Little Kids are Obsessed with Frozen

When I went home for fall break, I went out to eat with my extended family.  I sat next to my little cousin Alexandra who is 4 years old.  The first question she asked me was who did I like better, Olaf or Elsa?  I cannot begin to explain how confused I was because I had no idea what she was talking about.  Seeing how lost I was, my aunt explained to me that Olaf and Elsa were two characters from Frozen.  I have never seen Frozen, but Alexandra was ready to have a full on discussion about it, so I had to pretend that I had seen it and go along with the conversation.  Although Alexandra is only 4 years old, she knows more about Frozen than anyone I know.  She has a Frozen backpack, Frozen toys, and is searching everywhere to find an Elsa Halloween costume.  This got me thinking about how obsessed some little kids are with Disney, especially Frozen.  I am sure that the movie Frozen and it's messages will have an impact on her for her entire life.

"Simba's Revolution" Analysis

“Simba’s Revolution,” written by John Morton, is a clear and concise response to arguments made my Gooding- Williams.  In his argument, Morton agrees with some ideas presented by Good Williams, but corrects these arguments to make them more understandable and realistic.  The idea that the Lion King proposes the segregation of social classes is a topic that Morton addresses.  The hyenas live in the elephant graveyard, which is many ways which represents a ghetto.  Led by Mustafa’s evil brother Scar, the hyenas are violent savages.  Pride Rock is associated with hunting and grazing as a source of income.  However, the hyenas in the elephant graveyard are just scavenger with no real job or steady food source.  This shows that hyenas could represent the ‘unemployed’ low class.  Much of the corruption of the elephant graveyard is said to represent the poor conditions of an inner city.  I agree with all of Morton’s points and I think he did a great job of supporting them.  His ideas are not too radical that it is hard for readers to follow. These points are somewhat made by Good- Williams, but Morton only focuses on the strong and reasonable arguments which makes his point more effective.  Morton states that he intended to disagree with Gooding Williams on two main points, “1) his picturing of Disney’s Africa as a place without history, to which Scar’s revolution is a counter-trend; and 2) his nearly exclusive depiction of inequality issues through the medium of the excluded hyenas” (312).  Morton also challenges the ‘circle of life’ idea and introduces the idea of the ‘circle of death.’  This refers to how the hyenas are scavengers who basically feed off of death.  Scar is considered a political revolutionary, but I do not think that this is because of his class status.  I think that Gooding- Williams’s argument is flawed because The Lion King is depicting Scar as evil, not just poor.  He is trying to over through Mustafa and Simba because he is evil, and that has nothing to do with his class status.

Simba in Real Life

My good friend recently rescued a kitten and decided to name him Simba.  I was never really sure why he named him that because I had not seen The Lion King in years and did not remember much about it.  However, after watching The Lion King this past weekend, I can see exactly why someone would want to name their kitten Simba.  Clearly The Lion King had a huge impact on my friend because at 20 years old he still chose to name his kitten after a Disney movie.  Disney movies have the ability to make an life long impression on people. I always believed that being exposed to Disney had a life long impact on a person, and this serves as a perfect example.  Here is a picture of Simba!

Disney's effect on childhood

A couple weeks ago, my mom sent me all of my Winnie the Pooh books in the mail that I loved when I was a kid.  Immediately I knew that she was missing me, and also wishing I was back to being a little kid again.  The Winnie the Pooh books were always my favorite, so receiving them in the mail automatically brought a smile to my face.  This feeling took me away from being an overly stressed college kid, and back to a carefree child. Disney offers a sense of youth and childhood to many throughout their entire lives.  The memories that Disney books and movies bring back are forever in the minds of many.  And on the other side, my mom also created memories by reading those stories to me when I was young.  The impact that Disney has had on my childhood never seizes to amaze me.

Mental Disability in Disney

In “Dopey’s Legacy: Sterotypical Portrayals of Intellectual Disability in the Classic Animated Films,” Karen Schwartz, Zana Lutfiyya and Nancy Hansen discuss the presence of negative stereotypes of mental disabilities in Disney films.  Focusing on the films Snow White, Cinderella, and the Beauty and the Beast, Schwartz uses contextual evidence to show examples of several characters who are considered to be mentally limited.  These characters face many hardships throughout all of the films, and are constantly laughed at, isolated and seen as different from the rest. 

“Dopey’s Legacy” is led with the strongest example of the argument, Dopey from Snow White.  Swartz comments on the fact that in the Grimms’ original version of Snow White, the dwarfs did not have as definite individual personalities, but in the Disney version they do.  “The seventh dwarf, Dopey, is characterized as an ‘idiot,’ ‘mentally retarded,’ and with ‘Down’s syndrome- like features,’ and was entirely a Disney fabrication? (179).  At first, I thought that this argument was absurd and over critical of Disney.  However, after considering Swartz’s evidence of this argument, I believe that she has a valid point.  Dopey is portrayed as being very incapable and “slow at figuring things out” (183).  Physically, he is different from the other dwarfs.  He looks childish, with some animalistic qualities, and also has blue eyes instead of brown like the rest.  These comparisons might seem minor, but when Schwartz brings in more examples, her argument is very well supported.  Gus, one of the mice from Cinderella, is also physically different from the other mice and often singled out for being slow and incapable.  These physical characteristics are very similar to Dopey’s.  “Like Dopey, Gus is presented as the ‘other.’  He is a chubby mouse, whose t-shirt fails to cover his belly, whereas the other mice are lean and wearing clothing that fits” (185).  In Cinderella, Gus is portrayed as being very incompetent, such as in the scene where he is trying to pick up all the rice he can even though the cat is about to eat him.  He needs to be saved by the other mice, which shows his dependency.  LeFou is the third example that Swartz uses.  He also has the same qualities as Dopey and Gus, which further supports the argument that mental disabilities are stereotyped in Disney films. 

It is clear that Swartz has some valid examples, however, what is more important is to understand the effect these examples actually have on the movie.  Disney’s use of mentally limited characters as a source of humor is very unethical.  Audiences find themselves laughing at the intellectually disabled character as he/she struggles to do basic tasks.  This is a negative way to teach children how to treat the intellectually disabled.