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For decades Disney has been the source of happy endings, fairytales, and family friendly stories for children of all ages. These stories range from realistic and familiar, to the eye-catching magical fairytale. The key to each of these stories are the happy endings brought about by each of the characters unique personalities and dreams. Disney’s films are attempted to provide children with the basic understanding of wrong versus right, but instead influences our society’s beliefs and awareness. Although Disney’s efforts to provide the basic morals to our children are misleading and affect our society strongly, they also contain the use of racism in a form which shows the major differences between characters. The once admired and well-known characters are seemed to be recognized by their species, ethnicity and even their social class. Disney films have taken out of context and have persuaded their viewers understanding of racial stereotyping, which is thoroughly explained in Henry Giroux and Grace Pollock’s novel, The Mouse that Roared. They bring awareness to the underlying racial stereotyping in Disney films, which deeply affect our societies understanding today. Giroux and Pollock bring into perception these admired and regularly watched films through precise examples and racist rendering of the specific characters species and ethnicities which strongly influence our society and lead children to intake these negative influences. On account of Disney’s huge recognition through films, every film produced by Disney will be reviewed by millions. Giroux points out that the underlying racial stereotyping in the form of slave-labor is easily caught by the eye in Disney’s film Dumbo. According to Nelson, the racist stereotyping reveal... ... middle of paper ... ... To counter-act these negative interpretations, Disney produced a film in 2009, The Frog Princess, which introduced Disney’s first African-American princess. The degree of racism can range from person to person, but only we are to choose whether we enjoy watching a film or not. Even though the production of Disney’s film The Frog Princess is a huge step forward to show the equality of all culturals and ethnicities, it just shows that racial components which were once overlooked by most parents and children are now a wide spread controversy. Giroux thoroughly explains the effect Disney films has on the youth, “Rather, it points to the need to address in meaningful and rigorous ways the role of fantasy, desire, and innocence in securing particular ideological interests, legitimating specific social relations, and providing the content of public memory” (Giroux 132).
Sixteen years after premiering as Disney’s thirty-third animated film, Pocahontas still incites excitement and wonder within those who wish for nothing more than to be a Disney princess. As Disney’s most notable attempt at political correctness, Pocahontas was created to entertain while attempting to maintain authenticity in regards to historical accuracy and in its fairness of depicting Native American culture. Jacquelyn Kilpatrick, the author of “Disney’s ‘Politically Correct’ Pocahontas”, feels the movie not only failed at being historically accurate but that it fell far short of being politically correct. The article, which appeared in the Fall, 1995 issue of Cineaste, contends the Disney production was duty bound in preserving the integrity of the Pocahontas legend and being both multiculturally and socially inoffensive. However, if being politically correct and constantly factual within any version of media made for entertainment were the standard, we would be left with documentaries and non-fiction. Artistic license allows for a literal account of events to become an engaging, accessible production.
The two Disney films that I decided to watch and research are Robin Hood from 1973 and Toy Story 3 from 2010. I decided to choose these movies because they both have a good amount of action and adventure in them, which is what I like best in movies. Stereotypes are very common in todays’s society according to Robert Sapolsky who states, “Face it, we all do it—we all believe in stereotypes about minorities. These stereotypes are typically pejorative and false, but every now and then they have a core of truth.”(Sapolsky,1997) The Disney animated films Robin Hood and Toy Story 3 portray many issues and gendered and racial stereotypes that are still present in society today.
Tangled was an entertaining eye opening illustration that included action, romance, comedy, that would be enough to keep the whole family entertained. Time and time again, Disney films are being criticized by the public because of the lack of ethnic diversity; this lack of ethnic diversity can be illustrated through the film titled Tangled. In 1995, Disney gave us Pocahontas and in the year of 1998 Disney had released Mulan. This showed the public that, Disney was in fact capable of creating films in which the lead protagonist was not white, however it wasn’t till more recently that racial diversity truly had taken stand when The Princess and the Frog (2009) was released. While, I applaud the efforts of Disney in attempting
When we typically think of racial tropes in popular culture, we often don’t look towards animated G-rated movies. The film The Princess and the Frog released by Walt Disney Animated Classics in 2009 created by John Musker, Ron Clements and Rob Edwards is a perfect contemporary example of a film that shows images of pre-constructed racial tropes. Though Disney has produced multiple films based on past fairy tales, The Princess and the Frog was the first animated Disney princess film that featured an African American woman in a leading role. Often times regarded as a turning point in Disney’s movie production career, the film’s representation of African Americans proves to be regressive of racist politics surrounding the 21st century. The design
What images come to mind as one reflects upon his or her childhood? Playgrounds, blackboards, and soccer balls may be among the fondest of memories. Yet, for many, mermaids swim their thoughts, princesses get swept off their feet, and lions roar to their royal place in the animal kingdom. Disney films have captivated the American culture for years and have become a pivotal part of popular culture as well as a form of education. However, these films have devoured the youth of America and, in the process; have perpetuated an institutionally racist society based on harsh stereotypes. Minorities are often underrepresented, and even completely left out, of many Disney films such as Dumbo (1941), The Lion King (1994), Aladdin (1992), and Pocahontas (1995). As students enter the doors of schools, they bring with them the notion that white characters and people are superior to blacks or other minorities because that is how they are depicted in Disney films. However, is the “magical world of Disney” a true depiction of the world? Or is it more of an extremely limited perception?
Rosina Lippi-Green's article "Teaching Children How to Discriminate - What We Learn From The Big Bad Wolf" (1997) examines the discrimination and stereotypes toward different race, ethnicity, gender, religion, nationality and region that Disney presents in their animated films. Lippi-Green also points out the use or misuse of foreign accents in films, television and the entertainment industry as a whole. Such animated films are viewed mainly by children. Lippi-Green makes a central argument in which she says that children are taught to discriminate through the portrayal of the different accented characters in Disney films.
The representation of First Nations people in popular culture is both relevant and done without consultation. Movies, television shows, advertisements, music, and children’s books all seem to portray the negative stereotype that was introduced with historical literature. According to Shaughnessy, “society was forced to generate extreme racism in order to suppress the large Indian population,” and consequently, these formed perceptions are what carry on through to today. Racist depictions are both subliminal and blatant in their representations in popular culture and society is shown this at an early age. Disney films such as Pocahontas and Peter Pan introduce concepts of sexual objectification and stereotyping First Nations peoples to a young
Shakespeare is known for being a great writer, his play have been rewritten, re-adapted, and turned into films to keep their magic alive. However what many people do not know is that many of Shakespeare’s plays have been adapted into many Disney Films. More precisely “Hamlet” is one of the most used plays. Movies such as “Tarzan," “Aladdin," and “101 Dalmatians” used many scenes in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” to inspire scenes in the films. The movie The Lion King by Disney, however, is one of the strongest and more closely related to “Hamlet” than any other Disney film, but how? More importantly what makes this movie more important and the focus of this essay?
It is amazing how a seemingly educated woman that has won Oscar awards for her documentaries, could possibly be so far off base in her review of the Disney movie “The Lion King”. Margaret Lazarus has taken a movie made for the entertainment of children and turned it into something that is racist, sexist and stereotypes gender roles. She uses many personal arguments to review the movie but offers few solutions. The author is well organized but she lacks alternate points of view and does not use adequate sources. Lazarus utilizes the statement at the end of her review that “the Disney Magic entranced her children, but they and millions of other children were given hidden messages that could only do them and us harm” (118). She makes her point by saying that “the Disney Magic reinforces and reproduces bigoted and stereotyped views of minorities and women in our society” (Lazarus 117). She makes comparisons such as elephant graveyards are like ghettos (Lazarus 118). Other lines of reasoning Lazarus gives us are about Whoopie Goldberg using inner city dialect, the villain Scar being gay, and only those born to privilege can bring about change (118).
Many of us have seen a Disney movie when we were younger. Disney movies captured our attention with their mortals and successful conclusion. The animations and music transform us into a land of magic where anything is possible if we just believe. Disney movies wrapped us in the idea that good always triumphs evil, that happy ever after exists. We have become the generation of Beauty and the Beast, The 101 Dalmatians, Dumbo and Snow White as children now have not heard of these or have watched them. Some of these movies have been recreated and released in high definition and on DVDs in the past few years, but the structure and themes of the movies stays the same. However, we never stop and thought of the undertones in Disney movies? They contain abuse, violence, dysfunctional relationships, and gender stereotypes, which is not appropriate for children. They may not understand what abuse, violence, dysfunctional relationships, alcohol or tobacco are at their ages but do we want to think it is normal. When we think that little girls wat...
After watching the film “Mickey Mouse Monopoly,” I believe that Disney films and other programs may subconsciously influence the thoughts and behaviors of kids in society by promoting stereotypes of racial groups and domestic abuse. Unfortunately, there are many racial stereotypes that are represented in Disney films, such as the perception that latinos are dirty due to the creation of the character Alonzo; who misbehaved and looked dirty and disheveled throughout the entire film, which is known as Oliver and Company. In another film, Disney has influenced children’s behaviors by displaying what femininity looks like and by showing that it is okay to badger woman until they agree to go on a date. For example, in Beauty and the Beast, the broom
Zipes, along with other scholars such as Eleanor Byrne and Martin McQuillan, authors of the book Deconstructing Disney, explore and catalogue the various ways in which Walt Disney-the man-and Disney-the corporation that is his legacy-perpetuate social figurations of race, gender and ethnocentrism through they films they produce. They furthermore critique Disney for reducing fairy tales to over-simplified, over-sanitized and over-sentimentalized banalities designed solely as a profit-generating products. Such analyses prove to be truly important work, as the socio-cultural ideas propagated by Disney, as well as the means by it executed such propagation prove key in unlocking the messages that are sent through seemingly harmless "entertainment". As Zipes keenly point out,
Critics have warned the public audience about Disney programming’s affect on the “invasion and control of children’s imagination” (Ross 5). These movies express the typical gender roles “such as males being physically strong, assertive, and athletic, and females being prone to overt emotion, inc...
...ed by its culture just as it affects its culture, but its underlying worldview contains patriarchal and racist dimensions. In addition, the portrayal of Scar and the hyenas as having a dark mane and dark coats in the Lion King seems to be a symbolic coding. Our society has associated it darkness and evil and it has become an issue that is very offensive to AfricanAmericans. In addition to sending conflict messages about valuing all races, Disney implies that in Pocahontas, certain personality types are not considered and valued. Similarly in Hercules, the one and only Muse who is not beautiful stereotypically is the one muse who is the comic. What this means is that only the extremely beautiful and fun loving people are valued in our society (Booker 38). The mixed message brought out is that all people are valued, but really only fun and lively people are valued.
Constant traditional themes seem to surface regarding women in various Disney animated films. A current study completed by Towbin et al. (2003) concerning a thematic analysis of gender roles in Disney featured animated films found similar themes. She found that four themes emer...