Dr. Disney: Disney Monsters as Education Figures

1
Dr. Disney Disney Monsters as Education Figures

• Edward Porrello

2
Important Questions

• What messages is Disney sending?
• How are they sending these messages?
• How do the characters and monsters convey these
  messages?
  
• How effective are they in relaying these ideals
  to their audience?

3
Basic Fundamental Truths

• Disney movies do indeed have messages and moral
  lessons.
  
• Disney movies have an audience to which these
  messages are sent.
  
• Disney is capable of producing persuasive and
  manipulative films.
  
• Disneys audience is able to retain and
  understand the messages

4
Disney as Manipulator

• Disney and propaganda
• Animated
• Likeable characters
• Messages and themes

5
Entertainment and Children

• Entertainments role in prosocial education.
• Liebert experiment
• Viewers tend to accept and internalize the
  attitudes, values, and behaviors portrayed on
  broadcast television. No viewers are as
  vulnerable to such process as children.
• Fantasy/Reality boundary
• Young children have difficulty negotiating the
  boundary between fantasy and reality.
  
• Tend to accept entertainment as reality

6
Disney and Children

• Study on attentiveness to entertainment
• Children more likely to retain information
  provided by animated characters
  
• Children more attentive to female and higher
  voices
  
• Children more attentive to nonhuman characters,
  or characters outside their social network
  
• Disney utilizes animation and interesting
  characters to attract children and uses
  propaganda tactics to convey their messages.
  

7
The Lion King

• Everything you see exists in a delicate balance
  we are all connected in the great circle of
  life.
  
• Everything the light touches is our kingdom.
• Thats beyond our borders.

8
The Lion King

• Sire! Hyenas! In the Pride Lands!
• One day you will be king. Then you can chase
  those slobbering, mangy, stupid poachers from
  dawn until dusk.

9
The Lion King

• Border conflict between rich and impoverished
  land.
  
• The Pride Lands serve as a magnet for
  immigrants.
  
• The presence of immigrants will disrupt the
  delicate balance in the ecosystem.
  
• Shown by Mufasas swift reaction to notice of
  illegal border crossing
  

10
The Lion King

• Darker than Lion counterparts.
• Dirty and disheveled.

11
The Lion King

• Groups
• Never individualized
• All the same
• Characteristics
• Stupid
• Militant
• Aggressive
• Dangerous

12
The Lion King

• Hyenas bring about demise of the Pride Lands
• Herds move away
• Land becomes ruined
• Food shortage

• Simba assimilates into a new environment
• Land remains prosperous
• Adjusts his dietary habits
• Lush and beautiful landscape

13
The Lion King

• Mass deportation of hyenas
• The land is once again prosperous
• Strong border enforcing ruler emerges

14
The Little Mermaid

• Established borders
• Obvious differences
• Know little about each other

15
The Little Mermaid

• Dangers of crossing the border
• Attack of the elements on Erics ship
• Shipwreck ends celebration
• Joining of two worlds brings about peril
• Ursula attempts to take over Ocean
• Destruction of Ariels identity

16
The Little Mermaid

• Transformation of Ariel
• Ariel undergoes a physical change
• Ursula turns her into a human and she is welcomed
  in the human world
  
• The two worlds can be united as long as one side,
  namely the merpeople, is willing to change and
  accept human identity.

17
The Little Mermaid

• Sebastians encounter with chef
• Establishes the human world as the more powerful
  world
  
• The human world is a magnet for immigration
• Ariels desire to become human
• Chefs power over sea creatures

18
The Little Mermaid

• Darker than Mermaids and Humans
• Different species
• Nothing like the other cultures, no common ground

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The Little Mermaid

• Elimination of Ursula
• Peace and prosperity return to both lands
• Humans and Merpeople are reconciled
• Outsiders, or immigrants, are able to become a
  part of the host society as long as they are
  willing to sacrifice their identity.
  
• If you are fundamentally different, you cannot
  make the transformation and can never gain
  acceptance.

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Comparison

• Immigrants are able to become a part of their new
  world as long as they are similar to begin with
  and are willing to sacrifice their culture and
  ideals.
• Darker immigrants, however, are not given this
  opportunity they are portrayed as a group that
  is unwilling and unable to change.

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Conclusion

• What can/should we do?
• Profit driven business
• Reflection of society
• Messages pertaining to issues of interest
• Education and multiple views
• Provide children with other views on issues
• Utilize the movies as an educational tool