One of our favorite bonding activities, just like other families, is watching movies together. Since our kids are still very young, we take extra time to search and screen the movies that we watch together to ensure that these are age-appropriate. Based on my/our experience, it’s challenging to process and explain things to kids while watching. If we delay processing, however, we might forget to tell them that some words or actions that we saw in the film are not right or are not pleasing to God. Thus, we do our best to look for movies with no or little profanity and sexual undertones or scenes. When we notice some actions that we think we should explain to the kids, we also call them out.

Last weekend, we watched a movie that’s very inspiring to both adults and kids alike. It was about the life of Walt Disney: Walt Before Mickey.

I’m sure that most people know him. I grew up watching Disney shows and movies. Many kids these days watch Disney shows at the Disney channel. Our family has watched a number of Disney movies already. We’ve watched Disney on Ice last year. One of my dreams is to go to Disneyland with my family.

But, I wonder if most people know what Walt Disney went through before he became a big shot. I think it’s nice to know the story of the man behind this very successful company.

I’ve listed 5 lessons that I think parents and kids alike can learn from this movie, which was based on Walt Disney’s life story.

1.Persevere. Never give up! Persevere even when everything you do seems futile. When you don’t give up, your failures will just be part of your story. Failure will not be the end. It’s amazing how many failures Walt experienced before his company became profitable and successful. He experienced failure after failure; that at one point, he even became homeless and he didn’t have money to buy food. But he did not let those failures stop him from pursuing his dream. He persevered! He kept on persevering until he realized his dream. This brings me to my next point or lesson.

2. Failures are a part of life. Learn from them. Use your failures to keep you moving forward, to motivate you to learn more and make you strive to do better next time. Failure has a way of molding one’s character that success cannot achieve. Our failures can teach us humility. It can teach us to be more prudent and cautious. If we learn from our failures, they can serve as stepping stones to our future success. In the movie, Walt learned from his mistakes. I remember a scene when he was so happy to discover what he has been doing wrong that led him to discover what he does best. When he discovered this, he spent his time doing more of it and delegated the others to his team members.

3. Real friends are loyal to you. They will stick with you even when you fail. So, take note of those people in your life. They are your treasures. Take care of your relationship with them. Show them that you value their friendship. Be loyal to them as well. Walt had his share of betrayals also. There were people whom he trusted who did not prove to be worthy of his trust. But there were also those who stood by him at his lowest moments. They were there to help him and give him hope.

4. People who do excellent work will eventually be noticed even when there are people who are trying to put them down. One popular saying goes, “You cannot keep a good man down.” That’s because a good man will keep doing the good that he does really well and he will eventually overcome the obstacles that are on his path. Walt just kept doing what he did best and he eventually became known for his works. There was a time when he lost the copyright of one of his works. This did not discourage him from making new ones. In fact, it moved him to create new and better characters.

5. Support your kid’s interests/passions. Who knows, one of these could become his career! Walt’s Dad was not very supportive of his artistic inclinations when he was still a child. Good thing, he did not stop exploring his area of interest. He did not give up on his dream even when his Dad did not approve of it. But not all children are as emotionally strong as Walt. Some kids could easily give up and their gifts or natural talents would be left underdeveloped or unused because of lack of opportunities. Surely, you don’t want your child to remember you as the parent who did not support his passions, right?

There are more lessons that you can draw from this movie. I just picked these 5 that I wanted to highlight. I highly recommend this movie to families. I have to caution you, though, that there are a lot of scenes where Walt is smoking cigarettes. I’m thankful that my kids already know very well that smoking is bad for their health and the environment. So, it was no longer me who pointed this out, but them.

What movies have you seen recently with your family that you would recommend for family bonding? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.