What Disney Songs Helped Me Learn (The Easy Way)

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“Cinema is a mirror that can change the world.” -Diego Luna

Go watch a Disney movie.

There are basically two ways to learn life lessons in my book: 1) the hard way, by getting your heart broken and your dreams crushed, or 2), the easy way- by watching a Disney movie.

I know you have Hakuna Matata memorized, and it’s the only Swahili phrase you can say. Your first exposure to talking furniture was probably Beauty and the Beast.

And of course, you watched The Little Mermaid 14 times before the DVD mysteriously disappeared because your parents couldn’t take it anymore.

If you’re like me, the first romances you ever idealized were also Disney romances, and maybe some of your first Halloween costumes were from the classic 90s and 2000s films too.

So if you grew up waiting to become a Disney princess or imagining your dog as an animated sidekick, this is for you.

All those hours you spent watching movies might just have taught you some incredible lessons about courage, joy, and how to stay true to yourself in a world that aggressively manufactures sameness.

(Also, I tried to give minimal spoilers if you haven’t seen some of the films below!)

Me dressed as Elsa (Frozen) at 12 years old

#1: What Else Can I Do? (Learn from Encanto)

The very thing you are trying to suppress, hide, or change, is the path to becoming even more powerful if you lean into it.

One of the most powerful messages to learn from Encanto is to lean into your shadow self, mirroring some of what Robert Greene writes about in 48 Laws Of Power.

But what do I mean by this?

Throughout all my high school years, I felt like I had to squeeze and contort myself to fit into a predetermined future box that contained a single career. There was a set list of jobs, and you were just supposed to pick one based on the class you did the best in.

It was a pretty straightforward algorithm if you had one favorite class, or could easily clump your interests into a definitive job description.

But for me it was a nightmare, because I loved all my classes, and found all the jobs super cool.

My solution?

Suppress, hide, and try to change.

I loved creative writing with a passion, but this didn’t make sense in the context of science and math. People only saw the link between writing and science if you were planning on going into journalism or sci comm.

I tried both on, but I knew there was still something missing.

So what did I do?

Suppress even more.

It got worse and worse until I took a gap year before college, where like a plant transplanted from a tiny plastic pot to a big wide-open field, my roots spread out wide and far, and I got to reinvigorate my love for writing in all its expansiveness.

Now I don’t try to suppress; I try to explore. I ask what else can I do?

The answer is always a pleasant surprise.

#2: When I’m Older (Learn from Frozen)

All the crazy things happening to you now will make sense in the future. Trust the process.

Olaf sings this song in Frozen II as a bunch of crazy things are happening in the plot and he is lost in the woods without the other characters.

In short, he has every reason to panic.

However, the charming thing about Olaf is that instead of panic, the entire time, he is reassuring himself, “This will all make sense when I am older.”

What I love about this is the fact that while we might usually see Olaf as the naive, childlike comic relief in the film, he is actually right.

When I was 13, I moved to England from Miami.

Yes, from Miami, where you have to worry about wearing enough sunscreen, to England, where you have to take Vitamin D pills just to stay sane in the winter.

As a 13-year-old already halfway through the social Rubix cube of middle school, moving to an entirely new continent and starting over was tough.

The first year, I had almost zero friends, and was constantly lamenting the gray skies and strange new education system I had been transplanted into unwillingly.

When my life didn’t play out how I wanted it to, one of the hardest things for me to do was to take a step back and go “This will make sense one day.”

And guess what?

Seven years later, I can confirm it made perfect sense.

If I hadn’t moved to England, I wouldn’t be who I am today.

That said, wouldn’t it be so much easier if we could learn from Olaf and walk through the woods when we feel lost, alone, and hopeless, and trust that yes, this will all make sense when I am older?

#3: Gaston (Learn from Beauty and the Beast)

No matter how amazing you are, there will always be people who reject you. Don’t try to make sense of it.

Okay, okay, I know what you’re thinking: “But he’s the villain in the movie. Why are we learning from him?”

Hear me out: Yes, I know Gaston is the villain. I know he is self-absorbed. Maybe even a narcissist.

Let’s take a step back, though.

In this song, LeFou (Gaston’s bro, if you will) is trying to cheer up Gaston because he is feeling down and out about Belle rejecting him. So he lists off all the things about Gaston that are impressive.

“Gosh, it disturbs me to see you, Gaston,” he says. “Looking so down in the dumps…There’s no man in town as admired as you. You’re ev’ryone’s favorite guy. Ev’ryone’s awed and inspired by you, and it’s not very hard to see why.”

Wow, so Gaston is a great guy to a lot of people. Yet for whatever reason, his insecurity is blinding him to this because he is hung up on the fact that Belle won’t marry him.

Imagine how differently Beauty and the Beast would have gone if Gaston just had the emotional maturity to let Belle go, wish her the best, and marry any of the many women who really wanted to be with him.

My ten-year-old sister once said something very wise, as children have a beautiful tendency to do.

She said, “Sometimes you want to be friends with someone, but they don’t want to be friends with you. That’s okay.”

It struck me, because she’s absolutely right.

In trying to bend over backwards for the people who don’t want what you have to offer, you miss out on appreciating the people who are your biggest fans.

#4: We Don’t Talk About Bruno (Learn from Encanto)

We all have Brunos in the closet, even if we pretend we don’t. “Not talking” about something won’t make it go away.

Can you tell I loved Encanto?

This song broke the charts because it’s catchy in every language, but really, it’s about being in a family that avoids talking about the hard stuff, in this case about what on earth happened to Uncle Bruno.

But this doesn’t have to be about family.

As individuals, we all have Brunos in the closet, and we refuse to talk about them, or even acknowledge them, until they blow up in our faces.

You know how when you’re driving and your gas is low, your car will give you a little red warning?

50 miles becomes 20, 20 becomes 10. Sometimes, even at 0 miles, you can still go a little further before getting stranded.

Well, once I got to 0 miles of gas in the tank, and I barely managed to get home.

It’s easy to ignore a blinking red light telling you to stop at a gas station, but hard to ignore when you’re stranded in the middle of a winding mountain road.

Address the thing before it becomes catastrophic. How?

It starts with talking about your Bruno.

#5: Spoonful Of Sugar (Learn from Mary Poppins)

Make the hard thing a little more fun.

Perhaps the only thing more timeless than Mary Poppins is that universal groan right before you start the one long, boring task you’ve been avoiding all week.

Disney’s solution is simple: take your medicine with a spoonful of sugar.

Mary Poppins puts it this way: “In every job that must be done there is an element of fun. You find the fun and snap! The job’s a game, and every task you undertake becomes a piece of cake.”

About 2 months ago, I climbed Mt. Fuji with some friends. Before you climb, you are pumped with adrenaline, and at the top you have the wonderful sense of achievement.

In the middle, though, motivation is sparse.

So what did we do?

We either sang musical number after musical number, or we listened to the rest of the group as they sang musical numbers.

In the upper half of the mountain, I even came up with a game we all played together, where I would give a word like “boat”, and they would guess a musical number with that word in it.

Did our legs still hurt? Absolutely, but our minds were on the likes of Hamilton, West Side Story, and Wicked instead.

Playing a game and singing songs didn’t make the climb effortless; it just kept us from dwelling on our sore feet, exhausted legs, and the sense that the mountain just kept getting taller.

It works just like Mary Poppins claims: “Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down in a most delightful way.”

#6: How Far I’ll Go (Learn from Moana)

Trust the instinct telling you to try something random and new. It knows something you don’t yet.

Moana is, like most princesses, unsatisfied with staying in her comfort zone. The difference between her and the rest though, is subtle.

“I’ve been standing at the edge of the water, long as I can remember,” she says. “Never really knowing why.” Then, later in the song, she confesses, “I can lead with pride. I can make us strong. I’ll be satisfied if I play along, but the voice inside sings a different song. What is wrong with me?”

Nothing is wrong with you, Moana.

Much like Olaf trusts that everything will make sense later on, and like Isabela in Encanto has to lean into her shadow self to realize the true extent of her powers, Moana needs to trust that her urge to explore is telling her something important.

Last Christmas, I got a small crafting kit under the tree. It came with two short, chunky wooden knitting needles, and a little clump of magenta-colored wool yarn.

To my surprise, I spent all of Christmas Day knitting in my pajamas until I produced a mug cosy, completing the craft kit.

In the week that followed, my mom and I went to the knitting shop to pick up more yarn so I could make a bigger project- a scarf.

I kept following that random new obsession, and almost a year later, I have also made a tote bag, hand warmers, and a scarf for my dog!!

Okay, maybe I didn’t defeat any evil demi-gods or giant crabs like Moana did, but I listened to the voice, and it told me I like this- let’s explore it.

After all, you never know how far you’ll go…

#7: Do You Wanna Build A Snowman (Learn from Frozen)

Everyone has someone looking to them for love and support. Be there for them when it’s easy, but especially when it’s hard.

Frozen is, ultimately, about sisterhood, and that’s one of my favorite things about it.

It teaches us how to lean on others, especially in a world that trains women to see each other as competition.

In this song, we see Anna begging her big sister, Elsa, to build a snowman for her, but it’s never really just about building a snowman.

This is a plea for connection.

The powerful message of this song, though, is that connection doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t have to make it about having a deep, existential conversation. In fact, you don’t even have to spend money.

For Anna and Elsa, it just means going outside together and building a snowman.

As a proud big sister myself, one of my favorite things to do with my own little sisters is to bake. Whenever I visit, we make something tasty, and in the weeks and months leading up to a visit, we compare notes on what recipes to try.

It’s not really about baking, although baking is lots of fun.

Really, it’s about connection.

We all have someone in our life who is the Anna to our Elsa, and could use our lova and support.

Frozen just tells us it’s actually not as hard as we think to provide it.

Apply What You Learn After The Movie.

Learning doesn’t stop after the credits finish rolling though.

You can continue to engage with these Disney films by relistening to each of these songs using the links below:

Thought To Action

Upgrade Your Inputs: This week, read one thing that feels above your level—a book, essay, or paper that makes you slow down. Growth hides in friction.
Curate Your Feed: Audit your digital spaces—unfollow three accounts that shrink your thinking and replace them with three that expand it and help you learn.
Start a “Curiosity Thread”: Pick one question that won’t leave you alone and spend 15 minutes a day chasing it down. (Here’s how to build a personal learning ritual).
Try AI as a Reading Companion: Feed a dense article into an AI tool and ask it to explain it five ways—like a teacher, a friend, a skeptic, a poet, and a child. Notice what each version unlocks.
Share a Synthesis: Write a one-paragraph reflection and post it publicly or in your notes—learning cements when shared.

Sources

No external sources were used for this post- just my precious childhood memories.