Are Disney Movies Bad for Children?

[Individuality-ness]

Dude. Gay couple in the Bible. I have to find the image though.

I don't remember their names. One of them at least was a prince.

David and Jonathan IIRC.

EDIT: FOUND IT: Image.

[Unicario]

I think Mulan was a pretty good message. (Mulan II doesn't count, since it was never in theatres.)

[Nailed to the Perch]

The best part of Disney movies are the villain songs. You could call that the biggest problem right there. I remember back when I watched the Lion King religiously when I was little, as much as I loved the super-happy schpiel from Timon and Pumba, I remember feeling much more excited when Scar sang Be Prepared. I can imagine a lot of kids who payed more attention to the villain songs will end up doing a lot of damage to those who modeled the Disney Princesses or the other happy BS.

Oh yes, the villain songs are often glorious.

LIKE FIIIIIRE!
HELLFIIIIIRE!
THIS FIRE IN MY SKIN!

(That movie is so completely bizarre and kind of terrible, since it can never make up its mind whether it's going to be the sort of movie in which a song like that fits or the sort of movie in which there are goofy dancing gargoyles, but that song is a friggin' masterpiece.)

[North America Inc]

Just to ask how should the Disney Corporation portray woman then. Should they be more plump?

[Ethel mermania]

You may be right but the movie still has less harmful subtext than the others. Belle is by far the most intelligent and independent of the princesses, she succeeds in humanizing her captor and it is the Disney movie where beauty and goodness are the least closely related.

The fact that she earns a happy ending by loving him so much that she humanizes him is the problem.

And there's still the overt "beauty = goodness" trope in the movie. Belle means "beautiful" in French for God's sake.

no one names their kid "stupid ugly fuck"

[Unicario]

Just to ask how should the Disney Corporation portray woman then. Should they be more plump?

Good question.

[Ifreann]

The fact that she earns a happy ending by loving him so much that she humanizes him is the problem.

And there's still the overt "beauty = goodness" trope in the movie. Belle means "beautiful" in French for God's sake.

no one names their kid "stupid ugly fuck"

Don't tempt fate.

[Nailed to the Perch]

It should be fairly obvious that disney movies are all profoundly sexist.

Lilo And Stitch, too?

Strong female characters, good family themes, men in supportive but not starring roles (except for a couple of semi-competent villains)....

Lilo and Stitch really is kind of a bizarre and wonderful exception within the Disney canon. Non-white characters with realistic body types doing a story about family in which romantic love is tangential at best? How did this ever happen?

[Prussia-Steinbach]

The best part of Disney movies are the villain songs. You could call that the biggest problem right there. I remember back when I watched the Lion King religiously when I was little, as much as I loved the super-happy schpiel from Timon and Pumba, I remember feeling much more excited when Scar sang Be Prepared. I can imagine a lot of kids who payed more attention to the villain songs will end up doing a lot of damage to those who modeled the Disney Princesses or the other happy BS.

Not saying this is why, but I always liked the villains as a kid. I just love the bad guys - probably because they were always the underdogs as well.

[Ifreann]

Lilo And Stitch, too?

Strong female characters, good family themes, men in supportive but not starring roles (except for a couple of semi-competent villains)....

Lilo and Stitch really is kind of a bizarre and wonderful exception within the Disney canon. Non-white characters with realistic body types doing a story about family in which romantic love is tangential at best? How did this ever happen?

Bad batch of cocaine.

[Charellia]

Just to ask how should the Disney Corporation portray woman then. Should they be more plump?

How about a healthy weight?

[Prussia-Steinbach]

The fact that she earns a happy ending by loving him so much that she humanizes him is the problem.

And there's still the overt "beauty = goodness" trope in the movie. Belle means "beautiful" in French for God's sake.

no one names their kid "stupid ugly fuck"

Speak for yourself. "Truand" would be a pretty cool name.

[Individuality-ness]

I think Mulan was a pretty good message. (Mulan II doesn't count, since it was never in theatres.)

The ending though. She gave up everything and eventually marries her commander.

[Prussia-Steinbach]

Lilo And Stitch, too?

Strong female characters, good family themes, men in supportive but not starring roles (except for a couple of semi-competent villains)....

Lilo and Stitch really is kind of a bizarre and wonderful exception within the Disney canon. Non-white characters with realistic body types doing a story about family in which romantic love is tangential at best? How did this ever happen?

To be honest, the romance in every single kids' movie does annoy me. i didn't even like it when I was a kid. It just seemed stupid and repetitive to me. Like, "can we get back to the action?"

[Britcan]

The classic Disney princesses are all dangerously underweight.

That's because they are cartoon characters drawn in a certain style, of course they don't look realistic.

Many are passive and helpless and even those who do have some control over their own lives are still ultimately reliant on the prince to save them.

Mulan?

Most marry in their teens.

Which, in the time periods the movies are set in, isn't unusual.

On top of this there is a pattern in the appearances of the characters. Protagonists of both genders are beautiful, supporting characters are strange looking and villains are ugly or monstrous. This clearly sends the wrong message about appearance.

Quasimodo was a hero wasn't he?

Villains are always darker in colour than the heroes as well. Even on the rare occasion heroes are not white they are always lighter skinned than the villains.

I assume you are referring to skin tone?
Pocahontas was darker than Governor Ratcliffe, Esmeralda was darker than Frollo, Tarzan was darker than Clayton.

[Unicario]

I think Mulan was a pretty good message. (Mulan II doesn't count, since it was never in theatres.)

The ending though. She gave up everything and eventually marries her commander.

Closest thing I've seen to something half-decent, tbh.

[Tsuntion]

Just to ask how should the Disney Corporation portray woman then. Should they be more plump?

They shouldn't be you-would-die-if-you-were-this-thin.

Realistic thin, sure. For some of them. But Disney should also include variation in body types and weights, which they don't currently do very much of, including plumper female protagonists (whose weights are not something they lose whilst getting their happy endings).

[Unicario]

Oh, I know the perfect Disney movie that has minimal lovey-dovey-ness.

EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE.

[North America Inc]

Just to ask how should the Disney Corporation portray woman then. Should they be more plump?

How about a healthy weight?

But don't Cartoons usually exaggerate people's bodies. For example I remember Jafaar in Aladin had a long head for example?

[Individuality-ness]

The ending though. She gave up everything and eventually marries her commander.

Closest thing I've seen to something half-decent, tbh.

But in order to gain her happy ending, she had to be more FEMININE. THAT'S THE LESSON.

[Uieurnthlaal]

I've never been a big fan of disney. But what I've noticed is that while the US seems to be hanging desperately on to these sort of terrible conservative ideals, and continue to press them on out children in every possible way, more progressive nations like Japan don't do that. All you have to do is take a look at a Hayao Miyazaki film (if you haven't, I really recommend you google one and watch it. His films are amazing), and the difference is astonishing. While all these Disney films are about these one-dimensional girls being motivated only by love for the male character, and are often marginalized when it comes to plot, in the Miyazaki films, the main character are often girls, all independent, very three-dimensional, full of the complexity usually left for male characters in Disney stories. In the end, not only does this make a much more egalitarian storyline, it also makes a much more fascinating and enthralling story.

[Olthar]

We've got a black princess now, so next we should get a lesbian princess. *nods*

[Alexander Sothis]

As a North Korean Anti-Western Culture Propaganda Film once put it "American Culture is nothing more than Corporate Pedophilia"

[Electroconvulsive Glee]

I find it pleasing, but amusing, that the discussion has mostly turned from "there is not racism or sexism in Disney movies" to "here is an (alleged) example of a Disney movie/character that is not racist or sexist."

[Geilinor]

Oh, I know the perfect Disney movie that has minimal lovey-dovey-ness.

EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE.

This.