Friendship And Family In Children’s Cinema: Arlo’s Journey
In recent years, children’s cinema has not only been extraordinarily creative and offers us high-quality films, but it is also capable of winking at adults so that they also come to see them, either accompanied by the little ones or to enjoy them. themselves. This is the case of the recent Frozen, Finding Dory, Zootropolis, Inside Out or Arlo’s trip .
Today we are going to talk precisely about the latter, another of Pixar’s creations that has come to sensibly touch the heart of those who want to approach it. In 2015, this film managed to deal sensitively with issues as deep as friendship.
Both children and the elderly are capable of enjoying, suffering and even crying with the journey that their protagonist undertakes. With an audiovisual treatment that surprises with how successful he is, we see a small dinosaur on the screen that struggles to grow and find his place in the world accompanied by his new confidant Spot.
The strength of the family bond
The story line of Arlo’s Journey is based above all on the strength of family ties and the struggle not to lose them. This struggle, as will be seen, is capable of creating a challenge and testing the limits of our protagonist, who in order to overcome them must face obstacles and adversities.
To some extent, the progressive growth that the viewer is able to attribute to Arlo is reminiscent of one of the most notorious children’s stories on the big screen: The Lion King. Unforgettable and full of emotions, we live the growth of the little lion to become king, just as we will do with Arlo until he achieves his precious mark.
Two roads full of challenges, betrayals, true friendship and a lot of family love. This family affection is visible from the beginning to the end: it is the engine of the protagonist’s maturity and the incentive to never lose faith in his purposes.
Thus, if Mufasa tries to instill in his son his place in the world, just as Henry, Arlo’s father, will with the little dinosaur. Afterwards, the memory of his teachings will remain present throughout the journey, as will that of his mother and his brothers, in the case of Arlo.
A gesture of kindness can change everything
As in many other audiovisual examples, the protagonist could not go through this complicated adventure of self-discovery alone. Thus, the one whom he first considers the cause of his misfortune becomes his best friend and confidant.
Spot seems like a wild child full of cuteness and, like Arlo, he also needs to find his family and go home. This point in common is what ends up uniting them so much. They are the best example of what the trailer for this film wanted to convey to us: that a gesture of kindness can change everything.
Kindness, companionship, courage, solidarity, unconditional … are some of the qualities of a true friendship like the one they have. Together they show us that everything is possible, even when we think we have no possibilities. Manuel Carrasco gives voice to the soundtrack of this friendship in the video.
A cry of fear and Arlo’s maturation
Now, every challenge requires a fear and if, in addition, you are practically alone to overcome it, the panic is much greater. Our main character is the opposite of the spontaneous and brave child Spot: a dinosaur who from birth has been afraid of almost everything around him.
For this reason, as viewers we feel our hearts heaving in practically every scene in the film. With the help of his friend and other characters, Arlo will discover that he is much braver than he thought. Just like his father instilled in him.
The latter leaves us, in this sense, some of the most wonderful phrases of the story such as: “Sometimes you have to cross the barrier of fear to see the beauty on the other side.”
With a pure beauty, we have in Arlo’s trip another invitation to a good time in the movies with a deep and vital moral for children and adults. Hand in hand with its protagonists, we are invited to reflect on self-improvement and the value of human relationships.
