A quick question relating to WALL-E

Michael Anthony Horrigan

Michael Anthony Horrigan

More Cowbell Pictures
Why do the video screens on earth show people as 'real people/actors' but when we get to see them on the ship (the Axiom) they are purely CGI?

It always pulls me out of the movie a bit.
Anyone know why they did this?

MAH
 
Struck me as odd too. Maybe they just really, really liked Fred Willard's performance and didn't want to alter it...
 
My wanky, critical take on it is that perhaps the filmmakers wanted to highlight the juvenile characteristics of the surviving humans (chubby, smooth-skinned, seemingly asexual – and, of course, utterly dependent), in contrast with their twenty-first century ancestors.

Although a more likely explanation is that Stanton and co. already had their hearts set on using Hello Dolly! as a motif, and it would have been even weirder to use that live-action footage along with an animated Willard.

DP
 
Blue_Food said:
Although a more likely explanation is that Stanton and co. already had their hearts set on using Hello Dolly! as a motif, and it would have been even weirder to use that live-action footage along with an animated Willard.

DP
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Bingo...the TV's display "reality"...while the real world is CG.
 
Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
Agreed. Still weird and off-putting though.
Don't get me wrong, I love the movie, but that part really yanks me out of it.
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Yeah, I think it would have been okay to have the Hello, Dolly footage be the only "real" imagery. It wouldn't make total sense but it wouldn't stick out as much as the way they did it.
 
Y'know, that's bugged me too. But maybe Batutta's on to it with his idea of the world being inverse -- instead of living in our real world and watching cartoons on TV, they live in their "real" CG world and watch "un-cartoons" on TV?
 
Barry_Green said:
Y'know, that's bugged me too. But maybe Batutta's on to it with his idea of the world being inverse -- instead of living in our real world and watching cartoons on TV, they live in their "real" CG world and watch "un-cartoons" on TV?
Click to expand...
Yup. Makes sense.

I still think it will always irk me a little but I get it.
 
We're all non-cartoon characters performing for the entertainment of cartoon viewers outside the edge of our perception.

I can just feel it.
 
It's bugged me as well. Whatever the reason is, whatever the underlying message is... it pulls me out every time.
 
Sorry to derail this a bit, but I really think WALL-E is a much superior film to Up. The fact that Up is best film Oscar nominee this year attests the lack of quality of these year's contenders.

The TV thing didn't bother me too much. I thought the representation of earth in itself was very realistic. The cockroach was as realistic as it gets, as well as the "collectibles" WALL-E recovers. Probably it was a way the filmmakers used to really make their ecological and social statement.
 
originally the film was set 700,000 years in the future and the people on the ship had evolved into something like Bob from Monsters Vs Aliens, but after a few test shots were viewed by focus groups, they changed it to 700 years in the future, and the people had just gotten fat, and dependent of the ship, as shown by the photos of the captains generation after generation.

the live action footage was planned from the begining, and still made some since after the change, all everything from 700 years ago was jsut more real, the textures for example, the buildings and trash, and well everything on earth that was left behind had very photo realistic textures, while everything on the ship, was a bit more cartoon like.
 
if you're ever able to visit Pixar, try to get up to the upper west side you'll see the original story boards on display.
 
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