The Theme of the Power of Touch in Disney's Film Wall-E

One of the first themes introduced in the movie Wall-E is The Power of Touch. As Wall-E interacts with each person he meets, he shakes their hands or wants to hold their hand, sharing the idea that affection is very important in daily life, even to a robot.

Wall-E watches scenes from the musical "Hello Dolly!" and pines over the scene where the couple is holding hands. When Wall-E meets Eve, he can no longer even focus on doing his primary job, which is cleaning up the trash left on the earth by humans. He can only think about holding her hand.

When Wall-E is showing Eve his collection of things he has found while cleaning up trash, he tries to hold her hand. She shows obvious disapproval and he tries to cover up by scratching the floor. Wall-E still tries for Eve's hand when she is in shutdown mode. He realizes that he can't force her to hold his hand.

As Wall-E travels through space on the outside of a spaceship he reaches up for ice and touches the crystals, amazed about the beauty of space. Once aboard the Axiom, he leaves an impression on Mo, the obsessive compulsive cleaning robot, by leaving "foreign contaminants" everywhere. Wall-E puts dirt on Mo's face just to aggravate him and watch Mo squirm.

Wall-E ends up in the Captain's chambers and when the Captain sleepily activates Wall-E's music recording of "Hello Dolly!" the Captain wakes up. The massage robot and hair stylist robot immediately tend to the Captain's needs and Wall-E tries to fit in by rubbing the Captain's toes. This makes the Captain laugh.

When the Captain finally sees Wall-E, Wall-E shakes his hand and introduces himself very politely, but leaves dirt in the Captain's hand. The Captain then goes on to examine the dirt which leads him on a learning spree, something he had never done before.

Two humans named John and Mary see Wall-E and Eve outside the ship flying through the air. As the two humans watch the robots outside in curious amazement, they accidentally touch hands and look each other in the eyes. They fall in love.

Once Mo finally cleans Wall-E, he finally chills out and rests beside of Wall-E. At this point, Wall-E is very injured, but still takes the time to introduce himself to Mo and shake his hand. Up to this point, Wall-E was Mo's problem as Mo had to clean up after Wall-E everywhere he went. Once they shook hands, they were friends.

When the auto pilot, Auto, overrides the Captain and tilts the ship, the people on board slide out of their hover chairs and fall to the floor. They slide across the deck and towards the wall. They start grabbing onto each other, the first time they actually touch each other throughout the entire movie. This is an important time for them as they are not only touching, but physically interacting with one another.

At the end of the movie when Eve repairs Wall-E, he doesn't go back to his old self until she holds his hand. When she kisses him, he wakes up out of a glazed-over stare and realizes she is holding his hand. His dream had come true and he was in serene bliss.

The movie Wall-E teaches that The Power of Touch is very important to every person, and in this case, robots as well. Showing affection towards others is something that must be preserved in society and taught to future generations. The movie Wall-E shows how touching and being affectionate is part of our culture and tradition and must not be lost.