In the wake of global warming and environmental degradation, many media outlets are focusing on ways to alert the public to sustain the planet. In “Princess Mononoke,” the film aesthetically creates a complex socio-cultural world in where the audience is force to weigh in on complex questions about our nature and how we treat the planet. The film follows Ashitaka as he journeys from his home village to western Japan to find answers to his impending doom. His quest soon leads him to the industrious fort of “Irontown,” and he finds himself the middle of a deadly battle between humans and spirits. “Princess Mononoke” depicts a sublime story of a devastating war on humans against nature and challenges the audience to find the real-world application in it.
Princess Mononoke setting highlights evolving social conquests and how it affects the environment. The film takes place during around 15th century mythical Japan and most of the populace is rural and industry is just starting to proliferate. The film depicts the duality of humanity as pre and post industrial. For instance, The Emishi village represents the pre-industrial age of Japan that is against the modern age of consumerism and globalization. The villagers live in a sustainable manner in which they utilize the resources around them. However, Irontown is an industrious fort clouded with the smog of greed and money. In Irontown, Humanity is depicted as famish, power hungry beasts that have a voracious appetite for resources. The Emishi village has grown to live one with the spirits while, Irontown is hell bent to bend the forces of nature to their will for precious natural resources. What Irontown can gain from defeating the forest spirit would be to conquer the land from other i...
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...rests but, “Princess Mononoke’s principal strength lies is in asking the audience to think about compassion for the poor and disenfranchised in tandem with care for nature,” (29). In the movie the opposing sides were carefully assigned; however, condemning one side in favor for the other is out of the question because there is certain good to each side. To compare this environmental kid movie to others like “Over the Hedge” is that Princess Mononoke challenges the audience to understand the motivation behind both sides and to find a way to integrate each side sustainably.
Works Cited
Smith, Michelle J., and Elizabeth Parsons. "Animating Child Activism: Environmentalism And Class Politics In Ghibli's Princess Mononoke (1997) And Fox's Fern Gully (1992)." Continuum: Journal Of Media & Cultural Studies 26.1 (2012): 25-37. Academic Search Complete. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
By citing credible organizations and offering her own eco-friendly alternatives, she proves to the reader that she takes a particular interest in the environment and is educated to speak on it. Pairing powerful understatements and hyperboles to contrast with one another show the reader that the practice is both needless and selfish. These rhetorical techniques have a powerful impact on the reader, whose ignorance prior to reading the excerpt can no longer suffices to excuse the lack of action. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring is a deeply persuasive book that not only advocates for an end to pesticides but also speaks to the obligation humans hold to protect their
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.
The thesis of these excerpts from Bill McKibben’s book, Earth: Making Life on a Tough New Planet, is that humanity has permanently changed the earth through global warming. This idea relies on the assumptions that global warming has caused irrevocable changes to the environment and that humans have only recently changed the earth.
To conclude, film has an intrinsic duty to “provide a face for the faceless [… it] creates the life and times that American society has only heard about or researched but never lived” (“The Role of Native Americans in Film”, n.d.) therefore it is influential over audiences who are educated by films. This is particularly relevant when considering the representations of race; Disney’s representation of Native Americans began as highly offensive and problematic with examples such as Peter Pan highlighting all the negative stereotypes. In contrast to this, Pocahontas is a more recent production from Disney Studios which represented Native Americans in a much fairer and just light, showing that Disney Studios have developed over time to show a more accurate and responsible portrayal.
Gina Marchetti, in her essay "Action-Adventure as Ideology," argues that action- adventure films implicitly convey complex cultural messages regarding American values and the "white American status quo." She continues to say that all action-adventure movies have the same basic structure, including plot, theme, characterization, and iconography. As ideology, this film genre tacitly expresses social norms, values, and morals of its time. Marchetti's essay, written in 1989, applies to films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Rambo: First Blood II. However, action-adventure films today seem to be straying farther away from her generalizations about structure, reflecting new and different cultural norms in America. This changing ideology is depicted best in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994), which defies nearly every concept Marchetti proposes about action-adventure films; and it sets the stage for a whole new viewpoint of action in the '90's.
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?
The billowing black smoke left behind by the train represents another theme that repeatedly presents itself across multiple Miyazaki films, the constant battle between nature and industry. Miyazaki appears to have an intense appreciation of nature and a disdain of the modern world, shown through how industry and war are often treated as the true overarching antagonists of his stories . Nausicaä and the Valley of the Wind focuses on a post-apocalyptic world where the pollution of industry and war lead to the mutation of life on the planet and a forest of death taking over the planet, forever expanding through poisonous spores and gigantic mutated beetles. Princess Mononoke is the story of a war between industry and nature, where the early versions
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).
Starosielski, Nicole. “Movements that are drawn’: A history of environmental animation from The Lorax to FernGully to Avatar.” International Communication Gazette, (February 2011): 145-163.
Since the creation of films, their main goal was to appeal to mass audiences. However, once, the viewer looks past the appearance of films, the viewer realizes that the all-important purpose of films is to serve as a bridge connecting countries, cultures, and languages. This is because if you compare any two films that are from a foreign country or spoken in another language, there is the possibility of a connection between the two because of the fact that they have a universal understanding or interpretation. This is true for the French New Wave films Contempt and Breathless directed by Jean-Luc Godard, and contemporary Indian films Earth and Water directed by Deepa Mehta. All four films portray an individual’s role in society, using sound and editing.
of influence in both the characters and gender roles of people in our society. The films have brought about the shaping of morals, behaviors and characters of not only children, but also adults in todays society, through engaging them in a constant series of unthinking consumption. In addition, most of the films in Disney bring out many different gender roles and people who grew up watching them have been influenced greatly by the content in the films (Blum 13). This paper will involve the various roles played by the characters in the films and how their roles have influenced the society at large.
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.
The classic Disney movies are upheld as quality entertainment for people of all generations. But analysing these older movies closely leads to some problematic observations, particularly how older Disney movies depict class, race, and gender. The Aristocats is a perfect example of one of these older movies: in it, a wealthy older lady decides to leave her fortune to her cats in her will, causing her butler Edgar to try and dispose of the cats so the money will go to him instead. This leads to various hijinks as the cats survive with the aid of a street cat, Thomas. The Aristocats is a problematic movie in its depictions of class both in the cats’ society as well as the humans’.
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).
Thus, impressionable girls will not expect to go far in life, believing that as long as they catch the attention of a handsome rich man, they will live a life of happiness and luxury. Unfortunately, there seem to be a lack of wealthy men on the prowl for damsels in distress. On the other hand, girls who do not desire to get married, those who wish to work for themselves, will see the failures of independence as a woman, and might lose confidence in themselves. If a princess, with looks, kindness, and intelligence could not succeed, then the poor girl should, by rights, have no chance. Disney weaves these messages into uplifting movies so completely, all the little child receives is the faint impression of anti-feminism. If children constantly receives the same detrimental; theme, the information will become ingrained in an unconscious part of their mind, so when they desire to succeed, they must overcome their internal ideals