Wall-E: Character Representation

After using Wall-e for inspiration I thought I would look at how the character is given human characteristics because I will be attempting this myself with robots. The animation of Wall-e creates strong human characteristics that the audience can relate to. I believe this is the reason the film was such a success.

The design of the character has human qualities which portray a character that the viewer can understand and empathise with. The eyes are separate from the body which creates its head and neck. The eyes move up and down to create different facial expressions. His hands tap together when he is waiting for something, often showing excitement or anxiety, a trait the audience can understand. This all seems rather whimsical when its coming from a robot.

The size of Wall-e makes him seem less threatening, which was a necessity because his body shape could represent quite the opposite. Proof of this is shown late in the film where there are larger versions of himself which seem quite daunting to begin with.

Looking at the tank tracks he has for legs, usually the convention of this is for the character to be large and clunk, however this is turned on its head by wall-e being fast and reasonably agile.