Pretty much every time you see a Pixar movie, you're guaranteed to want to bring one of the characters home with you. It all started with Toy Story, of course, presenting a toy chest full of characters who you may very well own yourself-- Mr. Potato Head, the army men, etc.-- but who all seemed more spectacular and fun than anything you had in real life. And it extends on down to Remy the Cooking Rat (the most unexpectedly cuddly rodent of all time!) or Dug the dog in Up-- the plush version will even talk to you. And while I've had a little Wall-E that sits on my desk for years now, he was never really close to the real thing, and I was OK with that.
Until now. Because now, there is a real-life, life-size Wall-E on this planet. Yes, for real. Check out the video below to see what one robotics genius has brought us.
We're having trouble with YouTube embeds, so you'll have to click the link below to see it-- sorry about that!
It's fantastic, and utterly appropriate, that these guys started off building R2D2s, since that little droid pretty much held the title for cutest on-screen robot until WALL-E came along in 2008. And as someone who knows pretty much nothing about robotics, engineering, physics or robot technology, I'm completely amazed that they managed to not only rebuild Wall-E to scale, but to make him move like the character, with what looks like all the real parts, and even make noises like the character. This version of Wall-E shows no sign of saving the planet or making his way up into space, but if he's anything like the character who inspired him, he'll be around on this planet long after we're all gone, so don't count him out.
