[5] Ideas from the myth returned in later films by Méliès, including The Brahmin and the Butterfly (1901), in which the woman's power and freedom of choice are emphasized, and which Jennifer Forrest summarized as "a Pygmalion and Galatea scenario gone wrong";[6] The Drawing Lesson, or the Living Statue (1903), in which a mischievous magician creates an equally mischievous Galatea to bewilder a drawing instructor;[7] and Ten Ladies in One Umbrella (1903), in which a Pygmalion-like Méliès conjures up women in front of a sign labeled "Galathea Theater".
[2] François de la Bretèque described the film as "a metaphor on the image-maker, in other words the film-maker: the one who tries to give life to the simulacra engendered by his imagination".
[9] Allison de Fren highlighted the implicit drama between the on-screen artist (played by Méliès) attempting to create a permanent work of art, and the off-screen filmmaker (also Méliès) playing magical tricks on him: "Even Pygmalion, that rare soul whose encounter with a living statue ends happily, is in Méliès's reinterpretation confronted with a Galatea who refuses to be contained.
"[10] Gaby Wood called Pygmalion and Galatea "a perfect metaphor for the magic of moving film.
Everything that was wrapped up in the medium's early days is there: the desires, the fears, the superstitions, the power and the hysterical zaniness of its first jagged steps.