Pap the
Disney Gamer's Highlights: The
Friends of Disney Friends
You and me together will be
Forever you'll see
You too can be good company
You and me
Yes together we do
There are many
recurring themes in Disney
culture, such as the theme of
accepting and loving yourself
for who you are, discovering
your true self, and making a
dream a reality, no matter the
costs. One of the most common is
that of friendship. Many
characters, not just in the
Disney animated classics but in
other media as well, exist
primarily to provide friendship
to a certain character. While
the more cynical will see this
as an useless trait, the reality
is that we all need someone to
love, to trust, to vent when we
are upset, share the things we
love and to offer a shoulder to
cry on. One of the most explored
types of friendship in Disney
films are the friendships we
bond with our animal friends.
Yeah, we may not be able to
communicate directly with our
furry friends, but the emotional
bonds that bind us with them is
there, and at times it is very
strong.
The beauty of
Disney storytelling is that we
can further explore those
friendships through the
personification of our animal
friends. Films like The Fox
and the Hound, Oliver and
Co., and Bolt have
explored just how deep a bond
between man and his pet can go,
adding layers of emotional
complexities and character
development to further
strengthen those ideals, and
strike a chord with those that
have ever loved a pet. In the
video game industry, it comes as
no surprise as to why there are
many games that simulate the
care and love of a pet. And much
like in Disney animation, it
allows its creators to be
creative with how those
friendships are presented,
especially if they allow us to
befriend mystical creatures like
dragons and unicorns.

Nearly two years
ago, I wrote about a Nintendo DS
game called Disney Friends. A
pet simulator hot off the heels
of Nintendog's earlier success
on the system, its main hook was
that you could further care for
famous Disney pets. To learn
more about its technical aspects
and features, you can read the
old article here. Today,
however, I will revisit Disney
Friends in an attempt to explore
how it presents to us the
concept of friendship and pet
ownership on an emotional level,
and how the stories may have
helped in its creation.
In Disney
Friends, you can choose one of
the following characters as a
pet to care and love:
Stitch (Lilo and
Stitch)
Winnie the Pooh (The
Many Adventures of
Winnie the Pooh)
Dory (Finding Nemo)
Simba (The Lion King)
At first glance,
the character choices are
obvious; each of these
characters were chosen because
they come from highly popular
Disney and Pixar films, and they
fit each pet archetype well
(Dory being the fish, Simba the
cat, Pooh the bear and Stitch
the fantastical creature). But
upon closer inspection, I
believe that these characters
were also chosen because they
come from films where a strong
focus is on the friendships they
form with the other characters.
The theme of friendship is what
drives the story forward, and
gives us various types of
friendships for us to relate to.
Here is what I
believe each character
represents in Disney Friends:
Stitch: He
represents unlikely friendships,
as well as friendships that
change our lives for the better.
At the start of the film, Lilo
is a weird and sad little girl
who is still recovering from the
death of her parents, and is at
the care of her older sister
Nani, who lacks the paternal
skills to raise a young child.
Stitch is a wild and dangerous
alien set out to create
destruction and mayhem. Through
a series of misunderstandings,
Stitch becomes Lilo's new �dog�.
At first the connection is an
odd one due to how different
they are from each other. But as
the story progresses, Lilo and
Stitch begin to transform each
other for the better. Stitch
represents the fact that we need
to be more than friendly to be
considered a best friend. We
need to be absolutely loyal to
our friends, be there when they
need us the most, and to always
remain there, regardless if your
friends are at their highest or
their lowest. Lilo never gave up
on Stitch, even if he was
getting the hang of being good
and caused mayhem to everybody.
Stitch gave up his wild ways to
be with Lilo for the rest of his
days. Friendship requires
sacrifice, genuine loyalty and
love, which is what Lilo and
Stitch are all about.

Dory: Dory
also represents the concept of
odd friendships, except that her
friendship to Marlin happened
during the oddest of encounters.
You could say that they met by
�accident�, united by a common
goal; to find Nemo. While it may
seem that her long term memory
problems actually makes matters
worse, it is her undying loyalty
and endless optimism that makes
Marlin's journey more than
memorable (no pun intended).
Dory reminds us that sometimes
life's journey is better taken
with a friend, and even if at
times our personalities, trains
of thought and ways of life
clash, you can still form a very
strong friendship that can last
for a long time. Both Dory and
Marlin are transformed by the
end of the story, with Dory
finally finding someone that can
bring out the best in her, and
Marlin learned to trust the
world a little more and to enjoy
life with his son rather than to
establish limits and boundaries.

Winnie the Pooh:
Pooh is all about innocent
friendships, the kind that we
form as kids. Most importantly,
it is about friendships that
last a lifetime, the rarest kind
of friendship you will ever
find. Why? Because as we grow
up, we often are stripped of our
innocence, we become jaded and
focus on places and people that
we think better reflect our
interests. But sometimes we do
yearn to go back to simpler
days. That is why the ending
scene with Christopher Robin and
Winnie the Pooh has always been
considered to be one of the most
powerful yet simply scenes in
Disney history, reminding us to
never forget our friends, even
if we grow older, apart or we
find something else.

Simba: Simba
represents how often we become
the people we are thanks to our
friends. When Simba was accused
of murdering his father, he was
raised by Timon and Pumbaa after
he ran away from home. Rafiki
taught him to always look
towards the future while
learning from the past, Nala
urged him to take his place as
ruler, and they all helped him
dethrone Scar and become the
king he was born to be. Often we
take our friends for granted. We
expect them to always be there
for us, to never fail us, and to
always do what we tell them to.
But a lot of the time, our
friends leave a deeper impact
than we realize. They inspire us
to be better people, to pursue
our dreams of happiness, and
will often help you achieve that
dream. Simba reminds us that we
become great people because we
were surrounded by great
friends, and to never forget
them.

Disney Friends
may be a pet simulator for the
DS, but I believe there is a
reason why these characters were
chosen to headline the game
beyond just their appealing
looks and popularity in Disney
culture. These characters best
represent what friendship truly
means, and serve as a reminder
to always appreciate the friends
we have, regardless if our
friendship is sometimes odd, if
they have lasted a lifetime, or
if they help us become the men
and women we are today.