What's That Song in 'WALL-E'?

Posted on Jul 14th 2008 11:00AM by James Sullivan
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'Put on Your Sunday Clothes,' by Michael Crawford

Pixar's Andrew Stanton is happily telling interviewers he'll have to answer questions for the rest of his career about his oddball choice to feature a song from 'Hello, Dolly!' in 'WALL-E.' The robotic title character, left on a desolate Earth to clean up, is lonely. When he pops in an old videotape, he's enchanted by a scene from the musical, which helps him realize he needs a mate.

"Put on your Sunday clothes/There's lots of world out there," sings brassy young Michael Crawford, almost two decades before he became forever known as 'The Phantom of the Opera.' In 'Dolly,' he's trying to convince a fellow clerk that they need to get out of Yonkers into the big city, where they'll paint the town "and won't come home until we've kissed a girl."

Stanton has said he initially intended to use old French hot jazz for the scene but was beaten to the idea by the French animated film 'The Triplets of Belleville.' A second song from 'Dolly,' 'It Only Takes a Moment,' aptly bookends the film's premise that 'WALL-E' just wants some companionship.

Even a robot can't resist a good show tune.

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