The Sound’s the Thing
“WALL•E” is unique among Pixar’s films — and most movies — in its sparse use of dialogue and reliance on physical expressions to convey moods. Despite the fact that WALL•E and EVE are robots, the Pixar team was able to draw on their past experience with the “Toy Story” movies’ plastic characters as they created human-like expressions. Well-known sound designer Ben Burtt completed the illusion by developing a “language” of beeps, clicks, and other effects for WALL•E, much as he did for R2-D2 thirty years before.
“Ben Burtt and Pixar’s post-production team were instrumental in getting us early access to the film’s robot sounds,” recalls Pope. “They helped develop all the robot sounds for the game.”
One of Burtt’s signature touches is the “Wilhelm scream,” a stock sound effect first used in 1950s Westerns and revived by him when he worked on “Star Wars.” (Listen for it when Luke Skywalker is shooting at stormtroopers on the other side of the Death Star chasm, after he and Princess Leia have swung across it.) “Our audio lead was on top of this, being a fan of Ben’s sound design,” Pope says. “Our version of the Wilhelm scream does show up in a cinematic later in the game, when something happens to the spaceship.”
Few human actors appear in the film — Jeff Garlin (of the HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm), who plays the spaceship captain, was the only one to come in and recreate his character for the game. “Jeff is really hilarious in and out of character,” Pope notes, “and it was a real pleasure working with him. It was hard to keep a straight face as he adlibbed lines that we regrettably couldn’t use in the game.”
The Hidden Elements
As you play the game, you’ll unlock plenty of goodies, including cheat codes, bonus content, and multi-player mini-games. Don’t forget to check out the post-story bonus missions that let you explore more of the game’s Earth- and space-bound levels.
The multi-player mini-games include: a spaceship shootout in which the contestants must destroy all of the targets before time runs out; a race to collect more plants than your opponent (EVE has arrived on Earth to collect a living plant, which would mean that humans can return); a high-speed dash to the finish line; and more. You can also compete in Championship Mode and become the ultimate WALL•E.
Pope has some advice for those who want to successfully unlock everything in the game: “When playing as WALL•E, I always get as many cubes as I can carry, just in case I need them. Something else I tend to do is move in his ‘box form,’ because it is very satisfying for the general destruction that occurs in the Earth-based levels. And in any level where a laser blaster is involved with WALL•E or EVE, I try it on everything to see what I can blow up.”