portal

How does one animation studio consistently put out box office hits like Pixar? Sometimes I wonder how they do it, but I think it all boils down to incredible graphics and incredible story-telling. Oh, and the fact that a lot of the people who work there went to Brown. True Story. Maybe not John Lasseter but you don’t name a major character in Toy Story after a Brown CS professor for nothing!

Anyway, I knew I wasn’t going to be disappointed with Wall E and I’m glad to say I wasn’t. But my only question was–how much Portal did the animators play while putting the movie together?

First off, the “Presto” short that played before the screening was a direct rip-off of the Valve video game. Instead of being a prisoner equipped with an awesome portal-making machine, a magician’s bunny wrecks havoc when he messes around with a pair of portal magic hats.

The short was cute, but c’mon now!

And then there were the characters. Eve, a round, cylindrical white robot who would fold up into a smooth column whenever she shut down. Does anyone else think this looks like the white turrets in Portal whose arms would fold up if you knocked them down?

Plus, AUTO, the nemesis, whose red eye and constant swiveling around from the ceiling reminded me way too much of GLaDOS in the final scene.

Alright, so they’re not exact replicas but I can’t be the only one to think about the many similarities in the design, feel, and constant robot voices.

Right?? Right?? RIGHT???