CL – 🌟 Animation Style

One film with an animation style I respect deeply is Wall•E. Each segment of the film takes place in a drastically different environment—first the post-apocalyptic, trash-heaped remains of Earth, then a robot-filled gleaming starship, and finally the recovering earth—and the animators render the very different worlds with unique styles.

The meticulous animation style Pixar is famous for extends to Wall•E, too. Every prop, scene, and character exudes the vibe of the setting with care and detail, and fans took note. While they could have been simplified and overlooked, the excruciatingly-intricate details add a depth to the animation that animators of all styles should aspire to.

My favorite part of the animation in Wall•E, though, is the way it’s used to tell just a deeply prescient and compelling story. The shockingly-emotional relationship we see the title character and EVE form is told entirely without words, and instead through the body language of two robots. The animators utilize all of Wall•E’s limbs & robotic features to show (and never tell) his feelings with nuance. The eyes on both characters deserve a special shoutout for the way they each exude character, telling stories with striking emotional character through relatively simple shapes and maneuvers.

Over a decade following its release, society has not taken note of its warnings whatsoever. But Wall•E nonetheless remains, in my mind, an animated masterpiece. The depth of detail in every scene, particularly the emotive stories told by the main characters’ robot bodies, would stand absolutely alone if not for much of Pixar’s other work. The film tells a unique story through gorgeous animation and its storytelling should be admired for a long time to come.