Disney Mental Health Series: 5 Crucial Questions Asked by WALL-E
Computer, define ‘dancing.’
-Captain from WALL-E
I have a confession: until now, I had never seen WALL-E. It came out when I was in undergrad, and somehow it slipped by me. However, I can’t help but think that watching it now for the first time in 2024 somehow hits differently than watching it in 2008. By the end of this movie, I was utterly speechless and experiencing more feelings than I have after watching a Disney movie possibly ever.
WALL-E is the story of the last robot on Earth whose job is to clean up trash. All humans are now living on a space station because the Earth is uninhabitable due to overconsumption. The space station sends a robot Eve to Earth to scan for signs that Earth could possibly be inhabitable once more. What follows is a love story between the two robots and a quest for humans to return to Earth, which proves to be far more difficult than anticipated due to the decompensation of humans who’ve become reliant on technology.
1) What makes us human?
It seems the most human characters in the story are WALL-E and Eve, while the humans are mindlessly unaware and non-functional behind their screens. The humans appear to be driven by short-term comfort and convenience, while WALL-E and Eve are motivated by connection and love. WALL-E and Eve experience a wide range of emotions, play, sing and dance, and take risks. The humans are basically unable to function and not aware of their most immediate surroundings and comfort-seeking to the extreme. This depiction begs the vital question, “How do we preserve our humanity in an environment where comfort, distraction, and extreme pleasure are available at every turn?”
2) How can we have a healthy relationship with technology?
The manner in which humans in WALL-E relate to technology leads to their eventual decompensation. The iPhone was released in June 2007, and WALL-E was released in June 2008. It’s fair to say this movie was released before the rise of the iPhone and in a world that looks very different than the one we experience in 2024. I can’t help but think the movie is even more relevant now than it was in 2008, as our reliance on technology and its advances only appear to increase. With the rise of AI, the growth and pervasiveness of social media, the convenience of online shopping, and our susceptibility to engage in pleasurable behaviors, is it possible to have a healthy relationship with technology? If so, what does that look like? Is it possible to find limits and preserve our ability to function, love, grow, and find joy in our simple, everyday experiences?
3) How could we as humans get to the point in which we are lower functioning than robots?
The relationship between humans and technology/consumption (buying things) in WALL-E is one of over-reliance and dependence. To understand how this can happen, we really must understand how our brains work. Specifically, it’s helpful to understand a neurotransmitter called dopamine. Think of dopamine as a chemical in our brain involved with pleasure and pain. When we experience a dopamine release, we feel pleasure. When we experience a dopamine deficit, we feel pain. In simplest terms, the size of the dopamine release we get from technology or shopping is significantly greater than the dopamine releases we would get from natural releases (from hunting or gathering our food, eating, sex, etc.). Our brains then go into a dopamine deficit, which is painful, so we return to technology because the release is greater than natural ones and the natural releases don’t give us the same feelings of pleasure they did previously. This cycle continues in an effort to avoid pain and experience pleasure, though our baseline for what it takes to experience pleasure continues to rise. Therefore, our experience with non-technology related behaviors and interactions is unsatisfying and even painful.
4) What is the toll of consumerism?
Consumption and technology have become deeply intertwined in our current world. Due to the impact of dopamine on our motivation and ability to feel pleasure, it makes sense we find ourselves in a state of looking for the next thing that will surely be the one to bring us happiness. However, it’s usually short-lived and not as satisfying as we’d hoped, and we are onto the next one. The cost of this behavior of consumption and accumulation of material things is felt by our environment, and too much trash from over-consumption is what caused the humans in WALL-E to evacuate Earth.
5) How important is our connection with nature?
The impact of trash on the environment is what led the humans to flee Earth in WALL-E and the hope of a sprouted plant leads them back. Without a healthy ecosystem, our planet is physically uninhabitable, but nature also has incredible and calming benefits for our mental health. Many have studied and researched the impact of spending time in nature on our mental well-being and have generally found benefits relating to increased awareness and attention, decreased stress and anxiety, and lifts for our mood, among others. Perhaps a core message of the movie is to trade in that screen time for green time. Is nature the true antidote to our current dilemma?
In 2024, WALL-E seems to hold up an even more accurate mirror to our present society than when it was first released in 2008. It asks vital questions and encourages us to courageously assess and evaluate our current path and where it will take us. If the most significant difference between robots and humans in the movie is awareness, simply exploring these questions and their relevance to our own lives seems like a valuable place to start.