"But why did the film need the copilot going chaotic evil in the first place? The focus shifted between droid vs. nature and loneliness to man vs. computer, and eventually man vs. nature," Baze says, drinking a bit of the butterbeer.

"Wall-E wasn't invested in the copilot conflict, that was all the pilot's doing. In the first half of the film, Wall-E was the clear protagonist. In the second, he was a catalyst, sure, but he lacked agency and focus."