Animated Farewells: How Children's Cartoons Help Young Audiences Understand Death and Grief

Dalia Omar, Verrazzano Class of 2026, completed major in Psychology and minors in Arabic and Biology

My research examined how children's cartoons portray death and grief, and how these portrayals help young viewers understand emotional experiences they may not have language for yet. I focused on four well-known animated movies and shows like The Lion King, Bluey, Up, and Coco, and analyzed how each one introduces loss in a way children can grasp. Using concepts from developmental psychology, I focused on how children at different ages understand death, and how visual storytelling, character reactions, and symbolic moments in animation can teach them some emotional learning. My main conclusion is that children's cartoons do far more emotional work than people realize. When watched thoughtfully, they give children safe ways to experience sadness, ask questions, and understand that grief is a natural part of life.

I chose this topic because I took the Death and Dying course with Professor Weiser over the spring semester, and the class completely opened my eyes to how rarely we talk about death, even though it affects everyone. I was initially very nervous to take this class but I thought I'd take the challenge. We discussed how difficult it is for adults to have conversations about loss, especially with children. The class made me think about how kids learn about death at all, and whether the media they watch might be doing some of the teaching. From there, I noticed more children's shows were including emotional episodes, and I wanted to understand the psychology behind it. I wanted to combine what I learned in Professor Weiser's class with my interest in psychology and storytelling.

I expected the capstone to be a long research paper, but I didn't expect how much time I would spend rewatching scenes, analyzing emotional cues, and connecting them with theory. I do love watching movies and shows but having to rewatch them over and over just to look back to see anything I missed was a bit tedious. I thought it would be more straightforward, but I found myself going even deeper into the films than I expected. The work was definitely challenging because I needed to also balance academic research with emotional content. Writing about grief requires a lot of sensitivity and I found it emotionally draining at times. The main goal I had was to make sure I represented both the psychology and the storytelling accurately. The easiest part was writing about the films themselves. Animation especially is something I've always enjoyed, so analyzing those scenes led me to catch something new whenever I replayed them. What surprised me most was how intentional children's media really is. I noticed these emotional moments were not just written for only the plot but with the true purpose of teaching about grief.

If I had more time to expand this project, I would explore how different cultures teach children about death through media. My favorite movie to write about on this list was Coco. Coco showed me how powerful cultural traditions can be when explaining loss, and I would be interested in comparing international films or shows to see how different societies support children emotionally. Another direction would be studying how parents use these films in real-life conversations, whether watching them leads to discussions at home, and how children respond afterward.

The biggest thing I'm taking away from this experience is confidence in my ability to handle a sensitive topic academically. I learned how to build a research question, gather sources, and create a structured argument, but I also learned how important emotional education is. Children's cartoons may seem simple, but they teach lessons that stay with us for life. I feel that till this day we still reference most of these movies which reflects the impact they have on us watching them. This project reminded me that the media we show children matters, and that emotional development should be taken seriously. Completing this capstone also made me appreciate the value of the Death and Dying class even more and it shaped my thinking, pushed me out of my comfort zone, and ultimately inspired a topic that helped me grow both academically and personally.