All Good News

Man builds real life WALL-E for sick children

August 8, 2012

Mike Senna of California loves building robots, but it's the reason he builds them that makes this story so amazing. His latest creation is a life-size WALL-E from the very successful Pixar movie released in 2008, and it's all for the kids.

Once he finished WALL-E, the first place he took the astonishing robot was to the children at City of Hope Pediatric Picnic, a comprehensive cancer center event for kids. Senna enjoys more than anything the reaction and happiness the children get from his hard work.

Senna's WALL-E can drive around in all directions, move his head up and down, wave, and say "WALL-E", just as it sounds in the movie. The reason Senna decided on creating WALL-E was the emotion that he felt could be portrayed. His previous success, was a real life walking, talking R2-D2 from Star Wars, but it didn't have the emotional connection to children he felt he could get with WALL-E.

WALL-E took Senna about 2 years to create, working on his own time and money over 25 hours a week. There were moments were he wanted to give up through mental frustration and the pressure he put on himself, but his reason behind the creation kept him going. Even Senna's co-workers told him he couldn't do it, and asked why he was doing it.

"If I don't do it," explained Senna,"who's it gonna affect? It's not gonna affect me that much, but that kid that's been in the hospital for 3 months...you can make a difference."

A big difference he has made.