It’s #WorldKindnessDay and to celebrate we here at Screen One have pulled together a short list of films about acts of kindness & friendship that will give you a warm glow inside and make you consider being kinder all round.
Paddington (Prime Video / Netflix) You can’t go wrong with this very British favourite. A bear who simply just loves marmalade sandwiches, who finds himself lost and alone at Paddington Station, he realises quickly that city life isn’t what it was like in Peru. he meets the kindly Brown family, who offer him a home. Chaos ensues. But this is a simply wonderful movie.
JoJo Rabbit (NOWTV) A film about the second world war and Nazi persecution of the Jews? Hows that about kindness you ask. Well Taika Waititi’s darkly comic tale features at it’s very core a act of kindness that simply saves lives and builds a eternal bond. It also happens to be one of Screen One’s films of 2019 and you should seek it out as soon as you can.
Patch Adams (Prime Video) Oh how Robin Williams is missed. A beautiful tale based on the true story of Hunter ‘Patch’ Adams a man who trained as a doctor because he loved to help people. He broke the establishment with his style of making people on the wards happy, instead of the aloof, cold style that most doctors of the time exhibited. Infused with Williams infectious style, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, but most of all it will make you want to be a better kinder person
The Fox And The Hound (Disney+) One of Disney‘s forgotten classics. A tale of an unlikely pair: an adopted Fox (Todd voiced by Mickey Rooney/ Keith Coogan) and a hound dog (Copper voiced by Kurt Russell) who become best friends growing up and vow to remain friends forever, but as they get older nature and various adversities try to force them apart. This film never ranks high on peoples favourite Disney animated movies as it came in just as the animation studio went quiet for several years, but this is a brilliant and fun movie with a pure heart at it’s core. The finale really builds the tention and keeps you on the edge of your seats whether true friendship will save the day (Spoiler alert, it’s Disney, so of course it does)
Ponyo (Netflix) One of Studio Ghibli’s finest in a plehtora of brillaint movies. It was a toss up between this and My Neighbour Totoro (Which you should also check out BTW). 5 year old Sosuke, a son of a sailor, strikes up a friendship with Ponyo, a young goldfish princess. Ponyo longs to be human and as her friendship with Sosuke grows, so she becomes more humanlike. Absouletly amazing.
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (NOWTV) probably the ultimate movie in cinema history of kindness and friendship. A film that when it was first released, if the ending didn’t reduce you to tears, you were either too young to understand or simply dead inside. When a young alien is stranded on earth, he ends up in the life of 10 year old Elliot. The two begin to communicate and strike an eternal bond that goes beyond just friends. It’s hard to pick Spielbergs best movie, but this has to be top 3 and was an absolute lock for this list. If you haven’t seen it before, there’s no better time to watch it. If you’ve seen it before and probably many times isn’t it time you revisitied it?
And while you’re here, why not check out our #WorldKindnessDay interview with Dr Sam Wass HERE
