On Christmas Eve 1945, in Bedford Falls, New York, George Bailey contemplates suicide. The prayers of his family and friends reach Heaven, where guardian angel second class Clarence Odbody is assigned to save George to earn his wings. Clarence is shown flashbacks of George's life, beginning when 12 year-old George rescued his younger brother Harry from drowning in a frozen pond, leaving George deaf in his left ear. George later saves pharmacist Mr. Gower from accidentally poisoning a customer. Before starting college, George plans a world tour. He is reintroduced to Mary Hatch, who has had a crush on him since childhood. When his father dies from a stroke, George postpones his travel to settle the family business, Bailey Brothers Building and Loan. Avaricious board member Henry F. Potter, who owns most of the town's businesses, seeks to dissolve the company, but the board of directors votes to keep it open if George runs it. George works alongside his uncle Billy and gives his tuition savings to Harry, with the understanding Harry will run the company when he graduates. When Harry returns from college married and with a job offer from his father-in-law, George resigns himself to running the Building and Loan. George and Mary rekindle their relationship and marry, but forego their honeymoon and use the money to keep the company solvent during a run on the bank. Under George, the company establishes Bailey Park, a housing development to compete with Potter's slums. Potter entices George with a high-paying job, but George rebuffs him when he realizes that Potter's goal is to close the Building and Loan. On Christmas Eve, the town prepares a hero's welcome for Harry, a Navy fighter pilot awarded the Medal of Honor for preventing a kamikaze attack on a troopship. Billy goes to deposit $8,000 ($ 143,068 in 2025) of the Building and Loan's money in Potter's bank. He taunts Potter with a newspaper headline about Harry, but absentmindedly wraps the cash in Potter's newspaper. Potter keeps the money while Billy cannot recall how he misplaced it. While a bank examiner performs an audit, George fruitlessly retraces Billy's steps. Frustrated and angered by Billy's blunder, which may lead to scandal and jail, George resents the sacrifices he has made and the family that has kept him trapped in Bedford Falls. He appeals to Potter for a loan, but has only a meager life insurance policy for collateral. Potter scoffs that George is worth more dead than alive and, accusing him of bank fraud, phones the police. George flees Potter's office, gets drunk at a bar and prays for help. Contemplating suicide, he goes to a bridge, but before he can jump, Clarence falls into the water below and George rescues him. When George wishes he had never been born, Clarence takes him into an alternate timeline in which he never existed and Bedford Falls is called Pottersville, an unsavory town occupied by sleazy entertainment venues and callous people. No one knows George, including his mother and Mary, who is an " old maid ". He learns that Uncle Billy was committed to an institution after the Building and Loan failed and Mr. Gower was jailed for manslaughter for poisoning the customer. George also discovers Harry's grave; without George to save him, Harry drowned as a child, and without Harry to save them, the troops aboard the transport were killed. George races back to the bridge and begs Clarence, and then God, for his life back. His wish granted, he gleefully rushes home to await his arrest. Meanwhile, Mary and Billy have rallied the townspeople, who donate more than enough to replace the missing money. Harry arrives and toasts George as "the richest man in town". Among the donations is a gift from Clarence, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, with the inscription, "Remember, no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings!" When a bell on their Christmas tree rings, George's youngest daughter, Zuzu, explains that "every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings."

Ten-year-old Chihiro Ogino and her parents Akio and Yūko travel to their new home. Akio, driving down an unexpected road, ends up in front of a tunnel leading to what appears to be an abandoned resort town, which her parents insist on exploring over Chihiro's protests. Upon finding a seemingly empty restaurant stocked with food, Chihiro's parents immediately begin to eat. While exploring further, Chihiro finds an enormous bathhouse and meets a boy named Haku, who warns her to return across the riverbed before sunset. However, spirits begin to appear, and Chihiro discovers that her parents have been transformed into pigs and that she cannot cross the now-flooded river. Haku finds Chihiro and instructs her to ask for a job from the bathhouse's boiler-man, Kamaji, a yōkai spirit commanding soot sprites known as susuwatari. Kamaji instead asks a worker named Lin to bring Chihiro to Kamaji's master Yubaba, the witch who runs the bathhouse and who cursed Chihiro's parents. Yubaba tries to frighten Chihiro away but eventually gives her a work contract. As Chihiro signs the contract with her name (千尋), Yubaba takes away the second kanji in her name, renaming her Sen (千). She soon forgets her real name, and Haku later explains that Yubaba controls people by taking their names; if Chihiro completely forgets hers like he once did, she will never be able to leave the spirit world. The other workers, except for Kamaji and Lin, frequently mock Sen. While working, she invites a silent creature named No-Face inside, believing him to be a customer. The spirit of a polluted river arrives as Sen's first customer. After she cleans him, he gives her a magic emetic dumpling as a token of gratitude. Meanwhile, No-Face demands food from the bathhouse workers, granting gold copied from the river spirit in exchange. However, when Sen declines the gold and leaves to find Haku, No-Face angrily swallows some workers. Sen sees paper shikigami spirits attacking a dragon and recognizes the dragon as a metamorphosed Haku. When the seriously injured Haku crashes into Yubaba's penthouse, Sen follows him upstairs. A shikigami that stowed away on her back shapeshifts into Yubaba's twin sister Zeniba, who turns Yubaba's son, Boh, into a mouse and creates a false copy of him. Zeniba tells Sen that Haku has stolen a magic golden seal from her that carries a deadly curse. Haku strikes the shikigami, causing Zeniba to vanish. Sen and Haku fall into the boiler room, where she feeds him part of the emetic dumpling. He vomits up the seal and a slug that a disgusted Sen kills. Sen resolves to return the seal and apologize to Zeniba. She confronts an engorged No-Face and feeds him the rest of the dumpling, forcing him to regurgitate the workers. No-Face follows Sen out of the bathhouse, and Lin helps them leave. Sen, No-Face, and Boh travel to see Zeniba using train tickets from Kamaji. Meanwhile, Yubaba nearly orders Sen's parents slaughtered, but Haku reveals Boh is missing and offers to retrieve him if Yubaba releases Sen and her parents. Yubaba agrees, but only if Sen can pass a final test. The train crosses a sea to a land where Sen meets Zeniba, who reveals that Yubaba used the slug to control Haku. Zeniba tells Sen that she cannot help her parents, but she makes her a magic protective hairband. Using his dragon form, Haku flies Sen and Boh back, while No-Face decides to stay with Zeniba. Mid-flight, Sen recalls falling into the Kohaku River years earlier and being washed safely ashore, correctly guessing Haku's real identity as the spirit of the Kohaku River and restoring his memory. When they arrive at the bathhouse, Yubaba tests Sen, asking her to identify her parents among a group of pigs. After she answers correctly that none of the pigs are her parents, her contract disappears and she is given back her real name. Haku takes her to the now-dry riverbed and vows to meet her again. Chihiro crosses the riverbed to her restored parents. Shortly before leaving for her new home, Chihiro looks back at the tunnel, still wearing her hairband from Zeniba.

In the 29th century, Earth is an inhospitable, garbage-strewn wasteland due to an ecocide caused by rampant consumerism, corporate greed, and environmental neglect. Humanity was evacuated to space by the megacorporation Buy n Large on giant spaceships 700 years earlier, leaving trash-compacting "WALL-E" robots to clean up the planet, but the cleanup was eventually abandoned after the planet became far too toxic. All but one of the robots have stopped functioning; the last remaining active WALL-E has developed a personality and uses a truck designed to carry the WALL-E robots as a home. WALL-E remains active by salvaging parts from other inactive robots, with his pet cockroach Hal as his only companion. One day, WALL-E's routine of compressing trash and collecting interesting objects is broken by the arrival of a sleek, futuristic robot called EVE, who scans the planet for sustainable life. WALL-E is smitten by her, and the two begin to connect until EVE goes into standby mode when WALL-E shows her his most recent find: a living seedling. WALL-E cares for EVE until she is collected by a large unmanned rocket; with WALL-E clinging on, it returns to its mothership, the starliner Axiom. In the centuries since the Axiom left Earth, its passengers have degenerated into helpless obesity due to microgravity and laziness, with robots catering to their every whim. Captain B. McCrea sits back while his robotic AI autopilot helm, nicknamed AUTO, pilots the ship. McCrea is unprepared for the positive probe response, but discovers that placing the plant in the ship's Holo-Detector will trigger a hyperjump back to Earth so that humanity can begin recolonization. When McCrea inspects EVE's storage compartment, the plant is missing, and EVE blames WALL-E for its disappearance. EVE is deemed faulty and taken to diagnostics. Mistaking this for torture, WALL-E intervenes and inadvertently releases the other faulty bots, causing him and EVE to be designated rogue robots. Frustrated with WALL-E's reckless actions, EVE tries sending WALL-E home in an escape pod, but as WALL-E refuses, the two witness McCrea's first mate robot, GO-4, stowing the plant in a pod set to self-destruct, proving WALL-E's innocence. WALL-E enters the pod to retrieve the plant just as it launches, and he and the plant survive the pod's destruction. EVE catches up to him and they reconcile, dancing in space around the Axiom. EVE brings the plant to McCrea, who watches her recordings of Earth, concluding that they must save it, and EVE is touched by seeing recordings of WALL-E caring for her while she is in standby mode, understanding his feelings for her. AUTO reveals his secret no-return directive A113, recorded by Shelby Forthright, Buy n Large's CEO, in 2110, which orders them not to return to Earth on account of its toxicity levels, unaware that the planet is actually starting to recover; AUTO had ordered GO-4 to get rid of the plant earlier. When McCrea tries overriding the directive, AUTO mutinies and electrocutes WALL-E, throws him and EVE down a garbage chute, and confines McCrea to his quarters. EVE and WALL-E are nearly ejected into space with the Axiom ' s garbage, but a cleaning robot named M-O inadvertently jams the airlock and rescues them. McCrea escapes by tricking AUTO with an image of the plant and fights for control of the Axiom, destroying GO-4 in the process, while humans and robots work to secure the real plant. AUTO crushes WALL-E using the Holo-Detector, but McCrea rises from his chair, activates the manual override and deactivates AUTO. EVE inserts the plant into the Holo-Detector, initiating the hyperjump back to Earth. Arriving on Earth, EVE repairs WALL-E, but his memory and personality have been erased. Heartbroken, EVE gives WALL-E a "smooch", which releases a static electricity shock, restoring him. WALL-E and EVE reunite as the Axiom inhabitants take their first steps on Earth. Humans and robots work to restore the ravaged planet with the help of WALL-E and EVE, and the plant grows into a tree, which WALL-E and EVE admire together.

Ishaan is an 8-year-old boy living in Mumbai, who has trouble following school. He is assumed by all to simply hate learning and deemed a troublemaker, and is belittled for it. He has even repeated the 3rd standard due to his academic failures from the previous year. Ishaan's imagination, creativity and talent for art and painting are often disregarded. Ishaan's father, Nandkishore Awasthi, is a successful executive who expects his sons to excel. His mother, Maya, is a homemaker who gave up her career and is frustrated by her inability to educate Ishaan. His elder brother Yohaan is an exemplary student and tennis player in whose shadow Ishaan remains, though he is the most supportive of Ishaan. One day, his parents are called by the principal to discuss his behavior and grades. Due to Ishaan's failures, lack of improvement and rebellious behavior, the principal suggests they look into special schools, but Nandkishore rejects this and sends him to a boarding school despite Maya and Yohaan's protests. Alone there, Ishaan rapidly sinks into a state of fear, anxiety and depression, which is only worsened by the teachers' strict and abusive regime. Ishaan's only friend is Rajan Damodaran, a physically disabled boy who is one of the top students and resides with his family there, as his father is part of the school's board. Ishaan contemplates suicide one day, but Rajan intervenes and stops him. Rajan subsequently informs Ishaan that Mr. Holkar, the boarding school's strict and abusive art teacher, has left and is being replaced by someone else. Ram Shankar Nikumbh, a young, cheerful and optimistic instructor at the Tulips School for young children with developmental disabilities, joins as the boarding school's temporary art teacher the same day, replacing Mr. Holkar. Ram's teaching style is markedly different from Holkar's, and he quickly notes Ishaan's unhappiness after Ishaan fails to draw anything during the class. Ram reviews Ishaan's work and concludes that his academic shortcomings are indicative of dyslexia. Ram then visits Ishaan's house in Mumbai, where he is surprised to discover Ishaan's hidden interest in art. Ram demonstrates to Maya and Yohaan how Ishaan has extreme difficulty in understanding letters and words due to dyslexia and his trouble in sports stems from his poor motor ability (which also applies to his difficulty in tying shoelaces and judging the size, speed and distance of a ball). However, Nandkishore labels it as an intellectual disability (as well as an excuse) and dismisses it as laziness, much to Ram's frustration. Back at school, Ram brings up the topic of dyslexia in a class by offering a list of famous dyslexic people. Ram comforts Ishaan, telling him how he struggled as a child as well. Ram obtains the principal's permission to become Ishaan's tutor. With gradual care, Ram works to improve Ishaan's reading and writing by using remedial techniques developed by dyslexia specialists. Eventually, both Ishaan's demeanor and grades improve. One day, Nandkishore visits the school and tells Ram that he and Maya have read up on dyslexia and understand the condition. Ram mentions that what Ishaan needs more than understanding is that someone loves him. Outside, Nandkishore sees Ishaan attempting to read from a board. With teary eyes, he is unable to face his son and walks away, remorseful. At the end of the school year, Ram organises an arts and crafts contest for the staff and students, judged by artist Lalita Lajmi. Ishaan's work makes him the winner and Ram, who paints Ishaan's portrait, is declared the runner-up. The principal announces that Ram has been hired as the boarding school's permanent art teacher. When Ishaan's parents meet his teachers on the last day of school, they are left speechless by the transformation within their son. Overcome with emotion, Nandkishore thanks Ram. Before leaving, Ishaan runs toward Ram, who lifts him high up in a hug, advising him to come back next year.

On Christmas Eve, Ebenezer Scrooge tells his colleagues that he has no intention of celebrating Christmas. He refuses to donate to two men collecting for the poor. His nephew, Fred, invites him to dinner the next day, but Scrooge refuses, disparaging Fred for having married and mocking him for his lack of success. He gives his mistreated clerk, Bob Cratchit, the day off for Christmas but demands that he come to work early the next day. Scrooge returns home and is visited by the ghost of his late partner, Jacob Marley. Marley's ghost warns Scrooge that he must change his ways or be condemned to wander the earth in agony for the selfish deeds he committed in life. Marley says Scrooge will be visited by three spirits, the first to arrive at one o'clock that night. Frightened, Scrooge takes refuge in his bed. The Ghost of Christmas Past arrives. Scrooge is shown himself alone at school, unwanted by his father after his mother died in childbirth. His beloved sister Fan arrives to take him home, telling Ebenezer that their father has had a change of heart toward him. The Spirit then shows Scrooge the annual Christmas party thrown by his former benevolent employer, S. Fezziwig. Scrooge watches his younger self propose to his sweetheart Alice, who accepts. He is then shown how he is tempted to leave Fezziwig's to join a business run by Mr. Jorkin. Scrooge witnesses the death of Fan after she gives birth to Fred and discovers he missed her last words asking him to look after her son. Scrooge's younger self joins Jorkin and meets Jacob Marley. Jorkin's firm buys Fezziwig's business, and Alice breaks her engagement to Scrooge because of his dedication to "a golden idol". When Jorkin is found to have embezzled funds from the now bankrupt company, Scrooge and Marley seize the opportunity to buy his shares. One Christmas Eve seven years earlier, Scrooge refuses to see Marley until the workday is finished and arrives just as his friend dies cold and alone. The Spirit reproaches Scrooge for taking Marley's money and house, as an ashamed Scrooge finds himself back in his bed. Scrooge is then visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present who takes him to see how "men of goodwill" celebrate Christmas. The spirit shows Scrooge poor miners joyfully singing Christmas carols and the Cratchits' celebration on Christmas Day. Scrooge asks whether their ailing young son, Tiny Tim, will survive his physical disabilities. The Spirit hints that he will not unless the future is changed but questions why Scrooge should care for the "surplus population". Scrooge and the spirit then visit Fred's Christmas party, where Fred defends Scrooge from his guests' critical remarks. An older Alice is working in a poorhouse, where she ministers to the sick and homeless. The Spirit shows Scrooge two emaciated children, personifying Ignorance and Want. When Scrooge shows concern for their welfare, the Spirit scourges the miser with his own words: "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?" Finally, Scrooge encounters the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, who shows him the Cratchits mourning Tiny Tim's death. Three people, including Scrooge's charwoman, Mrs. Dilber, sell off the possessions of a dead man, and two businessmen joke they will only attend the man's funeral if lunch is provided. When shown a gravestone bearing his own name, Scrooge begs the Spirit for a second chance; he then awakens in his bed. Scrooge learns that it is Christmas Day and gleefully realises he still has an opportunity to make amends. Though Mrs. Dilber is initially frightened by his transformation, Scrooge reassures her and gives her the day off with pay. He anonymously purchases a prize turkey for the Cratchits and sends it to them. He delights Fred by attending his dinner party, asking his niece-in-law's forgiveness and dancing with her. The next day, Scrooge plays a prank on Bob Cratchit and pretends to be about to fire him for lateness, but instead says he will raise Bob's salary and assist his family. Scrooge embodies the Christmas spirit and becomes a second father to Tiny Tim, who recovers.

In the frame story, a grandfather reads a novel called The Princess Bride to his sick grandson, who reluctantly listens. Princess Buttercup is a young woman living on a farm in the kingdom of Florin. Her farmhand Westley, whom she calls "farmboy", always follows her orders, saying only, "As you wish". Buttercup eventually realizes it is his way of telling her he loves her. She soon falls in love with him, and Westley leaves to seek his fortune overseas so they can marry. However, she is told his ship has been attacked by the Dread Pirate Roberts, who is known for leaving no survivors. Five years later, Buttercup is forcibly betrothed to Florin's arrogant Prince Humperdinck. Before the wedding, she is kidnapped by crafty Sicilian criminal Vizzini and his men: gentle Turkish giant Fezzik, and expert Spanish swordsman Inigo Montoya, who is driven by revenge against his father's six-fingered killer. A masked man in black pursues them across the sea, as do Humperdinck and his soldiers. Atop the Cliffs of Insanity, the man in black defeats Inigo in a sword duel and knocks him out, chokes Fezzik into unconsciousness, and kills Vizzini by tricking him into drinking a poisoned wine. He takes Buttercup and flees ahead of Humperdinck's party. She correctly guesses he is the Dread Pirate Roberts, rebukes him for killing Westley, and shoves him down a steep hill. While tumbling down, he shouts, "As you wish!". Realizing he is Westley, Buttercup tumbles after him, and they are reunited. Making their way through the dangerous Fire Swamp to avoid Humperdinck and his soldiers, Westley explains that "Dread Pirate Roberts" is a transferable title he assumed when the previous Roberts, who had let him live out of respect for his love for Buttercup, retired. Having found her, Westley intends to retire and pass on the title to someone else, but Humperdinck captures them after they escape the Fire Swamp. Buttercup agrees to return with Humperdinck after he promises to release Westley. He, however, then secretly orders his henchman Count Rugen to take him to his torture chamber, the Pit of Despair. Westley, who immediately understands he will not be freed, notices Rugen has six fingers on his right hand before he is knocked out. Buttercup, knowing Westley is alive, threatens to kill herself if Humperdinck forces her to marry him. He falsely promises to find Westley. He soon reveals his real plan: he wishes to start a war with neighboring country Guilder by killing Buttercup and framing them for it. Humperdinck had secretly hired Vizzini to kill her to this end, but Westley interfered. Fezzik, as part of the "brute squad", is ordered to clear the thieves' forest before the wedding. Finding a drunk Inigo in the forest, he sobers him up, telling him about Rugen. Inigo, knowing neither he nor Fezzik can devise a plan, realizes they need Westley's help to storm the castle. Buttercup discovers Humperdinck did not search for Westley, so calls him a coward. Enraged, he imprisons her and tortures Westley to near death. Inigo and Fezzik follow Westley's screams to the pit and take his body to Miracle Max, a folk healer whom Humperdinck recently fired. Max declares that Westley is actually "mostly dead". Once Inigo promises that Westley will humiliate Humperdinck and ruin his wedding, Max and his wife revive him. However, Westley is so severely weakened he needs to be carried. The three enter the castle during the wedding. Inigo confronts Rugen, who flees and then stabs Inigo in an ambush, taunting his obsession. Inigo braves his injuries and kills Rugen. Westley locates Buttercup before she can commit suicide and assures her that the marriage is invalid as she never said "I do". Humperdinck finds them and challenges Westley to a duel, but is intimidated into surrendering. Inigo finds Westley and Buttercup, and Fezzik procures four horses for their escape. When Inigo is unsure what to do next with his life, Westley offers him the Dread Pirate Roberts title. As dawn breaks, the reunited Westley and Buttercup share a passionate kiss. The sick grandson eagerly asks his grandfather to read him the story again the next day. His grandfather replies, "As you wish."

The film is presented in a series of vignettes, with narration provided by the adult Ralphie Parker. As a 9-year-old boy living in Northwest Indiana around the late 1930s or early 1940s, all Ralphie wants for Christmas is a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle. Ralphie's request is rebuffed by his mother, then by his teacher Miss Shields when he writes about it in an assigned theme, and even by a disgruntled Santa at Higbee's department store, all of whom tell Ralphie "You'll shoot your eye out". On Christmas morning, Ralphie receives some presents that he enjoys, but is disappointed not to find the rifle among them. Ralphie's father ("The Old Man") directs him to one last box hidden in the corner, which proves to contain the rifle. Ralphie eagerly hurries outside to try it out, but when he shoots at the metal target he has set up, the BB ricochets and knocks off his glasses. Ralphie accidentally steps on and breaks the glasses while trying to find them; he makes up a cover story about an icicle falling from the roof of the garage and hitting his eye, which fools his mother and keeps him from getting into trouble. That night, Ralphie goes to sleep with the gun by his side, as his adult self reflects that it was the best Christmas present he had ever received or would ever receive.

Fifteen-year-old Billy Casper, growing up in the late 1960s in a poor South Yorkshire community dominated by the local coal mining industry, has little hope in life. He is picked on, both at home by his physically and verbally abusive older half-brother, Jud (who works at the mine), and at school by his schoolmates and abusive teachers. Although he insists that his earlier petty criminal behaviour is behind him, he occasionally steals eggs and milk from milk floats. He has difficulty paying attention in school and is often provoked into tussles with classmates. Billy's father left the family some time ago, and his mother refers to him at one point, while sombrely speaking to her friends about her children and their chances in life, as a "hopeless case". Billy is due to leave school soon, as an "Easter Leaver", without taking any public examinations (and therefore no qualifications); Jud states early in the film that he expects Billy will shortly be joining him at work in the mine, whereas Billy says that he does not know what job he will do, but also says nothing would make him work in the mine. One day, Billy takes a kestrel from a nest on a farm. His interest in learning falconry prompts him to steal a book on the subject from a secondhand book shop, as he is underage and needs adult authorisation for a borrower's card from the public library. As the relationship between Billy and "Kes", the kestrel, improves during the training, so does Billy's outlook and horizons. For the first time in the film, Billy receives praise, from his English teacher after delivering an impromptu talk about training Kes. Jud leaves money and instructions for Billy to place a bet on two horses but after consulting a punter, who tells him the horses are unlikely to win, Billy spends the money on fish and chips and intends to purchase meat for his bird (instead the butcher gives him scrap meat free of charge). The horses win; outraged at losing a payout of more than £10, Jud takes revenge by releasing Billy's kestrel into the wild, but the kestrel flaps towards Jud with her claws and Jud kills the kestrel. Grief-stricken, Billy retrieves the bird's broken body from the waste bin and shows it to Jud and his mother. After an argument, Billy buries the bird on the hillside overlooking the field where he had flown.