This Mouse Roars
Disney and the Power of Children's Entertainment

by Andy Bauck


Despite the widespread (although generally timid) crticism of the blatant historical revisionism in Disney's latest animated feature film, Pocahontas, the mainstream media has entirely overlooked a far more important point regarding Disney's role in the children's entertainment industry. Although Disney's stock initially declined on Wall Street after Pocahontas' opening due to less than expected revenues, the film has already been seen by hundreds of thousands of children and their parents, and is likely to remain one of the summer's top-grossing movies.
The result of Disney's super-saturation marketing strategy, which includes tie-ins with Burger King and Nestle chocolate and a tour of suburban malls, is that it is difficult to imagine an American child between the ages of three and 10 who is unaware of Pocahontas and her exploits. The penetration of The Lion King and other Disney children's films now available on home video is far greater. Although traditionally immune from criticism, Disney's animated films are filled with gratuitous violence and dysfunctional families, and present an unhealthy view of society at large. The effects of Disney's world view on our children cannot be underestimated.
Sales of The Lion King video are now over 26 million, making it the best selling video cassette ever. Numbers 2, 3, and 4 on the list of all time best-sellers are also animated Disney offerings: Snow White (24 million), Aladdin (24 million), and Beauty and the Beast (22 million). Disney achieved these phenomenal sales figures through aggressive discounting and by making the videos available everwhere from fast food chains to supermarkets.
In an era with more and more parents working long hours to make ends meet, single parent households, and unaffordable childcare, many parents find "the electronic babysitter" the most convenient way to take a break from the rigors of parenting. Thus, not only does Disney's influence reach into the vast majority of North American families, but kids may watch these videos dozens of times.
One of the most striking things linking all of the current generation of Disney animated films is their unusual family relations. The most common paradigm seems to be that of a rebellious adolescent girl protagonist with an absent mother and an easily duped father. In Beauty and the Beast the family roles seem to be reversed as the father is clearly incompetent and in need of constant mothering by Belle, his daughter. In Pocahontas and The Little Mermaid the fathers are not so blatantly subordinate to their daughters, but nonetheless are subject to the passive-agressive manipulation of their coquettish, headstrong young girls. While Disney has been praised by some for portraying girls as intelligent and determined, it should be pointed out that more often than not Disney's heroines exercise their power through the only route traditionally left to women: flirtatious manipulation. The almost complete absence of maternal figures - and adult women more generally - from recent Disney films is remarkable and most conspicuous. Nonetheless, Disney's family values are unquestioned by the same right-wing critics who relentlessly attack real-life single-parent families. Is there a reason the central figure of most youngsters' lives has been ignored by the industry leader in children's entertainment?
Also eliciting little comment is the racism lurking just below the surface in many Disney films. Although The Lion King was widely praised for its ecologically correct presentation of "The Circle of Life," hyenas were categorically excluded from this circle and portrayed as devious, evil, and bloodthirsty beings, as opposed to the righteous and just lions. While it is true that there is great animosity between lions and hyenas, the personification of the animal characters and the unequivocally negative portayal of the hyenas make it too easy to extend the rivalry to human racial differences, especially considering two of the three hyenas are played by minority actors. Another of the more blatant examples of Disney racism are the original lyrics to Aladdin's opening song: "Oh I come from a land, from a faraway place / Where the caravan camels roam / Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face / It's barbaric, but hey, it's home." (The reference to mutilation - but not the line about barbarism - was changed after release due to protest from Muslims). In addition, even Disney's ethnic characters look suspciously like Ken and Barbie. Pocahontas, for example, was based on images of white and Filipina models.
It is well-known that violence has permeated our culture so deeply that it is now a central aspect of much children's entertainment. Disney's animated features are no exception. Although Senator Dole has yet to comment on it, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, and Pocahontas all contain significant dramatic violence which many educators feel is inappropriate for small children. Children should undoubtedly be taught the reality and permanence of death, but it should be kept in mind that many kids begin watching Disney videos from the earliest ages. In the scene of The Lion King in which Mufasa dies, he is left lying close-eyed on the ground with Simba, his son, shouting "Get up!" The possibility of this depiction causing children to associate death with sleep - and therefore fearing sleep - is very real. But perhaps even more disturbing is the gratuitous and commonplace use of violent acts as slapstick comedy in Disney's films. These humorous depictions normalize violence and teach children that it is harmless and funny.
Disney's social relationships endorse an uncritical acceptance of power relationships. The world of The Lion King is a feudalistic society which falls to pieces when the rightful king is killed. Other residents of Prideland are helpless until the return of Simba, the royal heir. Upon his assumption of the throne, the landscape literally changes from a desolate gray to verdant green before our eyes. The not-so-subtle implication is that everything will be okay if we just shut up, mind our own business, and let the appointed rulers rule. The kingdom inhabited by Aladdin follows a similar, if less dramatic, pattern. Less powerful characters - in particular the adolescent heroines - must resort to passive-aggressive trickery to achieve their ends.
As The Lion King was Disney's first original story used in an animated film, Pocahontas was Disney's first attempt at historical drama. As a corporation, Disney is more typically known for pillaging the public domain for material and copyrighting the results. The danger of allowing Disney to rewrite history for the next generation of children can be seen by even the most superficial comparison between Disney's Pocahontas and the historical record. John Smith, far from the sensitive and heroic cultural interlocutor Disney portrayed him to be, remained a swashbuckling Indian-killer for the duration of his stay in North America. His later writings are full of references to savages and display an obvious contempt for the people he came in contact with in the New World. Disney also fails to note that the Powhatan nation's existence was short after colonists decided that they had more to gain by stealing their agricultural land than by maintaining amity. By whitewashing the historical record, Disney absolves the European colonists of any responsibility for the eventual demise of the Powhatan nation.
Given the enormous - yet generally unrecognized - influence Disney holds over children from the youngest ages, Disney must be held accountable for the content of its films. We can no longer assume benevolence on the part of a corporation which has a history of peddling racism, unequal power relations, and violence to children.


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Contents on this page were published in the August/September, 1995 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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