Submitted by Fox First at Ten on August 3rd
A Google search of the phrase "Wall-E made me cry" returns more than 13 thousand results, a figure which can surely be multiplied several times over to include all the people who did cry at the little robot's adventures, but consider themselves too "tough" to admit it.
Well, grab your handkerchiefs and start practicing your best "there's something in my eye" line, as we're about to introduce you to Mike Senna's amazing recreation of the titular ‘bot.
It all began back in 2010, when Senna was looking for a new challenge after finishing his own working replica of R2-D2. After observing how children reacted to meeting R2 when he visited the City of Hope hospital in California, the equally lovable, but even more emotionally engaging, Wall-E seemed like the perfect choice for his next project.
But this is no off-the-shelf build, as there are no kits, no pre-built parts and no instructions available; meaning it would have to be built entirely from scratch and by using the film as the blueprint.
As a keen roboticist, Senna's Wall-E isn't simply a static model, and it can move around, wave to people, turn its head to look at you and even say its name. The attention to detail is astonishing, as all those movements look almost identical to its animated counterpart.
This level of care continues when you take a closer look at Wall-E's body, as each panel has been painted and weathered to match what we saw on screen too.
An obvious perfectionist, Senna almost gave up after 18 months, as the workload was so huge, but he pushed forward and after approximately 3,800 hours of work, Wall-E has been finished.
The final result makes it all worthwhile though, and Senna's return to the City of Hope hospital with Wall-E can be seen, along with a demonstration of the robot's abilities, in Yahoo's video report here. The other video was taken just as the build was being completed, and shows how Wall-E is controlled.
Here's hoping Eve is next on Senna's list.
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This article was originally posted on Digital Trends
