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FA7031 - Notes on Genre (Updated 8th February 2016).

April Slocombe
Oct 31, 2015
4 min read

The WALL-E trailer begins with a majestic tune but as soon as WALL-E starts compacting debris and studying objects it changes to the theme music from The Great Escape (1963). This illustrates the juxtaposition of the science fiction genre and the adventure genre. The music returns to its majestic form from the time the narrator says WALL-E is lonely to the moment he meets EVE and when he meets EVE a romantic pop song plays followed by a brief upbeat tune. The majestic music resumes and continues for the rest of the trailer.

I watched WALL-E and have broken it down using Campbell and Vogler's 12-stage Hero's Journey Narrative as follows:

WALL-E using the 12-stage narrative

Ordinary world: Approximately 700 years from 2008, WALL-E is the last robot on Earth where he is compacting debris humans had left behind.

Meeting the Mentor and Tests, Allies and Enemies Part 1: A ship lands on Earth and despatches EVE, another robot who searches for vegetation. WALL-E falls for her and gives her a plant he found earlier. EVE stores the plant inside her and goes into hibernation mode.

Call to Adventure: The ship returns to Earth to collect EVE. WALL-E clings onto the ship to rescue her.

Crossing the Threshold: The ship lands on Axiom.

Tests, Allies and Enemies Part 2: WALL-E meets other robots and several obese people who travel around on hover chairs.

Approach to the inmost cave: WALL-E and EVE are placed in the repair bay. Afraid that EVE is being harmed WALL-E rescues her but unintentionally releases the other robots. They are both branded rogue robots.

The ordeal part 1: EVE sends WALL-E to an escape pod to return him to Earth because she is angry with his actions.

The reward: WALL-E escapes from the pod before it self-destructs. He shows EVE the plant and she is so delighted he gives WALL-E an electric kiss before playing amongst the stars.

Call to adventure 2: Learning EVE has the plant the captain discovers Axiom can return to Earth.

The ordeal part 2 and refusal of the call: The Global CEO of Buy 'N' Large informs the captain that Axiom cannot return to Earth because it is unsustainable. The captain finds the announcement was made 700 years ago and is convinced that Axiom can still return to Earth.

Tests, allies and enemies part 3: Auto renders WALL-E and EVE semi-conscious and sends them down the garbage chute in reluctance of the Axiom returning to Earth. He prevents WALL- E and EVE from placing the plant in the superior until the captain switches him off.

The road back: EVE reboots and places the plant inside the Axiom superior, resulting in the Axiom returning to Earth.

The resurrection: With WALL-E now completely unconscious, EVE takes him to his home to repair him. He continues to compact debris and does not recognise her until they hold hands.

Return with elixir: Upon Axiom's return to Earth, the captain teaches other people about the planet using his new-found knowledge.

Below is a timeline I made in Adobe Premiere that illustrate the narrative stages of the film.

Whislt using the 12-stage narrative, I found that certain stages could be split into moe than one part, especialy the reward, which involves the plant WALL-E finds and is eventually placed inside the Axiom. I aslo found that particular stages may also apply to supporting characters, such as Return with Elixir applying to Captain McCrea at the end of the film since it was hard to determine if WALL-E returned to Earth with an elixr.

According to WatchMojo.com's Top 10 Cartoon Fan Theories on YouTube, it is alleged that "WALL-E Doomed the Earth." Fans believe that he destroyed every other robot on the planet, fixed himself up with some of their pars whilst scattering the Earth with the rest of them and kept certain items of rubbish to decorate his home with instead of compacting them.

Contrary to the aforementioned fan theory from WatchMojo.com, Emily from ChannelFrederator does not believe the theory is true. This is because she perceives WALL-E as a robot who "has a desire to find an emotional connection with other robots," which outweighs his alleged intentions to hoard debris. Also in an interview with Yahoo! director Andrew Standon said, "what if mankind had to leave Earth and they forgot to turn the last robot off?" Finally when the Buy 'N Large CEO realised the Earth was inhabitable, he ordered all WALL-E units to be shut off but the protganist.

Spaghetti westerns are so-called due to professionals from Italy and America working on them. It is a sub-genre of westerns.

Genre can be traced as far back as Ancient Greece where the genres of its plays were comedies or tragedies.

Film noir is more of a film style than a genre.

Genre is more of a narrative structure than a style.

The Magic Kingdom Park, the main theme park of Disney resorts throughout the world, is split up in several genres. For example Frontierland has a wild west genre and Tomorrowland (WDW Florida) and DIscoveryland (Disneyland Paris) has a science fiction genre.

I was originally going to discuss fan theories of WALL-E in my essay but decided not to in the end because I felt it was not relevant.

Film and online video references

WALL-E (2008). Directed by Andrew Stanton [Film]. USA: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
April Slocombe (2015). WALL-E as told using Campbell and Vogler's Hero's Journey [Online video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqmGB3_qKxc (Accessed: 8th February 2016).
ChannelFrederator (2014). Cannibal Robot? The WALL-E Theory - Cartoon Conspiracy (Ep. 23) [Oline video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=wall-e+fan+theories (Accessed: 8th February 2016).
Disney UK (2008). Wall-E Official Trailer [Film trailer, online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alIq_wG9FNk (Accessed: 8th February 2016).
WatchMojo.com (2015). Top 10 Cartoon Fan Theories [Online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF0d6xr7-7U (Accessed: 8th February 2016).