The Voices of Pixar

Ben Burtt, WALL-E (2008)

The lonely robo-boy of Andrew Stanton’s fabulous fantasy doesn’t say much (“WALL-E,” “Eva,” “Ta-DA!”), but there’s a future-world of humor and emotion in each syllable. Those intonations, and nearly every other sound in the movie — the machines, the weapons, the whole aural environment — are the creation of Ben Burtt, who for 28 years soundscaped George Lucas films (the light saber in Star Wars, the whipcrack in Raiders of the Lost Ark) before coming to Pixar. WALL-E’s voice is Burtt’s own, which he stretched, distorted and metallicized on his computer keyboard. (The liquid loveliness in the voice of WALL-E’s friend EVE comes from Pixar staffer Elissa Knight.) All the movies’ sounds could have been purely computer-generated, but, says Burtt, “The problem with real synthetic voices is that they lack character. You don’t get the sense of a soul behind the voice.” Leave it to Burtt and Pixar to locate the soul of a new machine.

Next: Bob Peterson, Up (2009)