Wall-e : How to Tell a Story Visually - Pixar Video Essay

let me just say this out of the gate Pixar is incredible not only do they make films that are infinitely rewatchable but they deliver on character and emotion unlike anyone else out there today I want to talk about what I think makes Pixar so great in my opinion the film medium in general is a culmination of everything great with entertainment it takes everything for music to writing to acting it's a cinematography to create something that transfix us and transports us and when it's done right the film medium transcends the word film but I want to talk about what is arguably the most important part of film the visuals simply put it's what you notice good sound and sound design should support the visuals good music should help guide the emotion and pacing but the visuals it's the technical aspect that you notice most is why I want to talk about Pixar's visual storyteller and how they do it best now a rule of thumb for film a show don't tell and Pixar they don't just show you they show you more these are visual moments that tell you much more than a line of dialogue ever could there's clear examples like the first minutes of up which is rightly glorified for telling a beautiful story that could have been that movie's entire plot or even the single shot of Bob and the incredible sitting in his car this shot tells you everything you need to know about Bob's insufferable life and is despondence towards it but I feel no Pixar film and their arsenal comes close to their magnum opus wall-e why is wall-e more creative in its visual storytelling and why does it show not tell pretty much because it's forced to wall-e and Eva go Dean's higher film only stating two words their names and directed the filmmakers are forced to show us every emotion through interactions and expressions alone you got to appreciate how difficult this is you got to consider as well but neither of them even have a mouth but somehow Andrew Staten and the Pixar team pulls it off not only do they pull it off but they pull off my favorite love story ever put to film I'm going to focus on how they show us the world and how wall-e and Eve's characters are built through visuals everything from the characters and the traits is shown not told and it never shows you anything that doesn't build up to a beat later on the story or gives you more context for the story so let's take a look on how they present the world the story takes place in we see a long shot of the earth cluttered and junk no color in unpretty we work our way inward to see the whole world is literally garbage but more importantly there isn't a soul to be seen until we see wall-e we see him strolling along playing a song mind you and then we get to see his purpose and why he's been left on this planet to clean up we see wall-e completing his job and then stops quickly to repet Rash can out of the garbage at this moment we already know that this robot is different he's playing music for himself as it strolls along and he's grabbing stuff from the garbage for himself and then we see the Sun go down low and we see wall-e grabbing his lunch pail to go home this lunch pail is key this visual indicator is associated with everyday life his day job is now done and it's time for him to go home like I said this isn't a normal world bot a normal robot wouldn't even go home they would just complete their task but we see him on his commute home and stopping for repairs on the way not only do we see important things like how Wally was able to keep going when everyone else has died but we also see that everyone else is gone this world is bare we would normally assume he'd be one of many of these robots cleaning up the world but seeing them laying on the side of the road shut down as replacement parts we know Wally is alone we see Wally going into his home and we see it an important character trait we see his collection what he's been doing for all these years but more importantly we see he takes care of everything and everything is carefully placed and then he does this which tells you just so much he takes off his shoes or tracks I should say this shows you his pride and his love for his home he keeps it just right he pops in his favorite movie and again we see that trashcan lid in his way of crafting a hat not only is this cute and funny but it instantly shows the importance of the movie to him it's not like one of these things sitting up on his wall he wants to be like these people he wants to have what they have he wants to be loved [Music] we're only eight minutes into the movie and we already have an established location with characters with quarks and traits and wants all through the visual storytelling and then you get a shot that brings it all home Wally isn't content where he's living all these collections and the movies he's watching he's not content with them he collects them because he craves something else an adventure love something out there then this shot I believe tells you everything you need to know about Wally and I'll let it speak for itself if you look at other movies trying to build a world there's a couple ways through texts like Hunger Games or news articles like fantastic piece both are lazy and boring wall-e is within those films that let you explore and make the conclusion for yourself let's skip ahead till we meet the next most important character Eve she's placed down and even by the character design we know she is new and shiny she sits there and starts scanning but what happens next is very important when she thinks she's alone she stretches and flies around freely before this moment we saw a robot without personality doing their job but then we see this and there's a glimmer of what's to come for her this robot has a fun wild side but after she stretches in flies she goes back to the task at hand scanning we see that scan of three dots followed by a fourth red one we know she's looking for something but we don't know what it is on top of that these scenes serve two purposes it moves Eve's story along and gives you almost a montage aspect of her searching but it also cements Wally's infatuation with Eve we finally see Eve interact with wall-e when there's a sandstorm and she's forced to enter his house this is the first time she's having fun and we see her see him in a different light and then the plot takes off these first 30 minutes sets up the rest of the movie the groundwork is laid every payoff derives from these visual moments that were told to you now I'm not gonna pick out the whole movie scene by scene and tell you why it's great but I will focus on one scene in the movie and why the visuals laid out actually come back to mean so much more so at the end of the movie wall-e is rebooted with a new hard drive and loses his personality now a similar situation has been done in other movies but not as well in my opinion normally it shows the character not recognizing other characters but as I said in wall-e everything comes back for a purpose his character traits and personality is rooted in these items around his house so when wall-e changes not only does he not recognize these characters but he takes what we've established means the world to him and rips it apart he refuses to hold Eve's hand he grabs his collection which mind you is his pride and joy in life and crunches it as if it's trash he steps on his cockroach best friend and doesn't even flinch he's a different person completely but for me what hits home the most isn't what he's damaging or breaking it's what wall-e isn't doing look at his face or should I say his eyes Wally's eyes are one of the reasons why we love him so much his reactions to things in his emotive eyes give him so much personality so when they stay dormant you feel it he just isn't there anymore [Music] so when this happens and his eyes physically come into light your heart drops his eyes with that slight movement turned back into those eyes we love and we instantly know he's himself again [Music] that loves up it's this type of visual storytelling and repurposing things from earlier in the movie is what makes me love Pixar so much so what do you guys think of Walt Lee do you think it's a masterpiece like I do thank you so much to my patreon Adam gray Jeremy Jacob Jenny Edwards Jeremy Robson gamer Shonda Trevor Cowen and Gunnar Langland I really appreciate your support guys as always thank you so much for watching please subscribe and I'll see you in the next video

Channel: Bryan Seeker

Views: 636,772

Keywords: fan, theory, wall-e, wall e, walle, visual storytelling, what makes pixar great, pixar fan theory, show don't tell, pixar video essay, walle best pixar movie, best pixar movie, wall e and eve, best scene from wall e, pixar storytelling, the incredibles, pixar theory, pixar universe, pixars best movie, wall e 2, wall-e 2, walle 2

Id: lQA8S59HAnk

Length: 9min 21sec (561 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 01 2018