Top 3 Inspirational Movies {for those un-inspired days}
If you're a person who thrives on (or who's job depends on) creating things - whether that's writing, teaching, drawing, inventing, painting, or what have you - you've been here.
Those days when you just feel completely drained of inspiration. Those days where you don't know if you'll ever be able to create again. Like the future is bleak and there's nothing worth fighting for.
I've had a lot of those days - and today has been one of them. BUT as a self-proclaimed movie addict, there are a few movies that I can count on to boost my mood and inspire me to keep going and creating.
(Sidenote: these movies are all disney or children's movies. I'm a Kid Ministry leader at heart, and a disney addict, so this is what happens)
1) Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007)
During my four years of university, this is the movie that got me through the worst days.
Molly Mahoney was told she was special all of her childhood - a piano prodigy - who then grows up to feel pretty ordinary. Working in Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (an incredibly magical toy store) she bides her time until she finds her "sparkle" again. It isn't until Mr Magorium decides he is leaving the world that she realizes that the magic of the toy store has been within her the entire time.
This movie is full of terrible puns, magical whimsy, and hope. There's just something about Mahoney realizing how magical she is that put the spark of creativity back into your soul.
2) Saving Mr Banks (2013)
This movie. Oh. My. Gosh. Saving Mr. Banks tugs at your heartstrings, inspires you, and also makes you so sad it's ridiculous.
The plot line is a little difficult to explain without giving away everything, but the basics are this: Pamela L. Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins books flies from England to California to meet with Walt Disney about signing over the rights to produce the, now iconic, movie based on her books. Mrs. Travers (as she prefers to be called) is very protective over her beloved characters, and we find out why she is so concerned about their well-being through flashbacks of her childhood.
Seeing Tom Hanks bring Walt back to life is enough to make this one of my favorite creative movies - Walt is one of my main inspirations when it comes to creating - but it is the scene where Walt promises that Mr. Banks will be redeemed in the film.
Walt: "George Banks and all he stands for will be saved. Maybe not in life, but in imagination. Because that's what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again and again."
There's something that just hits me. When we make anything we are telling a story - our story. And to me, art is just that. It is instilling hope for the future. That there is something great, big and beautiful about tomorrow.
3) Tomorrowland
Speaking of a great big beautiful tomorrow.......
I hadn't seen tomorrowland when it first came out. I hadn't heard great reviews on it, I was a poor disney college programmer, and was super busy with my first weeks of work. Recently, it was added to netflix, so i thought I would give it a whirl.
And it was SO MUCH BETTER than what I thought it was going to be.
First of all - it starts off at the 1964 world's fair. WITH there's a great big beautiful tomorrow playing in the background. AND it's a small world. My disney nerd/homesick heart screams internally with glee. But it's so much more than that.
Tomorrowland takes Walt's true vision of what tomorrowland in the Disney parks was supposed to represent - a hope for the future. He truly believed that the future and technology were amazing and good and that it screams out a message of a "great big beautiful tomorrow!" What would happen if the greatest, brightest minds got together and attempted to change the world for the better?
I've got to admit, the scripts wasn't amazing and the plot left some things to be desired, but the message still stands - We can only have a future if we do something to change it. Casey (the main character) sums it up - "There are two wolves who are always fighting. One is darkness and despair. The other is light and hope. The question is... which wolf wins? The one you feed." (I'm not going to spoil the ending bc it's kind of a twist, albeit kind of anti-climactic)
This movie gives me some hope - and on a day where everything is going wrong, every idea seems like garbage, a little hope is needed. That, and a big bowl of popcorn, of course.
So there you have it! My top 3 movies for inspiration on those days you're not feeling so inspired!
Do you have any movies that keep you inspired? Let me know in the comments!
love + pixie dust,
sarah
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