Just in time for Up: WALL•E!
SynchroLux (né Kevin Koch) decided to revisit WALL•E and share some of his thoughts on the relationship between theme and plot:
My issue, put simply, is that the film’s theme was revealed and resolved early, robbing the remainder of the film of meaning. Put another way, by climaxing and resolving the theme about half way through the movie, it ended up feeling like two distinct, shorter episodes welded together, with the first one quite a bit more compelling than the second.
and:
Let’s take a step back and look at the issue of theme. Plot is about what happens, to whom, and in what order. Theme is what the film is about. Themes give films meaning, depth, and enhance our sense of entertainment. Not all films have much of a theme, but I’d argue strongly that there are no memorable or great films that don’t have well-developed themes that infuse and drive the narrative. And, as I recall reading somewhere I can’t place now, the great films tend to make the resolution of the theme the key to resolving the plot…
His primary solution, which will not be completely revealed here, is to tweak the character of Captain McCrea to keep more in synch with the theme to get that nice, endorphin-releasing thematic resolution.
…Perhaps the Captain, instead of being a bored dope, could have been a devoted scholar of man’s time on Earth. Maybe this is how he spent his countless hours of leisure time, looking at old National Geographics…
Mr. Koch’s specific objection of thematic resolution never bothered me, since the movie supports all manner of thematic analysis and symbolism, despite what Mr. Stanton says. I don’t think WALL•E truly possesses one consistent theme, but seems to be a bit of a hodgepodge.
I do like his idea of tweaking the Captain character, since his transformation to proactive go-getter was a little bit easy. (The filmmakers did at least right away show how bored he was with his day-to-day routine.) I wouldn’t tweak quite so dramatically as Mr. Koch suggests, since this might rob the film of any suspense or mystery regarding Captain McCrea if we know from the outset that he’s going to be emphatically on WALL•E’s side. It might also telegraph the return-to-Earth ending a little too much. Having the Captain as an interested go-getter from the start would also undercut a bit of the importance of humanity taking charge again. He can’t seem like the kind of guy who would have already flipped the switch to MANUAL.
WALL•E: When Theme and Plot Get Out of Sync > Catena Ex Situ
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I always felt like the Captain represented the whole human race, and they had to show how lazy and apathetic they’d all gotten. I think the Captain was written pretty well, but it’s definitely an interesting read!
I think it was handled pretty well, but maybe I’m just too cynical to believe humanity would change that quickly, even after John, Mary, and McCrea’s individual epiphanies.