Before we told stories through novels or sitcoms, we sketched our lives on stone columns and cave walls. For centuries, it was how society taught its truths and delivered its lessons. The pictures we made were extensions of us in an almost magical way.
For over seventy years—most recently with the release of Shrek Forever After—we’ve experienced a bit of that magic through full-length animated films. Whether they’re drawn by hand, crafted by computer, or shaped through stop-action, these movies charm us, inspire us, and teach us lessons in ways that live-action films—limited by the pesky shackles of reality—sometimes struggle to do. From Disney’s beautiful classics of yesteryear to today’s CGI masterpieces, animation in many ways represents cinematic storytelling at its best: Few other art forms can bridge generational differences and inspire young and old with timeless lessons of hope, courage, and love.
Here are eight of our favorite life lessons from animated films.
1. Pinocchio (1940): Listen to Your Conscience
People, particularly little wooden people, face a lot of temptation. It’s so very enticing to skip school and find a Pleasure Island all your own, where you can drink and play pool to your heart’s content. It all seems so enticing—until you start to grow longer ears and a tail and hee-haw like a donkey.
Yes, such shortsighted thinking leads right to the salt mines, as poor little Pinocchio painfully discovered. Had he listened more intently to Jiminy Cricket, his diminutive, dapper-dressing conscience, he might not have turned so mule-headed. Once our wooden wonder stopped pining for forbidden pleasures and started listening to his guardian insect, things got a lot better. Well, at least until the whale came along.
But even Monstro proved to be a momentary blip in Pinocchio’s quest to be a real boy. The film shows that we’re not really human until we stop living for ourselves and sacrifice for someone else. Thanks, Jiminy.
2. Dumbo (1941): Different Is Good
If Dumbo had been born in an age in which beautiful elephants were featured in “Sexiest Pachyderm Alive” spreads and perfection was just a plastic surgeon away, he might never have flown. His image-conscious handlers might have whisked him away, given his ears a quick bob, and made him look just like all the other elephants.
But Dumbo had to keep his huge, awkward ears—and what a blessing that he did. Turns out, they were way cooler than anything found on Facebook. Without his oversized ears, he would’ve been a perfectly normal elephant. With them, he became a perfectly wonderful one.
3. Peter Pan (1953): Find the Child in You
He was the boy who wouldn’t grow up. Forever young, forever brash, forever wearing that silly hat, Peter Pan showed us what eternal youth looked like—and, in the end, it looked rather boring. How many times can you fight Captain Hook before the shtick gets tired? Perhaps that’s why Peter liked Wendy so much. She was so … adult.
