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

analysis
#121

And maybe the problem of Cause is how the relationship is causing problems for each of them. It causes WallE to abandon his directive to protect Eve and chase her into space. It causes Eve to be distracted from her directive and to have to put up with/help WallE in various ways while on the ship. The relationship is the Cause of the other robots seeing WallE and Eve as rogue robots.

I’m just kind of going off the cuff here, but I’m liking it. Did I just spot what the RS is supposed to look like? Because I feel like I’m closer than I’ve been before and I’m really excited about it. Lol.

#122

Don’t forget that the classic term of psychology has more possibilities than just manipulation.

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#123

I agree, Prish.

I would say it’s a relationship that struggles with manners of thinking. Robots having a romance, it takes a new way of thinking to even consider that. And the whole throughline exists (the root conflict) because they are evolving beyond their their programmed manner-of-thinking to a new one where romance is possible.

it’s cool that Signpost 1 is Conceiving … since that is when the relationship first conceives its own existence (and the inequity starts out as an imbalance between their manners of thinking about romance).

#124

But that’s kind of what I was saying, right? The relationship that exists between them causes WallE to look to a human relationship for inspiration and takes Eve most of the movie to come around to it because it takes a new way of thinking for the robots to have this kind of relationship. So the relationship is manipulating them, or affecting their robot psychology, to conceive of this type of relationship.

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#125

I see the videos affecting their robot psychology, and it does make sense that robots would get instructions from other sources than just humans speaking words to them. However, I don’t see it as manipulating, which indicates a specific intent to cultivate and/or direct action. It is more a layering of video activities onto the original programming, which created a modified [new] programming. It resulted in a powerful, successful team, so it is logical to them the programming is the goal should continue.

I wonder where serendipity is in the Dramatica theory. The Mirriam-Webster says, “…I once read a silly fairy tale, called ‘The Three Princes of Serendip’: as their highnesses travelled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of….” Walpole’s memory of the tale (which, as it turns out, was not quite accurate) gave serendipity the meaning it retains to this day."

#126

Thanks @mlucas, @gregolas & @prish for the feedback. Haven’t really dug down this deep in a storyform before (other than whiplash - which I am still working through…) [quote=“mlucas, post:118, topic:878”]
Now, there is a caveat … you have probably noticed Jim talking on these boards about how the RS is really about the relationship itself, not so much the characters in it.
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That makes it more difficult, especially in this film as the relationship seems one sided most of the way through. The “goals” of the relationship are quite difficult to pin down as the “relationship”, especially the romantic relationship is one-sided thoughout most of the film.

Trying to see it as a holistic “thing” is a lot harder for me as it really seems to be driven by the characters involved, in this case. I guess it will come with time.

#127

I probably should have said Manipulating, as in the Dramatica meaning of it. So rather than a relationship between robots having a purposeful intent to direct the robots actions, I really only meant that the relationship is what is affecting the way the robots think in that it’s the relationship that causes WallE to look to the movies for inspiration and it’s the relationship that Eve doesn’t seem to comprehend in the beginning and has to slowly come around to.

#128

Which I never have fully understood, so I always grasp for a Psychology tie in to pick up what’s happening. Always feel free to expound on Manipulating, as it helps me to understand the theory use more.

#129

A bit off topic, but Re @mlucas’ input about the RS being about the relationship and not the characters:

I have a lot of trouble picturing the relationship instead of the characters in it. I kept trying to picture a tether, or a rubber band connecting them, but that didn’t help. So I tried to make the relationship it’s own character by putting a face on it. A literal face. Something like this:

image.jpg2448×3264 1.18 MB

This is the guy I picture for the RS. It’s last name is Relationship and it’s first name could be Teacher/Student, Mother/Daughter, Friends, Enemies, Robot Partners, etc. Those weird ear looking things are the rubber bands connecting the characters. I know it’s not the best way of looking at it, but I think it’s helped me a little. Haha.

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#130

So I’m not going to rehash this whole thing, but I started thinking about this one again, and pretty sure everything I had to say was way off.

Seems pretty clear everyone has problems within Universe (trashed earth, stuck on the axiom for 700 years instead of 5, etc).

Pretty sure Wall E suffers from Psychology and not thinking like a regular robot.

Eve is a do-er in Physics as she tries to find and return the plant.

And the relationship grows together or apart over fixed minds, following directives, wall-e being fixated on eve, Eve being embarrassed of Wall-e at times.

That may be wrong but seems much better than what I was going for before.

I think part of the problem with finding a good storyform is that there’s a lot that happens in the movie that isn’t really a problem. The first twenty minutes are just wall-e moving around switching out parts, stacking trash and sun bathing. More world building, I think, than problem solving.

#131

When I saw the movie in the theatre, I felt there was something off with Walle’s transitioning from the beginning and the people ship introduction. There is a misstep going on. I remember Chris giving a lecture showing Hudson Hawk jumping a step that threw the whole movie off. He was right on about it, but I have to think back what steps he was referring to, maybe a Dramatica genre thing. That might be why no storyform seems firm.