There’s nothing quite like a good Disney movie. It’s even better when you — or your little ones — learn a thing or two from it. Over the years, the entertainment giant has treated children and adults to films that encourage audiences to look inward at their emotions, especially when it comes to mental health.
Classics like The Lion King and Lilo & Stitch showed us what it can look like to deal with trauma and loneliness, while Inside Out changed the way many of us understood so-called “negative” emotions like fear and sadness. Then there are Pixar titles like Up and Coco, which came under the Disney umbrella after the animation studio acquisition in 2006.
We’d also be remiss not to mention Disney’s much-appreciated efforts to spotlight more ethnic groups and family dynamics. Encanto, for example, centers on a multigenerational family living in the mountains of Colombia. Turning Red follows Mei, a Chinese-Canadian girl coming into adolescence. Of course, that’s only scratching the surface of Disney’s vast catalog. Below are REVOLT’s picks, in no particular order, for the Disney movies that taught us about mental health. Keep scrolling to see them all.
1. ‘Inside Out’
It would be a crime to start anywhere other than Inside Out, which follows 11-year-old Riley as she tries to make sense of the many emotions — Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger — in her head. What Pixar does exceptionally well here is reduce the stigma around mental health and the so-called “negative” emotions most people are often taught to push away. The good news is that its 2024 sequel, Inside Out 2, carries forward a lot of what made the original so loved by kids and adults alike.
2. ‘Encanto’
Encanto does an incredible job of showing how family can affect mental health, especially the pressure to meet expectations. Unlike the rest of the Madrigals, Mirabel doesn’t have any magical powers, which takes a huge toll on her self-esteem at the beginning of the film. However, throughout the Jared Bush co-directed project — perhaps one of Disney’s first animated films to center a large Latino family — she works through those emotions and becomes the person who helps them face what they’ve been avoiding.
3. ‘Soul’
“Is all this living really worth dying for?” The Jamie Foxx-starring Soul poses pretty big questions about what makes life matter. Following Joe through moments before — and even after — death itself, the film explores the idea of finding meaning in everyday experiences. Between the Jon Batiste-assisted jazz score and its exploration of self-worth, Soul puts a focus on how purpose (or finding your "spark") can affect mental health.
4. ‘Up’
Pixar’s Up is touching enough to leave nearly any adult teary-eyed. After Carl Fredricksen loses his beloved wife, Ellie, he sinks into deep solitude, only to be pulled out of it — though very reluctantly — by the relentlessly optimistic wilderness explorer Russell. By the end of the film, the formerly isolated widower comes to understand that forming new bonds doesn’t lessen his love for Ellie, and that even the loneliest among us can find their way back with enough courage and care.
5. ‘Turning Red’
Turning Red is about 13-year-old Mei Lee (Rosalie Chiang), whose life flips upside down when she discovers that getting “too excited” literally turns her into a giant red panda. There’s just one problem: She’s “practically always” excited. Director Domee Shi’s coming-of-age story does a great job of showcasing growing up, family pressure, and having feelings that feel way too big for your body.
6. ‘Finding Nemo’
Who knew fish could live such interesting lives? Finding Nemo stars Albert Brooks as Marlin, an anxious but loving clownfish determined to find his son after losing him to the expansive ocean. The 2003 comedy-drama follows his difficult, eye-opening journey through unfamiliar waters — and ultimately explores how grief and fear can make someone overly protective of the people they care about.
7. ‘Frozen’
Frozen doesn’t shy away from mental health. After Elsa accidentally hurts Anna as a child, she’s taught to hide her powers, push down her emotions, and keep everyone at a distance. Eventually, the ice-wielding Disney princess realizes accepting herself means she has to “Let It Go” — pun intended.
8. ‘The Lion King’
A moment of appreciation for the classics, please and thank you! The Lion King — which, hopefully, everyone has seen at least once — handles the complexities of guilt, trauma, grief, and the impulse to run away. Simba’s entire journey revolves around avoiding the traumatic memory of his father, Mufasa, being killed by his uncle, Scar. Instead of letting shame define him, the young lion must face what happened (as plenty of us have to do in real life).
9. ‘Lilo & Stitch’
What do you get when you mix a strange blue alien, galactic bounty hunters, and two sisters trying to keep their family together under the Hawaiian sun? The answer is Lilo & Stitch, Disney’s 2002 film about Lilo, a young girl being raised by her older sister after the death of their parents. Lilo shows us how loss can make it hard to connect with other people, while Stitch brings his own set of anxieties, trauma from being experimented on, and, well, the whole issue of being a literal alien on Earth.
10. ‘Coco’
Coco follows a music-loving boy named Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez) who accidentally finds himself in the Land of the Dead while trying to learn more about his family’s past. What starts as a colorful adventure through generations of relatives slowly turns into a story about grief, memory, and how deeply family history can shape the people who come after it.
11. ‘Moana’
We can’t make a list of Disney movies about mental health without mentioning Moana. The 2016 film follows the titular character as she leaves her island to save her people while figuring out who she wants to become along the way.
12. ‘Big Hero 6’
Released in 2014, Big Hero 6 introduced us to teenage genius Hiro, whose older brother, Tadashi, invents an inflatable robot named Baymax before later dying in an explosion while trying to save his mentor. Hiro has an incredibly hard time dealing with that grief, but through the lovable and unintentionally hilarious Baymax, he slowly begins to process the loss and find his way forward.
13. ‘Onward’
How far would you go to bring back someone you love? Onward follows two elf brothers who use magic to bring their dad back for just one day. As their adventure unfolds, Pixar gives us a story about grief, closure, and realizing the support you needed may have been beside you all along.