Disney Animated Films

Disney is a corporation like any other; they are driven by their desire for wealth, not their desire to put smiles on kid’s faces. They make movies and other products that appeal to children in order to gain profits from the parent’s wallets. There is no denying this fact and it is a norm in our society. However, to say that their movies promote such themes as gender subordination and racial stereotyping is absurd. Only by completely overanalyzing the plots and characters of these films could Giroux come to such a conclusion. Also, regardless of the evidence, no child has the real world experience or a mature enough intelligence to pick up on any stereotypes that may exist in Disney movies. As a result, I disagree with Giroux’s argument.

Danielle's response to Giroux

Giroux chooses to write about Disney and the underlying messages it has. He introduces the topic by talking about his children, and how they watch Disney movies religiously. Absolutely every child in America owns at least one Disney production. Walt Disney Studios has created the squeaky clean image of innocence and youth. It creates wholesome themes such as the “most perfect place on earth” where everyone is happy and all is well. Giroux talks about how many critics don’t talk about Disney because they are “children’s films” and aren’t to be taken seriously. But he does. He talks about how different Disney movies and how successful they have been, not only on the big screen but with their merchandise and promotions as well. This shows the impact on children’s lives because of the constant contact to these things. Giroux exposes the dark side of Disney. There are stereotypes and prejudices within the movies. There are rigid gender roles in which the women are subordinate to men, racism in which the light or more American looking characters are the “good guys’, and antidemocratic ideals. This is teaching our youth from a very young age that this is what is accepted and what is expected. Giroux concludes by saying that these things are ignored by our society. He wants these cultural values to be taken seriously and for parents to be more aware of what their children are watching.

Disney Blog Post

I was really surprised with this article. I thought there would be some sort of point to Giroux's argument, but it seemed as if he just had nothing better to write about. The entire article was him bashing on Disney, because he had nothing better to complain about. I agree with him when he says that Disney is made to entertain children, because it's true. That is what Disney was made for. To entertain children with fun, sing-along movies. The Disney corporation targets young children and adolescents who like to sit back and watch a meaningless movie. I highly doubt that when children watch these films, they think about the underlying messages of sexism, racism, and corruption. Giroux takes Disney way too seriously. The Lion King is my favorite movie, and I don't finish the movie thinking how racist they are by making the hyenas have a Hispanic accent. I do not like how critical this article was on something that is so harmless and fun.

Disney Animated Films

I disagree with a couple aspects of this excerpt: stereotypes and racism. Giroux believes that Ursula, in the Little Mermaid, the wolf-like monster, in Beauty and the Best, and Scar, from the Lion King, “are tied to larger narratives about freedom, rites of passage, intolerance, choice, greed, and the brutalities of mall chauvinism” all because they are portrayed as evil animals. I completely disagree with this. They are obviously the antagonists in these stories, so it is easier to hate these characters if they look evil. There is no underlying message at all. It is just easier for kids to understand that these characters are evil if they look evil. Next, Giroux states, “Bright, courageous, literate, and politically progressive, [Pocahontas] is a far cry from the traditional negative stereotypes of Native Americans portrayed in Hollywood films”. Yet, for the next couple of pages, Giroux talks about all the different stereotypes and racism in the Disney films. He is not consistent. He does not effectively prove his point when he says that yes, maybe one movie does not have many racist views, but the other one does, therefore Disney is racist. I grew up with these movies, and not once did I notice any underlying stereotypes or racism. Of course, I was not looking for them in the movies, but I got older and I still do not have stereotypical or racist views. So, Disney must have either done a really poor job being stereotypical and racist, or they just didn’t include these aspects at all.

Disney Blog Post

This article was most definitely interesting and Giroux's argument is very convincing; I, however, almost totally disagree with is point of view. Disney is not the only company in the world that produces childrens' animated movies and it is somewhat absurd to say that its goal is to turn children into mass consumers. I also do not agree that it is trying to feed children messages of racism and sexism. These animated Disney movies follow the norm of the culture at the time and for the age group that these films are geared toward, those types of messages would not even register yet; Disney audiences are too young to understand that type of material and would therefore have no use for it. Also, to attack the Little Mermaid and say that not only Ursula, but Ariel herself are bad influences on children (turning them into rebellious teens or that she gears them to dress as she does from Vogue) is ridiculous. All movies, whether they be animated films or adult films, have to have a villain in order for the story line to be remotely interesting. Why should this have to be any different in childrens' movies. However, what I will agree with is the idea of racism in Aladdin; although it may not register to children, the accents in Aladdin, making the bad characters have lower class, heavier accents, is quite unacceptable.
Marie Albertoli

Giroux response

Personally, I dont agree with the author. I feel that he doesnt make a valid point at all becasue Disney, a huge corporation, would not be as successful as it is if these allegations were true. Another reason why this does not make sense is that Disney moives are for little children who do not understand ideas such as racism and sexism and adults do not watch disney movies to often and if they do its not for the purpose of seeing is Disney is racist or sexist. Lastly, he could interpret these movies differently than other people by thinking Disney is purposely trying to include these negative ideas in their movies. Overall I think this author might be falsely accusing Disney, whos provided thousands of movies over the years which little children love.

Children's Culture and Disney's Animated Films

This article talks about the gender differences and discrimination of sex, and race Giroux’s Children Culture and Disney’s Animated Films. This article has a very radical form of thought. Mostly all animated children films look for equality. Looking back at the past in Disney, Walt Disney was Anti-Semitic. I think Giroux tried to find a correlation between this. This is not accurate; Disney movies strive to look into different cultures. Films also look for unity for all people. I can’t think of a Disney movie that had horrible feeling at the end to a different group of people.

Giroux writing response

Although Giroux presents a lot of evidence to support his claims about Disney, I find it a little hard to believe. Disney is a major corporation and is very influential in the world today. Most movies that are aimed toward younger audiences have something to do with Disney. I just don’t think it is possible that such a successful and influential company is based on sexist and racist ideas. Also, Disney was founded in 1923. Women were still oppressed by men and very few people accepted minorities as equals. Disney himself and movies of that day and age did most likely have underlying racist and sexist themes but that is just due to the time period in which it was developed.

Taylor Gillie: Disney Animated Films

The article by Henry Giroux about Disney’s animated films, I thought was very interesting. I liked hearing someones elses interepretation of some of the classic Disney movies and the idea of Disney itself. With that in mind I do not really agree that Disney is as bad as he claims. I agree that Disney is very capitalistic and most all Disney movies have hidden stereotypical cultural references, but honestly I do not really think it is a very big deal. In today’s society everything you look at can be analyzed until something bad is found in it, for the most part Disney movies are fairly good, I do not see why we have to make one of the last few good things in our world out to be bad. I honestly do not think that anyone can make a movie that does not have at least one underlying stereotype, we live in a world of stereotypes, and I think that people just need to live with that. Disney movies are meant to entertain and think that is how they should be taken as.

Giroux:Children’s Culture and Disney’s Animated Films

As interesting as I found this reading, I disagree with many of the things Giroux says. I do not believe that children watch movies and pick out the racist and cultural commentary, let alone identify certain scenes in moves as 'clashing culture'. I believe that Disney movies give off a much better message that children take away from it, that they do in underlying controversies in culture and race. Young children are not going to pick out which scenes inaccurately depict women in society and which clash in cultures. I think that Disney is a special part of childhood that one should not be putting down so much as Giroux is in this reading.

Children's Culture and Disney's Animated Films

This essay by Giroux was very interesting, but I find some of his claims hard to believe. I agree with the fact the Disney trademarks innocence by calling themselves the "magic kingdom" and "the happiest place on earth". The rest of his arguments seem kind of pointless. As a kid, I never noticed any sex or race discrimination. I think I have probably watched all the movies he talked about at least 3 times. They have not altered my views at all. The Disney movies a purely made for the entertainment of children and that's exactly what children see them as. Maybe there are hidden messages in the movies, but only adults will be able to notice them.

I found this reading to be a good read but i can't say i agree with Giroux though. No child is going to notice as quoted in the reading "the hyenas sounds like poor blacks and hispanics." Also i didn't not notice the "overt racism towards Arabs" in the movie Aladdin. I know when i was watching these movies i didn't notice any of that. Myself along with every other child who watched these Disney movies were watching them purely for entertainment. Giroux's only shows negative aspects of Disney movies and caused me to question his credibility.

Children's Culture and Disney's Animated Films Writing Assignment

I thought that this essay by Henry A. Giroux is very informative and amazing at the same time. He addresses the impact that Disney leaves on children, statistical information to defend Disney's ownership of wealth and power, and many other topics, including critiques of Disney films. He transitions well from topic to topic and I was shocked to read about the amounts of money that Disney makes off of movies and consumer products, especially about The Lion King. The Lion King is my favorite movie of all time and I love everything about the movie. I think it is interesting on how Giroux attacks Disney films, including The Lion King. He discusses how the hyenas have black and hispanic voices, and how Scar is darker than "the good lions", and I never really noticed these things when I was little. I also like how he ties landscaping of Disney parks to other areas of the world like shopping malls and even homes. Children really do learn lessons from these movies, like he states, and I've learned many from these movies, especially Hakuna Matata, No Worries! I've never read anything like this before and I think that after reading this, I will be paying more attention to themes of Disney, their theme parks, and their overall impact on the world's societies. My dad even sent me a cool e-mail today about Disney offering internships to all college students, any major, and any school. This perfectly supports the idea that Disney is everywhere and that it impacts us everyday, no matter what we are doing.

While I don't particularly enjoy Disney's actions as a corporation, Disney cassette tapes, activity books, and read-a-longs were a huge part of how I learned to read. Even though some of Giroux's arguments were valid, at points I felt like he was using weak arguments just to prove his point. For example when he describes Disney as "antidemocratic." Obviously many Disney movies would involve a lot of hierarchical societies because many of the stories are set in the past. Children enjoy reading Grimm's fairy tales but rarely do we hear complaints about gender roles and antidemocratic ideas in their writing. I think Giroux gives kids too much credit for being able to detect racist or sexist undertones and too little for being able to differentiate between reality and cartoons.

While I found this reading very interesting, I did not agree with Grioux. I think that it is hard to say that young children, who these movies are created for, are analyzing them as critically as Grioux. In fact, they aren't analyzing the movies at all. I agree with Quintin in the sense that children are watching these movies for the music, aesthetically pleasing scenes, and of course the happy endings. I highly doubt that the children who watch these movies walk away with a stereotype of women, such as Grioux's argument that Belle's purpose was to solve a man's problem, or a false understanding of American history, such as his criticism of Pocahontas. These movies are made to entertain children, not corrupt them with poor morals. Most of us grew up watching and enjoying Disney classics and we all turned out fine.

Response To Children's Culture andd Disney's Animated Films

I have read something like this before from my first year at UVA, but this reading did not interest me like it did before at all. I understood what Giroux's point was about how Disney does their films and makes it good for the kids, but the kids don't look at the movie to figure out the bad messages in it. Do you think kids would've thought or figured out that there were stereotypes in, The Lion King? NO!! I know when I watched Disney movies as a kid, I didn't see the stereotypes, racism, etc in every movie. I think children do understand which characters in each movie are good or bad, but that is pretty straight forward. Now that I'm a adult, I can see the things that Giroux is pointing out, but I as far as the kids shake, they are still going to watch Disney movies the same no matter how bad the stereotypes are, because the only thing they get out of a movie is a happy ending.

Responce to "Children's Culture and Disney's Animated Films"

As Emily said, on a liking-disliking basis, I did not like this article. I think that all Giroux did was attack Disney. He did not take the time to explore any positives that could result from watching Disney movies, and I am sure that Disney is not all negative as Giroux makes it out to be. I grew up watching Disney, so my opinion is probably biased, but I went into the article with an open mind thinking maybe several good points would be made. Giroux did have several good ideas, but I think the way he presented them, just attacking Disney, made me lose interest in his argument and made me not what to believe what he was saying. Yes, there may be prejudice in some of the Disney movies, but children do not consciously pick up on that. Also, works of art, whether they are music, literature, or media, reflect ideas present in the time period they were made in. Disney is not trying to brain wash children so they become racist, it is just coming up with plots that will capture the audience’s attention and inspire creativity and imagination in them.

Children's Culture and Disney's Animated Films.

I personally did not like this reading at all. At first I was excited to read about Disney animated movies because I loved watching them as a kid and I still love watching them to this day. Giroux talks about how the Disney movies suggest racism and gender roles and how the kids watching them are going to pick out thoes subjects, learn from them and in turn act upon what they were taught in these movies. I do agree there are hints of racism and gender roles but I disagree with the thoughts that children will learn from them and act upon what they see in the movies. I disagree because I grew up watching these movies and I never saw these hints until I was older and was able to understand the concepts. The childern who watch Disney movies are so young that they will not even notice the racism or gender roles within the movie simply because they cannot grasp those concepts yet. The children just like the movies for the fantsay world with the happy ending. They will never notice racism, gender roles or anyother negative concepts like those until they are older and can understand what they are. When that does happen it will not affect them because they will already know the difference between right and wrong and have their own views.

Response to "Children's Culture and Disney's Animated Films"

Personally, I believe that what Giroux displays in this writing is a bit of a stretch.  Honestly, every single kid who watches the Disney movies that we all have come to know and love isn't watching the movies thinking, "Wow, I can't believe The Lion King is stereotypical of the role of women in society or wow, I had no idea that Aladdin shows racism."  The audience for which these movies is intended is too young to know what Giroux claims Disney is portraying even is.  Furthermore, I don't like the fact that Giroux talks negatively about how Disney expanded its company beyond movies to Disneyland, action figures, clothes, stuffed animals, etc.  If Disney was as successful as they were with their films, then why wouldn't they expand their company to improve profit?  It only makes sense.  Overall, I don't really buy what Giroux is saying at all, and I also am not a fan of the fact that he is downgrading one of our best known child memories.

Disney and the Hope for Innocence

I believe what Giroux is saying is true. Like how Shrek is a metaphor for how ugly people should only marry ugly people, so thank God Fiona changed back into a disgusting ogre, so Shrek and she could be happily married. Right?

Wrong! This kind of pyschological "let-me-destroy-something-pure-so-I-can-look-pensive-and-intelligent" nonsense has gone too far. They are trying to mess with Disney. You don't do that.

Giroux echos the same sick teenagers who see a part of male genitalia within the Little Mermaid's castle (upside-down of course). You see what you want to see. Perverts look for something to laugh at, they found it. Giroux looked for controversy, he found it.

Within the middle paragraph on page 574, Giroux says that "Disney's films offer children oppurtunities to locate themselves in a world that resonates with their desires and interests...At the same time, these films are often filled with contradictory messages." No, no, no. Maybe to you, Mr. Giroux, with your Ph.D. from Carnegie-Mellon and your thirty+ years of analyzing the media's affect on culture. But not to an outspoken, freespirited five year old who saw the Little Mermaid as a chance for her to marry a Prince, even if she was a little different than everyone else.

Children's Culture and Disney's Animated Films

On a strictly liking - disliking basis I did NOT like this reading. I went into it being pretty excited to see what Giroux was going to talk about because I guess I'm just ignorant and didn't know the "truths" of Disney World. But, you know something? I value my ignorance in this instance because for some of the awful things Giroux explains that Disney does; such as the claims for racism in Aladdin and clashing cultures in Pocahontas I believe that the children watching it do not "care" about those issues. Children do not watch movies such as these to look for racism and clashing cultures, and the good lessons that they are learning from these movies are far more important and influential. The expansion of their minds and imaginations is by far the more pressing purpose of these movies.