Pixar: I Kid You Not!
Are animated movies only meant for children? Radhika Agarwal explores the role they can play in the lives of adults as well.
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Illustration by Radhika Agarwal
Whenever I tell people that I love Pixar movies, they usually ask, “Are you a child?” or “Are these animations for adults?” Their questions indicate that they believe that adults are not supposed to watch something made for children. And yes, Pixar movies are made for children. I discovered them when I was 22, a late starter, I admit. My first Pixar movie was Inside Out (2015, Pete Docter) and immediately I knew that movies like these could work as a form of therapy. I wasn’t sure there were more but a quick search reassured me that the studio founded in 1979 had a bank of films which I could watch when I went through my, “Nobody gets me, I am just so weird,” phase. Each Pixar movie is a gift doused in tears because each one talks about a personal story, a real-life problem that no one has talked about before. Though these movies can’t solve your problems, they can help you cry when you need to and help you feel there are other weirdies out in the world. Just like Sadness, the representation of feeling blue in Inside Out says, “Crying helps me slow down and obsess over the weight of life’s problems.”
A Pixar movie is just another animated movie at the surface. It’s likely that you’ll forget a lot of it some time after you have watched it. Your interpretations of the movie may change over time or with repeated viewings. But for that one tiny moment, you'll feel heard. On several days you’ll remember what you watched and tell yourself that there are problems that don’t have an instantaneous solution and some that don’t have a solution at all. But you can always go back to that Pixar movie for two hours of comfort.
Here are my top three therapy watches. Go get your own.
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The boy who loved music; and his family
Movie: Coco
Director: Adrian Molina, Lee Unkrich
Release Date: November 22, 2017
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When I was incredibly frustrated due to all the group work at college and longing to be back home, I watched Coco, and realized that my life without conflicts would probably be like Miguel’s life with, “No music!”
The trope of the lonely artist who strives to make it big despite his family’s restrictions has been done and dusted several times (Rockstar, Bend it Like Beckham). But what happens after? Specifically what happens to those who don’t reach the stars and crash land? Coco tells you precisely this story with the theme of longing being foregrounded. Though the theme of differentiating between following dreams and being an opportunist runs in the background, it does find a prominent place in it. Miguel is a musician by heart, soul, and being, but in his way stands his own beloved family who flinch and turn their ears away at the very mention of music. But behind this hatred lies pain older than a century and passed on through generations. Many families never find a resolution to this pain, and Miguel has to travel to the land of the dead to find it.
Character Quotes to live by: “You don’t have to forgive him, but you shouldn’t forget him.” -Miguel
Image Source: Cinema Bravo
I am not just one person, and you aren’t either.
Movie: Turning Red
Director: Domee Shi
Release Date: June 19, 2015
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Watching Turning Red, I felt like a kid again as I jumped and danced around my empty house and almost yeeted myself against the wall, unleashing the panda within me singing, "I've never met nobody like you." I danced with Mei and her friends with full energy after telling my parents that I didn't want to go watch Gangubai Kathiawadi with them because I was feeling under the weather.
“I know what it looks like. I am my own person. But that doesn’t mean doing whatever I want. Like most adults, I have responsibilities,” says Mei. She is the stereotypical good girl who gets good grades at school, helps her mom with not only running the temple but also around the house, and listens to everything that her mom says. She gets that adulthood is just the fancy packaging that responsibilities come in. But she isn’t just that. She is also like any 13-year-old girl who loves her friends, boys, and dancing. And this other side of hers, which has graced the women in her family for centuries, comes out as a red panda. In the movie, it is a panda, but in real life, these are the parts of ourselves that we hide from the world. The movie tells you to, “Unleash the panda within you,” or to accept the sides you aren’t fond of, in the most convincing way possible.
Character Quotes to live by: “People have all kinds of sides to them, Mei. And some sides are messy. The point isn’t to push the bad stuff away. It’s to make room for it, live with it.” - Jin (Mei’s dad)
Image Source: Cinemark
Being happy all the time isn’t great either.
Movie: Inside Out
Director: Pete Docter
Release Date: March 1, 2022
IMDb: Inside Out (2015)
I never cried while watching movies. Inside Out changed that. I requested my mother to take me to watch that movie when it was released. But she refused. She said, “How will I look going for a cartoon movie with a teenager?"
It could be the long wait, the way the movie was always within my finger's reach but never close enough to actually watch, or maybe it was just Riley’s imaginary friend Bingo-I couldn’t put my finger on it, but when I finally watched the islands inside Riley's head change, I couldn't help but sob.
Being happy is great, but pursuing happiness and making that your life’s mission is bound to weigh you down eventually. And that’s exactly what Inside Out talks about. Riley is an 11-year-old girl who’s enthusiastic, chirpy, and essentially happy at all times. Inside Out takes us inside this happy little girl’s head, and shows us the complex emotions at play inside the head of an adolescent. The movie tells you that you aren’t made up of just one core feeling or one core nature, but an entire team of emotions, memories, and behaviours that dictate how you live. In simpler words, it tells you that it’s okay and even important to be sad.
Character Quotes to live by: “Take her to the moon for me.”-Bingo ( Riley’s Imaginary Friend)
