primus-why:

Romantic + Sexual Visual Media

• The Shape of Water – Elisa x Amphibian Creature –  A mute woman with a mysterious past encounters a peculiar creature trapped in her workplace. Turns out, not only is he a live experiment, but also the key to her heart.
• Ex Machina – Caleb x Eva – The final steps of this AI’s development process requires a human subject to run a Turing test over the course of a series of sessions. Seems like just another day at the… uh… hidden testing facility?
• Avatar – Jake x Neytiri – A man travels to a foreign world, intent on getting some thrills and scouring for precious resources, but finds love with a native female instead– WAAAAIT, this is just Pocahontas, isn’t it?
• Shrek – no really, they had babies–
• Hellboy series – Liz x Red – A supernatural creature with hellish abilities and a human woman (with powers of her own) navigate the seedy, paranormal world in which they live in while also navigating their feelings for one another.

Romantic Visual Media

• Her – Man x Operating System – A philosophical exploration of how human lives entwine with technology. How far is too far? How weird is too weird? Does it even matter?
• Megamind – Megamind x Roxanne –  A blue-skinned alien with a bulbous head grows up inside a prison and is raised by inmates. Is it any wonder his evil-genius antics aren’t appreciated by his wise-cracking, ethically-sound, average-citizen love interest?
• Marvel Universe – Vision x Scarlet Witch – Oh yeah, they’ve been a thing for a while. After they fall in with the Avengers, they also fall in love. Aww, who knew the daughter of Magneto and the son (?) of Ultron could make for a cute, Good-Side couple? They even have kids! (Don’t ask me how that works)
• The Bee Movie – According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly–

Platonic or Familial Visual Media

• A Monster in Paris – Frank “The Monster” / Main Leads & Town – A monster has been spotted stalking the streets of Paris, but will anyone stop to look past the frightening visage to see the gentle soul within? Also take a look at Lilo & Stitch.
• The Cat Returns – Haru / The Baron – A girl thinks the life of a cat isn’t so bad, but what about being a cat’s bride??? Hi-jinks ensue as she tries to escape her fated wedlock and her newfound furry friends come to her rescue!
• My Neighbor Totoro – Girls/ Forest Spirits – Another Ghibli movie! a sweet tale of two girls moving into town and encountering the supernatural around their rural home. A charming bond forms between the girls and the local forest spirits.
• Robot and Frank – Titular Frank is an elderly man who is way past his prime and living alone, but when his son gets him a robot to help take care of him and the house, Frank thinks it might be time to team up with his new metal friend to get up to his old tricks – mainly, heists and robberies.
• The Iron Giant – Hogarth/ Iron Giant – When a giant alien robot crashes on Earth, a human boy has to protect their odd (and possibly dangerous) friendship from his mom, the town, and the U.S. government.

Honorable Mentions

• Warm Bodies – Julie x R – I only didn’t include this because, come on. A zombie is still pretty human. But you’ve got to admit, it’s a pretty fun spin on the classic zombie apocalypse setting when one half of your leading couple is one of the walking dead; see also: The Corpse Bride.
• Beauty & The Beast – titular characters – Take your pick of which version. Only put this down here because the Beast usually turn into a human at the end. Same deal with Spirited Away.
• Bicentennial Man – Similar to The Little Mermaid, titular character here slowly becomes more human on the outside to pursue romantic interests, and changes as a…. person (?) as the result.