The Movie Soul: 5 Great Lessons for Children
Cinema is a very useful tool for transmitting values, stories, and knowledge. There are many films that carry messages and lessons for children, and one of them is the movie Soul, which was released on Disney+ by Pixar in the year 2020. It’s a journey toward oneself, toward life, death, and emotions, which invites children and adults to reflect on multiple aspects.
In the following article, we’ve selected 5 great lessons for children that this movie leaves us with. It’s an ideal movie to watch with the younger members of your household. Not only will they have fun, they’ll also learn. And we’re sure you’ll enjoy it as well!
Soul, the film that talks about life and death
Soul is an American film released in 2020. It talks about emotions and many other topics, ideal for working on different aspects of emotional intelligence in childhood. It’s an animated film, adventure, drama, and comedy, directed by Peter Docter and produced by Pixar Animation Studios.
It tells the story of Joe Gardner, a music teacher who has a dream: To become a renowned jazz musician. However, before achieving this dream, he suffers an accident and is immersed in a journey to the beyond that he must travel in order to come back to life.
On this journey, he’ll learn about his past, his present, and perhaps his future. He’ll discover feelings and emotions that he may have been unaware of and will enter a journey of consciousness and personal growth.
Soul: 5 great lessons for children
Without a doubt, Soul is one of Pixar’s great revelations in recent years, as it has great lessons for children and also for adults. Here are some of the lessons for children from this very genuine movie.
The importance of enjoying
They say that life is short, isn’t it? Well, this is the first great lesson that Soul leaves us: The importance of enjoying life and the little moments, as time goes by (and fast) for everyone.
This is what the main character experiences when he sees that things don’t go as he expected and he must face the following question: Am I really enjoying life? Teaching this to children can help them to focus on the present moment from an early age.
Losing the fear of taking risks, one of the lessons of the movie Soul
Another lesson from the movie Soul, useful for both children and adults, is that failure is also a lesson to be learned. From this message comes another lesson: If you lose the fear of taking risks, you’ll achieve great things. And not “great things” in the material sense, but simply that which makes each person happy.
And the truth is that, by trying, several things happen throughout life: Either we achieve what we set out to do or we get frustrated, learn, lose things… And all this is a very necessary background for emotional growth in childhood.
Fight for what you believe in
Another lesson that the movie Soul leaves us with is that we must fight for what we believe in, even if that means the possibility of failure. As we see with its protagonist, who fights to achieve his dream, although, between his idea and the achievement of his goal, he must face many difficulties.
But he faces them as best he can. And all these difficulties are a learning opportunity that will be very useful for the little ones.
Enjoy the process
What’s more important? The journey? Or the destination? The results? Or the process that leads to them? Another great lesson from the movie Soul is this one, through which children can reflect on the idea of achieving goals and dreams.
It’s very rewarding to get where we want to go, yes, but what about the journey to get there? It’s also a source of lessons, richness, and experiences that can help us face other challenges in the future.
Reflect and you will learn
Soul is a film that constantly invites us to reflect on life, death, emotions, dreams, desires, and difficulties… Children, even if they’re small, have often had to face situations they may not have expected.
The death of a loved one, the frustration of not getting everything right the first time, the first fears of childhood? Through the story, its characters, and its script, your child can ask themself a series of questions about all these issues and reflect on them.
And what about you? Have you already seen it? Do you think that the film provides other lessons in addition to these? If you haven’t seen it and you like movies that transmit values, full of action, but with a dose of drama and comedy, Soul is a good option to watch with the little ones.
In addition, after watching it with them, you can reflect on the story of the protagonist, what he achieves, what he wants, and the difficulties he has to face to achieve his dream. It’s a good film to start dealing, in a natural way, with taboo subjects like death or human suffering.
