Anyone up for working on a Pixar storyform together? (Wall-E)

analysis
#61

Great! Well said. Let’s move on keeping both Fact & Threat as potentials for MC Issue.

The possible values for IC Issue are Worry (concern for the future) and Value (objective usefulness). Any thoughts on those? Keep in mind for the IC throughline you may find the IC demonstrating those things herself (e.g. she worries, she undervalues things), or she may bring out those issues in other characters especially the MC. Regardless of how it’s explained, the key thing is that conflict in this area should impact others esp. the MC.

NOTE: for IC throughline, like RS, the quad of elements below this issue is not necessarily the Problem quad. Choosing Worry as the issue does give us the quad under it (Accurate/Non-Accurate/Result/Process), but choosing Value gives us the quad under Worth (Expectation/Determination/Ending/Unending).

I’m having trouble making a solid choice here too; hopefully you or others have some insight. Or we may need to move onto Problem quad.

#62

[quote=“mlucas, post:61, topic:878”]
Value (objective usefulness)
[/quote] does seem her goal - job - focus. Meeting Walle jars her out of her automation, doesn’t it? And doesn’t he assess his life - position for its value, after she challenges his worthiness? Maybe, the MC is value somewhere, then? just thoughts on the run…

#63

I’m looking at her search for the plant. she seems Worried (concerned for the future) about finding plant life and returning it to the detector in the Axiom. She’s oddly unconcerned with whatever else might be within her blast radius. I’m not sure if she influences WallE into worry. I’m really not sure about value.

@Prish ,Can you can expand a bit? I’m not sure which moments in the movie you’re referencing.

#64

I’m remembering bits of the story, I guess. I do want to see it, again. I guess everyone considering Walle contamination of no value etc. comes to mind

#65

Value: Eve initially doesn’t value Wall-E at all; she either overlooks him or comes close to vaporizing him. Eve herself seems to think that her only value is in fulfilling her directive, to bring back the plant life; without that she is useless.
(Interestingly, even though there a dozens of Eve units, she’s the only one showing any conflict in this area. Remember how upset she got when the plant was missing from her innards and they blamed her, thinking she had malfunctioned?)

Worry: Eve’s presence makes Wall-E worried about whether he has a future with her. He worries about her when she goes into stasis/beacon mode after finding the plant, trying to get her to respond to him. Later on, Eve worries about Wall-E, trying to rescue him from the self-destructing shuttle, and telling him to stay put so he doesn’t get in danger, etc.

Both seem like they could fit … I think I prefer Value slightly because it seems to challenge the MC’s worldview more (I mean at the beginning when she doesn’t value him, just overlooks him), but it’s pretty even.

I think we’ll have to start looking at Problem, Solution, Symptom & Response for MC & IC throughlines. (Don’t worry, the same thing happened with the A Man for All Seasons analysis!)

#66

Got it. And I can see some Value/Worth in that area. Seems more related to MC though. From the current storyform we’re looking at, I’d say maybe that was part of WallEs Situation? Maybe that could go along with threat, as in the other robots see him as a foreign contaminate and are trying to get rid of him (or are they just trying to clean him up? Can’t remember. Maybe he thinks they’ll try to get rid of him)

#67

Good point on Value. Particularly the part about her being willing to blast WallE.

I wasn’t sure if Wall-E Worrying/Valueing Eve would be too close to RS. But if it falls outside of the RS because it’s a one-sided thing on Wall-Es part or something, then I guess that opens it up a bit.

I’ll look at the problem quads this afternoon.

#68

You’re right – we should tread carefully there. I was trying to look at it only from Wall-E’s personal issues perspective, but the line is kind of blurry. Which is okay – often something in the story will be in multiple throughlines but will look different from each perspective. But those things are tricky to use for analysis.

P.S. This is fun!

#69

What are your thoughts on a symptom/response of accurate/non-accurate for MC? Wall-E acts within tolerances, performing his job until Eve comes along. Then he acts outside of his directive by worrying about her and following her into space. Once he gets on board the Axiom, he’s seen as being not within tolerances as he’s first seen as a foreign contaminant on his own, and then a rogue robot along with Eve.

I haven’t looked extensively at what that would do to the rest of the form just yet.

#70

I’m not sure. Does Wall-E see “acting within tolerances” to be his (personal) problem? He doesn’t seem to stress too much about his job, or anything. I agree some of his responses do seem like they could fit Non-Accurate.

I was also wondering about Non-Accurate for Eve’s Problem or Response, just because of her crazy over-the-top “blast anything that moves” attitude, esp. when she annihilates several ships just because she got stuck on a magnet. That’s totally acting outside of tolerances, lol. But honestly, I’m finding the MC & IC throughlines tricky.

Maybe we should go back to the OS Problem/Solution/Symptom/Response, since we only have one quad to look at there. What do you think about Non-Accurate as the OS Problem? Here are a few gists that seem applicable:

  • Being untruthful, being misleading (Auto)
  • Being lax, being inadequate, being insufficient (the humans, the earth)
#71

Oh wait. If the OS Problem is Non-Accurate, it also means the IC Problem is too … and think about it … Eve is driven by the inadequacy of her whole model unit. All the Eves have basically been inadequate, failing in their task for the last several hundred years. And she HATES it when they think she’s malfunctioned (Non-Accurate).

Sorry, I’ll pause there – feel free to shoot down these ideas, regardless of how excited I seem!

#72

So, where would fantasy be an option, then? Where in the storyform would it end up, if we choose threat or fact?

#73

Finally got to watch the film again. There was SOOO much that I had forgotten.

I enclose the beat sheet for anyone who needs a refresher (as I do) to what happens in the film. A lot of it is shorthand but I hope it helps discuss the points.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!! - Wall-E Beat Sheet

  • Shots of Galaxies. Fly towards earth, very brown, mountains of rubbish. Cities of trash.
  • Wall-E - compacts trash - roach follows,
  • Wall-E heads back home past all the Buy-n-Large. Replaces rusted out treads for new.
  • BnL adverts - “Head into space - it’ll be fun. Ships leaving everyday.”
  • Wall-E makes it back to his home - where he has a monster collection of knick-knacks.Wall-E puts on movie.
  • Wall-E watches movie where couple are holding hands. (He seems lonely).
  • Wall-E looks up into space where he is melancholic.
  • A dust storm brews, Wall-E heads into the cargo hold - rocks himself to sleep.
  • In the morning - he gets up - charges his battery and leaves, rolling over Roach in the meantime.
  • Wall-E goes back to work. All the while collecting things (Shoe, Extinguisher).
  • Wall-E finds plan growing in fridge. - he puts it in shoe.
  • On arriving back at home - he notices a red dot.
  • Wall-E chases it. - Then there are thousands following him.
  • A rocket ship lands - Wall-E buries himself.
  • The rocket deposits a pod, which opens and reveals Eve
  • Wall-E connects straight away.
  • Eve starts scanning the ground around him.
  • The rocket takes off, Wall-E having to bury himself in the ground again.
  • Eve - flying sequence
  • Wall-E knocks some rocks off, Eve blasts the boulder.
  • Eve moves off - scanning rocks
  • Roach approaches and gets blasted. But survives. Wall-E laughs when Eve tickles from Roach, Eve blasts away his hiding spots.
  • Approaching Wall-E she asks who he is, scans him, negative, leaves and ignores him.
  • Eve carries on with her mission.
  • At night, Eve powers down. During the night, Wall-E makes a statue for her.
  • Eve carries on with her mission. Gets caught by a magnet. Blasts it, and in the ensuring inferno Wall-E introduces himself. They share names.
  • A storm hits, and Wall-E takes Eve back to his cargo hold. Shows her around and shares his interests. Including showing film.
  • Eve finds a zippo, Wall-E’s mind is turned to romance. Eve doesn’t even notice.
  • Wall-E shows Eve the plant – She takes the plant into her compartment. Eve’s directive is fulfilled – she shuts down.
  • Wall-E tries to wake her up. He takes her outside into the sun.
  • Wall-E takes her on “romantic” locations
  • Wall-E plays Pong with her - 7999/0
  • Wall-E leaves her for the day, and the rocket ship returns - collects the inert Eve.
  • Wall-E holds stows away on the outside of the ship.
  • Rocket finally makes it back to the Axiom
  • Cleaning robots come out to clean everyone, Wall-E has a bit of fun with MO
  • Eve gets taken away - Wall-E follows.
  • MO jumps off the line - nothing happens. He continues cleaning
  • Eve gets taken on a journey down the hover board freeway. Wall-E follows.
  • Wall-E comes across humanity - or what has become of it
  • Wall-E helps a human back onto a hover sled.
  • Montage - humans are fat and engrossed on screens.
  • Wall-E catches up to Eve on a train. - lets a human connect with the world for the first time.
  • Eve gets taken past the gatekeeper.
  • Eve gets scanned by AUTO - ducks down to the captain’s quarters and requests him on deck.
  • Captain gets ready - and goes through Protocol
  • Captain addresses the passengers - interrupted by green flashing light.
  • Eve has come back positive.
  • Forthright video tell Captain he can go back home “Operation Colonise”.
  • While Captain is working through manual, Wall-E gets Eve’s attention. She is surprised that Wall-E is out and about. She hides him away.
  • Eve is scanned - but there is no plant in her storage.
  • Eve is sent to repair ward. Wall-E meets captain. He is sent to be cleaned as he shakes captains hand - and has dirt on it.
  • Captain scans dirt and get more info on earth.
  • Eve gets turned off at the repair centre. Wall-E gets placed in the asylum section.
  • While Eve gets spa treatment Wall-E believes that she is being pulled apart.
  • Wall-E reacts and goes to save her - accidentally blasting a hole in the panel in the wall. Releasing the other inmates.
  • The ship sends out security after the marauding masses.
  • "Caution Rogue Robots” plastered everywhere.
  • Eve and Wall-E escape while in lift - Eve blasts a TV screen for displaying the message (Rogue Robots).
  • Eve takes Wall-E to shuttle - tells him to go to earth.
  • Wall-E wants Eve to go with him. She refuses “Directive”.
  • Wall-E jumps out of the shuttle and refuses to go without Eve.
  • A small security bot arrives and Eve and Wall-E have to hide.
  • The security bot places the Boot with Plant in the shuttle and presses button.
  • Wall-E goes into shuttle - only to be locked inside and launched. Eve looks for a way to rescue him.
  • The shuttle is programmed to self-destruct. Wall-E escapes - just in time.
  • Wall-E meets Eve in space, shows Eve the plant.
  • Eve is ecstatic. They fly around space in a heart lifting sequence.
  • Back on the ship - humans are starting to see that there is a world around them, the girl at the pool stops John’s hover chair.
  • Eve and Wall-E head back into the ship and hide near the Lido-deck.
  • Wall-E - plays music to Eve - trying to set up something romantic - Eve turns the music off- she is about the directive.
  • In the captains quarters he imagines what it would be like to land back on Earth.
  • Eve comes up to Captain and gives him the plant. He is ecstatic to go back home. He wants to see what it looks like himesBut looking at the video - he realises Earth isn’t as it is pictured in the photos. A leaf falls off the plant - he remembers that he needs to water the plant. Off he goes.
  • White reviewing the pictures of the planet. Eve sees that Wall-E was looking after her throughout her time on Earth.
  • Wall-E leaves the lido deck looking for Eve.
  • Cleaner-bot follows Wall-E.
  • Back in the Bridge - the captain determines to go home. Calls on Auto.
  • Auto refuses to put the plant in the desk to initiate the process. Captain puts his foot down, but Auto refuses. When captain asks why, Auto states “ It is classified”.
  • On Captain’s orders - Auto plays video of Forthright - "Operation Cleanup - has been unsuccessful, Operation Recolonise cancelled - go to full Autopilot”
  • Captain argues with Auto regarding going home, and life’s sustainability on Earth
  • Mutiny occurs - AUTO calls in NOVA who takes the plant off Captain. Captain tells Eve to arrest Nova.
  • Nova throws plant into waste bin - Wall-E emerges with plant on head
  • Auto attacks Wall-E and shocks him - puts him in waste disposal.
  • Auto shuts Eve down - put her in waste disposal
  • Auto terminates communications. Captain is confined to quarters - “Mutiny”
  • Wall-E and Eve fight their way out of the trash compactor - with the help of cleaner robot.
  • Wall-E circuits are fried - Eve races away to find new circuits.
  • Wall-E tries to make friends with Cleaner but gets rebuffed. (ha!)
  • When Eve returns - she can’t find a circuit board that matches.
  • Wall-E tells Eve to follow her directive. But she throws the plant away - she has a new directive. Her friend.
  • Wall-E shows her the plant, and the zippo - tells her to go back to earth. She can find a circuit board there.
  • Eve grabs Wall-E and blasts her way into the Hover Freeway. The rogue robots spot her and join in her posse.
  • Auto spots Eve’s attempts - and sends a bunch of security robots after them.
  • The captain finds out that Eve has the plant - and plans to help them.
  • He jerry-rigs the camera and sends a message to Eve.
  • Eve and Wall-E have a duke out sequence with the security bots - the posse no match for the sec bots.
  • The captains tricks Auto into thinking that he has the plant. Tricks him into a fight. They battle it out - Nova gets t-boned in the midst and lands on the Lido deck RIP.
  • Eve and Wall-E leave the aftermath and fly, presumably towards the lido deck.
  • The captain manages to his the holo-deck button - sending the ship into return status.
  • The passengers all get inflatable neck flotation devices - the Lido deck turns into the plant receptacle.
  • Auto fights off the captain and tilts the ship - Eve can’t get the plant into the receptacle in time. Now its about saving the humans from the sliding objects.
  • Auto tries to close the receptacle but Wall-E stops it from retracting.
  • Back on the bridge the captain stands to his feet - and takes on Auto again. He turns Auto off. The ship rights itself.
  • Eve races to Wall-E’s aid but it may be too late.
  • Cleaner bot finds the plant - and passes it to Eve via group effort.
  • Plant gets placed in receptacle - ship sets sail for home.
  • Back on Earth - the ship come home - to Roach’s joy.
  • Doors open on the ship and the passengers disembark.
  • Roach finds Eve and Wall-E.
  • Eve races to the cargo ship and tries to repair Wall-E
  • Wall-E is alive again - but not himself.
  • Eve tries to jog his memory - but Wall-E just isn’t Wall-E
  • She holds his hand and leans into mourn. A spark!
  • She goes to leave but he holds her hand - and HE’S BACK
  • They find love/romance in being with each other. Song plays - "To be loved a whole life long.”
  • The human start farming again.
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#74

So now that I have watched the film, I hope that I can intelligently contribute. I know the following is going over old ground, but thought I would share as I attempt to catch up on the proceedings.

MC - Wall-E
I really felt that Wall-E was driven by the fact that he was lonely, and he wanted to share his life with someone. Being a do-er, it would put him in Situation (my choice) or Activity. A lot of his conflict seemed to stem from the fact that he wanted to be with Eve. e.g. hanging onto the side of the ship as it blasted off taking Eve with it. Going in to fight for Eve when she was having a spa moment.

Though it could be argued that Wall-E was in activity - I think the IC throughline clinches seemed quite clear.

IC - Eve
Eve was driven by her directive, and a lot of her conflict came from fulfilling this directive. A “Directive” being a “controlling thought” or “fixed attitude” - I thought that it put her quite strongly in Fixed Attitude.

As mentioned previously - Eve seemed all to eager to blast something at first sight. Impulsive Responses seemed a very good fit.

Also, in the trash compactor sequence, of the movie she changed, giving up on her Directive. Actually throwing the plant away to stay with Wall-E. She changed, her directive not as important as it used to be.

OS - AUTO/AXIOM/CAPTAIN/PLANT storyline
After watching it, this really felt like it was in the Manipulation class. There was quite a few times that touched on this for me.

  • AUTO sneaking the plant out of Eve’s compartment so that everything goes back to normal.
  • AUTO vs Captain battles revolved around manipulation, skullduggery, hiding of information, there is a lot of battle of wills between Captain and Auto.
  • The playing of the hidden video file stating that Operation Clean Up was a failure, Operation Recolonise has been cancelled.
  • AUTO not allowing the ship to go back to earth even after the plant had been found.
  • The captain hold up his hand in front of the hologram of the plant to trick AUTO into coming into his quarters.

For me it was all about keeping the fact that they weren’t to go back to Earth a secret, and keeping the facade that the plant wasn’t found - meaning that they stay in space.

RS - Wall-E vs Eve
This would put them in Activity. I found it a bit difficult trying to parse out what is RS and what is Protagonist driven in the Wall-E / Eve relationship.

I would say that once Eve has fallen in love with Wall-E, its all about being together. Eve continually tries to keep Wall-E alive so that they can be together.

The fact that she actually goes to put the plant in the receptacle isn’t because she wants the Axion to fulfil Operation Recolonise, rather that she wants to get back to Earth to get the parts to put Wall-E back together. To mend Wall-E and therefore the relationship

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#75

Good points. Let me mull it over while I consider @brendon_oloughlin’s input as well.

#76

@brendon_oloughlin, I’ve gone back and forth in this thread with OS being in Activity or Manipulation. My first thought was Activity. Like @mlucas mentioned, I think, if the manipulation were gone, you’d still have people floating around on the Axiom not Doing anything.

I’m just curios, where do you see the form going in the OS below Manipulation? I couldn’t get down to an Issue or Element level (although I guess I haven’t done that with Activity yet either)

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#77

@brendon_oloughlin, really great points but I agree with Greg here … this is definitely a film where it’s difficult to parse out the OS Domain, but I think the “if you remove X, do you still have a problem” helps.

In the film itself, they actually did resolve Auto’s manipulation – everyone on the ship realized he was bad and he was no long manipulating anyone psychologically. Yet they still had problems – they needed to survive the ship tilting, fight back physically, stop the receptacle from closing, etc. (Thanks for that beat sheet by the way!!!) And they still needed to recolonize the Earth too – that Doing conflict still existed in the OS after they defeated Auto.

Also, I can’t really see any manipulation type conflict in the first act of the OS, before they go to the ship… you could say that Wall-E is trying to convince Eve to be his friend, but that’s not the OS throughline.

This is definitely a tough one though.

Another thing that helps is that the Concerns and Issues seem to fit better with OS Activity. Greg has already explained about Experience, and I think Doing fits really well as described above. Also, the RS in Playing a Role is perfect because of how these robots play the role of humans with their hand-holding, spark-kissing etc.

#78

Hmm - depends where you suggest the OS throughline starts. If you consider the ads in the first act where Wall-E was travelling around the world as part of manipulation (its all about selling). It sort of works. The whole BnL is a bit of a sales gimmick - get people into space. The robots will clean up the world while you are away.

Drilling down into the quads though - I am going to have to spend some time on. Just heading into work now so I will see what I can work through when that is over.

#79

I remember considering how to view those adds. I think, like you, my first thought was that they seemed to be Manipulation. But l think I kind of decided that if you look at it as part of an overall attitude (not a Fixed Attitude, though) that it can fall into Activity’s Concern of Doing. It’s like they’re advertising the idea of “rather than clean up after ourselves, let’s go to space for 5 years and let the robots do it for us”. That puts BnL and the rest of the human population in the same thought process rather than having one group Manipulating while another group is being Manipulated. I liked that because, while at first glance it appears that BnL wants to manipulate the rest, I think ultimately the people of BnL are part of the same group as BnLs customers. If the people don’t come back to Earth, BnL goes out of existence except for the programming on the Axiom and then it becomes the servant of the people for the next 700 years rather than the money making conglomeration it was on Earth, and yet the CEO tells them not to come back anyway. Also, I didn’t sense an OS story pitting BnL against the people, but there is clearly a story about the robot and human interactions.

Not sure I explained everything exactly right there, so let me know if that makes sense or not.

(Wow, I never thought I would think so deeply about any movie, let alone Wall-e! But it’s definitely a good thing)

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#80

If we choose Fact as MC Issue, Fantasy will be the counterpoint.

If choose Threat, Fantasy doesn’t show up anywhere – our other choices have made it so it’s not one of the possible unique abilities, catalysts, etc. However it will definitely show up in the Plot Sequence Report under a Signpost somewhere, since all Variations do (to tell exactly where we need to get to 1 storyform).