The Use of Emotion in Cinema

So, while watching The Iron Giant yesterday, I came to realize just WHY it's still a classic almost twenty years after release.
Emotion.

The expressive animation, gorgeous musical score and voice acting all resonate to create something of pure emotion, which allows us to feel the emotions of the characters, to sympathise with them, or relate.
Even the most evil villain can still be sympathised with, given enough effort into allowing so.

This realization led me to realize just how powerful a weapon emotion is in cinema. Even the most important message or lesson can go unlearned if no effort is put into teaching it.
Likeable characters, an understandable story and sensible resolution can teach many things, depending on what the lesson is, and given enough time and effort, maybe we can learn more than just the moral of the story on display.

Take Zootopia, for example.
From this film, we can interpret the message in many ways, and also find other morals hidden in the narrative.
We have a message about racism and acceptance,  that's the main lesson. But we can also interpret the story and characters as lessons on career choices, achieving dreams, not letting the past rule you, being brave to go out into the world, being brave enough to try new things, making up for past mistakes...
The list goes on, because enough time and emotion was put into the movie to allow us to learn these lessons. Watch Zootopia and see what other morals you can find.

With enough emotion put into a medium, anything can be anything. Even the most unlikable characters can change through the development of a good story, and even the most nonsensical plot can make some sense due to the interesting characters.

A film about a boy befriending a giant robot? A movie compared to superman.
A film about an anthropomorphic rabbit wanting to be a police officer? Easily one of the best films of the decade, or at least one of the best 'female empowerment' films of all time.
A film about a lion cub becoming a king? One of the greatest movies, animated or not, of all time.

With enough emotion put into something, a film can go from nothing to something fantastic. With JUST the right balance of emotion and lesson teaching, we can change the world one small amount at a time, because we TRY.
We try to make things enjoyable in film, to reach out to people and show them something they'll love. Film is a medium anyone can enjoy, and with enough emotion and effort, anyone can create one of their own.

So, yes, emotion is a very powerful thing, and hopefully you yourself have learned something from reading this.
But even if not, I still wahted to try this even though I could fail.