The subject of this thesis is an animated film by Milan Trenc, "The Elephant Goes to Kindergarten" made in 2010. The film was made in classic 2D animation technique and describes an unusual family consisting of a mice couple and their child, a baby elephant. The film is designed as a contemporary animated fable that through the symbolic characters of mice and elephant questions relationships in a family and the role of authority in raising the children. It explores the family dynamics that results from a child's first steps outside the protection of the parental home; in this case, going to the kindergarten. By choosing the method of classic animated drawing, the film continues the tradition of the early Zagreb school, and this approachable style makes it acceptable for both, children and adults. Thus, the film contributes to the intergenerational understanding and opens a communication channel between parents and children with a special emphasis on "marginal" children's behavior, outbursts of anger, so-called tantrums, and destructive behavior associated with it. The film questions the cooperation of parents in such situations through two educational approaches, authoritative and permissive. The parents' relationship is characterized by suppressed aggression and their shared "fear" of the child's reaction, arguably a matter of suppressed and expressed emotions. Further the thesis explores the historical and artistic origins of the subject, primarily through the mythical-symbolic relationship between the elephant and the mouse; starting with traditional Hindu examples, the god Ganesha who tops his anthropomorphic form with an elephant's head. The thesis creates parallels with fables and stories and examines the roots of popular misconceptions about elephants' fear of mice from their ancient Greek roots, through Victorian confabulations up to the contemporary zoological evaluations of such claims. It studies the appearance of the mouse and elephant characters in contemporary popular culture with special reference to the frequent use of such characters in animated films from Tom and Jerry through Sidney the Elephant and Disney's Dumbo to the contemporary versions. It questions the role of personal experience and autobiographical elements that are at the origin of this film which permutes them into a fable where the concept of physical size becomes a symbol of the power play within the nuclear family.