Pop Culture Fall 2015

1. DYSTOPIA

2. MEMBER
CONTRIBUTIONS
• Mongzong Lo- Research, Characters and Storyline
• Ai Do- Group Manager, Overconsumption/ Big
Corporations
• Nevina DeLuca- Editor, Technology, Environmental
Sustainability
• Kendall Potter- Technology of Animation Aspects,
Power Point Creator

3. OVERVIEW
WALL-E deals with over-consumption, government
corruption all in a dystopian world.
dys·to·pi·an
an imagined place or state in which
everything is unpleasant or bad, typically
a totalitarian or environmentally degraded
one.

4. CHARACTERS

5. WALL-E
The only robot called “Waste Allocation
Load Lifter – Earth Class” left on earth
who has been working hard to reduce
pollution in the air for 700 years. After
so long, he became lonely and strived for
interactions, in which he meets EVE.
Meeting EVE shows how simple minded
and what a hopeless romantic Wall-E is.
But because of this, he is very lucky and
saved the plant numerous times. We
refer to Wall-E as a “he” because of his
rough structure and deeper voice.

6. EVE
A robot called “Extraterrestrial Vegetation
Evaluator” was sent to earth to evaluate it for
signs of life, in which case she found a plant
that Wall-E possessed. Her interactions with
Wall-E show how serious and independent
she is, saving Wall-E multiple times and
deciding on what to do when they were
targeted as rogue robots. With her strong
sense of duty, she retrieves the plant and
allows the Axiom to head back to earth. We
refer EVE as a “she” because of her curvy
structure (more feminine) and her high-
pitched voice.

7. AUTO
The robot Auto is not only a steering wheel for
the Axiom, but one of the leaders of the ship.
After he reveals classified data, we’re able to
see that he was only following the A-113
directive that was given to him from the CEO of
Buy N Large. The directive gave full auto pilot
and override, as well as not to return to earth. At
first he may seem like a corrupt robot, but he
was just strictly following orders, first seen
when we see through Auto’s perspective and
the A-113 directive pops up in front of us in the
film.

8. CAPTAIN B. MCCREA
Initially a man who just followed the same
schedule every day, he just watches the
supplies and changes the time from night to
day. It isn’t until Captain B. McCrea sees
dirt from the earth that he becomes curious
and a leading part of the film. His curiosity
allows him to learn more about Earth, and
decide that everybody needed to go back to
Earth and take care of it. In the end, he was
able to turn off the A-113 directive on Auto,
showing that the people were capable of
being independent again after using auto-
piloted robots for so long.

9. STORYLINE
Earth has become uninhabitable due to the gluttonous behavior of humans. We’re able to see why
this has occurred from the propaganda of the Buy N Large Corporation. Robots called Wall-E were
created to counteract against the problem of pollution and overconsumption. However, after 700
years only one Wall-E remains. After being lonely for so many years, he meets and falls in love
with EVE. He bestows to her a plant she for which she has been seeking. This plant confirmed that
Earth was once again habitable. EVE puts the plant into the cavity of her stomach and signaled
back to the the spaceship, Axiom. Wall-E looks after EVE and follows her into outer space when
the spaceship takes her away. Eventually, they meet Captain B. McCrea and Auto who await for
EVE to show them the plant. Prior to meeting the Captain however, the plant was taken by a
security robot called GO-4. His purpose was to dispose of the plant. Since EVE didn’t have the
plant, Auto determined her to be defective and sent her to a room for repair. Wall-E thought she
was being harmed and caused a ruckus. This causes EVE to become angry and she decides to send
Wall-E back to earth. At this time they see Go-4 disposing a plant into an escape pod for self-
destruct. Immediately Wall-E entered the pod and protected the plant from the explosion. He
gives the plant to EVE who rushes to give it back to Captain B. McCrea. Upon realizing that the
plant was real, he decides that the people have to go back to earth. Auto disagrees with this,
resulting a series of skirmishes for the plant. McCrea was able to turn off Auto and activate the
holo-detector for verification of the plant and travel back to earth. EVE and Wall-E were
successful in delivering the plant to the holo-detector! There, the people began to learn about
agriculture and restore Earth.

10. CULTURAL THEMES
“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and
causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. ... corporations
have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will
follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong
its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth
is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”
— U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col.
William F. Elkins)

11. OVER-CONSUMPTION
Big corporations influence consumption in everyday life. For example,
McDonalds -- cheap and fast. In Wall-E, consumption is heavily impacted by the
big corporation named Buy n Large. Everything in the spaceship is produced by
this corporation -- from food, drinks, clothing, etc. The humans spend everyday
of their life on this spaceship floating around on the hoverboards always
consuming different kinds of food which includes the cupcake shake slurpees.

12. BIG CORPORATIONS
Corporations have been established
centuries ago. Some can be engines
of positive change and some can be
for negative change. As in Wall-E,
Buy n Large is a large corporation
that brain washes citizens and
influenced many negative changes
of the human race. When a
corporation becomes excessively
large, their number one concern
would be profit and sometimes it
contradicts with the social good.

13. ENVIRONMENTAL
SUSTAINABILITY
Environmental issues are very prevalent in our world today due to overconsumption and
the necessity to constantly want more and more as humans. Our actions make a huge
impact on the earth and because of this, the environment pays the price. “Over the past 30
years, 30% of the world's natural environment has been destroyed..” In just a short amount
of time the earth has suffered a great deal. “Part of the problem can be traced to
unsustainable rates of consumption in rich countries that are creating climate change and
ozone depletion, as well as using up resources and producing toxic waste products.” Wall-e
outlines how humans’ necessity to constantly want more affects the earth on a much larger
scale. We might not be able to see how our actions are currently affecting the earth, but in
the near future, the overconsumption and necessity for materialistic things will soon catch
up to us.

14. TECHNOLOGY
Face to face communication has already taken a backseat to technology,
“technological detachment is becoming today’s reality.” In Wall-e, the people
do not have any sort of face to face communication. They communicate
through screens that are always in front of them. In American society today,
almost everyone has cell phones that they are consistently looking at, as also
seen in Wall-e. It is easy to get caught up in technology and forget to
recognize the important things in life like connecting to each other and the
world on a more personal level.

15. PRODUCTION OF FILM
• WALL-E had a $180
million production
budget
• The film is from Pixar
studios and is
computer animated
• WALL-E required
125,000 story boards-
quite a lot compared
to most Pixar films
with 75,000.
• The idea of the film
came up in 1994 at
lunch while Toy Story
was being completed
(Hover over with mouse then
click play button)

16. MOVIE CLIP