WALL-E/Shout Out

WALL-E contains tons of shout-outs, mostly to other sci-fi films, and most obviously to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

• Sigourney Weaver is the voice of the Axiom PA system, referencing Alien, Galaxy Quest, and perhaps the Futurama episode "Love and Rocket".
• Not to mention that WALL-E's "fully charged" and reboot sounds are the same as the iconic Apple start-up sound.
• While we're on the subject of Apple, AUTO has that Creepy Monotone because he's voiced by MacinTALK, Apple's text-to-speech program. M-O's "FOREIGN CONTAMINANT" directive is synthesized by the same.
• There are at LEAST three visual references when WALL-E is traveling in space. The solar flare before going to the ice rings references the opening of Star Trek: Voyager. The drones flying out of the shuttle bay reference the runabouts from the opening of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and during the approach to the Axiom, the music sounds like the approach to the Death Star in Star Wars.
• There's an obvious reference to The Matrix, with the highly meaningful clothing shift from blue to red by the culturally awakened Muggles.
• There's also a possible reference to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, in COM-T's (the cycloptic keyboard robot) instrumental communication.
  • Also, the scene where COM-T and WALL-E wave to each other seems similar to Chihiro's encounter with the Radishman in Spirited Away.
    • It should be noted that whenever Pixar staff encounter problems with their movies, they watch Hayao Miyazaki's films for inspiration.
• AUTO was explicitly designed with HAL-9000 in mind.
  • 2001's famous classical soundtrack is also evoked in two separate scenes with the Axiom's captain.
• AUTO's design, and the way he moves about the cockpit, also seems to be a direct reference to the Trimaxion (Max) from Flight of the Navigator.
• There's also the A-113 reference, although it's a lot more blatant here than in many of Pixar's other films; here, it's the name of the directive AUTO follows to ensure the ship never returns to Earth
  • A-113 can be seen as the license plate number on the back of the mother's car in the first Toy Story movie as they are going to Pizza Planet.
  • A-113 can be seen in EVERY Pixar film. This is jus the first time it was used as an arc word or given any meaning.
  • Even WALL-E's name is a reference to A-113, translated from l33t speak with a W added to the beginning. Mind blown!
• WALL-E crashes into Sputnik 1 while leaving Earth for the first time.
  • Although in Real Life it burned up in the atmosphere years ago.
• To say nothing of the numerous references to other Pixar films; the pizza delivery Toyota from Toy Story comes to mind.
  • Those little mouse robots nibbling around EVE in the vast trash room? They're called REM-Es.
  • In the mosaic section of the credits, one large turtle, two smaller turtles and an orange fish swim by
  • The captain trying to reattach the plant's leaf looks ecxactly like Al doing the same to Woody's arm in Toy Story 2
• It's subtle, but as EVE is first exploring Earth, the background music is very similar to the theme for Raiders of the Lost Ark.
• The world as a whole may be a Shout-Out to either Mad Max or the Fallout Series. You know, except with more garbage, especially the juxtaposition of nostalgic music and imagery from happier, more innocent times with the bleak reality of the future. Heck, the film even opens the same way as the Fallout games' opening cinematics - golden oldies and comforting visuals that suddenly segue into a desolate post-apocalyptic cityscape.
• WALL-E and EVE's first "rogue robots" picture looks suspiciously like the posters for Wanted (right down to the poses and coloring), which coincidentally came out the same day (June 27, 2008), and which both have titles that start with the same letter of the alphabet.
• The company that makes everything, Buy N Large (abbreviated "BnL"), seems to be a more obscure reference to an album by the Barenaked Ladies (also abbreviated "BnL"). The artwork for the 2003 album, entitled Everything to Everyone, features the band posing in various everyday situations while using various products that come in blue boxes marked "Everything". Still not convinced? A close up of one of the boxes had "BnL" in the corner.
• There's another 2001: A Space Odyssey reference in the BURN-E short. When the ship goes into hyperdrive, it mimics the light show that Dave sees when he goes though the Monolith. It even reflect on BURN-E's visor like it did on Dave's.
• The fact that WALL-E's TV is made up of a small iPod screen and a big magnifying glass would appear to be a shout out to Terry Gilliam's Brazil.
  • The first trailer for WALL-E even has the song "Aquarela do Brasil", which Brazil is named after, in the teaser trailer.
• The "HALT" that the stewards say sounds almost the exact same (except for a pitch shift), as the HALT repeated endlessly by guards in the old game The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall.
• WALL-E himself bears a strong resemblence to Johnny-5; though Word of God states this was unintentional, he admitted it may still have influenced the design.
• WALL-E has a shiney silver toaster in his house.
  • Later, while wandering through the piles of junk, EVE briefly gets stuck to a giant magnet.
  • To say nothing of compacting junk into tiny, neat cubes.