Written by Cade Meloche, individual contributor to Pollinate Networks. This content is NOT AI generated, just an authentic Gen Z lens on where mentoring shows up in movies, plus some built-in holiday viewing picks for your watch list!
Mentoring in the Media
Mentorship is always different and who, how and why always factor into the results of a mentee’s success. There are many kinds of mentors from the Perfect mentor to an Unlikely Mentor and everything in between. We’ve been watching some shows and have identified several types – the Guardian Mentor, the Reluctant Mentor, the Therapeutic Mentor, Idolistic Mentors, a Co-op Mentor, the Grand Mentor and even a Therapeutic Mentor. See if you agree with my typologies in the article below.
Mob Psycho 100
Mob Psycho 100 is a Japanese animated action comedy. The show came out in 2016 and wrapped up in 2022 but started as a manga series created by author and producer ONE in 2012. It is a coming of age story starring a middle schooler with psychic powers named Shingeo Kageyama.
Reigen is an Unlikely Mentor as at first look, he’d seem like the worst person you would want to tutor a boy with such power but somehow mob has become a very good kid party to do with Reigen being his inspiration.
Mob or Shingeo Kageyama is an introverted middle schooler who happens to have extremely powerful psychic abilities. Mob’s psychic abilities are enhanced as his emotions reach intensity and so he needs to keep calm for the safety of those around him. Raigen is a Con Artist in his 30s who had been running a psychic scam for years before meeting Mob. Now together they exorcise evil spirits for pay and Raigen has become Mobs “Master”.
The mentoring situation seems toxic at first as Raigen is obviously using Mobs abilities to further his scamming business, but a closer look shows Raigen is a huge reason mob hasn’t done anything he’d regret. Raigen constantly imparts little bits of wisdom to Mob “don’t use psychic powers for violence”, ”Hitting girls is for losers” and “Don’t buy things from strange men because they’re probably a scammer” just to name a few.
Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood
Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood is a dark fantasy adventure set in a world where alchemy that only exists in legends in our world is very real. The show is based on a manga series written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa from 2001 to 2010. The series has several adaptations but the most honest to the books is Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood.
Izumi Kurtis is the Reluctant Mentor as she only trains the boys because she feels it’s her responsibility rather than her actually wanting to.
The Elric brothers are Alphonse and Edward, their mother died when they were young, so they decided they would start practicing alchemy. Secretly their studies purpose was to revive their mother through human transmutation. Luck happened upon the boys when a great alchemist came through town, but not just any great alchemist it was Izumi Curtis. Izumi Curtis is known for being one of the strongest alchemists and with her teaching the boys to become full-fledged alchemists ready to take back their mothers’ life.
Izumi is reluctant to teach the boys as she has never taught alchemy, but she takes pity on them as they were without a mother and Izumi after trying for years was without child. Izumi is a strict mentor who doesn’t offer anything in the way of second chances as the Elric Brothers had one chance and one chance only to prove themselves via an extreme survivalist/philosophical test. She might be tough, but she still has heart and so much as she’s angry with the boys once reuniting years after failing to bring back their mother she also feels a deep worry and general sadness for them.
Adventure Time
Adventure Time is an animated fantasy series set in the whimsical land of Ooo, a place full of everything from candy people to vampires to magic crowns. The show was created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network starting in 2010 and ended in 2018 however adventure time content is still coming out today.
Billy is an Idolistic Mentor (slightly different from Idealistic). As opposed to working directly with Finn to pass on the torch he simply embodies what Finn wants to become.
Finn The Human is the only Human known to be living in the land of Ooo, Finn lives in a huge tree house with his brother Jake who happens to be a talking, shape shifting dog.
Finn’s aspiration in life is to be a great hero who helps those in need and takes on any challenge. With this in mind there’s no greater mentor than Billy, Billy is a blue giant who is known as the legendary hero of Ooo taking on even Primordial beings and their thralls to save the world from destruction. Billy is now in his old age and has befriended his admirer, Finn.
Hearing about Billy on his adventures was enough for Finn to manifest a lot of his Hero Dreams. Billy himself is definitely not a hands-on mentor as in it’s not like he gave Finn lessons he just let him come along on a couple of what we can only assume were his last adventures but Billy does drop some wisdom/knowledge on Finn every so often. Billy is a decent mentor but he’s better as a role model as he’s a little too independent and free to be tied down to have an official apprentice. Finn would simply not be the hero he is without that experience with such an epic adventurer.
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American cartoon written and developed by Matt Groening in 1989 and still has episodes coming out regularly. The Simpsons is an animated sitcom and is known for its groundbreaking international success.
Bleeding Gums Murphy is a Therapeutic Mentor as he is able to teach Lisa a healthy way to express herself while refining her talents.
Lisa Simpson is a smart girl who is often ostracized from her peers. Lisa is the only fully sane person in her household so it’s no surprise that she finds stress around every corner and so she lets off steam by playing the saxophone. One night she hears saxophone playing from her bedroom window and sneaks out to investigate. When she finds the source of the music, she meets Bleeding Gums Murphy who is a legendary saxophonist. Murphy is a wise and kind man.
Bleeding Gums Murphy may seem like just a potential saxophone teacher to the viewer but he’s also able to help Lisa learn to express herself through music. Murphy sang about his adult problems and Lisa sang about her schoolgirl problems and they jammed the night away. Lisa feels properly refreshed after this but of course life comes back to bite her. Fortunately, by the end of the episode Lisa is relieved – and gets to hear her new idol and mentor Bleeding Gums Murphy playing a piece she wrote.
Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is an action-adventure game released by Nintendo in 1998. The game lets you explore a fantasy landscape while solving puzzles and meeting a strange cast of characters.
Sheik is a Guardian Mentor as she is there quite literally whenever Link needs her help.
Link is a child of destiny set on the path to get in the way of the evil warlock Ganondorf who plans to take over the kingdom of Hyrule. Link is quiet and courageous, he may be small, but he has taken on beasts of colossal size. Link at one point is frozen in time for 7 years and once he awoke, he met a mysterious individual named Sheik who would not only go on to mentor Link, but she’d be crucial to his success.
Sheik is basically the most convenient mentor you could ask for. Sheik always appears at just the right time whether it’s to give Link a lead or a way to move forward or even to teach Link a new sacred song. In reality Sheik is Zelda who is the Princess Link thinks he’s going to save from Ganondorf. Turns out Zelda escaped Ganondorf during the time skip and had been preparing everything for Link’s return since then. Zelda goes as far as to locate literally everything Link will need, almost helping him a little too much for a mentor though you can hardly blame her with the kingdom at stake.
Attack On Titan
Attack On Titan is a post-apocalyptic manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama
Then animated from 2013 and 2023. The series follows a society living in a massive walled off kingdom that separates them from man-eating giants that are about to attack for the first time in 100 years.
Hange is a Co-op Mentor as in as much Hange outranks Eren when it comes to them working together, they have an equally important and separate role to play.
Eren Jaeger is a boy who grew up in a civilization completely surrounded by walls, the purpose of which being to keep out massive human looking monsters named Titans. The walls gave in when kicked by an exceptionally large titan and Eren’s mother, his home and his already fleeting sense of security were gone. This turns Eren into a man bent on titan destruction which makes him realise he can transform into a titan, a very alarming experience. Hange Zoe is an androgynous eccentric who is humanity’s leading expert on titans, Hange wants to know everything there is to know about titans meanwhile Eren just wants them all dead.
Hange must use all the knowledge that humanity has accumulated about titans to help Eren put his powers to their best use. Hange can get a little too excited at times forgetting the physical and mental strain transformation has on Eren. Besides that, Hange is a very organised and enthusiastic mentor, even giving Eren a summary of all her research from start to finish – and that was only the first day of them working together. Hange and Eren’s passion are what makes this pair work together so well.
The Matrix
The Matrix is a science fiction movie written and directed by the Wachowskis in 1999. The Movie is about most of humanity being trapped in a simulation and a team bent on rebelling against the machines subjecting humanity to this.
Morpheus is the Perfect Mentor; he’s been waiting to guide someone like Neo for a long time, and has the wisdom, experience and framework needed for exactly this situation.
Neo is the Alter Ego of a man named Thomas Anderson. Thomas is a computer programmer but as Neo he is a hacker. He comes to believe he’s the chosen one. He meets Morpheus who offers him the option to stay in the lie he’s always known or find out the truth. Morpheus dedicated his life to finding the chosen one; he is an important part of the resistance and acts as a spiritual guide for many fellow revolutionaries.
Morpheus isn’t just teaching Neo how to better manipulate the Matrix, he also teaches him the value of sacrifice and dedication. Morpheus acts as a perfect guide of what Neo needs to embody. By the end of the movie, Neo was willing to sacrifice himself partly to do with Morpheus being willing to do the same just before him, and when Neo is seen in the last scene of the movie, he has filled the shoes he was always meant to fill thanks to his amazing mentor.
Almost Famous
Almost Famous was written and directed by Cameron Crowe and it came out in the year 2000. The movie is a classic about a young journalist who gets the opportunity to tour with a famous rock band.
Lester Bangs is a Wisdom Mentor as he doesn’t teach his protege William what to do but rather what not to do and what not to be fooled by.
William Millar is a 15-year-old journalist that loves Rock n Roll and is about to get the opportunity of a lifetime to tour with the famous band Stillwater. Before that however he has the privilege of meeting Rock n Roll journalist Lester Bangs who is a legend in his field. Lester is definitely a music snob with guts as he’s not afraid to give damning reviews to what are known to the general public as classics.
Lester intends on giving him a quick interview but then decides to give the kid full run down of advice on how not to be taken advantage of in the business. He makes sure to repeat over and over that these people are not your friends, and this becomes something William thinks back to very regularly during the film. By the end of the film William is fully on board with Lester’s teachings and ends up waking his friend and love interest Penny Lane to the same reality that neither of them are the people they were while on the road.
A Beautiful Mind
A Beautiful Mind is a Biography/Drama following the life of Nobel Prize winner John Nash and his struggle with academia, love and schizophrenia. The film was created by Robb Howard in 2001 based on the screen play by Akiva Goldman.
Einstein is what I would call a Grand Mentor as he is a mentor and inspiration to all who wish to uncover the secrets of our universe, or in other words he is your mentor’s mentor etc.
John Nash is a Graduate Student at Princeton; he is a genius with schizophrenia. Over the course of the movie John struggles as his mental health gets in the way of personal and professional life but in the end, he shows he can overcome it. There are several parallels between John and Albert Einstein during the film the biggest of which is their dedication to solving the unsolvable. Albert Einstein is someone everyone of John’s peers aspired to be like, but John would come out with the most similarities.
John Nash and Einstein only met once in real life. In the film however, they’ve clearly had more encounters. John shared his ideas resulting in Einstein telling him he had better study more Physics. By the end of the movie John wins a Nobel prize that he might not have gotten if he did not stand on the shoulders of giants. Einstein is what I would call a Grand Mentor as he is a mentor and inspiration to all who wish to uncover the secrets of our universe.
