Feeling down and need some cheering up? Sometimes it just takes a well-written animated movie to get that smile out and feel comforted. Movies are reported to “trigger a happy memory or time”, and especially when you know what to watch and not experiment to check whether or not the movie will work out for you, it’s just the cherry on top.
Unlike popular belief, animated movies aren’t just targeted toward children, but them being the main audience creators focus on, these movies are often simplistic and have an underlying message leaving a huge grin on everyone’s faces and allowing the one watching to relax.
Here’s a list of feel-good animated movies to watch when you need to be comforted
1. Coco
Release Date: November 22, 2017
Where to Watch: Disney+ Hotstar
Filled with rich colors, culturally sensitive, full of vibrant music, and a heart-touching plot, Coco has it all.
A production by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios, Coco is the story of a lively young boy named Miguel who aspires to be a musician and ends up conversing with talking skeletons in the afterlife. Directed by Lee Unkrich and veteran Pixar animator Adrian Molina, based on Mexican mythology, the art is the movie takes heavy inspiration from traditional Mexican designs.
The majority of the film is a slapstick comedy with staging large action sequences and giving viewers plot twists every few minutes. However, being a Pixar movie, Coco subtly builds up to heavy emotional moments. The movie is enough to make any adult cry happy tears.
2. Soul
Release Date: October 11, 2020
Where to Watch: Disney+ Hotstar
From the makers of Coco, Pixar’s Soul is a humorous, melodic, and outlandishly mystical dramedy about what makes people click, featuring characters that don’t have a physical body. The story focuses on a middle school band teacher, Joe Gardner. The movie opens with him stepping outside on the road after acing a jazz band audition, where he is almost crushed by construction workers, then almost being run over by a car, only to fall into a man-hole leading him, rather his “soul” to the afterlife.
Though the concept sounds quite heavy for a feel-good movie, the plot is quite light-hearted and emotionally rich, living up to its expectation as a Pixar movie.
3. My Neighbor Totoro
Release Date: April 16, 1988
Where to Watch: Netflix
My Neighbor Totoro is from the production of Studio Ghibli, known for making comfort anime movies.
Based in 1958 Japan, My Neighbor Totoro focuses on the 10-year-old Satsuki and 4-year-old Mei. Their father has relocated to a rural area where their mother is receiving treatment for a chronic illness. The girls learn supernatural beings like dust sprites live in their house and neighborhood as they settle into their new home. Mei comes across two little rabbit-like creatures and pursues them through their forest, where she encounters a much larger variation of the creature that she names Totoro. Satsuki eventually runs across Totoro, who also shows the girls a magical flying cat-bus.
The movie is about the two girls befriending “massive cuddly creatures” what cannot be good and comforting about it? This film is a great place to start for admirers of director Miyazaki’s later work who haven’t had a chance to watch his classics. My Neighbor Totoro is considered Miyazaki’s breakthrough film.
4. Spider-Man™: Into the Spider-Verse
Release Date: December 14, 2018
Where to Watch: Netflix
Spider-Man™: Into the Spider-Verse is a boisterous, clever, and adventurous film. The emotionally charged coming-of-age story is relevant and inspirational, even as it pays homage to the many Spider-Man films that came before it. The comics-inspired visuals and animation are spectacular.
The movie has diverse characters and its crystal-clear lessons of friendship, mentoring, courage, teamwork, and the nature of power and responsibility.
5. The Incredibles
Release Date: December 17, 2004
Where to Watch: Disney+ Hotstar
From the former Simpsons director, Brad Bird, The Incredibles is a superhero-family comedy filled with action. After all superhero activities have been outlawed by the government, married superheroes Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl are forced to live normal lives as Bob and Helen Parr. While Mr. Incredible adores his wife and children, he’s going through a mid-life crisis as he longs to live an adventurous life again. He takes the chance when called to an island to fight a robotic menace. The family of Mr. Incredible must act quickly to help him when he finds himself in trouble.
The Incredibles contains a lot of action, but one of its strengths is that it prioritizes the relationships the characters share over the action scenes, given it’s a superhero movie. The Incredibles are a close-knit family that just so happens to have some unique powers. Even after 15 years of marriage, Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl remain in love. The children’s love-hate relationships with their parents seem believable. Dash is defiant and obstinate because he wants to use his super-speed to succeed in sports and is bored. And Violet has reached the awkward stage of life where being in her body is difficult. She hides her presence while snooping on a boy she likes. Irrespective of being an animation and a superhero movie, it’s relevant and very relatable.
