Visual Effects Icon Dennis Muren Reveals His Contribution To ‘WALL-E’

Dennis Muren’s work can be seen in a number of all-time classics, but you might not have known about his work on one of Pixar‘s most beloved films.

Muren’s visual effects work can be found in films like Terminator 2: Judgement Day, the original Star Wars trilogy, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, and many more. Less publicized though is his contribution to a certain lovable robot film named WALL-E.

“No, it was just the one off, it was- I had an idea about something, about if … their look, looked more photographically real, if it would bring in a larger audience,” Muren told Collider about his work on Pixar’s WALL-E. “That was just a crazy theory I had, and I contacted them about it and they said, ‘It’s funny you mention that because Andrew Stanton’s working on a project and he wants more reality on it right now.’”

Muren’s work on WALL-E was connected mostly to the first act of the film, where Stanton wanted to convey a feeling that you could “just taste the dust everywhere.”

“They were getting more of a cartoon look, a clean look,” said Muren about their vision at the time. His next step was to “muck it up and make it look much more realistic but not like photography.” He “still wanted to make sure it looked very man made and made by the Pixar artist.”

“It broke a lot of stuff that they weren’t used to doing,” Muren recalled. “That I knew because I’d studied reality, and that was it, we just did the first act and that was it. You know it takes a long time to do that, and it was something they weren’t used to doing either. But I was glad to be a part of them, I really admire them.”