5 Most heartwarming animated movies on Netflix

Based on the evidence, we have been repeatedly saying that the animation genre has moved forward from just being for kids to including adults in the target audience as well. Be it 3D computer animation like Toy Story, or the cel animation like the original Lion King, or 2D animated like Rick and Morty, or stop motion animation like The Night Before Christmas, designers, and creators from each sub-genre are leaving no stones unturned in catering to the people of further age brackets.

And with mature storylines, dialogues, and lots of emotions, such stories have found their place in the hearts of adults and children alike. Here are the 5 most heartwarming animated movies on Netflix right now. Don’t forget to check them out:

Canvas

Written by: Frank E. Abney III

Directed by: Frank E. Abney III

Cast: None

Animated titles tend to take up the concepts of love, friendship, and happiness but this nine-minute short film deals with the grief of losing one’s partner in old age. Though these very feelings are addressed in Pixar’s 2009 movie, Up, the concept of a silent movie makes Canvas stand out further. The film portrays how art can influence people to deal with the emotions they otherwise struggle with.

Okko’s Inn 

Written by: Hiroko Reijō

Directed by: Mitsuyuki Masuhara

Cast: Seiran Kobayashi, Satsumi Matsuda, Nana Mizuki, Yōko Asagami, Masaki Terasoma, and more

Okko’s Inn gives a different viewpoint of handling grief through the eyes of a little girl, Okko, who loses her parents in a car crash. After the accident, Okko goes on to live with her grandmother and becomes a junior innkeeper at Hananoyu Inn. At the Inn, she discovers that she can see ghosts. Creepy, right? But it doesn’t seem so because of the adorably written story. The film basically focuses on how the smallest of things in life can mean a lot more and can affect our feelings and emotions more than we think.

Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop

Written by: Kyōhei Ishiguro

Directed by: Kyōhei Ishiguro

Cast: Ichikawa Somegorō VIII, Hana Sugisaki, Megumi Han, Natsuki Hanae, Yūichirō Umehara and more

Sometimes all one wants is a heart-melting romance with sweet details and background stories where everything feels just so nice and cute and Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop is just the right choice in such a situation. A cute story where an extremely shy boy meets a very self-conscious girl and the two just fit into the puzzle of love while helping each other make peace with their insecurities is what this movie is all about. The details are equally heart-touching and adorable like a fireworks show and helping an old man to find the vinyl of his late wife’s song.

My Neighbor Totoro

Written by: Hayao Miyazaki

Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki

Cast: Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, and Hitoshi Takagi

Miyazaki’s stories have always been so thought-provoking and most of the time extremely adorable. One of such stories is the film My Neighbor Totoro and yes, the film has spirits and they will take the characters to the land of ghosts. Okay, just kidding. They are not evil spirits, but extremely friendly and playful ones. The film follows a professor’s two young daughters, Satsuki and Mei who happened to bump into the spirits of the wood right in the middle of the rain and eventually find themselves as their friends.

A Whisker Away

Written by: Mari Okada

Directed by: Junichi Sato and Tomotaka Shibayama

Cast: Mirai Shida, Natsuki Hanae, Hiroaki Ogi, Fukushi Ochiai, Kōichi Yamadera, Ayako Kawasumi and more

The plot of the story might be pretty peculiar but you know it is what it is. The film revolves around Miyo who has a crush on Hinode and Hinode who seems to hate her but loves a little cat named Taro. The twist? Miyo transforms into Taro each day in order to spend time with Hinode. When Hinode publicly said that he hates Miyo, she decides to live the rest of her life as a cat hoping for Hinode’s affection. However, is it worth putting one’s life at stake just for someone else’s affection? Well, we’ll leave it here.