What were we supposed to have learned from watching the movie "The Red Balloon"? In other words, what was the message?

The red balloon symbolizes all the goals, potentials, and dreams a child possess. As society tries to take away his red balloon (dreams), the child still manages to hold on to it. . Red Balloon reveals the innocence and potential of every child on this earth.

-manda

The Red Balloon is both a beguiling fantasy and a touching allegory on the magic powers of love and friendship.

A very simple and beautiful story... one that makes you remember how good it is to be a kid. ...all the possibilities... all the imagination and the innocence we lose when we grow up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSzDsvJE1mg

Gad, this brings back memories. I must have seen this film half a dozen times.

"The Red Balloon" has long been beloved outside of France as a religious allegory of love, faith, and loss, with the balloon often identified as a Christ figure. Liberal American Protestant denominations (such as my own, the Episcopalians) have been showing this film to children for decades and asking them to discuss the relationship between the boy and the balloon in terms of faith, devoted friendship, and, ultimately, tragedy.

We Episcopalians have an interesting habit of preferring elegant allegory to biblical literalism, and "The Red Balloon" addressed that preference. My guess, however, is that if you asked most U.S. Baby Boomers subjected to this charming film as children in mainstream Protestant church schools what it was supposed to mean, they would say, "Well, I saw it two or three times, but I never did quite get the point."