Disney: Any scenes that shocked you as a ‘child’?

Disney shaping generations – “The Disney Babies”

“A Disney baby is also what you were if you were born at any date after 1925, were taken as a child to see Disney films, used to read Disney comics and owned some Disney merchandise such as a Mickey Mouse watch. Disney babies of the latter kind grow ideally into Disney adults. Disney adults take their children to Disney films and theme parks, buy them Disney merchandise and subscribe to the Disney Channel”

(Forgacs, 1992:361)

Nowadays, the content shown on TV serves a critical socialising function. Thus, Disney has a significant role in the youth culture with its universal language and versatile character portfolio. The proportion of people glued to the screens is at an all-time high (see also our previous article); in today’s digital era, not only adults but also children nearly from birth are “forced” to consume advertising, marketing, and entertainment messages. On average, a typical teen and/or tween is said to watch over eight hours of recreational media daily (Tv, PC, DVDs, video games) (Giroux & Pollock, 2010). With a young brain constantly watching these programs – let it be either news or cartoons – they have a huge impact on our worldview, forming a base upon judging the world and even ourselves. In this vein, Disney represents not only an entertainment source but also a force that shapes the identities, desires, and subjectivities of millions of fans around the globe.

“He [Disney] did, after all, reach us first (and, therefore, foremost), at that very point in our youthful development when either an individual or a generation is most receptive (and vulnerable) to such forces and ideas.”

(Brode, 2004:10)

Looking at the academic literature related to how Disney might influence our development, researchers have examined this phenomenon from many angles in the last decades. On the one hand, Disney seems to be still the “untouchable lovely brand” for many (Wasko, 2001). On the other hand, Disney films are have been criticised for problematic scenes like the images of madness (Beveridge, 1996), mental illnesses (Lawson & Fouts, 2004), indirect aggression (Coyne & Whitehead, 2008), child maltreatment (Hubka et al., 2009), the negative portrayal of older characters (Robinson et al., 2007) and death (Cox et al., 2005) shown in Disney’ animated shows, on the grounds that children’s first encounter with these could be influential and even traumatic as they may not be ready to process the happenings.

After all, who among us did not cry at the point of King Mufasa’s death (The Lion King) or was not shocked by Cruella’s mad obsession with dalmatians (101 Dalmatians) and still after many years remember those images that were burnt into the mind as a little child?

Another topic that recently received much attention is the portrayal of biased (trans)gender roles in Disney films, with many researchers are highlighting the underlying stereotypical issues that can lead to the creation of unreal beauty and behaviour images among young people (Hoerner, 1996; Do Rozario, 2004; Wohlwend, 2009; Bazzini et al., 2010; Cheu, 2013). As stereotypes are constructed by children either through direct experiences or else indirectly through some medium, these solid first impressions about death or how real princesses should look like can form, change, and reinforce stereotypes.

We can see that more and more criticism has been directed towards Disney of late. Still, we should consider this with the utmost caution as Best and Lowney (2009) noted that one of the disadvantages of Disney’s good reputation is that it can be widely targeted for social problem claims (a form of blowback — adverse reactions to the firm’s positive reputation also known to marketers as negative double jeopardy). Also, we must not forget that when the stories they depict were first written, those were very different times, with their own norms and values. Thus, old Disney films might less than 100% “modern”, but we cannot judge them by today’s standards.

One might ask the question at this point: “is Disney really bad for us after all?” Well, as most of us grew up watching and/or surrounded by Disney products and still turned out to be “normal” people, the answer is not so simple (not least because there isn’t really a clear definition of “normal” anyway). The general rule applies here, too: if we consume something too much – without limits – it will be harmful sooner or later – be it food, drink, computer games (see also our previous article) or TV. As the “Disney Baby’s cycle” above illustrates well, it is not only about children but adults as well: growing up on ONLY one kind of story with its own world(view) might have negative effects – as experiencing only one part of the world with its own values and beliefs day to day will undoubtedly have an influence on your life. Consequently, learning what is “good” or “bad” should come from multiple sources of input, not only from the Disney universe. A healthy balance is best.

To finish the article with a little reflective “takeaway”:

Do you have any favourite Disney characters?

Think a bit, can you find any similarities between the two of you?

What do you think why / why not?

Sources:

– Bazzini, D., Curtin, L., Joslin, S., Regan, S., & Martz, D. (2010). Do Animated Disney Characters Portray and Promote the Beauty–Goodness Stereotype?. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 40, 2687-2709. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2010.00676.x

– Best, J. & Lowney, K. S. (2009). The Disadvantage of A Good Reputation: Disney as a Target for Social Problems Claims. The Sociological Quarterly, 50(3), 431-449. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.2009.01147.x

– Beveridge, A. (1996). Images of madness in the films of Walt Disney. Psychiatric Bulletin, 20(10), 618-620. https://doi.org/10.1192/pb.20.10.618

– Brode, D. (2004). From Walt to Woodstock: How Disney Created the Counterculture. Austin: University of Texas Press.

– Bryman, A. (1999). The Disneyization of Society. The Sociological Review, 47(1), 25–47. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.00161

– Cheu, J. (2013). Diversity in Disney Films: Critical Essays on Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Sexuality and Disability. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co.

– CNBC. (2022). Marvel heroes propelled Disney to the top of the 2021 domestic box office. Retrieved 29 January 2022, from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/07/disney-topped-the-2021-domestic-box-office.html

– Cox, M., Garrett, E., & Graham, J. A. (2005). Death in Disney Films: Implications for Children’s Understanding of Death. OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying, 50(4), 267–280. https://doi.org/10.2190/Q5VL-KLF7-060F-W69V

– Coyne, S., & Whitehead, E. (2008). Indirect Aggression in Animated Disney Films. Journal of Communication, 58, 382 – 395. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2008.00390.x

– Do Rozario, R.-A. C. (2004). The Princessand the Magic Kingdom: Beyond Nostalgia, the Function of the Disney Princess. Women’s Studies in Communication, 27, 34-59. https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2004.10162465

– Edgerton, G., & Jackson, K. M. (1996). Redesigning Pocahontas: Disney, the “White Man’s Indian,” and the Marketing of Dreams. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 24(2), 90-98. https://doi.org/10.1080/01956051.1996.9943718

– Forgacs, D. (1992). Disney animation and the business of childhood. Screen, 33(4), 361–374. https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/33.4.361

– Gabler, N. (2006). Walt Disney. New York: Knopf.

– Garabedian, J. (2014). Animating Gender Roles: How Disney is Redefining the Modern Princess. James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal, 2(1), 22-25.

– Giroux, H., & Pollock, G. (2010). The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence (2nd ed.). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

– Hoerrner, K. L. (1996). Gender Roles in Disney Films: Analyzing Behaviors from Snow White to Simba. Women’s Studies in Communication, 19(2), 213-228. https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.1996.11089813

– Hubka, D., Hovdestad, W., & Tonmyr, L. (2009). Child maltreatment in Disney animated feature films: 1937–2006. The Social Science Journal, 46(3), 427-441. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soscij.2009.03.001

– Lawson, A., Fouts, G., (2004). Mental illness in Disney animated films. Can J Psychiatry,49(5), 310-314. https://doi.org/10.1177/070674370404900506

– Robinson, T., Callister, M., Magoffin, D., & Moore, J. (2007). The portrayal of older characters in Disney animated films. Journal of Aging Studies, 21(3), 203-213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2006.10.001

– Wasko, J. (2001). Challenging Disney Myths. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 25(3), 237–257. https://doi.org/10.1177/0196859901025003004

– Wasko, J. (2020). Understanding Disney: The Manufacture of Fantasy (2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons.

– Wohlwend, K. E. (2009). Damsels in Discourse: Girls Consuming and Producing Identity Texts Through Disney Princess Play. Reading Research Quarterly, 44, 57-83. https://doi.org/10.1598/RRQ.44.1.3