Although Pixar doesn’t make many sequels, it has been focusing on them in recent years, and one of its highest-rated movies still doesn’t have a sequel, but I hope it stays that way. Pixar continues to be the biggest studio in the world of animation, with its reign starting in 1995 with Toy Story. Since then, Pixar has explored a variety of cultures and worlds in its movies, from talking bugs to sentient cars and a world where superheroes exist, among many others. In 2008, Pixar showed a destroyed world in the sci-fi romance movie WALL-E.
Directed by Andrew Stanton, WALL-E is set in 2805, when Earth became uninhabitable and deserted as humanity evacuated to space on giant spaceships. All that’s left is a trash-compacting robot, the тιтle WALL-E, the last of many robots left to clean up the Earth. One day, WALL-E is visited by EVE, a robot from the humans’ starship, and he falls in love with her and pursues her across the galaxy. WALL-E was a critical and commercial success and became one of Pixar’s highest-rated movies, which is why it’s surprising that it hasn’t gotten a sequel yet, but it’s better this way.
Why WALL-E Should Never Have A Sequel, Despite Pixar’s Big Push
WALL-E Is Perfect As It Is
WALL-E is unlike the rest of Pixar’s movies (before and after it), for different reasons. WALL-E relies heavily on its sound design, as its lead character doesn’t speak and, in general, it has minimal dialogue, which also serves to enhance its incredible visuals. WALL-E also addresses some serious topics that kids would normally be unaware of, such as consumerism, waste management, the environmental impact of humans, destructive lifestyles, global catastrophic risks, sedentary lifestyles, and more. For this and more, WALL-E is considered among the greatest animated movies of all time.
Now, as mentioned above, although Pixar isn’t really a studio that focuses on sequels aside from the Toy Story and Cars sagas, it has been pushing towards sequels in recent years. Worlds like those of The Incredibles and Inside Out have been expanded with sequels, and others like Coco are in the process of getting a follow-up. Some of these rank among the highest-rated Pixar movies, but WALL-E should never be considered for a sequel, mostly because it doesn’t need one.
WALL-E tells a complete story and gives its тιтle character a happy and hopeful ending, and the magic, charm, and depth of the movie aren’t elements that could be easily replicated. A sequel to WALL-E would ruin the perfect ending of the first movie, in which the faith of WALL-E and humans was restored as they worked together to make Earth a habitable home again. Returning to this universe in a sequel would ruin the message of hope and empowerment of WALL-E, no matter if the story is good or not.
What Would WALL-E 2 Even Be About?
WALL-E 2 Risks Feeling Repeтιтive
One of the biggest challenges of a sequel to WALL-E is the story, mostly as it would risk being repeтιтive and, again, ruining the first movie. At the end of WALL-E, humanity returns to Earth and works together with the surviving robots to restore the planet and make it habitable again, with one of the first steps being giving the plant a proper space where it can grow. During the closing credits of WALL-E, the development of humanity on Earth is shown, which pretty much repeats world history but with some extra help from technology.
It would be a very dark and disheartening story as it would show that humans didn’t really learn from their past mistakes and that WALL-E and EVE’s efforts were in vain.
WALL-E 2 would probably see humans messing up life on Earth and risking their existence again, with WALL-E and EVE once more doing what they can to save the planet. It would be a very dark and disheartening story as it would show that humans didn’t really learn from their past mistakes and that WALL-E and EVE’s efforts were in vain. WALL-E’s greatness isn’t an invitation for a sequel, and it should be one of those Pixar movies that doesn’t get expansions.