become even more infatuated with him when learning about this.

### Abilities

* **Construction**: He has twin, extending, hydraulic arm shovels with articulated fingers mounted on U-shaped tracks to his sides. His locomotion is achieved with treads sporting four independently-actuated sprockets for stability. The tracks on his treads can be removed by unclipping the hinge pins on a single joint. His front opens up his body cavity in which he gathers and compresses trash. His head contains his audio-visual sensors mounted on a long, articulated neck, enabling him to see in any direction. All his extremities - arms, treads, and head - retract back into his cube-shaped body for easier storage, referred to as "boxing" in the movie script. He reverts to this shape whenever sleeping (or hiding). A hook on his back served some unknown purpose (perhaps for self-storage aboard the transport). He now uses it to carry around his BnL Igloo-style cooler full of interesting bits of trash he picks up at work. His hull is reinforced, mostly to give him the strength necessary to compact trash in his body cavity. As such, he is able to survive most environmental dangers, including long falls, extreme heat, the vacuum of space, and being trapped in a hydraulic actuator much larger than himself.

* While it is clear that WALL-E could have been made with more sophisticated technology (such as the LED eyes of EVE and several other kinds of robots aboard the *Axiom*), the design choices made for WALL-E favor durability and most importantly, the easy replacement of parts. This allowed WALL-E to keep himself fully functional over his seven centuries of service.

* **Regeneration Unit**: He has a solar-powered regeneration unit as his power source. Super-high-efficiency solar panels unfold from the top of his chest and recharge the batteries contained adjacent to his control system. These batteries are capable of powering him for upwards of a day's hard work. A read-out on his chest gives his current charge level and beeps an alarm when his power level has drained dangerously low. The panels can be removed to expose auxiliary battery leads that can be used to jump-start WALL-E, or for him to jump-start some other electric mechanism.
* **Control System**: All of WALL-E's control electronics are contained within the cavity in the front of his chest. All of his systems are controlled through a central motherboard. WALL-E's eyes are camera lenses, indicating that visual recognition is his primary means of navigation. They can magnify and resolve images at a distance, even independently if necessary. In addition to visual, he appears to have audio and some rudimentary tactile sense, given that he can detect things that his hands or treads touch. He also contains an alert system, warning him when dust storms are approaching on Earth's surface. Speakers mounted to his chest allow him to communicate audibly. He possesses a recorder with external controls - stop, record, play - which he uses to record songs from the *Hello, Dolly!*. What function it originally served is unknown (perhaps to play and record Buy n Large jingles and slogans to humans before they left Earth).
* **Trash Disposal**: Two powerful hydraulic presses on his back operate his compactor function, compressing trash in his body cavity into neat cubes that can be easily stacked and carted away. His strong, dexterous arms enable him to create stacks of trash blocks hundreds of feet high with incredible precision. Between his eyes is a high-power laser, which he typically uses to cut large pieces of trash into manageable pieces. He has a fine degree of control over the device, as he is able to use it to carefully engrave his and Eve's names on a metal trash can.

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