Over at CHUD.com, lovable grouch Devin Faraci has written another editorial about WALL•E. The premise of this editorial is that WALL•E‘s less-than-really-expected box office is partly due to “The central love story doesn’t really work.” He then proceeds to make an extended analysis of WALL•E and EVE’s relationship:
But of course this is a story told from the point of view of the social retard, so this creepy behavior is rewarded. This is the wish fulfillment aspect, and it’s here that the relationship story goes off the rails for me. In the movie EVE wakes up essentially in love with Wall*E; having him need to win her at this point would have been more interesting and realistic. Wall*E as a character undergoes almost no change in the movie, which again is that social misfit POV – it’s everybody else who needs to change, not the guy who can’t make eye contact with the check out girl at the supermarket.
I don’t buy the hypothesis of this being the reason for WALL•E‘s relatively lackluster B.O. (Like Ratatouille, it’s a hard movie to sell properly.) Nor do I completely buy his analysis of the romance, but I have to admit that Mr. Faraci makes several excellent, thought-provoking, and essentially accurate points. It’s a valid critique, just one I don’t agree with. I think that the movie works best as a sort of nonliteral robot fairy tale (c.f. A.I.), though that probably is a critical cop-out.
NOTE FOR SENSITIVE READERS: Mr. Faraci refers to Doing It, using the euphemism “Doing It.”
The Devin’s Advocate: WALL•E’s Unlikely Love Story
>Catena Ex Situ
Here is the corresponding message board discussion, which is interesting.
CHUD.com Forum
NOTE FOR SENSITIVE READERS: The discussion takes place on an internet message board.
This is awsome! look forward to more thanks!