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