Part two continues…

6. Sahara

Sahara is an animation that features snakes. This is an interesting watch and has demystified the fact that snakes are fearful species. Set in the desert, the animation story is about Ajar, a cobra who has not yet shed his adult skin yet and Eva, a green snake who is very adventurous and wants to leave the desert oasis.

On one adventurous day, Eva is taken by Omar, a cruel snake charmer and skinner on the same day she met Ajar after rescuing him from drowning. Snake charming is a vice which has been practised since the ancient times. Snake charmers keep their animals in containers such as baskets, boxes, pots, or sacks which is an injustice to animals that need to freely roam. Their fungs are also plucked out or their mouths closely shirt only allowing space for their tongue to protrude out, to prevent the snake from biting and poisoning the handler. Most of the snakes eventually die of starvation or mouth infection, and are skinned and replaced when they provide no value to the snake charmer.

7. Cloudy with a chance of meatballs

What happens when you are trying to make your own meatballs or food in general from scratch without necessarily requiring the natural source? Scientists can invent amazing stuff, but things go wrong when you are trying to beat mother nature in her game.

The film is about Flint Lockwood, young inventor, who invents a machine that transforms water into food. Flint is known for creating inventions that make life better for people in his small island town of Swallow Falls. His inventions always fail except for this one which is successful but comes with its own challenges. Greed overcomes the town who now want more renewed sources of food from Flint. This leads to an increase in demand and Flint has to keep up. Soon after, the food begins to mutate and grow in size.

The film mainly raises questions on ecology, sustainability and conservation. Flint tries to invent something that can create any kind of food because his town is facing hard times due to depletion of natural resources. The town’s economy is dependent on Sardine fishing. When the global market backs down on Sardines since they are not considered sweet, the town suffers. This is an unfortunate turn of events that faces many small-scale fishing towns and regions in the world. Several food sources when consumed directly from the source provide sustainable sources of food.

8. Wall – E

Wall – E  (Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Earth-Classis) is a powerful environmental film that focuses on pollution. The storyline; in 2805, the earth is abandoned and covered in garbage. The main star is a Robot who is a trash compactor left behind by a megacorporation Buy-N-Large to clean up the earth.

One Day, while strolling on the Junk filled isles, Wall – E discovers life, a healthy seedling. He takes it home and coincidentally an unmanned spaceship, Eve is sent to earth to scan the area. When Eve discovers the seedling, she takes the seedling back to the humans suggesting, like the Biblical Noah’s Ark, the earth is not yet done. The ship returns to the mother ship starliner, Axiom where humans now occupy.

At Axiom, humans have been made to believe there is no need to walk and thus are obese. Here, they spend their days watching flat-screened entertainment and relish with oversized sodas. After realizing that earth can provide for their daily requirements (ecosystem services), humans reunite to restore the environment to its former.

9. Over the Hedge

Over the hedge is a film about woodland creatures trying to survive in an expanding suburban landscape. When the concrete jungle expands to the woodlands, many creatures stand to lose their home. Habitat loss has been on the rise in urban areas as concrete hedges pillars and poles are preferred to natural hedges and trees.

RJ, a racoon, is the main star in the film. A large hedge separates a forest glade in Chesterton, Indiana from a recently built suburban housing development. When RJ goes there he finds a pack of animals recently awoken from their hibernation because of constructions going on. RJ advises them to forage on food which is consumed by humans and wasted. This may seem like a genius move, but indicates the fate of woodland animals and most urban wildlife which depend on human food once their natural food sources and habitats have been destroyed.

10. FernGully: The Last Rainforest

FernGully is an animated film illustrating a magical rainforest inhabited by fairies but threatened by destructive loggers. When the loggers cut down a tree, an evil spirit Hexxus is released threatening the lives of the fairies. Hexxus is a demon who enjoys and thrives in pollution. Crysta, the fairy, fight to save their whom from the evil spirit. The message in the movie is to urge viewers to preserve and protect the earth.

There are many animations other than these that focus on the environment, such as Bambi, a story of a young deer and his friends who live in a forest threatened by humans and Cars 2 which lays emphasis on the use of electric cars.

More on part one.

Which is your favourite animated film?