Color and Film

Color and Film Review

The film is WALL-E. It was released in 2008 by PIXAR, and was directed by Andrew Stanton.

The opening scenes of the movie are set on a deserted, uninhabitable planet Earth. A lone little robot is left there to clean up and crush all the waste that has been left there. The complete lack of hue around WALL-E depicts a sad and desolate place. Since the color is so neutralized, there are only the different values to delineate the landscape and objects. There is some desaturated yellow on WALL-E himself. Yellow is normally a happy color, but by dulling the hue, WALL-E appears sad. We learn that he is, in fact, lonely and sad.

The palette in these scenes is monochromatic, mainly yellow that has been desaturated into the browns and earth tones.

Color is used here to create the desolate atmosphere of the uninhabited planet. It is creating a very sad, depressing place to be.

In these scenes, the sounds are mostly metallic robot sounds, and WALL-E is all alone, so the color palette matches with these other elements.

In these scenes, EVE enters the story. EVE is another robot that has been sent to Earth to evaluate whether there is any signs of life on the planet. The white of her form is a very high value, very bright. Her eyes and light beam are a high value and saturated blue. This lets us know this is an important new character. It’s like a spotlight is being thrown on this character.

The palette in these scenes is still mainly monochromatic, but a big dose of white and blue has been added. We can also see a spot of red on EVE (almost like a heart), and a brighter spot of yellow on WALL-E (his battery level). So the blue, yellow and red is a triadic scheme, among the monochromatic background.

The bright blue of EVE’s eyes and beam of light, plus the shiny white body, draw our eye right to this new character surrounded by all the dull browns and beiges. The bright white gives a hopeful feeling. In the last frame above, the green of the little plant draws our eye, and signals a change is coming. The introduction of this little bit of green tells us something new is about to happen.

The introduction of EVE, and WALL-E’s feelings for her, are completed by the introduction of a little more color as well as dramatic music.

In these scenes aboard the starship Axiom, there is a lot more color introduced. Yellow, blue, red, green have all been added. The hues are a slightly darker value, but still very saturated and clear.

The palette is mostly Triadic, with blue, red and yellow. This is a very basic color palette which has a great appeal to children.

All of this color represents a change in the action of the film. You know you are in a completely different place. And there is a lot of action occurring in the film at this point.

These new colors go along with the all the action that is happening at this point, and the more exciting music that accompanies that.