Preview

Analyzing Disney's Animated Film 'The Mouse That Roared'

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1067 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Analyzing Disney's Animated Film 'The Mouse That Roared'
Terra Novacoski
Mrs. Hill
English Composition 11 117 29, January 2012
A World NOT So Magical Disney is said to be “the happiest place on earth,” but taking a closer look at the real message of Disney’s animated films make writers as well as parents hesitate. In chapter three of The Mouse That Roared by Henry A. Giroux, Giroux writes about the huge industry of Disney and how the animated movies send out messages to kids that might not be the best. In this chapter Giroux talks about how most of Disney’s 1990 movies portray sexist, racism, and evil vs. good; and in writing this Giroux is trying to bring to attention that Disney is not as innocent as everyone sees it to be. When reading this chapter I thought that most of these controversies
…show more content…
In many movies that Disney has recently come out with, as well as previous movies, have examples of this gender role. Movies like Tangled, Princess and the Frog, and Mulan. Giroux states “The construction of gender identity for girls and women represents one of the most controversial issues in Disney’s animated films.” (pg 98) What Giroux means is that we, parents, should not be showing little girl children that you should be underneath a man and not being independent. This is a big issue in the world of Disney because in almost every movie you see from the start, women are portrayed as less than men or some say weaker. For an example in the 1989 movie The Little Mermaid Ariel, the mermaid, appears to be struggling for independence with her parents to go out on her own and explore the human world. When she meets handsome prince Eric from up above she instantly falls in love and her main reason changed from being independent to falling in love. To young girls, they see that along with choice and dreams is tied with finding true love with a handsome man. When watching movies like this you tend to not notice these hidden controversies and by taking a second look you realize how negative these films can be towards young girls and their

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In this supplement of Gender and Women's Studies in Canada, Sharon Lamb and Lyn Mikel Brown list several characteristics found in women that are present in the majority of Disney and Pixar films. While I agree with most of the characteristics listed and can call to mind many examples that fit these descriptions, I found some discrepancies with the examples that Lamb and Mikel Brown used, specifically with their mentions of Mulan. The authors state that "Disney girls have no support systems" and that "even after proving themselves, they find real honor with a husband" (336) and support this statement with the movie Mulan. I disagree with this because Mulan in fact does not marry at the end of the movie and she also has a support system of not…

    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Disney produced the movie “The Princess and the Frog”, an adaptation of the classic fairytale “The Frog Prince” and is set in New Orleans, Louisiana during the 1920’s. In the movie Tiana has a dream about owning her own restaurant. She starts of as a waitress, working multiple jobs to help save the money to buy the mill. Lottie gives Tiana enough money to finish paying for the restaurant because she orders food. Naveen arrives with Lawrence and they find the Dr. Facilier, who transforms Lawrence into Naveen and Naveen into a frog. During Lottie’s party the realtors tell Tiana she’s been outbid and Tiana gets dirty while trying to talk to them. Lottie gets her cleaned up and looking like a princess. Tiana finds Prince Naveen in frog form. He begs her to kiss him and turn him human. Once they kiss Tiana gets turned into a frog too. They escape to find someone to change them back to humans. They get advice about Mama Odie, a voodoo woman in the middle of the swamp who can change them back. Naveen starts learning some simple tasks, such as how to dice food. They find Mama Odie who tells them that they should find what they really want but that to become human they must kiss a princess. They get back to New Orleans…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Transitioning on from the perspective of a communications graduate, we move on to see how gendered roles are portrayed in Disney Princess movies and how they affect young children, from the perspective of a psychology graduate. Katie Lopreore, the psychology graduate from Middle Tennessee State University, writes about how the influences of the Disney Princess films shape children through their gendered characteristics, in her journal Gender roles portrayals of modern Disney royalty: stereotypical or androgynous? Lopreore starts off with an evaluation on how many children are exposed to the Disney Princess culture, she writes “Disney brand, found that 97% of children they surveyed between ages 2-11 years old were familiar with Cinderella, one…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I do agree that Disney does follow a lot of the Gender stereotypes. In Disney, Women have to be really skinny and white to be beautiful, which is not true they focus on outer beauty and not inner beauty. They are teaching little girls beauty is being white and skinny that is resulting in an image and standards set for girls. I totally disagree with that and think Beauty should vary and not be just be white and skinny. In "The little Mermaid" many stereotypes are involved involving Ariel and her prince. They teach the idea of changing who you are to be with someone and not following the idea of "being yourself". They teach the idea that women are submissive. I think symbolically it even goes deeper to say that women give up their voice to be…

    • 338 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    So here you are watching what you think is an innocent Disney movie, free of harm, but yet if you watch closely you can see that they are anything but innocent. Two major Disney produced movies, The Lion King and Aladdin were both major hits despite that fact that they both have unrealized racial subliminal messages. Despite this, Disney is still known as one of the major and most successful movie companies. Now who wants their young kids watching movies filled with racial innuendos? The problem is that no one is realizing them.…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Disney Gender Roles Essay

    • 555 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Disney, in particular, has become a main focal point for debates such as these because of the power that they possess when it comes to young children. While it seems as though Disney attempts to maintain…

    • 555 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Snow White Gender Analysis

    • 1334 Words
    • 6 Pages

    For generations, Walt Disney films have been a “must watch” by parents, children and their families. However, these people may not see the hidden meanings behind Disney films. Currently, children are constantly exposed to media and opinions inherently presented within television, films, radio, books and more. Disney films are no exception. The films Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty all reinforce traditional gender roles, and the idea that lightness is supreme and will help when it comes to goodness conquering evil.…

    • 1334 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Whenever we came across a different animal I would ask the girls if they thought that it was a girl or a boy before reading the page. Every time they guessed, they were right. Authors make books so that children can easily identify the characters as male or female to help them understand the book better. Gender roles are enforced at a very young age and this is what helps children to comprehend why a pig would be wearing a dress or why an elephant would be wearing a suit. I think that even though recently people have been trying to get rid of gender roles, they are still a major part of a character. The characters actions are often times relative to their genders. Examples of this can be found in many Disney films in which the female is rescued or saved by the male…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    in Gillam and Wooden 481). Many Disney films deliver positive messages and life lessons. In an essay written by Ken Gillam and Shannon R. Wooden they aim to shame Disney by talking giving the assumption that it feminizes males, for example in the Beauty and Beast the contrast of the “uber macho Gaston and the sensitive, misunderstood Beast” (471). Yet they do not discuss the positive message this movie provides for children which is that “True beauty is found not in how one looks, but in how one treats others”. It teaches children not to judge people based on their looks and first impressions. “Henry Giroux argues that the impact of Disney is tremendously more widespread than out household citing Michael Eisner's 1995 “Planetized Entertainment” claiming that 200 million people a year watch Disney videos or films , and in a week 395 million watch a Disney TV show, 3.8 million subscribe to the Disney Channel and 810,000 make a purchase at a Disney store” (Gillam and Wooden 480). A child is not analyzing the masculinity of a character the way us adults do. They are watching these films while their minds grasp morals from them that teach them being good has its perks opposed to being evil. Disney has a positive effect on children's perception of right and…

    • 1667 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Old Disney Stereotypes Essay

    • 4097 Words
    • 17 Pages

    Disney stereotypes from a far seem to be changing for the best and leaning towards pleasing the new generations. Yet after analyzing the newer films there are still problems with stereotyping races, and dehumanizing women into fairy tale princesses. For this paper I choose to study how Disney continues to slide by and get away with racial stereotypes and comments by using just enough “good” so that many people do not notice. This essay is trying to answer the question, what scholars Old Disney and how does new Disney challenge it? First I plan on talking about older Disney paradoxes such as race stereotypes starting with older films like Dumbo and ending with the 90’s film The Lion King. Next I discuss the classic “princess” paradox which occur in Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Beauty and the Beast, and The little Mermaid. After this I…

    • 4097 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    If a company like Disney is willing to change their ways because of how we now view gender, are other production companies going to do the same? The answer to this is both yes and no. If we look back on some of the bigger movies in the 20th century and compare them to those of the 21st century, the production companies, although sometimes overlap, often don't. However, if we look at the movies that were released throughout the 20th century and compare them to those of the 21st century it is evident that there has been an increase in strong female leads. Just in the last 30 years, which would include all of the 21st century so far and the last 13 years of the 20th century, the change in movies has been large. Clueless, which was released in…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Disney Fairy tales have always been used as a tool to maintain white supremacy, racial stereotypes, and internalized racism. Despite its use for entertainment; fairy tales have commonly been used as a strategy to inform and educate children about the real world. However, the information children received while watching these fairy tales are often filled with unrealistic stereotypes. This is mainly because many, if not all Disney films are used to produce a negative image for people of certain minority groups. Although Disney tries to make the stereotypical representations very subtle, they still manage to destroy any minority groups image in the growing mind of the children who…

    • 293 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the earlier days of animation, much like most media, female characters were given the stereotypical role of always needing to be saved by the male hero of the story. Like how most early Micky Mouse cartoons that involve Minnie, usually involves her needing to be saved by Micky in some form. However, a very good example to look at when looking into the role of female characters, is Disney’s Princesses. They tend to have a huge impact on the younger generation, mostly with how they are aimed towards that audience. One of the main jobs that a Disney Princesses can be considered to have is to act as a role model and someone that young girls can look up to and inspire to be. They are also very easy to market and is one the biggest marketing products out there when it comes to Disney’s merchandise. Despite the idea of a Disney Princess being role models, they have been accused of not being the best of role models with people claiming that they don’t really do anything. Which can be true in some cases, but at the same time isn’t. An example of character not doing much is Aurora from Sleeping Beauty (Walt Disney, 1959). Even though the story is all about her, she doesn’t actually do much in the film itself and only has roughly 18 minutes of screen time. There is the argument that each character is a product of its…

    • 2015 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Racism in Disney Movies

    • 379 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1. The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence (Culture and Education Series) + The Mouse that Roared Student Edition: Disney and the End of Innocence [Kindle Edition]; Henri A.Giroux (Author)…

    • 379 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Shame of Family Films

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages

    This article made me think back to the movies I watched as a child and I realized that a lot of those movies were also sexist. Many of the movies were and are made with traditional gender roles set in them. They portrayed a feeble main female character that was saved by a strong male character or a main character was a very strong minded male who was assisted by a female sidekick. I agree with Baird that there is a lack of heroines in children’s movies. Many children may continue to follow the traditional gender roles because of the movies they watch. Boys will think that they are suppose to be strong, powerful, and intelligent and the girls will think that they have to be weak and that even if they are strong and have power, a male will always have more power. I would like to see more female characters in children’s movies not abiding by the traditional gender roles because…

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays