Disney Movies - article by Good English Article Sites

Disney Movies

Most of us grew up on Disney movies, and it’s hard to imagine a time they didn’t exist. We’ll always remember classics like Cinderella, Pinocchio, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin even as Disney starts to phase out of old fashioned cartoon animation and ventures into Pixar computer graphics. Disney movies will always be a staple of entertainment media because they’re full of adventure and feel good sentiment that the whole family can enjoy—they attract a widespread audience and hold its interest.

Disney movies evoke feelings of nostalgia in most, but they also elicit contempt in others. One criticism of Disney movies arises from a feminist perspective. Some dislike the fact that Disney often portrays princesses that helplessly wait around for their princes to come save them. Others claim that Disney movies contain underlying subliminal racist messages, pointing to examples like the Siamese cats in The Lady and the Tramp, stereotypes about the Middle East in the opening Aladdin song, and a slew of stereotypical accents and physical characteristics attributed to a variety of Disney characters that are usually in side or antagonistic roles.

Granted, most of these examples are from older Disney films, and Disney has attempted to somewhat diversify. The collection of Disney princesses represents some other cultures besides standard Eurocentrism: Pocahontas is Native American, and Mulan is Chinese. These heroines also play more of an agentic role in their destinies—Pocahontas saves her people and attempts to reconcile the culture clash between the village and settlers, while Mulan challenges the female stereotype by surpassing her male comrades and almost single handedly saving China. Still, it can be argued that Pocahontas and Mulan still conform to the stereotypical roles of their gender through their steadfast, almost blind devotion to their male counterparts, John Smith and Shang.

Maybe one of the biggest lessons demonstrated by Disney movies is how you can’t please everybody. A glaring example is the upcoming first Disney movie to feature an African American princess, The Frog Princess. This could be seen as a positive direction for Disney, but already the move has people complaining. The princess doesn’t look “black” enough, her prince’s skin is too light, the princess spends much of the time in the movie as a frog, etc. The fact is that skin tone within the African American community varies and the story of the frog princess is that she’s a frog princess. But because of the history of race in our country, all of these characteristics take on more meaning than they should. Racism and stereotypes will continue to be an issue, and not just in Disney movies. Disney’s films are simply a product of our society and regardless of what people might say, millions of us are going to be at the movies when The Frog Princess is released.

Most Recent Articles