Critique on Wall-E for Sound Design

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably wondering what’s sound design, how does one ‘design’ it and why is it so significant in the making of a film? Let me begin by answering the last question. Replay any film you can think of. Now imagine without any sound. Not only do you lose on the dialogues, but you also lose out on the sounds that set the backgrounds of the movie.  If you still don’t get it, imagine the typical scene where a plane takes off in the movies or lightening striking. Would it make any impact without the sound? Films and TV shows are primarily visual but they’re down to nothing when it comes to visuals without sound, you have close to nothing.

In words of legendary sound designer Ben Burtt, sound design can be defined as the right choice of the right sound at the right moment. Amongst his expletory works, my favourite is the animated Pixar film Wall-E.

The premise of Wall-E is quite imaginary, nothing like that already exists. The namesake protagonist also cannot speak. Hence to create sounds that could explain the plot of the film, the emotions felt lied predominantly on the shoulders of the sound designer. Burtt in an interview explained, he went through a series of experiments to come up with the voice for the central characters, Wall-E & Eva. He began with just making mechanical noises and then further experimented with his own voice. He later realised that the most authentic robot voice when it was humanoid. He recorded the voice of a couple of Pixar employees and synthesised them to sound more mechanic and thus the voices of Wall-E & Eva were formed.  

Despite having the sounds of the characters formed, Burtt had a gigantic challenge ahead. Because the main characters were robots, they had minimal dialogues. The sound team had to rely heavily on the sounds of thuds, both mechanical and machine- made, the swoops and swooshes in space, the slight buzzing on the empty planet. They, in fact, made most of the film.

Wall-E depicted the love story between two robots that barely spoke and little human interaction in it. Yet, it is one of the most touching movies we’ve seen in the past few years. It wouldn’t have been the film it is without the sound design involved in it.

Bibliography

Disjt (2010) The voice of WALL-E. Available at: http://jedsound.com/blog/?p=116 (Accessed: 3 April 2016).

Miller, N. (2008) Making wall-e talk: A Q&A with sound master Ben Burtt. Available at: http://filmschoolrejects.com/news/making-wall-e-talk-a-qa-with-sound-master-ben-burtt.php (Accessed: 3 April 2016).

fartfx3 (2009) WALL E animation sound design part 1. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsfbXGDw_aA (Accessed: 3 April 2016).