Finals Week is a stressful time for all students, which means this week more than ever is when the time to relax and unwind is needed. Here’s a video game, a TV show and a movie that can help with finals stress this week.

“Animal Crossing: New Horizons”

“Animal Crossing: New Horizons” is a life-simulation game that focuses on collecting resources to expand one’s island, acquiring new villagers to live on the island and reaching the esteemed status of a five-star island. 

Serving as the 10th game in the “Animal Crossing” series, “New Horizons” has many new and returning features that are perfect for relaxing. 

Adorable bipedal, cartoon animal villagers that serve as the players’ in-game best friends offer many wholesome dialogue options to interact with. The wide variety of new furniture, gameplay options — such as terraforming — and holiday events in “New Horizons” have been scientifically proven to help with mental health. 

“The Mandalorian”

The Disney+ original series “The Mandalorian” is the most popular show on the streaming service for good reason. 

Action-packed scenes, quality character arcs and The Child, otherwise known as the adorable “Baby Yoda,” makes “The Mandalorian” a must-see. The second season of “The Mandalorian” recently started being uploaded to Disney+, so now is the perfect time to start binge-watching both available seasons.

Whether audience members are avid, long-term “Star Wars” fans or just casual viewers who know nothing of the franchise’s lore, “The Mandalorian” is easy to follow and has storylines that keep everyone interested.

“Toy Story”

While most people know this classic Pixar animated film, it’s not well known that Sunday marked the 25th anniversary of “Toy Story,” Pixar’s debut feature-length film. 

The significance of “Toy Story” doesn’t end with it being the first film Pixar ever made. In fact, “Toy Story” was the first ever fully computer-generated (CGI) movie. All previous animated films had been done via 2D animation, which involves drawing every frame of the movie by hand before layering each “cel” of the movie over one another until it is animated. 

Pixar had previously made CGI animated shorts, such as “Tin Toy” and “For the Birds,” but no one had ever succeeded in making a CGI animated feature film before them. 

“Toy Story” is an incredibly wholesome, funny and nostalgic film for viewers. It’s the perfect movie to take time to relax to and reminisce on the pop culture impacts it has made in the 25 years since its release.