“Citizens of the Valley of Peace! It is my great honor to present to you... Tigress! Viper! Crane! Monkey! Mantis! The Furious Five!”
Examples of True Companions in animated movies.
- Charlie and Itchy in All Dogs Go to Heaven. Sure, they fight, but in the end they are always good buddies again.
- The Book of Life:
- Manolo's mariachi friends stick with him even when the rest of the town dislikes him.
- Manolo, Maria and Joaquin have been this since they were children.
- The Brave Little Toaster and his gang of household appliances stick together no matter what, and it's a good thing too considering what they have to go through.
- Max, PJ, and Bobby in An Extremely Goofy Movie. Max and PJ had been best friends since middle school, and apparently decided to let Bobby join them on or near their level sometime during high school (Bobby was more distant in the first movie). They all go to college together, rooming together, joining the X-Games Tournament together, and sharing at least one class. When Bradley offers to put Max and only Max on his team, he declines, saying it's "all of us or none of me." In the subsequent fight with the Gammas, PJ stands up to Tank to protect Bobby without hesitating, and when Tank is victimizing him, Max shouts at him, "Hey! Leave him alone!"
- Manfred, Diego and Sid in Ice Age. Circumstances bring them together despite the fact that they can't get along, what with Manfred distrusting Diego (with good reason, for he turns out to be The Mole) and Sid annoying Manfred and Diego. This dialogue puts it best:Diego: Why did you do that? You could've died trying to save me.
Manfred: That's what you do in a herd. You look out for each other.
Sid: I don't know about you guys, but we are the weirdest herd I've ever seen.- The Herd expands in the sequels. Manny's new mate and daughter Ellie and Peaches, Ellie's adopted brothers Crash and Eddie, Diego's new mate Shira, Sid's Granny, etc.
- James and his anthropomorphic bug buddies in James and the Giant Peach — the "Family" song further establishes this.Centipede: Kid, you're stuck with us for life.
- The Furious Five in Kung Fu Panda all fight alongside each other and trust each other with their lives. Though they get off to a rocky start with Po, he ends up joining them and fits in nicely with their true companions.
- In The Land Before Time, it is repeatedly stated that each species of dinosaur doesn't get along with the others (even amongst herbivores). When Littlefoot's gang gets together, even The Narrator remarks "there had never been such a herd before". However, all feelings of xenophobia amongst the adults seemed to vanish once they got to the Great Valley. This is explained in the seventh movie. While the kids were off doing their thing, the adults decided to band together too for safety. Even then, they still argue a lot more than the kids do.
- The Hawaiian term for this is "ʻohana", as anyone who has seen the movie Lilo & Stitch (or any of its sequel material) should know:"ʻOhana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind — or forgotten."
- Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed are such in The Lion King. Even though they're designated as being bad guys, it's clear the three are very close, and while they don't have much, at least they have each other.
- Timon and Pumbaa also count. Timon was angry at Simba for leaving them to be with Nala, he and Pumbaa still followed him back to the Pride Lands, and, upon seeing the desolate wasteland and asking if Simba was sure he wanted to fight his uncle for this, tells Simba that if it's important to him, they're in.
- In Mulan, Yao, Ling, and Chien-Po are true companions with the heroine. Though they take a while to warm to her (or rather, her male persona, "Ping"), especially Yao and Ling, they become friendly with her after she completes the camp-stumping challenge. They worry when she is injured and attempt to stop the execution when her sex is revealed. Even when Shang no longer trusts her, they go off to follow her plan without hesitation.
- Oliver & Company: Oliver manages to forge a tightly-knit group in the form of the dogs Dodger, Rita, Francis, Einstein, and Tito, as well as his human owner, Jenny, and the dogs' human leader, Fagin. Dodger himself says to Oliver that the gang is like family.
- The penguins bond is particularly emphasized in Penguins of Madagascar, to the point where Private (and some trailers) refer to them as "brothers".
- Shrek and Donkey. Despite the fact that Shrek often acts like Donkey is a nuisance, it's clear that they would do anything for each other. Even after spending the movie insulting him and finally having a big blow out, Donkey is more upset that Shrek blew his chance with Fiona and returns to set the record straight. Donkey's persistence finally cracks through Shrek's hard shell and allowed him to be a much more loving and open person. Puss later enters after he tries and fails to kill Shrek like his father-in-law paid him to. Despite this, Shrek spares his life and Puss becomes his companion in return.
- Sinbad's crew in Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas act very much like a big, loyal family who all know each others' quirks and eccentricities. A major point of the movie is Sinbad's divided loyalties between his current true companions and his old best friend, Proteus.
- Andy's toys from the Toy Story series. This is very apparent in the third film; in fact, it's practically the theme of the whole movie. It is poignant in the themes "You've Got A Friend In Me" and now, from Toy Story 3, "We Belong Together".
- In the 2016 movie Trolls, Poppy, Branch and the trolls that were captured in the beginning show a strong bond with each other.
- In Turning Red, Mei is very close to her circle of friends, to the extent that she feels more comfortable being herself around them than she does her own family. Her friends in turn love her unconditionally, immediately accepting her panda form once they realize that she's still herself underneath there.
- This is why, in Zootopia, we eventually got WildeHopps, and why the movie also lived up to the "buddy" part in "buddy cop movie". Originally, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde were complete opposites of each other, most particularly in-terms of species (foxes eat rabbits in the real world, by the way) and not just their individual personalities alone. But through fully understanding each others' similarities, e.g. the exact same hopes and dreams and the exact same experiences with prejudice and bullying, did they overcome their differences and unite as one against a conspiracy to turn their own people against each other. Almost to the point of a Ship Tease:Officer Nick Wilde: You know you love me.
Officer Judy Hopps: Do I know that? Yes, yes I do.
