Wall-E, as a film about the relationship between t Essays - Film

Wall-E, as a film about the relationship between two largely non-verbal robots, cannot tell its story through dialogue the way that many other films do. The story focuses largely on Wall-E and Eve, who, outside of a few recognizable phrases, such as each of their respective names and a few audio cues that Eve is seemingly programmed with, the two main characters of the film do not have any dialogue. What little dialogue the movie does have is usually diegetic sound that is happening in the background of the scene, the source of which is not generally the main visual focus of the scene. These scenes, including advertising videos by the CEO of the Buy-N-Large corporation, explains important elements to the plot and why the planet is empty and so polluted, but this kind of dialogue is rare within Wall-E. Nevertheless, the film relies heavily on sound , both diegetic and non-diegetic, to tell its story just as much as any other film, albeit in a slightly different way. Th e relationship between the film's diegetic and non-diegetic contributes to the story of the film in that it sets the tone of each scene, and in fact the entire mood of the film is largely conveyed through how it utilizes sound. Much of the sound in Wall-E is diegetic, and the source is either readily visible throughout each scene or implied to the point that the audience would recognize that the sound has a source somewhere in the setting. We hear the constant sound of Wall-E's treads going over the pavement and we hear his little non-verbal, mechanical reactions to the world around him. Early on in the movie, we hear music that is being played from Wall-E's tape player, and we hear advertising music playing through the street by a speaker. To let the viewer know where these sounds are coming from, often the camera shot centers in on the source for a moment, or else we hear another distinct audio cue, such as Wall-E pressing a play button, directly before to inform the audience that the sound is emanating from something in the scene. When Eve arrives on Earth, we hear a hydraulic "swish" sound as her shuttle opens, and we hear sounds of her hovering mechanism, as well as her respective, often n on-verbal reactions to the world around her. At the start of the film for example, we first meet Wall-E as he is carrying out his assigned directive of compacting garbage and cleaning up. He is listening to some old big band music on a tape-player, and is dutifully working. As the scene unfolds and Wall-E switches his music off, we see the scene expand, and the cheerful diegetic music Wall-E was listening to is replaced by the non-diegetic music score . The music is somewhat ominous and mysterious, and it coincides with what we see onscreen: the world is entirely deserted and overrun with garbage and pollution, and seemingly has been so for quite some time. The juxtaposition of Wall-E's perspective of relative happiness and optimism is thus juxtaposed with the mood of the musical score and what it implies about the current state of the world. Ultimately the relationship between the diegetic and non-diegetic sound in this scene shows the contrast between Wall-E's individual appraisal of the situation on Earth with th e reality of it. Continuing on, juxtaposition of this type occurs several more times throughout the film. One of the most notable cases is when he takes Eve on a "date". Of course, immediately before this scene, Eve has discovered Wall-E's seedling and entered a sort of stasis mode to protect the plant. Never the less, Wall-E takes her out for a "romantic" evening, shielding her from rain with an umbrella, rowing a "gondola" for the two of them, watching the sunset while attempting to hold her "hand", et cetera. The non-diegetic sound of this film is the musical score, which is decidedly romantic sounding and happy. The juxtaposition of the non-diegetic and diegetic sound of this sequence makes for a comedic effect; obviously, Eve is in stasis, and thus has no awareness of what is even really happening. Furthermore, as this is happening, Wall-E