Educating Individuals to Support Sustainable Society through Disney-Pixar^s Animation Coco, Onward and Soul
Yani Susanti, S.S., M.A.

Bina Nusantara University
Jl. Kemanggisan Ilir III No.45, RT.12/RW.6
Kemanggisan, Palmerah
Jakarta Barat 11480

Abstract

Educating younger generation through films is not uncommon, but educating them through animated films that take a topic most people avoid to discuss about i.e., death, as their main theme is. Supported by terror management theory, the concept of memento mori, as well as cultural worldviews regarding death, particularly the Mexican^s Day of the Dead, Paganism and modern Western world, this paper will discuss how death, depicted in Disney-Pixar^s three original animated films, positively impacts character development, which automatically inspires a similar effect on their audience. After having an experience with death - in other words, having been educated by death - the main characters of Coco (2017), Onward (2020), and Soul (2020) become better characters, who realise that they need to maximise their limited time to be useful individuals in their own capacity and society, which puts the cycle for sustainability in motion. Further studies regarding the educational impacts of these three animated films are also suggested.

Keywords: education through films, animated films, Disney-Pixar, learning through death, sustainable individuals, literature to educate

Topic: Education