Animated Bioscope

The other day my sister drew a beautiful picture for me – Frozen gals Elsa and Anna.  She is a good artist but don’t pursue it often owing to hectic office schedule and mostly to laziness 😉 I can have a separate blog post on this- siblings love you know! But that’s not today’s topic. So back to the point- that drawing reminded me I haven’t watched this Frozen movie yet. The name got missed somewhere amidst the long list of Watch-list and Read-list.

So, I decided to watch it this weekend. It is a visual delight with a lovely message. Two princess-sisters one with magical powers, their journey of discovering strength within themselves and having trust in each other. And towards the end when Anna’s life is in danger and only true love can save her, probably like many others, I thought that it would be Kristoff’s true love. Typical other main stream movie thought, right? But it was her sister’s Elsa’s unconditional true love that saved Anna, defying the typecast movie concept of “true love”.

And that’s why I love animated movies!! They take you on a ride full of imagination and creativity yet relatable to the real world. They entertain you, make you wonder and sublime messages in them unknowingly change your perspectives. I think it is a myth that they are meant only for children. If watched with open mind – the animation effects, characters, dialogues and most importantly the story line would blow an adult’s mind too.

Ice Age a funny and wittily conceived story is my all-time favorite animated movie series. I simply forget my real age and enjoy any Ice Age movie every time I watch it. A group of unlikely mammals – an elephant- Manny, a tiger- Diego, a sloth- Sid come together surviving the Ice Age. Their journey throughout the series is so human like. Be it Manny-Ellie and Peach coming to their life, Diego and the tigress, Sid constantly wishing family of his own, how he ‘adopts’ dinosaur eggs to be a parent and many more such adventures of these friends. Three animals coming from different background, having different strength and weaknesses yet sticking together through thick and thin only because of their bond of friendship. And there is Scrat and his acorn!!

We all know the Kung Fu Panda series conveying the biggest lesson every child need to understand and an adult need to be reminded “the importance of confidence and belief in oneself”. And the movie chooses a really adorable and large Panda to convey this. Words of wisdom from Master Shifu, Oogway are indeed life lessons paired with cuteness of Po. This movie can be used as self help and motivational tool!!

There is this movie “Up” – it is a story of Carl and Ellie a young couple falling in love, living a life of “growing old together” and saving up for their dream to visit Paradise Falls but real life gets in their way and Ellie passes. Russell a young boy trying to earn a merit badge. Charles an enraged explorer. How Carl a simple balloon seller innovatively turns his house into makeshift airship and is all set to fulfill his and Ellie’s dream, how Russell gets onboarded with Carl and their journey to Paradise Falls. The movie depicts in a very subtle way it is easy to lose sight of what matters and the ones you love. A known yet often forgotten lesson- don’t wait to lose someone to realize how much you loved him or her, take the time to spend with them now.

Finding Nemo and Finding Dory are again lovable movies passing simple message of being Flawsome accept yourself with your flaws and yet being awesome and family love. Colourful fishes, turtles, corals and imaginative under sea life with fantastic animation.

And the list goes on-

• The Incredibles for – family is the most important and you can always count on your family
• Meet the Robinsons for- keep moving forward
• Ratatoullie for – obvious one ‘anyone can cook’ (which this lock-down has proved right for most of us 😉) but the deep one “Not everyone can become a great artist. But a great artist can come from anywhere”
• Cars for – pure imaginative world of “car life” and Route 66. It’s about the special experiences we give up for the sake of convenience.

Last but not the least Inside Out my favourite movie – cartoon characters who are emotions. Gives an otherwise underrated message effectively- all emotions are important as they shape and colour our experiences. I think all such thoughtfully crafted movies, if watched and absorbed in right spirit, would do wonders with young fertile minds and some housekeeping for always in rush and somewhat developed minds!!

In my opinion, to some extent these movies help to achieve what E.E. Cummings said probably due to their story telling capabilities.

Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know, but not a single human being can be taught to feel. Why? Because whenever you think or you believe or you know, you’re a lot of other people: but the moment you feel, you’re nobody-but-yourself. To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting

Do share your favorites and if you’ve not seen any yet…hope the above encourages you to watch at least one!! Just like my sister’s simple drawing encouraged me to pen this down…