WALL-E's name an homage to Walt?

mbroschak

mbroschak

Active Member
Original Poster
My wife and I just finally saw WALL-E and loved it. I thought Ratatouille was my fav. pixar flick, but it has a new rival. I was just thinking that for all the names they could have given that little robot, I find it interesting that his name is "Wally" which is another short for Walter. I wonder if those amazing people at pixar were paying homage to the man himself?
 
Kamikaze

Kamikaze

Well-Known Member
mbroschak said:
My wife and I just finally saw WALL-E and loved it. I thought Ratatouille was my fav. pixar flick, but it has a new rival. I was just thinking that for all the names they could have given that little robot, I find it interesting that his name is "Wally" which is another short for Walter. I wonder if those amazing people at pixar were paying homage to the man himself?
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Interesting thought, but it would be closer to Walt E.
Only one letter off.
 
3

3fordisney

New Member
The thought did cross my mind. We saw the movie earlier in the week and loved it. Just got Wall E for my son and he loves the toy. Its hard to find a movie you feel will be appropriate for kids without having to worry about the adult humor in the film. We really liked this one.
 
P

Philo

Well-Known Member
I doubt that's why they picked the name. No doubt someone working on the movie picked up on the connection pretty quickly but I cant see a "lets name him after walt" conversation happening.

Sadly I have to wait another 2 weeks before the Wall-E is released in the UK :(
 
Boray

Boray

Member
If I remember correctly, this movie was conceived at the same time as the original Toy Story. John Lassiter and the top guys at Pixar had a lunch and outlined at least 5 movies in the early 1990s. Pixar didn't have an affiliation with Disney at the time (at least I don't think they did), so the likelihood of them referencing Walt Disney with the name is pretty small.

Can someone help confirm this? I know I saw a "behind the scenes at Pixar" type of thing that mentioned all of this. Perhaps on a DVD of a Pixar movie? (I'm fairly certain that's where I heard about this.)

By the way, saw this movie this afternoon and really enjoyed it. Pixar never disappoints!
 
Maerj

Maerj

Well-Known Member
Boray said:
If I remember correctly, this movie was conceived at the same time as the original Toy Story. John Lassiter and the top guys at Pixar had a lunch and outlined at least 5 movies in the early 1990s. Pixar didn't have an affiliation with Disney at the time (at least I don't think they did), so the likelihood of them referencing Walt Disney with the name is pretty small.

Can someone help confirm this? I know I saw a "behind the scenes at Pixar" type of thing that mentioned all of this. Perhaps on a DVD of a Pixar movie? (I'm fairly certain that's where I heard about this.)

By the way, saw this movie this afternoon and really enjoyed it. Pixar never disappoints!
Click to expand...


Pixar had an affiliation with Disney since 1991 when they signed a three picture deal with them starting with Toy Story. Disney and Pixar had a fifty/fifty deal when it came to producing the films and splitting the profits. Pixar also shared Disney artist Joe Ranft who also voiced many Pixar characters.

In an interview with Andrew Stanton, he said that he thought of using the name Adam for Wall*E so it would be like Adam and Eve but he felt that the name wasn't pathetic sounding enough. That and he knew he could come up with an anacronym for Wall*E.


Glad you loved the movie!
 
Kamikaze

Kamikaze

Well-Known Member
Boray said:
If I remember correctly, this movie was conceived at the same time as the original Toy Story. John Lassiter and the top guys at Pixar had a lunch and outlined at least 5 movies in the early 1990s. Pixar didn't have an affiliation with Disney at the time (at least I don't think they did), so the likelihood of them referencing Walt Disney with the name is pretty small.

Can someone help confirm this? I know I saw a "behind the scenes at Pixar" type of thing that mentioned all of this. Perhaps on a DVD of a Pixar movie? (I'm fairly certain that's where I heard about this.)

By the way, saw this movie this afternoon and really enjoyed it. Pixar never disappoints!
Click to expand...

It was on the Pixar Shorts collection, I believe.
Might have been Ratatouille, though.
 
Boray

Boray

Member
Maerj said:
Pixar had an affiliation with Disney since 1991 when they signed a three picture deal with them starting with Toy Story. Disney and Pixar had a fifty/fifty deal when it came to producing the films and splitting the profits. Pixar also shared Disney artist Joe Ranft who also voiced many Pixar characters.

In an interview with Andrew Stanton, he said that he thought of using the name Adam for Wall*E so it would be like Adam and Eve but he felt that the name wasn't pathetic sounding enough. That and he knew he could come up with an anacronym for Wall*E.


Glad you loved the movie!
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Thanks for the clarification! :wave:
 
Maerj

Maerj

Well-Known Member
Boray said:
Thanks for the clarification! :wave:
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No problem! :) Being a huge Star Wars/Lucasfilm fan, I followed Pixar's history a little bit since Pixar started as a division of Lucasfilm. Then after being bought by Steve Jobs of Apple, they were used to try to sell a Pixar computer system. Check out www.pixar.com sometime, its a pretty cool site!
 
lwalker8

lwalker8

Member
Pixar had an affiliation with Disney since 1991 when they signed a three picture deal with them starting with Toy Story. Disney and Pixar had a fifty/fifty deal when it came to producing the films and splitting the profits. Pixar also shared Disney artist Joe Ranft who also voiced many Pixar characters.
Click to expand...

Pixar began working with Disney earlier on The Rescuers Down Under in 1990. They worked with Disney again on Beauty and the Beast(1991), Nightmare Before Christmas(1993), Lion King(1994), and Pocahontas(1995). They started including 3-D computer animated segments beginning with the clock scene in Rescuers and worked with Pixar to adapt to the new technology.
 
hokielutz

hokielutz

Well-Known Member
I thought about that name connection myself. It wasn't until sometime after the movie. But after seeing this conversation, I really think it may not be coincidence.
 
S

SWatsi

Member
John lasseter and co also came from Disney way back as well.
Wasn't he also once a Jungle Cruise skipper at Disneyland. I'm sure I've heard that.
So I think that there is a lot of love for the Disney of old within Pixar. Even though I don't think WALL-E was named after Walt - just a nice coincidence.

Boray said:
If I remember correctly, this movie was conceived at the same time as the original Toy Story. John Lassiter and the top guys at Pixar had a lunch and outlined at least 5 movies in the early 1990s. Pixar didn't have an affiliation with Disney at the time (at least I don't think they did), so the likelihood of them referencing Walt Disney with the name is pretty small.
Click to expand...

Was it on the original teaser trailer for WALL-E where they said that after wrapping up on Toy Story they got the basic concepts for A Bug's Life, Monster's Inc., Finding Nemo and WALL-E.

I think I read recently in an interview (- I'll try finding it,) that they only had a one line synopis of the movie from that meeting. Basically just something like, 'What happens to the last Robot on Earth'. And the full story and character of WALL-E emerged from that later on.

I am also very anxious to see the film. Still to be released in the UK.
 

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