What Disney Animated Films Teach Us About Intergenerational Trauma

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A topic long considered too delicate to discuss in the open, trauma is now trending. From many pop psychology books to the self-help side of TikTok, we’re acknowledging the distressing events in our lives, including smaller-scale or everyday life experiences that induce trauma. 

Even Disney has joined the discussion on trauma, specifically intergenerational trauma. Although the media enterprise has always used themes centered around family and tradition, the exploration of intergenerational trauma has become more perceptible in their recent animated film releases. Coco, Encanto, Turning Red, and Strange World are among the eye-opening animated films for generations of viewers still affected by their family’s unresolved trauma from the past.

What Is Intergenerational Trauma?

You don’t have to experience a traumatic event firsthand to be profoundly affected by it physically, mentally, and emotionally. Intergenerational trauma—also called generational or transgenerational trauma, or secondary traumatization—suggests that trauma and the way we respond to it can be passed down from one generation to the next.

When a person experiences a stressful event, the body reacts by fighting, fleeing, freezing, or fawning. These trauma responses are essential to surviving threats. But being in survival mode, especially for prolonged periods of time, can be harmful in itself. There’s a whole host of physical and mental side effects to it, from sleep deprivation and heart disease to anxiety and depression. 

Even if we’re not physically exposed to the stressful experiences our ancestors had been, intergenerational trauma explains that we can end up developing their adapted trauma responses. For instance, a parent who had adverse childhood experiences such as abuse may have difficulty communicating with their own children. Those children, even though they weren’t the target of abuse, may develop distant relationships with their own children because it was normalized at home. Intergenerational trauma can be passed on through the way we act around and treat our family members, whether intentionally or inadvertently.

Much like the way we inherit brown eyes or an aptitude for creativity, researchers also believe we can inherit trauma responses through genetics. This branch of science is the topic of epigenetics. While trauma doesn’t change the DNA itself, it can cause certain genes to turn on or off. What genes are expressed in our descendants can then change based on our environment and behaviors. Theoretically, they could be predisposed to traits like introvertedness, extreme reactivity to stress, and poor impulse control due to intergenerational trauma.

How Intergenerational Trauma Can Manifest, as Told by Disney

Say your grandparents were attacked by pillagers, forcing them to flee home and seek refuge. Your grandfather is killed in conflict but a miracle gives your family powers that allow them to thrive and protect the entire village they now call home. This is the plot of Encanto, which demonstrates how intergenerational trauma can take root in a family. In the 2021 Disney release, Abuela lives through a series of tragic events—the invasion and the eventual killing of her husband. Still ridden by a combination of guilt, grief, and fear, Abuela’s trauma response—a Disneyfied version, at least—is to strive for perfection within the family. It’s how she can ensure everyone’s safety. Unfortunately, this means the powerless Mirabel represents to Abuela all the things she can’t control and emotionally shuns her from the family. 

By controlling everyone’s use of their powers, she’s inadvertently isolating those who don’t conform to her idea of a Madrigal family member, which can create long-lasting feelings of rejection. At the same time, she was forcing other family members to suppress their identity so they can live up to her expectations.

The distressing event Abuela experienced as a young woman is also brought up in the Lee family in Turning Red, whose intergenerational trauma stems from the war their ancestors lived through. They had to survive by turning into red pandas, which became a physical representation of how trauma can be inherited. Mei transformed into the creature anytime she felt an excess of emotions that her mother wasn’t allowed to express as a child. Mrs. Lee, who was raised in a strict environment that inhibited her identity, planned to contain Mei’s red panda once and for all, which is a narrative that is all too common in Asian cultures. 

In the real world, psychologists observed that intergenerational trauma is more common in families with ancestors who lived through political violence, economic uncertainty, and systemic oppression. However, more personal experiences that induce trauma, such as abuse or loss, can manifest in offspring later on. 

Both Coco and Strange World tackle the sudden loss of a family member that deeply affects the family dynamics. The matriarch in Coco bans creative activities like music out of fear that a family member will leave to pursue their dream again. She dictates everyone’s role in their shoemaking business. In an effort to keep her family intact, she’s inadvertently teaching her children and grandchildren to choose practicality over passion, at the expense of their joy and fulfillment. This manifestation of intergenerational trauma is similar to the underlying conflict in Strange World, in which Searcher prevents his son from becoming an explorer so he doesn’t disappear as his father did. But even if he was in many ways a good dad, his fear of losing his child, which stemmed from his experience of losing his father, made him control of his son’s interests in life. This eventually created a rift in their relationship, very similar to the disconnect he felt from his own dad.

Healing From Intergenerational Trauma

Obviously, these stories are created and distilled for a wider audience, and intergenerational trauma can manifest in even more harmful ways, like abuse and violence. But what these animated Disney movies do well is highlight the subtle ways family members perpetuate intergenerational trauma because of unresolved issues from their past. The way our grandparents and parents behave around us can influence the way we behave around our future children and so on, which could affect their physical health and psychological well-being.

So, how do you heal from intergenerational trauma given its complexity? Unfortunately, we can’t magically solve our issues the way they do in Disney films. But as with many things, awareness is the first step to healing. We have to recognize the ways in which intergenerational trauma reverberates in our families, and how it affects us as a whole and individually. 

Try to trace your family’s history so you can gain a better sense of why they are the way they are. Maybe your grandparents survived a famine or your parents lived through a financial crisis. It can be uncomfortable to dig up your family’s past but knowing where they’re coming from can help you understand them and yourself better. You can also try forms of therapy that address trauma, such as somatic therapy, or even family counseling. 

Or, if you want a more family-friendly way of broaching the topic of intergenerational trauma within your own family, consider hosting a Disney viewing party for Coco, Encanto, Turning Red, or Strange World.