Reflection

In four, eight, thirty-two years, November 9, 2016 will stand as one of the saddest days in American History. We are not talking about racism in Aladdin, we are not talking about sexism in Cinderella, we are not talking about Xenophobia in Oliver and Company. It’s in the White House, it’s in the Senate, it’s next door at your neighbor’s, your school teachers, your friends. My heart aches for Americans who feel that we are approaching a time of violence, despair, and distress all over the country. In a true and solemn fashion of reflection I want to take a moment to think about what Disney was doing in some of the other dark times in our country’s past.

                In 1929 the Walt Disney company released The Skeleton Dance, the first production in a series of short animations known as “Silly Symphonies.” The short was produced and directed by Mr. Walt Disney himself and employs a brand new style of color animation called technicolor. Most of the clips available are about 5 minutes long https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h03QBNVwX8Q and is about, you guessed it, skeleton dancing. While a handful of miserable, busted businessman and their wives were committing suicide, America’s children could enjoy a playful short film about skeletons.

In October of 1941 our favorite wide eared elephant was first featured on the big screen. Dumbo was the animated film that made its way alongside World War II propaganda produced by those same beloved animators. Dumbo is one of Disney’s shorter animated films, only 64 minutes long http://mentalfloss.com/article/66157/16-things-you-might-not-know-about-dumbo and because of the war efforts is also one of the cheapest ever produced. Two months after Disney hit theaters, the Japanese forces bombed Pearl Harbor, a naval base in Hawaii. It was the spark America needed to join World War II, with a total of 3,000 Americans were killed or injured.

                Princess Aurora, my mother’s favorite Disney princess made her debut in 1959. Sleeping Beauty was a beautifully colored and fantastical tale about a lovely princess who was cursed by the green, literally and figuratively, Maleficent. This story, like many of Disney’s tales is much different from any Brothers Grimm translation of the story (http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/68/fairy-tales-and-other-traditional-stories/5102/sleeping-beauty/) but it is a Disney classic all the same. In 1959 Stetson’s Kennedy’s book “Jim Crow Guide: The Way It Was” was published as a mock guide to the segregation and racial inequality in the South. Jim crow laws, separation of race by law, did not officially end until 1965, but the day this guide was released was a sharp reminder to the kind of society that built the nation we live in.

One of the gravest days in our history is September 9, 2001. On this day every year we take a moment of silence, we hug someone who lost their family member, we visit the previous location of the World Trade Center and pay our respects. On this day, foreign terrorism, terror from outside of this country, became a real and dangerous threat to our home. It is a day when this nation was so broken, its citizens had no choice but to come together. Disney did considerably well in that year, releasing Recess: School’s Out, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and Monster’s Inc. all notable films reaching various levels of success. The freshman class of 2020 may not recall any details from 9/11, but we all have seen Monsters. Inc.

So the world may seem to stop sometimes. We may feel defeated, ashamed, and powerless. But the sun will shine, the earth will turn, and Disney will keep making movies. This will not be the last cloudy day, for Americans who believe in equality, in respecting women, in freedom of religion, in respecting the color of people’s skin, in not building walls, in having a healthy, insured country. As Americans did on September 10, 2001, we will keep going and try again tomorrow. So today, I will say to everyone who is discouraged Disney has done some great things in film, but it has also failed a couple times, and failing is what makes them stronger.