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Race and culture in Disney movies
Race and culture in Disney movies
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There’s something magical about animated movies that can’t quite be captured with a single sentiment. Whether it’s the bright colors of the characters or the mise en scène, the punny humor with the few sly jokes just for adults, or the ability to present complex social topics to a younger audience in an accessible way, you’re suddenly transported to a world that isn’t limited by real life locations or the physical capabilities of actors. This is especially relevant for the movie Zootopia (2016), which – while falling into the category of “just another kid’s movie” – not only displays a modernized look into the animal kingdom but speaks strongly about stereotypes, racial prejudices, and power dynamics between differing social groups. The world of Zootopia, created by Bryon Howard, Rich Moore, and Jared Bush, is one where animals in the modern age have decided to move beyond their primitive predator/prey relationships to live in …show more content…
However, the context in Zootopia is different from those of marginalized women’s roles in other films: we’re meant to sympathize with Judy and root for her as the underdog, while viewing the criticism and demeaning commentary she receives with a critical eye. It teaches the audience that there is something wrong with the way we treat marginalized groups, and that many of them have the same complexity and drive that the superior groups are often praised
For my Christian Leadership and Service class, our final project is to watch a movie and analyze it according to a prevalent social issue. The movie that my group decided to watch is Zootopia. The film communicates that people should not be indulged by the Outgroup Homogeneity effect. This is when thinking of ingroups as diverse, and those of the outgroup as similar occurs. The movie depicts this because the predators are all classified as being “savage” due to their biological nature even thought it was only some that were acting “savage.” Those couple of predators that were found to be wild made ingroups believe that all outgroup members (predators) were also savage and that they should not take part of important roles in Zootipia. After realizing that she was wrong in thinking that all outgroup members were savage Judy shows that she learned that a
The two movies I chose to watch this week was “The Road to El Dorado” and “The Emperor's New Groove” as my choice of animated films to analyze. The animated film, “The Road to El Dorado” stereotypical representations of race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality are added in children’s films. I see sexuality played out most of the time in these Disney films. There is only one woman, and her name is Chel. There are many single female characters in otherwise male dominated movies who are portrayed as sexy. It is unfortunately very common and reinforces the idea of women as tokens, and the audience will not find stories interesting unless their focus is men’s issues and lives. As soon as Chel appears she is immediately characterized as an object that
After watching The Planet of the Apes, everyone seemed to leave the movie with a message in mind. Be it the controversial subject matter of Science vs. Religion, animal cruelty, or the cries of the extremeness of war and nuclear weapons. The makers of this film clearly felt the importance of illustrating to the viewers how unjust this society of “superior” apes were towards the humans. It allows the viewer to leave the movie thinking about our own society, and the similarities in how certain people have been severely mistreated here in America.
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
For several years now, Disney seems to be determined not to offend anyone in order to keep its audience; indeed we are confronted with animation films full of compromises; they are not as degrading for women as Snow-White and the Seven Dwarves (1937), but they are nonetheless still filled with clichés. Films such as The Princess and The Frog (2009), Tangled (2010), Wreck-it Ralph (2012), have in common the sense of being progressive and however we can notice the resurgence of harmful gendered stereotypes on the subjects of the social scale, women’s role in society, or the status quo. Frozen comes in and turns out to be no exception. Though it includes several encouraging and gratifying elements, it contributes insidiously to spread numerous
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).
The article “Women of Color Deserve a Voice in the Debate over Planned Parenthood” by Ijeoma Oluo, states that women of color have the right to become pregnant, right to prevent pregnancy, and the right to raise the baby. The battle over abortion rights is more heated than it has been in decades. This is a dangerous problem, because women of color are being ignored by many in the mainstream abortion rights movement, they are also being exploited by the anti-abortion movement.
There has been a lot of controversy surrounding Walt Disney Animation’s most successful film of all time. For the most part this controversy can be equated to the fact that Disney’s Frozen is perhaps the studio’s most on-the-nose queer text there has been. Yes one could apply a queer reading to many of Disney’s previous films but this one seems to be the most “in your face”. This is not to say that was directly the studio’s intention, or that the film is not for all audiences. In fact the great thing about Disney films and why they continue to be so successful is that they are created for all audiences regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity, personal beliefs etc., everyone can seem to relate and enjoy.
Now, back to Monty Python, in this sketch the scientists are highly flawed research, and produce ridicules amounts of errors yet the result is the takeover of the penguins. In the animal film industry films are produced to make money, these films rely on enticing the most people. To do that they create their own themes, forms, and images to do this, these have at this time become so engrained in the way that people perceive film which does not have these elements would seem wrong. At the end of the day the primary motive of filmmakers are to make money, yet through their themes they reinforce and recreate the values of society, to me it seems as flawed and ridiculous a system to show society's values as much as the science that lead to penguin domination was highly flawed.
I chose to analyze Despicable Me, an animated film geared towards a younger audience, because I was interested in examining underlying theories and messages that this film would be relaying to its viewers. Often times, when watching animated films, children are not aware of these messages, as they are absorbed by the characters, special effects, and humor. But as we have learned throughout this semester, our brains are subconsciously primed by the various surroundings we are exposed to. Since we also studied the impacts of entertainment, such as television and video games, on children, I wanted to see how a popular children’s film might also affect them.
In society today, we are conditioned to believe certain sets of ideals. We use these ideals to interact and get along with the other people we surround ourselves with. These ideals are often the societal norms that form common ground amongst individuals. However, living life based off these basic and unchanging beliefs is not beneficial to humanity, nor does it make life any easier to live. In fact, holding on to the most accepted beliefs holds back society as a whole. Judith Halberstam, in her essay “Animating Revolt and Revolting Animation” challenges these societal norms through the analysis of animated movies and, in doing so, carves a path for a new way of thinking.
Presently, Disney known for its mass media entertainment and amusement parks technically bring warm feelings to many children and some adults. Personally, Disney elicits magical fantasies that children enjoy and further encourages imagination and creativity. For decades Disney has exist as an unavoidable entity with its famous global sensation and reach. Furthermore, Disney is a multibillion dollar empire with an unlimited grasp on individuals and territories. An empire per se, since they own many media outlets, markets, shops, etc., you name it they got it. However, the film Mickey Mouse Monopoly presents an entirely new perspective on the presumed innocence projected in Disney films. This film exposes certain traits Disney employs and exclusively portrays through its media productions, specifically cartoons for directing and nurturing influence beginning with children. Mickey Mouse Monopoly points out camouflaged messages of class, race, and gender issues in Disney films that occur behind the scenes intended to sway viewers towards adopting Disney values.
“Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. As king, you need to understand that balance, and respect all the creatures from the crawling ant to the leaping antelope,” said Mufasa, a supporting character in the film depiction of Walt Disney’s: The Lion King (1994). The Lion King is a timeless archetypal work that time after time has given youth hope and has shown them that courage is not always innate, but can be learned from just living life with a little “hakuna matata”. The Lion King, through the use of classic archetype, vivid surrealism, and iconic symbolism, shows a coming to age story that shows children that life is an adventure worth the trouble.
Zootopia is the story of a small bunny who decides to make a big change when she moves from a rural farm to the heart of a big city. The bunny, whose name is Judy Hopps, vies to become a police officer, something that is never accomplished. In this world, the predators rule and the prey has no choice but to follow along with the current. Hopps wants to change that and she does, when she follows her dream and cracks a huge case that is threatening Zootopia. In this essay, we will look at three important interpersonal concepts that play a huge part in Zootopia, those being bullying, power and fear.
Zootopia (Byron Howard Rich Moore 2016) is an extremely successful film about a bunny named Judy. Within the film there are many direct and obvious themes, but a more implicit theme that I found while watching was, Our preconceived fears about certain groups as a society are directly reflected in Zootopia. I will be using the formal elements: camera angle, camera distance, and sound to argue my point. In the scene I will be analyzing, Judy just finished her press conference and claimed that all predators were savages. She gets off the podium and has an encounter with her friend, Nick, who is a predator. He is mad that Judy made this general statement about predators. Nick scares Judy and acts as though he has