ok i'm gonna copy paste some thoughts on Wall-E that i just posted on a YouTube video
I watched Wall-E for the first time the other day. I gotta say, the romance between Wall-E and EVE genuinely dragged that movie waaaaaaaaaaay down for me, which sucks. It just felt... so forced to me. I get that part of the point was Wall-E had been craving companionship because he had been alone for so long (other than the cockroach), but that just makes the obligatory romance even worse imo? Wall-E's motivation seemed so unhealthy to me.
As for the villain, I think the fact that it wasn't rogue and was following its programming and orders exactly is kinda exactly the point. Adhering strictly to the law, to the existing systems, to do what you're told and not to push back in light of new evidence and reconsider what right and wrong are is a major problem and a huge contributing factor to the ongoing ecological crisis. We're constantly told to buy, buy, buy. Ignore the tragedies of the world, just stare at your screen full of entertaining media, disconnect from tackling the real issues. It's easier to do what you're told. So it's really fitting, imo, that Auto is literally that. Completely adherent to the system that caused the problem in the first place.
The repair ward was really upsetting to me when I watched because of the obvious parallels to a mental ward. Those have historically not been kind, including to neurodivergent people like myself, and neither have portrayals of such. But the repair ward robots ended up having fantastic personalities. The moment they were free of their imprisonment, they really showed how they just are individuals, living to the beat of their own drum and not adhering to the system in any way. The exact polar opposite of Auto, and all the more lively and interesting and happy for it.