Reflection: Does Disney Better With Age?

If Disney movies were NBA players, Cinderella would be Michael Jordan. When we think Disney we think pumpkin carriage and glass slipper. But, however legendary that beloved fairytale may be, entertainment and society has come quite a ways since 1950. And entertainment is often how we introduce a societal change or address an issue. It is natural to then assume that Disney would also change and evolve in accordance with the times, but is that an accurate assumption to make? And furthermore how do we outline Disney’s quality as a model for positive, progressive change? We could compare changes in the content and themes of individual Disney films and see how social roles and norms perpetuated in older films evolve in subsequent films. A more comprehensive investigation however, would be to study events that occur over time and to identify a pivotal issue or change in social norms during this time that Disney does not address. Walt Disney Inc. is our most trusted, and arguably most powerful, authority in child culture and socialization. We should therefore not only expect Disney to follow suit in pursuing opportunities for social growth and cultural education, we should expect them to lead.

            In 2002 Disney released Lilo and Stitch. The opening theme song He Mele No Lilo, mentions the great chief Kalakaua. David Kalakaua was the last reigning king of Hawaii, and his rule incited the revival of beloved cultural traditions such as hula, which had been banned during Christianization. https://www.hawaii.com/discover/king-kalakaua-the-merrie-monarch/ However you would not know this from watching the humorous and touching film about Experiment 626. Nor would you know that just a year before this movie was released, Angela Perez Baraquio, the second woman from Hawaii to be crowned Miss America, was the first Asian-American crowned Miss America ever. http://www.dailybreeze.com/arts-and-entertainment/20141115/former-miss-america-gardena-educator-angela-perez-baraquio-releases-book. And a year before that the last homeless beach in Hawaii, a state where homelessness is at the center of an intense social debate, was threatened to be closed and displace 35 Hawaiian families. http://www.hawaiihistory.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ig.page&year=1999 However the topics of Asian representation in Hawaii, rooted in generations of immigration, and the struggles of homelessness are not addressed in a film that has acted as many children’s first interaction with Hawaiian culture. With Lilo and Stitch Disney missed a key opportunity to properly introduce many American children to an often stereotyped culture that many are not increasingly knowledgeable of, and if they did not act in favor of progression, is that the same as acting as an obstacle?

            Seven years after the release of Lilo and Stitch, Princess Tiana, Disney’s ninth and only African American princess, made her appearance on the big screen. The Princess and the Frog is set in 1920s New Orleans. After the film was released there were notably fierce outcries that the filmmakers did not appropriately address the topics of race and class. I do not plan to strongly make an argument for or against incorporating the topic of race into a child’s film, but I do intend to strongly highlight that if Disney didn’t intend to make a tactful yet basic address of racism, 1920 is not a particularly great year to set the story. For example, Big Daddy La Bouff, the father of Tiana’s friend Charlotte, is a rich sugar baron, and realistically many of Tiana’s friends and relatives would have been laborers or sharecroppers of the same sugar plantations that their kin were enslaved on http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Louisiana.aspx.

            However, as unsettling as the reality of Louisiana in the 20^th century might have been, the circumstances of the state in 2007 might be even more so. Two years before The Princess and the Frog was released, Louisiana elected its first governor of color since Reconstruction. (http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/10/21/gop-congressman-bobby-jindal-wins-louisiana-governor-race.html) In that same year The Jena 6, a group of six black students from Jena, Louisiana faced over 100 years in prison for a schoolyard fight, after three nooses were hung from a tree in front of their school. http://www.democracynow.org/2007/7/10/the_case_of_the_jena_six Disney is of course under no obligation to address these issues, and cannot be held solely responsible for the education and sensitization of children. But Disney animator Ron Clements stating in an interview that he and his coworkers did not realize that Princess Tiana was “that big of a deal” should be a big deal to us when we consider the level of care, or lack thereof, that Disney takes in introducing culture and social knowledge to young minds. http://screencrave.com/2009-07-31/the-princess-and-the-frog-directors-john-musker-and-ron-clements/

            Progress is a deliberate, and careful process. It can take up to seven years for Disney to animate one of its 3D masterpieces (http://theanimationarchive.com/post/37214385654/how-long-does-it-usually-take-to-create-an) and this same dedication to time and careful attention to detail should be taken in Disney’s approach to incorporate contemporary and positive social progression into its films. Disney should be actively introducing social issues and change into its culture, because if Disney is not using its power and influence to improve the social climate, it might as well be actively ruining it.