Top Animated Movies About Death
With Pixar’s latest and greatest animated film Coco centering on the holiday The Day of the Dead, I’ve been thinking about other animated films that efficiently use death in their storytelling. It was always a convenient tool for getting rid of a villain or shoving the parents aside into a grave to make the adventures of children all their own. But the animated films for this list are different for effectively telling stories more poignant, thoughtful and somber for what lies beyond our existence. Here are some animated films that use the subject of death to great effect.
1. When the Wind Blows
An English couple prepares their house for the prospect of an atomic bomb explosion, but there’s no way to plan for when it finally hits. In the aftermath of a bomb going off many miles from their house, the couple tries to wait for emergency services to arrive. They will not. Their hair begins to fall out, and they reason it’s part of growing old. It’s not their age, but radiation. They are slowly dying, and there’s nothing they can do about it, merely rationalizing that everything is fine. Or perhaps they secretly know death is coming and refuse to acknowledge it. When their final breaths can be felt as they put on their “radiation suits,” there’s a tremendous performance of two people trying to come to terms with leaving this world behind. Deep, heavy material for an animated film.
2. Grave of the Fireflies
Considered one of the saddest movies ever made, Grave of the Fireflies is so effective in its weepy climax of children perishing during wartime. Seita and Setsuko try to make it on their own in the Japanese countryside after they become orphaned from a firebombing but find living on their own is much more robust than they thought. The movie begins with the children telling you this is the story of how they die and it still breaks your heart into a thousand pieces when that depressing moment hits you like a ton of bricks. Forget tissues — you’re going to need towels to mop up the tears from this one.
3. Bambi
It is perhaps the most famous, poignant and somber death in all of theatrical animation. Nearly everyone knows the pivotal scene that became the subject of considerable controversy for a Disney animated film. The young deer Bambi rushes through the meadow from a hunter’s rifle, his mother following behind him and shouting for him to run. Bambi makes it out alive but hears a gunshot on his way back. He calls for his mother, and she is nowhere to be found. After a sad search, Bambi is approached by another deer that tells him he can’t be with his mother anymore. He gives one look back at the meadow and one tear before trotting back to the woods. It is the death of both his mother and his youth.
4. Barefoot Gen
Of all the films that depict the horrific events of the Hiroshima bombing, Barefoot Gen dares to make as grotesque, shocking and depressing as it should be. After the incredibly graphic depiction of bodies melting and burning in the explosion, the young boy Gen learns to grow up fast. He watches his entire family perish in a fire except for his pregnant mother, left to care for his parent and future sibling in a charred and radiated Japan. This film doesn’t shirk away from how common and horrifying death can be in the aftermath of an atomic bomb going off, resulting in the immediate results of decaying bodies and the long-term effects of radiation killing off the town inhabitants. In one of the most unforgettable scenes, Gen watches the burnt corpses of those he knew being hoisted into a truck like trash bags. He holds his nose and mutters that this must be what hell is like.
5. Watership Down
Considered one of the most traumatic “PG” animated films ever made, Watership Down doesn’t hide death in its tale of rabbits seeking a new home in the British countryside. Not only does the film address the subject of death, but also showcases it in brutal depictions of bloody violence. More tearful than the traumatic sight of brutalized bunnies, death is also handled with a philosophy for how rabbits pass into the next life, greeted by a grim bunny reaper of sorts that invites them to hop with him into the next world. And when you set the somber acceptance of your life ending next to Art Garfunkel’s “Bright Eyes,” that’s instant tears.
6. The Iron Giant
Though The Iron Giant is mostly an adventure tale of a boy and his robot struggling to define themselves, there comes a tragic scene where the subject of death arises. Moments after the Iron Giant has a touching moment with a small deer; he later witnesses some hunters kill the animal. This sight troubles the Giant, later asking his kid master Hogarth about death. The exchange is brilliant and surprisingly mature, leading to the Giant asking if he too will die someday. But it’s Hogarth’s philosophy about the nature of death that makes this scene so compelling: “It’s bad to kill, but it’s not bad to die.” Not too shabby for a film about a robot that can shoot death rays.
7. The Book of Life
If Coco has you pining for another film about the lore of the Day of the Dead, look no further than The Book of Life. Produced by Guillermo del Toro, this uniquely animated film follows a love-triangle that leads from a buzzing Mexican village to the neon land of the dead. For about venomous snake bites, complicated love affairs and a wager with the gods, the film has an energy so high the frenetic nature of the toy-like animation nearly runs away with the production. If Coco was a somber and mature take on the Day of the Dead, The Book of Life is the more carefree and playful version, perhaps too sugary for its own good.
8. All Dogs Go To Heaven
Death is handled in a somewhat surreal tone with Don Bluth’s confounding All Dogs Go To Heaven. The dog Charlie bites the dust too soon and is sent to the pearly gates, only for him to reject his fate so that he can return to Earth. If he dies again, however, he cannot return to heaven unless he somehow redeems himself. Considering his first plan when he is revived is to start a con job with an orphaned girl, he’s got a lot of redemption to fulfill on his plate.
Mark McPherson writes for The Blog. You can follow his movie taste here.
