I really like this
Newsweek interview with Andrew Stanton, director of Wall-E (which missed out on the Oscar nomination for best picture).
Anyway, in the interview he talks about lots of stuff, but I especially liked his explanation of how the story ended up the way it did: "I wanted to wallow in that innocent wonder and joy that you could get out of a love story in a '50s musical, but I felt there's no way the world would accept that in today's society. Unless you disguise it in a dystopian, sci-fi love story with two machines. Then, suddenly everybody's willing to take down their shields and just indulge. And maybe realize how much they miss being fulfilled that way -- with unadulterated joy."