Disneyfication

The other night I was sitting in my room, working away and thought, why not chill and watch a DVD. So I had a look through my own collection but nothing seemed to stand out so went on a hunt to find one that did, mainly searching through flat mates collections. I came across Hunch Back of Notre Damn and thought, why not relive my childhood memories.

While watching, I remembered the lecture we had a while back to do with The Disneyfication of Culture.

Now as a fan of Disney films while growing up you could always rely on them to seek amusement or another magical world to jump into for a couple of hours. But the satisfaction you get from watching them doesn’t stop when you get older. The great thing that Disney achieves with their films is the appeal they have to all. They can capture an audience young or old and keep them, entertained throughout. But what you don’t realize and I didn’t until this was pointed out to me, the underlining messages to do with the roles of female characters. The portrayal of women being dependent on men and taking on that role as a “Damsel in Distress”, did come to the attention of many and was therefore scrutinized. People took this as Disney encouraging the idea that for woman to succeed, they have to belong to a man, loose their independence and flaunt their womanly assets and so, creating a message that children believed to be right and showing them how to behave in society.

Like I said earlier I did not notice this until it was pointed out to me and as a keen Disney viewer I do not believe that this was their intention nor do I agree with what has been said. I think there nothing wrong with girls being inspired by their pretty dresses or their beautiful looks because I, myself grew up with Cinderella changing from rags to riches, Snow white poisoned by the evil witch and Esmeralda befriending a bell ringer and for me the films brought nothing more than hours of enjoyment. From recently watching the Hunch Back of Notre Damn I saw it from an adult point of view and realized just how clever Disney are.