Animated Films About Friendship

Being able to make friends is the greatest gift, and having friends is true happiness. You can argue and clash with the whole world, but when it turns its back or bares its teeth, only friends will stand by you. Facing hardships alone is never easy.

Five of the Best Animated Films About Friendship to Show Children

If a story has friends in it, it always means that whatever happens to the character the audience has grown to love, the worst won’t happen...

“The Iron Giant”, 1999

1957. Sailors spot an unidentified flying object in the sky during a storm. Later, a boy named Hogarth discovers that a huge, intimidating robot has landed on Earth. But the brave boy isn’t afraid of the alien—and as it turns out, the robot isn’t evil at all. In fact, he doesn’t even know the difference between good and bad. His new little friend manages to teach him right from wrong using comic books as examples. But the peace doesn’t last long: secret agent Kent Mansley sees the alien visitor as a threat…

Brad Bird created this film in memory of his sister Susan – she was shot by her own husband. The director’s message was: “What if a gun had a soul and didn’t want to be a weapon?”

“Zootropolis”, 2016

Judy Hopps is a bunny who dreams of becoming a police officer. Her parents worry, and the cheeky fox Gideon teases her—but nothing can kill her dream! She graduates top of her class at the police academy and heads to the big animal city. But at first, her duties are limited to parking tickets and exposing fox Nick Wilde’s ice cream scam… Neither of them realises what's about to unfold!

The animators chose purple eyes for Judy because her grey fur seemed too dull. They wanted her to appear lively and optimistic.

“Ratatouille”, 2007

Remy is a rat with an extraordinary talent for cooking, idolising France’s greatest chef, Auguste Gusteau. But his culinary experiments lead to the rat family being discovered and forced to flee their home. Lost and separated from his family, Remy ends up in Paris—right next to the legendary restaurant where his late idol once worked. Sneaking into the kitchen, he sees the new cleaner Alfredo accidentally ruin a dish. Trying to help the boy sparks an unexpected friendship, and soon they begin to work together…

To create a realistic compost pile, artists combined 15 different foods and artificially “rotted” them, studying and photographing the result during the process.

“How to Train Your Dragon”, 2010

Hiccup, the son of the Viking tribe chief, is unlike other boys—he’s weaker and clumsier. He dreams of protecting his island from dragon attacks and slaying at least one of the beasts. He manages to design a clever trap and captures a dragon. But he can’t bring himself to kill the helpless creature—and sets it free. Later, he finds the injured dragon in a rocky valley and helps it heal and fly again…

Thanks to the film’s popularity, animal shelters reported a surge in adoptions of black cats. Naturally, many were named Toothless!

Viewers were right: the character’s design was inspired by cats.

And also dogs, horses, a giant salamander, and Stitch.

“Ernest & Celestine”, 2012

She’s a tiny mouse living in a mouse orphanage, where the caretaker loves to scare the children with tales of huge, evil beasts living above. He’s a large, poor, and constantly hungry bear. He catches Celestine and wants to eat her—but she talks him out of it and leads him to a cellar full of sweets, later even saving him from the police. It turns out they are kindred spirits! She dreams of being an artist, and he’s poor because he refused to follow his family’s will of becoming a judge. He wants to be a stage performer instead…

In the bear’s room at the beginning, there’s a poster for director Stéphane Aubier’s earlier work “A Town Called Panic” (2009).