Wall-E' and Its Sound Design

“We gestate in sound, and are born into sight. Cinema gestated in sight, and was born into sound” (Walter Murch).

Sound design is a tool that employs conceptual models to improve the audio-visual connection. Sound design represents the planning and patterns of the film sound track and the meanings that result from its deployment within the exhibition space. This versatile audio tool gives filmmakers an extra layer of context by allowing them to use sound as an imaginative playground to tell additional stories or hide figurative messages.

One of the most interesting outcomes is the use of sound to humanize artifacts. Objects or non-human entities with human behavior, language or attributes are a powerful tool for subconsciously influencing the emotional connection of the audience. ‘Wall-E’ is a great example of how sound has affected the character personification. The sound design in the film is excellent, especially in regards to the characters of Wall-E and EVE and how their relationship is portrayed through audio. After a brief review of the film, I realized that the final scene, in which EVE and Wall-E are reunited, is perfect for portraying the film's use of sound.

The film was produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. Andrew Stanton directed and co-wrote the film, which was produced by Jim Morris and co-written by Jim Reardon. Andrew Stanton joined Pixar in 1990 and served as a co-writer and co-director on a variety of films, including ‘A Bug's Life’ (1998), ‘Toy Story’ (1995-2019), and ‘Monsters, Inc.’ (2001). Following ‘Finding Nemo’ (2003), he directed ‘Wall-E’ (2008). Since Stanton kept using R2-D2 as the benchmark for the robots, producer Jim Morris recommended Ben Burtt as sound designer for ‘Wall-E’. Ben Burtt is a pioneering sound designer who went on similar field trips to create classic sounds like Darth Vader's breathing in 'Star Wars', Indiana Jones whipping in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', amongst many other sounds that have gone down in cinematic history. After more than 30 years in the industry and four Academy Awards, he finds his biggest challenge yet in ‘Wall-E’, which has almost no dialogue in the first half of the film. For the story about a robot who finds love on an abandoned, polluted the Earth, 2,500 new sound files were made, compared to 700 to 1,000 for 'Star Wars' or 'Indiana Jones'.

Techniques

The sounds that the two main characters, Wall-E and Eva, render are their defining features, and they are their characters. The audience would be able to connect with these two robots in this way. Each sound effect must have a degree of control over whether it should be present, what sound it is, how many times it should be played, and when it should be played. It all comes down to making the appropriate noise at the appropriate time to imbue a sound with emotion. Ben Burt drew inspiration for the soundscape and design of ‘Wall-E’ from sounds found in the real world. Consider what these robots would sound like if they were real. If this mechanical method did not succeed, he would shift his focus on what worked emotionally.

The way Ben Burt decided to depict Wall-E as a character was fascinating because of his gestures. Being quite particular about the sounds that were orchestrated to punctuate the emotion that justified his character's underpinning role. Not only are sound effects used to represent emotion in this film. They use vocalization, but in Wall-E, small bits of language are mixed in with vocal gestures. One of the most difficult aspects of making character voices is that the viewer is very sensitive to human sounds and would observe them rather than sound effects. As it is an immediate link to the emotive qualities that we seek, this can be a great way to offer sound emotion.

“You are trying to give a soul and a life to a machine, so people believe that it has a morality it and that therefore you care about it. So, the story of these machines becomes something you can identify with emotionally” (Michael Coleman).

EVE’s responses prove that she has human-like feelings despite still being a 'robot'. Each of her movements has a distinct diegetic sound, consisting of futuristic-sounding noises. I'd like to compare this to the more contrasting movement sounds in Wall-E. To name a few, there are metal clunks, rubbing of hard surfaces as his pieces rub against each other, and other industrial factory noises. EVE’s feminine voice, combined with her curved structural design, white body, and high-quality-finish, distinguishes her from Wall-E, who has a much straighter edge body, old rusted bits, loose wires, and a general lack of authenticity contributing to the ability to portray Wall-E's rustic sounds.

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Furthermore, the non-diegetic music is sad, implying that the two characters have been together long enough for a bond to form. In this situation, the music lets us identify with EVE because she may have lost a close friendship as a result of Wall-E's loss of consciousness.

EVE is trying to find a way to get back the original Wall-E, and one of her methods is to give him old memorable things to which he might have been emotionally attached. Xylophone music is played during this, which makes me feel as though their relationship is childlike, and they're both naive enough of the world around them that they just have each other for help.

Finally, even after EVE shows Wall-E his favorite movie, ‘Merry Poppins’, he still doesn't reveal his true identity. While deeply sentimental music can be heard, he leaves the shelter in his unaware, robotic manner. To me this adds to EVE’s desperation in her attempt to resurrect Wall-E, giving the scene a rather bleak sound. Many of the robotic sounds made for EVE seem to be innovative. Ben Burtt made EVE’s arm-gun by striking a slinky with a metal object, which, when listened to through the pick-up microphone, sounded a lot more like a laser-gun than he had anticipated. The sound has to have some kind of resemblance to the next, with the same degree of realism and detail to create a world that perfectly portrays Wall-E relationship with EVE as well as the people on the spaceship.

A panning shot near the end of the scene shows Wall-E and EVE connecting their robotic hands. While this is going on, the non-diegetic music from ‘Mary Poppins’ is playing. When Wall-E was alone, he was listening to this music, which allowed his human-like character to emerge. bringing back this music elicits a lot of emotion in the audience because Wall-E is no longer alone, having gained EVE's company, and they can now both enjoy the song. The type of music used in the film to represent the various stages Wall-E has gone through helps me to connect with the film as a whole.

A lot of emotion seems to be derived from something basic in this film for example, the small character of the roach. Its interactions with Wall-E and his relationship with EVE later in the film may seem trivial, but they are crucial to the scene's liveliness. Consider the brief scene near the beginning of the film, in which Wall-E appears to have been restored to his robotic state. The roach appears to jump up and down in surprise as a result of this, but it is the expected diegetic sounds that accompany it that really bring the roach's character to life. When it hops or starts running, it makes slight, high-pitched ‘pings’ or ‘pops’. These are the kinds of sounds that, while not as visible as, say, a spaceship's landing sound, are crucial in keeping the characters active and displaying emotion.

Conclusion

They began with a complete machine language, but it lacked in human quality and didn't reflect the character's personality at all, so they started imitating the sounds with a human voice, then combining it with synthesized sounds. They were able to create a sense of performance by integrating inflections and tonality into the voice in this way.

We can see an underlying trend in these examples of films where sound had to bear the emotional narrative for the characters. The use of the human voice as a prototype for non-organic sounds to be distorted or imitated.

Since there is no formal vocabulary for emotional states, it is clear that there is a lack of comprehension as to whether a certain sound is sad or joyful, but rather that it reflects that emotion in general. We use sounds to explain feelings, which is how we can read between the lines of a conversation to discover secret motives or use sarcasm to change the meanings of words. how robots interact with humans in terms of behavior and reaction, as well as how non-diegetic sound can affect the emotion of a scene. And how bringing back the music of ‘Merry Poppins’ made for a better understanding of Wall-E’s pain and how even tiny and easily overlooked sounds can have a significant impact on how each character in the film behaves and understands each other.

Sound designers understand the power of speech inside the human voice and use that as a basis to construct their vocabulary for the characters, resulting in personification through sound. The visuals will provide a lot of the emotion, but when combined with the vocalizations, they will really help to embed the emotional meaning within the scene and encourage the viewer to relate and interact with the characters.