As we grow up, we end up making new friends and at the same time losing few of them too due to reasons unknown. Friendship Day is that one day which brings together even the long lost friends together. It’s the day where friends get a reason to meet up and hang around with each other. We cannot define what friends are as it’s a very simple yet complex relationship. We squabble, laugh, cry, motivate each other and share a lot many things which are unexplainable.
One of the best ways to spend this friendship day is by gathering at one’s place and watching movies which will strengthen this special bond for lifetime. Walt Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks are some of the top animation houses that have over the years come out with high spirited friendship themed films.
AnimationXpress.com is listing down 15 of the best friendship based animated movies which buddies of all age groups can watch and rejoice on this day.
Toy Story: Produced by Pixar Animation and Walt Disney Pictures back in 1995, Toy Story is an animated film about the life of toys. Here the toys are given human characteristics like they can talk, walk and goof around as long as they are not spotted by human beings. As soon as humans are around they go back to being inanimate objects. The main focus is on Woody, a cowboy and Buzz Lightyear, a space ranger toy. Seeing the success of the movie, more 2 sequels were made and 4th one which will be a stand-alone sequence is in progress.
Andy, the boy who owns the toys grows up in every sequel and in the third part, we see the departure of Andy as he gives away the toys to another girl as he if off to college. The movie is about how all the toys always help one another to come out of any situation: so is it finding Buzz who fell off from the window or to get back Woody from a toy collector’s store who stole him or to escape from the evil clutches of Lotso, the ruthless teddy bear, the fun never ceases in this story of life and friendship.
Monsters.Inc: Seeing a monster is every child’s nightmare. Monsters Inc. is based on this idea where there’s a parallel city named Monstropolis in which Monsters scare kids as the kid’s scream powers up the city. At the same time the monsters live under the impression that if humans enter their world, then they might get contaminated as the kids are toxic. Released back in 2001 and produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios, Monsters Inc won many hearts.
The story is about how a kid named Boo enters the Monstropolis city and gets rescued by two best friends named Sully and Mike who were initially scared of her but later on realized that she isn’t really toxic. Seeing the success of the movie a prequel film was made named Monsters University in which the journey of Sulley and Mike is depicted on how the once arch rivals became best of friends.
Finding Nemo: Having already experimented with toys, bugs and monsters; Pixar decided to come up with an animated movie about a fish’s life, in its 2003 release – Finding Nemo, the story about a clownfish, Nemo who ends up from the vast great barrier reef ocean to a dentist’s fish tank. His father, Marlin in pursuit to find Nemo comes across a regal blue-tang fish, Dory who has short-term memory loss. Together they begin the dangerous pursuit of finding Nemo and during this duration, a bond is formed between them.
As for Nemo, he comes across his fellow fish tank members who are called The Tank Gang. They come to know that the dentist is going to give Nemo as a gift to his niece, Darla who earlier had killed a fish. The Tank Gang who become Nemo’s friend help him to escape from the dentist’s place. Finding Nemo is a nice adventurous film in which the importance of having friends in life is well depicted.
Ratatouille: Can a rat be a chef? This absurd idea was given by Jan Pinkava back in 2000 and the movie hit the theatre screen on 2007. A Pixar and Walt Disney production, the story is about a rat, Remy who dreams of becoming a chef like his idol Gusteau and about a garbage boy named Linguini who gets hired by Skinner, the cunning ex- sous chef and current owner of Gusteau restaurant (as Gusteau died).
In the restaurant, Linguini ends up making a disastrous soup and Remi secretly corrects it before anyone could stop the soup from getting served, the waiter serves it and the customer loves it. Unaware of the fact that the soup was made by a rat and not by Linguini, Linguini get promoted to being a chef. Skinner spots Remy in the restaurant and orders Linguini to kill him. Linguini ends up finding that Remy was the one who saved the soup and this leads to them becoming friends. It’s the journey of how Remy helps Linguini and vice-versa to fulfil and achieve their dreams and making the line that Gusteau always said, “Anybody can cook!” come true.
Up: If you want to laugh your guts out, this movie is all that you need. Once again a brilliant work from Walt Disney and Pixar animation which came out in 2009. An elderly widower, Carl had promised his living wife Ellie to fulfil her dream of moving her clubhouse to a cliff overlooking Paradise Falls. But, by the time Carl arranged for the trip, Ellie passed away due to some illness which leaves Carl all alone.
Years later he decides to fulfil Ellie’s wish by blowing up many helium balloons and attaching them to the house which makes the house float in air. A young wilderness explorer, Russell in order to earn his final badge of helping an elderly becomes an uninvited fellow-traveller. Russell and Carl’s adventurous trip to Paradise Falls where they slowly become friends will make you crack-up.
Cars: Get to know the ride of McQueen, a race car who had it all, fame, success, money but what he never realized is he had no friends. A Walt Disney and Pixar production, Cars came out in 2006 and has been followed up by its sequel Cars 2.
McQueen who badly wanted to win the Piston Cup Championship race ended up in a city named Radiator Springs on the way to Los Angeles where the final race would be held. He had been arrested and impounded as he had ruined the pavement of the main road. Given the task to repair the pavement, he makes new friends from the neighbourhood and realizes the importance and value of friendship.
Bolt: If you have a friend who’s living a life in a bubble and you want to burst it, Bolt is just the movie for your friend to watch.
Bolt is the pet dog of a girl named Penny, who features in a television series where both of them together fight against evil! Bolt lives in the illusion that he is a superhero with superpowers as he has never been out of the Hollywood set. One day thinking that Penny has been kidnapped, Bolt leaves the set and finds he is astray. He meets a cat named Mitten who doesn’t know Bolt is a superstar and a hamster named Rhino who’s a big fan of Bolt. Both of them help him to return to Penny and during this journey Mitten shows him the realistic mirror that he’s just a normal dog and teaches him how dogs usually behave. On the other hand Rhino always has faith in Bolt and continues to believe he’s a superstar.
The Walt Disney and Pixar animation production film shows how friends are always there for each other and will never hesitate to give you a reality check when needed.
Wreck-It Ralph: Every game has its heroes and villains but what if the villain wants to become a hero? Walt Disney Pictures brings out this situation in its film Wreck-It Ralph which released in 2012 and a sequel is already being planned as we write this piece.
Ralph plays the character that wrecks everything and Felix the Fix-It guy fixes everything up and becomes the hero. Tired of being the villain, Ralph wants to prove that even he can be a hero and is good at heart. To accomplish that he decides to leave the game and go into another game to win a medal and in that quest he meets a glitchy character Vanellope who will eventually help Ralph and will show him what it takes to be a good guy. The film gives a message that no matter who you are, one will always find a friend to be with.
Big Hero 6: After acquiring Marvel Entertainment back in 2009, Big Hero 6 is the first animated film to feature Marvel’s superhero character by Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2014.
Hiro, a 14 year old robotics genius has been raised by his aunt and older brother Tadashi who created Baymax, a healthcare robot. Tadashi dies in a tragic event and now Hiro is left to save the city from a mask man named Kabuki. The film is about how with the help of Baymax and 4 of Tadashi’s nerdy friends, Hiro manages to save the city and fulfils his brother’s dream of helping those in need.
How to train your Dragon: HTTYD is a DreamWorks Animation production which released back in 2010 and owing to its success is followed by its second part of the trilogy series, HTTYD 2 which got released in 2014.
The film is about how the Vikings and Dragons have a war going between them as the dragons steal their livestock. Hiccup who’s too young to fight the dragons ends up capturing one of the rare dragons, Night Fury but is unable to kill him. He names him Toothless and befriends him. The story is about how Hiccup and Toothless manage to convince everyone that dragons aren’t dangerous but is just perceived in that way.
Home: Ever thought how one feels living with a planet full of your race but no one to talk to? That’s the story of Oh, a friendly alien of the Boov community. Produced by DreamWorks Animation in 2015, Home is an adaption of the book named The True Meaning of Smekday.
The Boov alien race are always on the run from their enemy Gorg and Oh is declared a fugitive by his community for bringing trouble their way. He meets Tip, an earthling girl – who is on the journey to find her mom who got relocated somewhere because of the Boovs. Oh and Tip bump into each other and from there their actual quest begins and it’s about how they end up trusting each other and becoming friends.
Madagascar: Madagascar is a DreamWorks Animation production and got released in 2005 followed by two of its sequels; Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) and Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (2012) and a spin-off sequel named Penguins of Madagascar (2014).
Being in Zoo since forever, Marty (zebra) wants to see the rest of the world but his friends Alex (the lion), Melman (the giraffe) and Gloria (the hippopotamus) are reluctant of the idea. Eventually with the help of penguins, Marty manages to escape from zoo and with him rest of his friends follow. Join in the safari to experience this adventurous trip and get to know how friendship manages to always win no matter what the circumstances.
Shrek: The movie might seem like a romantic but the relationship between the ogre – Shrek and the donkey is based purely on friendship. Produced by Pacific Data Images, Shrek came out in 2001 followed by 3 sequels, 2 holiday specials and 1 spin-off series.
Shrek’s private life gets interrupted by many fairytale creatures coming in the swamp and in order to make them go he has to go to a place named Duloc whose location only the donkey knew. Shrek who always thought that others judge him even before knowing him eventually gets proven wrong as the donkey says that he didn’t judge him immediately. That’s what true friendship is, isn’t it?
Despicable Me: Minions are the first thing that will pop into anyone’s mind hearing Despicable Me. This cute film produced by Illumination Entertainment debuted in 2010. Audience went gaga over the minion characters and their adorable way of speaking and their antics.
Minions, who are yellow pill-like creatures, work with a super villain, Gru. We can see that though Gru is their master, he cares about the Minions just like a friend. The success of this movie has led to making of Despicable 2 and Minions which is solely based on the life of minions and their evolution.
Ice Age: A Blue Sky Studios production, Ice Age is a comedy adventure based movie released back in 2002. It was followed by three sequels, Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006), Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) and Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012). Ice Age: Collision Course which is the fifth sequel is set to be released in 2016.
Can a mammoth, a ground sloth and a Smilodon (kind of tiger) be friends? It’s hard to imagine, right? Ice Age revolves around these 3 animals’ stories wherein each of them has their own past story which led them to bonding with one another.
In the end we got one song which can be dedicated to all our friends. The song is by Bruno Mars named ‘Count on me’ and it will surely bring back some sweet memories. So don’t waste this precious moment and go ahead tell your friends that you will always be there for them no matter what happens! Happy Friendship Day!