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.