Writing has
been really close to my heart and off late due to my busy schedule, in a long
time, I had not had a chance to write about something close to me. When I was randomly thinking of a subject to write
about, it suddenly struck me that animation and children’s movies had taught me
a great deal and have always been dear to me and therefore I immediately began writing
about it. Animation
movies have always been close to my heart as I have always been a child at
heart and therefore immensely enjoy them. Even to
this date I still jump in joy when Harry Potter movies are telecast and watch them with the
same enthusiasm that I used to, six years ago! This blog post is dedicated to some of the animation and children’s movies I cherish, which have been close to my heart and why have taught me very significant things.
Recently I watched
‘How to train your dragon’ and loved the movie immensely. Apart from the insanely
cute dragon, ‘Toothless’ and the relationship that he and Hiccup share, there
were several things that struck me. When Hiccup befriends the dragon, slowly
attaches a wing to it and helps it fly, feeds it, communicates with it, learns
harmless ways to deal with the dragons and eventually understands that they are
after all harmless creatures too, I learnt the importance of a change of
perspective; how viewing something with a biased perspective might stop us from
seeing the most beautiful things around us and prevent us from learning from
it. When I saw why dragons raided the land to steal food to feed the gigantic
dragon, I also learnt that there is always an unknown side of the truth and before
we judge anything about anybody, we need to know why individuals behave in a
certain way. It was an extremely delightful movie to watch!
A week ago, I
watched ‘Happy Feet’, which was another cute movie. The penguin Mumble, which
was born ‘abnormal’ believes in its instinct, separates from the group and uses
its unique quality to save its tribe, as an answer to being ousted from its
tribe for being different and therefore being a bad omen. His unique quality is
seen as ‘cool’ from a new group of penguins he meets, so the importance of
perspective is highlighted here. The desire to prove himself and circumstances
push him to events that enable him to save his entire species and all he does
is tap dance! :) I learnt that being superstitious and doing nothing about the
problem is not the solution and if your desire to solve the problem is great
enough, it will help you and push you to see the truth which would not have
been visible without your effort and will! I learnt that one must always follow
their instincts and stop at nothing when they believe in something strongly. The
only barrier is you! :)
Several months
ago, I had seen ‘Frozen’ and was completely bowled over after watching the
movie, which has such amazingly powerful characters and a great story, a huge
change compared to the usual romantic fairy tale movies. This is one reason for
which Frozen remains an all-time favourite and close to my heart movie. Both the
sisters have equally powerful characters. While Elsa fights hard to hold back
her powers to protect her younger sister, Anna pushes her to realise that she
does not have to hold back her powers or be afraid of it and helps her to see a
solution to her problem. While Elsa sees running away as the solution to the
problem she faces, an impending danger to her sister that she constantly fears
due to the special powers she possesses, (which is right in her perspective) Anna
stands by the fact that running away is not the solution and she fights hard to
push her sister to realise that she can solve her problem. What was most
striking to me was the maturity that Anna displays when Elsa puts her in danger
to say that her sister would never harm her, something we as humans tend to
forget in the course of our lives. For
example, parents would take harsh decisions for us that might bring us sorrow. But
eventually we realise that they did it for our own good. I wouldn’t say all of
the decisions that parents take for us are good and work in our favour, but it’s
always good to think just once why our parents took a certain decision :)
Ice Age series
has been immensely cute for its own reasons. The relationship between Sid,
Manny and Diego is wonderful. Each of these animals, with a completely
different personality, come together and stays together. The reason I think is
that they find something in the other person that they lack. Manny finds Sid’s nature
extremely forthcoming and irritating in the beginning, but eventually he
becomes friends with him for the same qualities that he dislikes. Both Manny and
Sid distance Diego, when they find him to be a traitor. But when Diego refuses
to kill the baby, they realise that Diego too has a good heart. Such small and
meaningful instances bring the completely different animals together, even in
difficult times! Throughout the sequels, it’s a delight to see the animals bond
with each other, support and help each other :). Similarly in the movie ‘Over the hedge’,
the animals that come together with the raccoon, realise that the raccoon had
been using them to fetch food to feed the bear and desert him. But the raccoon
shows that it too has a good heart and faces the bear by being truthful to him
and honest to his friends.
Kung Fu Panda
is yet another excellent movie series :) it’s funny and interesting to see how
a Panda, chosen as the dragon warrior is a complete fatso, unfit to learn Kung
Fu in the perspective of the Five’s and Master Shifu, challenges their thinking
and proves to be The Dragon Warrior. It’s funny how Po sees solutions to his
problems in his own perspective. When the dragon scroll turns out to be empty,
he understand what it means and figures out that the secret to being the best
is being yourself! It’s interesting to see how Master Shifu trains Po using his
eating habit and sees that Po is able to learn Kung Fu and eventually takes on
Tai Lung. This movie taught me that to be the best you need not be of any particular
type! Anyone can break barriers and stereotypes with the right attitude and
desire to be the best! :)
The movie ‘Mathilda’
also taught me that being treated and considered different is not a bad opinion
about you. It’s just how people see you and their perspective and judgment
about you need not be the ultimate test of your personality. Each individual is
different and there is a place for everyone in this world. People who think
otherwise will understand the truth eventually. But it is indeed sad to see
that being ‘different’ is seen as ‘abnormal’ until something really phenomenal
happens. It makes me want to question what is ‘Normal’ itself and I realise
that normal to me is not normal to someone else! By the way, Mathilda is a hilarious,
insightful and a lovely movie to watch!
The anime
movies from Japan have been my favourite for a while. It made me fall in love
with Japanese culture and one of my greatest desires is to settle down in a
village in japan, teaching school children and leading a rustic life :). My love for the culture is to such
an extent that I am longing to get a Japanese word, that’s close to my heart,
tattooed on my arm! Movies like My neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s delivery service, Grave
of the fireflies, From up on the poppy hill, Spirited Away, Laputa Castle in
the sky, Howl’s moving castle and Whisper of the heart have been my favourite
movies. The children in the movie are extremely mature for their
age and there is so much to learn from them as they take such mature decisions
and do things that defend themselves and their families. It’s intriguing for me
to see children portraying such strong characters. I have learnt so much from
these movies and they have always been close to my heart :)
I save the
oldest for the last. Harry Potter has been especially close to my heart not
just because of the characters and the wonderful storyline, but because of the important
lessons of life the movie teaches. The relationship between the three friends
is shown in such a natural way, changing as they grow, with different emotions
changing in time, but the underlying concern and the connection is never lost
among the three friends.
The most
meaningful of friendships is one when the other person does not have to pretend
or try hard to retain your friendship or please you. True friends will stay, no
matter how bad the circumstances in your life are and can tolerate and understand
you at your worst! Harry Potter taught me that with the support of people who
truly love you, you can take on the world’s toughest challenges. I strongly
feel that Harry, isolated from his supporting characters would not be as great
as he is, no matter what the prophecy said about him, about killing Voldemort.
He would have never killed Voldemort, without the sacrifice of his parents, the
advice of Dumbledore, the protection of Snape, the timely help of his friends
and Hagrid in his tough times.
There is so
much to learn and understand by just looking carefully around us. Animation movies are for people of all age groups and according to me, adults should definitely watch them because in the course of living this challenging life, people become harsh and tough and train themselves and people around them to be tougher everyday. These movies remind us that we do not have to be tough or a fighter to face life's challenges. As L R Knost says 'It's not our job to toughen our children up to face a cruel and heartless world. It's our job to raise children who will make the world a little less cruel! :) Do enjoy these movies yourself or with children around you. I have anyways planned
to watch these movies with my own children in future and relive the memories
and lessons that I had learnt when I watched them. It will also be interesting
to hear what children have to say about these movies! :)
