Sound Designer Ben Burtt on Pixar's WALL•E

Ah yes, more sound design--'tis the season, summer time with it's plethora of animated and action films. Some films are offering both genres as with director Andrew Stanton's (dir/wr. Finding Nemo; wr. Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life) forthcoming Pixar release, WALL•E. When Stanton was creating his alternate world he imagined only one sound designer with the chops to deliver a whole auditory universe, legendary Academy Award-winning sound and character voice designer Ben Burtt (Star Wars-every single one, Indiana Jones, etc) creator of the voice of R2-D2 among other cultural signifiers.

Check out this video profiling Burtt and the sound design process for WALL•E. Burtt looks like he has one of the best and most fun jobs in the world, right? He constantly gets to be curious, explore, take risks, and some of his failures have probably been huge successes, or least starting points for some interesting discoveries. There's something to be learned from that, for sure.

Endnote:
• Transcript of interview excerpt with Ben Burtt from the Star Wars Trilogy: The Definitive Collection Laserdisc Box Set.
• (Added 6/30/08) Interview with Ben Burtt on NPR from Studio 360.
• (Added 7/1/08) More interviews with Burtt and other goodies at Film Sound Daily and a profile of Burtt in the LA Times.
• (Added 8/15/08) NPR interview with director Andrew Stanton talking about WALL•E including the sound design.


Ben Burtt on creating the Lightsaber sound design for Star Wars. So inspiring, amazing possibilities for sound are everywhere!