Andrew Stanton conceived WALL-E during a lunch with fellow writers John Lasseter, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft in 1994. Toy Story was nearing completion and the writers brainstormed ideas for their next projects � A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., and Finding Nemo � at this lunch.

Stanton asked, "What if mankind had to leave Earth and somebody forgot to turn off the last robot?" Having struggled for many years with making the characters in Toy Story appealing, Stanton found his simple Robinson Crusoe-esque idea of a lonely robot on a deserted planet very strong.

Stanton made WALL-E a waste collector as the idea was instantly understandable, and because it was a low-status menial job that made him sympathetic. Stanton also liked the imagery of stacked cubes of garbage. He did not find the idea dark because having a planet covered in garbage was for him a childish imagining of disaster.

Stanton and Pete Docter developed the film under the title of Trash Planet for two months in 1995, but they did not know how to develop the story and Docter chose to direct Monsters, Inc. instead.

Stanton came up with the idea of WALL-E finding a plant, because his life as the sole inhabitant on a deserted world reminded Stanton of a plant growing among pavements. Before they turned their attention to other projects, Stanton and Lasseter thought about having WALL-E fall in love, as it was the necessary progression away from loneliness.

Stanton started writing WALL-E again in 2002 while completing Finding Nemo. Stanton formatted his script in a manner reminiscent of Dan O'Bannon's Alien. O'Bannon wrote his script in a manner Stanton found reminded him of haiku, where visual descriptions were done in continuous lines of a few words.

Stanton wrote his robot dialogue conventionally, but placed them in brackets. In late 2003, Stanton and a few others created a story reel of the first twenty minutes of the film. Lasseter and Steve Jobs were impressed and officially began development, though Jobs stated he did not like the title, originally spelled "W.A.L.-E."

While the first act of WALL-E "fell out of the sky" for Stanton, he had originally wanted aliens to plant EVE to explore Earth and the rest of the film was very different.

When WALL-E comes to the Axiom, he incites a Spartacus-style rebellion by the robots against the remnants of the human race, which were cruel alien Gels (completely devolved, gelantinous, boneless, legless, see-through, green creatures that resemble Jell-O).

James Hicks, a physiologist, mentioned to Stanton the concept of atrophy and the effects prolonged weightlessness would have on humans living in space for an inordinately extended time period.

Therefore, this was the inspiration of the humans degenerating into the alien Gels, and their ancestry would have been revealed in a Planet of the Apes-style ending.

The Gels also spoke a made-up gibberish language, but Stanton scrapped this idea because he thought it would be too complicated for the audience to understand and they could easily be driven off from the storyline.

The Gels had a royal family, who host a dance in a castle on a lake in the back of the ship, and the Axiom curled up into a ball when returning to Earth in this incarnation of the story. Stanton decided this was too bizarre and unengaging, and conceived humanity as "big babies".

Stanton developed the metaphorical theme of the humans learning to stand again and "growing up", wanting WALL-E and EVE's relationship to inspire humanity because he felt very few films explore how utopian societies come to exist.

The process of depicting the descendants of humanity as the way they appear in the movie was very slow. Stanton first decided to put a nose and ears on the Gels so the audience could recognize them.

Eventually, fingers, legs, clothes, and other characteristics were added until they arrived at the concept of being fetus-like to allow the audience to see themselves in the characters.

In a later version of the film, Auto comes to the docking bay to retrieve EVE's plant. The film would have its first cutaway to the captain, but Stanton moved that as he found it too early to begin moving away from WALL-E's point-of-view.

As an homage to Get Smart, Auto takes the plant and goes into the bowels of the ship into a room resembling a brain where he watches videos of Buy n Large's scheme to clean up the Earth falling apart through the years. Stanton removed this to keep some mystery as to why the plant is taken from EVE.

The captain appears to be unintelligent, but Stanton wanted him to just be unchallenged; otherwise he would have been unempathetic. One example of how unintelligent the captain was depicted initially is that he was seen to wear his hat upside-down, only to fix it before he challenges Auto.

In the finished film, he merely wears it casually atop his head, tightening it when he assumes real command of the Axiom. Originally, EVE would have been electrocuted by Auto, and then be quickly saved from ejection at the hands of the WALL-A robots by WALL-E.

He would have then revived her by replacing her power unit with a cigarette lighter he brought from Earth. Stanton reversed this following a 2007 test screening, as he wanted to show EVE replacing her directive of bringing the plant to the captain with repairing WALL-E, and it made WALL-E even more heroic if he held the holo-detector open despite being badly hurt.

Stanton also moved the moment where WALL-E reveals his plant (which he had snatched from the self-destructing escape pod) from producing it from a closet to immediately after his escape, as it made EVE happier and gave them stronger motivation to dance around the ship.

Stanton felt half the audience at the screening believed the humans would be unable to cope with living on Earth and would have died out after the film's end.

Jim Capobianco, director of the short film Your Friend the Rat, created an end credits animation that continued the story � and stylized in different artistic movements throughout history � to clarify an optimistic tone.

Resources: Wikipedia.org, imdb.com

A Dystopia in the Future. Approximately seven hundred years in the future, the Earth is over-run with garbage and devoid of plant and animal life, the consequence of years of environmental degradation and thoughtless consumerism. The surviving humans are living on the spaceship Axiom after vacating Earth centuries earlier.

Axiom is operated by a large corporation called Buy N Large, whose BnL logo appears even on the artificial sun visible from the ship's main concourse.

The original plan was for humans to live in outer space for 5 years while cleaning robots ("WALL-Es" invented by Professor Simon) prepared Earth for recolonization.

However, after seven hundred years, only one WALL-E (voice: Ben Burtt) remains.

WALL-E spends his days compacting debris into solid blocks and building structures with them.

He also collects some of the more interesting artifacts and keeps them in the garage.

WALL-E shares his home with a cockroach, his only friend.

At night he watches Hello Dolly on VHS and dreams of having a hand to hold.

Most of his finds are spare parts and electronics but one day he discovers a lonely plant.

Not sure what it is, but recognizing that it needs soil and care, he picks it up and puts it in a dirt-filled old shoe.

The next day, an enormous spaceship lands and deposits another robot.

EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator, voice: Elissa Knight).

WALL-E is immediately smitten and hopes to hold her hand.

But EVE is quick to use her plasma cannon, which can blast a hole through anything.

EVE flies around Earth looking for vegetation but becomes distraught upon not finding any.

WALL-E is finally able to approach her and takes her back to his garage.

He shows her his collection of human artifacts.

He plays the Hello Dolly video for her.

She still resists holding his hand, however, so he shows her the plant he found.

This activates her prime directive: she takes the plant into a special containment capsule within her body.

EVE sends a signal to the mother ship, and goes into hibernation mode.

Confused, WALL-E tries to make her safe and comfortable.

He shelters her from thunderstorms.

WALL-E takes her to a park where he can watch the sunset next to her.

Several days later, the mother ship returns and collects EVE.

WALL-E hitches a ride on the ship.

The ship returns to the Axiom several light years away from Earth.

EVE and WALL-E are examined in the landing bay.

EVE, still in hibernation mode, is taken away to the ship's commander.

WALL-E pursues her, followed by M-O, a cleaning robot who is intent on scrubbing the filthy WALL-E to remove foreign contaminants.

On the way, WALL-E sees humans for the first time. Obese and largely unable to move on their own, they are carted around the Axiom in hover chairs with video screens that allow them to communicate with one another and see a variety of advertisements for drinkable food products.

When WALL-E accidentally knocks one of the humans, John (voice: John Ratzenberger), off his hover chair, WALL-E helps the man back into the chair and introduces himself. Confused but grateful, John introduces himself in return.

WALL-E tracks EVE to the chambers of Captain McCrea (voice: Jeff Garlin), who is just as inert and catered to as the other humans.

McCrea is confused but excited about Operation Recolonize, which is triggered by EVE's find. But when McCrea reactivates EVE and orders her to produce the plant, it is missing.

McCrea orders EVE and WALL-E to be taken for repairs but, after they've left, decides to educate himself about Earth. In the repair bay, WALL-E mistakenly thinks EVE is being harmed by the repair crew and uses her plasma cannon to save her, inadvertently releasing other robots who had been taken in for service.

During the breakout, security robots take photos of them; the ship's computer announces to humans that EVE and WALL-E are renegade robots. Angry, EVE takes WALL-E to an escape pod to send him back to Earth. Before she can put him in the pod, they see Gopher putting the plant in the escape pod. After Gopher leaves, WALL-E goes to rescue the plant but is blasted into space.

Before the pod self-destructs, WALL-E uses the emergency escape hatch and a fire extinguisher to exit the pod with the plant. A joyous EVE plays in space with WALL-E and even gives him an appreciative electric kiss. Using the garbage chute, EVE and WALL-E sneak into McCrea's cabin to give him the plant. But Auto (voice: MacInTalk), the ship's auto pilot system, reveals it was the one who stole the plant earlier.

It has no intention of allowing a return to Earth because of a centuries-old directive that was issued when the Earth was believed to be permanently uninhabitable. Auto blasts WALL-E, EVE and the plant back down the garbage chute and confines McCrea to his cabin.

WALL-E and EVE barely escape being shot into space with the rest of the refuse but WALL-E is badly damaged.

Meanwhile, McCrea has figured out how to hack into the ship's communication system and tells EVE and WALL-E to head to the ship's central deck, where a special machine will return the ship to earth when the plant is placed inside it.

With the help of the robots they liberated earlier, WALL-E and EVE make it to the central deck where the special machine has risen from a platform.

Auto tries to force the machine back into the platform but is prevented by WALL-E.

McCrea manages to stand up on his own and shuts off AUTO.

EVE puts the plant in the special machine and the Axiom is whisked back to Earth.

WALL-E was grievously crushed in keeping Auto from collapsing the platform.

Once they reach Earth, EVE rushes WALL-E back to his garage and repairs him.

WALL-E doesn't recognize her and begins to compact garbage.

Distraught, EVE holds WALL-E's hand and gives him an electric kiss again. This properly reboots WALL-E.

McCrea teaches the other humans how to nurture the plant and heal the planet. It will be much easier than they think because just outside the city, plants have already begun to flourish.