Four Underrated Disney Movies That I Teach From

My four favorite Disney movies that are seriously underrated.

I use all four of these movies pretty heavily in my Psychology of Relationships and Child Development Classes

1. Lilo and Stitch

This is in my top list for a number of reasons.

It teaches some awesome things about nature vs nurture, given that Stitch was genetically designed to do evil, yet landed in an environment not suited for his evil.
It teaches where true relationship power comes from- Trust and not control. "Ohana means family."
There is some serious autistic coding going on between both Lilo and Stitch. - Lilo is claimed by the autistic community as one of our own for a few reasons:

She struggles with social skills and making friends
She has a hyperfixation on Elvis through which she gains understanding of the world and is the vehicle that she uses to teach Stitch how to be a "model citizen."

I've used clips from Lilo and Stitch in several of my videos, including:

https://youtu.be/gcjN0ebnpo0 How the environment influences development

2. Encanto

This one might not be underrated, as it seems pretty popular.

I use this one pretty heavily in my Psychology of Relationships classes, as it is just filled to the brim with concepts on family issues and problems. It is an excellent example of so many things in my classes, from bias to family roles, to perfectionism and control.
Mirabel is an excellent example of where real relationship power comes from, and I like her gift the best of all of them.
Bruno is considered by many to be an autistic coded character who is often misunderstood because he doesn't follow neurotypical social rules

I started my YouTube channel providing deep analysis of the concepts in my first four videos here:

https://www.jeffbrownsclassroom.com/videos/encanto-and-relationships-videos

3. Brother Bear-

When I bring this up to my students, a lot of them haven't seen it, but those who do always mention it like they forgot it, but they remember it to be seriously awesome. It is.

a. It teaches that the only true way to see someone else is to literally walk in their shoes- empathy is key

b. Our enemies are often people who are just like us

c. The soundtrack, like Tarzan, has awesome songs by Phil Collins that are seriously awesome.

d. The two mooses (meese?) played by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas are an inside joke replaying their characters in the very strange Canadian movie Strange Brew, and they are seriously awesome.

I use clips in this video on overcoming bias in relationships

https://youtu.be/eowg4ccTRcs

4. Meet the Robinsons-

This one is mostly forgotten by a lot of people

a. This contains one of my favorite thought experiments, which is key to understanding child development principles. The thought experiment involves following a child deep into their future to see what their traits will lead to.

b. This follows two orphans on vastly different paths and explores what makes the paths so different.