Have you ever seen a Disney movie with talking animals? Or rather, have you ever seen a Disney movie without talking animals? These animals seem to have developed not only vocal cords, but impressive singing voices and a fluent knowledge of the English language. Looking at their everyday behavior, they aren’t far different from humans; they talk and joke and argue, they cause problems among each other, and there’s even the occasional poop joke. If you look beyond their everyday behavior though, you’re sure to find that they symbolize something far greater than poop jokes or arguments, and that’s saying something, because poop jokes are fantastic. These animals speak of love and hope and heart, and even if we haven’t watched one of these movies since we were five, six, seven years old, the lesson remains the same. These talking animals have a point.

There is a lot to be said about these life lessons. They may be expressed in a sentence or a line of a song, but in that simplicity there is a hidden complexity. We’re told by these animals to have hope, to believe. In life, you’re sure to find that you can work the hardest, have the most talent, have the best plan, but if you don’t believe in who you are and what you’re doing, if you aren’t hoping for the best out of yourself or for others, then you aren’t living to your full potential, and you aren’t giving as much as you can for the people you love. Another thing these talking animals are apparently well educated on is the concept of heart, of bravery. There will be more than one time in your life where you need to step up and be brave, where you’ll have to follow your heart and forget all else for a moment. These animals speak to that. So whether you’re getting revenge for your father being thrown from a cliff into a herd of stampeding gazelles, or you finally take a stand and tell Suzy to just shut up, you’re showing your true potential for bravery and the real strength in your heart. The most prominent lesson to be learned from these linguistic animals is that love is the most important thing to have in the world. These animal characters, whether they’re an amphibian, reptile, mammal, insect or imaginary, all know the influence love can have on a person. When you love somebody, you’re living life to its full potential. Somebody could be content with simply having a good job, some friends, free time to relax, but nobody is truly happy unless they have somebody to share their life with. It doesn’t matter who you are, there will be times in your life where you wish you had somebody to support you, and conversely there will be times where you wish there was somebody to share your successes and happiness with, somebody to show how ridiculously awesome you are. It’s in this way that these hopelessly cute and endlessly wise talking animals teach us all about the better aspects of living.
Even if these words about life are coming from the mouth of a talking animal, it doesn’t ruin their validity. Rather it should amplify them, because unlike humans, animals don’t know bias or corruption, they only speak from their hearts, and those are the truest words there can be. Whether they’re speaking of your ability to believe in yourself and find strength in that, or if they’re trying to teach you how important it can be to be brave and of the opportunities that can yield, or if most importantly they show you how absolutely beautiful it is to love and be loved, these animals are wise beyond their years and their appearance. In between the random musicals and the poop jokes that are totally a thing Disney movies do, it can not be disputed that these talking animals have a point.