Disney Characters Interact in "Disneyverse"

Where do Disney characters live?  Why in "Disneyverse" of course!

Have you ever noticed that Disney characters tend to make guest appearances in Disney films in which they are not the star?  For example, in Aladdin, the Genie at one point transforms into Pinocchio.  Stacy Conradt points out nine other cameo appearances, including:

Aladdin's magic carpet in the opening scene from The Princess and The Frog (on the left in this photo)

The Beast in a pile of the Sultan's toys in Aladdin (towards the top left of the pile)

Belle, Pumbaa, and Aladdin's Carpet (yet again) in The Hunchback of Notre Dame

And the cameos continue in Disney's most recent film Frozen! 








An article from cinemablend.com revealed this picture on the left which pictures a moment during the song "For the First Time in Forever."  If you look at the left, you can clearly make out what looks like Eugene and Rapunzel.  

How can we explain these guest appearances?  Kelly West, the author of the article on the Frozen cameo, suggested the cute idea that Disney characters not only live in the same "Disneyverse," but are "close enough to stop by for a visit."  I find it a comforting thought, and a clever and imaginative idea on Disney's part, that all of our favorite Disney characters seem to know each other and continue to live out their lives off-screen in a community together.  As for the real reason behind these guest appearance -- who knows!  Perhaps the it purely for the entertainment of the Disney animators or Disney's version of "Where's Waldo" for the viewers. In any case, it's fun to imagine that Disney characters interact in "Disneyverse."

G-rated Films Lead to G-rated History

 

Many Disney critics have pointed out that Disney films and other entertainment products that are based on true stories contain many historical inaccuracies.  For example, in his article "The Strange Case of The Princess and the Frog: Passing and the Elision of Race," Ajay Gehlawat notes that the film portrays much less racial segregation than was actually present during the 1920s, the time period in which the film is set.  The article "10 Historically Inaccurate Movies" by Jane McGrath mentions many disparities between the true story of Pocahontas and the Disney film.  In the article "Mickey Mouse History: Portraying the Past at Disney World," Mike Wallace criticizes the Disney park Epcot, a park supposedly built to educate the public, for failing to teach about many significant events in U.S. history and portraying others with an inaccurate positive spin.  

While I agree that these Disney products are not historically accurate, I don't agree that it makes them flawed.  Due to the age range of Disney's primary audience, many historical details must be omitted from Disney films because they are not appropriate for young children, as mentioned briefly by Gehlawat.  On the other hand, McGrath claims that the audience of young children is the very reason that it is a flaw, because the film "misleads children and interferes with the events they'll later learn about."  However, as McGrath points out, children do learn about these historical events later in their schooling and from other sources.  If Disney was the only mode through which children learned about history, then the inaccuracies would certainly be a problem.  But this is not the case.  Instead, Disney provides a great way for children to learn about some parts of history early on, and learn about it in a fun and enjoyable way.  Disney's portray of history, although not completely accurate, is a positive way to teach children a little about history while providing enjoyable entertainment at the same time.

Disney's Not-So-Creative Character Names

Is there a method to naming Disney characters?

After reading many articles that analyze Disney movies, it has become apparent to me that there is a method behind the naming of Disney's characters.  For example, in his article "The Strange Case of The Princess and the Frog: Passing and the Elision of Race," Ajay Gehlawat writes that "Naveen," the name of the prince from Maldonia, means "new" in Hindi (Gehlawat 423).  While to me this seems like just a coincidence, Gehlawat believes that this double meaning "would technically make him Disney's "new prince" (Gehlawat 423).  However, there are many other characters whose names sport double meanings.  The article "Disney Character Names with Meaning" from the official Disney blog gives a list of some Disney characters along with the double meaning of their name.  This list includes Simba, whose name means lion in Swahili; Lumiere, whose name means light in French; Rafiki, whose name means friend in Swahili; Belle, whose name means beautiful in French; LeFou, which means fool in French; Flotsam and Jetsam (the eels from The Little Mermaid), which is an English phrase referring to the "floating wreckage of a ship."

While the double meanings of these names are very logical in that they reflect the character, they are very uncreative.  For a company that is a hub of imagination, I would hope for a little more fun and originality.  Perhaps they don't spend much time brainstorming creative names because many people don't time looking into them, but I don't think this is any excuse for a company that prides itself on creativity and ingenuity.  I would like to see Disney try a little harder and have more fun in naming the characters of their future movies.  

Tiana's Work Ethic: A Positive or Negative Quality?

Does Disney's The Princess and the Frog portray Tiana's work ethic as a negative quality?

In her article "Blackness, Bayous, and Gumbo: Encoding and Decoding Race in a Colorblind World," Sarah Turner points out that rather than focusing on Tiana's physical appearance, The Princess and the Frog references "her work ethic, often as a negative attribute" (Turner 88).  To support this, Turner offers the following evidence: "her friends complain that 'all you ever do is work;' her mother says it is a 'shame you're working so hard;' Tiana herself acknowledges she 'doesn't have time for dancing;' and, Naveen refers to her as a 'stick in the mud'" (Turner 88-89).  

This argument struck a cord with me because, as a Duke student, I relate a lot to Tiana's character, and specifically her work ethic.  I consider myself to have a very high work eithic, and I feel that I am subject some of the same criticism that Tiana gets from her friends.  Also, like Tiana, I don't often have time for leisurely activities like 'dancing.'  When I first consider all of these scenes from the movie together, it is clear that Tiana gets a lot of grief for working hard to achieve her goal, which is unfortunate, yet something that would happen in the real world, according to my experience.  I don't think these comments portray Tiana's work ethic as a negative thing, but they do imply that her life is not as enjoyable as it could be if she didn't work as much.  And who would say otherwise?  Tiana's life is not as enjoyable during those years when she's working multiple jobs, but she ends up achieving her goal of owning a restaurant and being extremely happy with her life, making her sacrifice completely worth it.  

However, Disney could have definitely portrayed Tiana's work ethic as a more respectable quality.  The comments mentioned above could have been altered to respect Tiana rather than criticize her, and that would be a positive change.  But overall, I think Tiana's work ethic serves as a positive role model, and shows that with hard work you can achieve your dreams.  

Positive Stereotypes in Disney...a bad thing?

While reading Martin Norden's "'You're a Surprise from Every Angle': Disability, Identity, and Otherness in The Hunchback of Notre Dame," I was very surprised by his opinion of a stereotype in Disney.  Norden seems to think that even the use of what can be considered a positive stereotype is something Disney should avoid.  He writes, "By reducing the Hugo narrative to a Beauty and the Beast level, the filmmakers thus fell back on one of the most enduring beliefs about "good" [people with disabilities]: that they possess an inner beauty that compensates for their less-than-perfect exteriors.  Though presumably well-intentioned, such a simplistic belief represents stereotyped thinking at its most insidious..." (Norden 166).  Norden's negative language here implies that he is against Disney's use of this stereotype, even though it seems to imply something positive about people with disabilities.  I suppose its fair to say that any stereotypical thinking is something that society should avoid, but in this case I don't think Disney should be criticized.  I can't think of any circumstances in which children believing that deformed people are kind would be a bad thing, except for maybe if they are somehow hurt from approaching someone who is deformed in reality who is not very nice.  Disney tends to use stereotypes in their films to make things simpler for their young audience, and this stereotype does not seem like a bad one at all.  

Yet, if you still think that even this stereotype should not be used by Disney, it should relieve you to know that apparently children do not pick it up from the movie.  The 2010 Pacific Standard article "In Disney Films, Disney is Far from Beastly" by Tom Jacobs describes a small experiment done on children to study the influence that beauty stereotypes portrayed by Disney had on them (Jacobs).  Children from ages 6 to 12 were split into two groups; one half watched Cinderella and the other half watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Jacobs).  After the showings, the children were shown pictures and asked questions such as "How nice do you think this person is?" (Jacobs).  It was discovered that children "'reported an overall greater desire to befriend an attractive peer... [and rated] the child [in the photograph]...as nicer relative to an unattractive peer...no matter which film they had just watched'" (Jacobs).  While it is sad that this is the case, it appears that these children's desire to befriend more beautiful people was no affected by Disney films.  Of course, this study was a small one and is not sufficient to constitute a pattern, but it does suggest that Disney might not have the negative impact on children that many critics claim it does.  

Works Cited

Jacobs, Tom. "In Disney Films, Beauty Is Far From Beastly." Pacific Standard. Pacific Standard, n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <http://www.psmag.com/culture-society/in-disney-films-beauty-is-far-from-beastly-25119/>.

Disney characters spotted at my local pumpkin patch!

What do Disney's characters have to do with Halloween?  As far as I can tell, nothing.  So why are over 10 disney cutouts on display at my local pumpkin patch?  

My guess is that the people running the pumpkin patch thought having a Disney theme would draw in business from families with young children.  And it seems to be working, given that the only people there were parents with young children, except of course my friend any myself, but there's nothing wrong with revisiting your childhood memories!  

I wonder if the pumpkin patch was within the law by having these cutouts on display, given how tightly Disney keeps control over its products.  Of course I can't imagine that anyone would report them or that Disney would even care.  In any case, it was a fun to see the characters make an unexpected appearance the pumpkin patch!

Disney's cultural controversy: petition to trademark Día de los Muertos

 

Can you imagine if Disney had trademarked the word "Christmas?"  Or "Easter?"  Or "Halloween?"  This seems like a silly and completely unrealistic question to even consider, but in May of this year Disney filed a petition to trademark "Día de los Muertos," a hispanic holiday celebrated on the first and second days of November which honors the lives of family members and friends who have passed away (Rodriguez).  Disney's petition was inspired by a film they're making about Día de los Muertos (Rodriguez).  This hispanic community, understandably, was in an uproar about Disney's petition, and one hispanic cartoonish drew the rather terrifying image of Mickey Mouse above (Alcaraz).  The second week after filing the petition, Disney withdrew its application, but claimed that it was due to a title change in the film, not the backlash of the latino community (Rodriguez).

While the people of the hispanic community think that Disney is trying to trademark a part of their culture, I have a hard time believing that Disney would be so silly as to try and do that.  I think Disney's action was likely an effort to protect themselves from being sued after the release of their new movie.  Every company has to file to trademark the name of a product before releasing it so that they don't get in trouble later for using something that they didn't have the rights too.  This is probably what Disney was doing here, but, unfortunately, due to the nature of the petition, it did not reflect well on the company.  Luckily for Disney, I think they did a pretty good job of keeping the publicity of the petition scaled down, as I found it in the news by chance when I was searching for Día de los Muertos.  Hopefully this event will not damage the success of the movie, which should be interesting, as they are trying to make a children's movie about the "Day of the Dead," two things that don't usually mix well.

Works Cited

Alcaraz, Lalo. "Walt Disney, Inc. wants to trademark ‘Dia de los Muertos’ (toon)." Pocho. Pochismo, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. <http://pocho.com/walt-disney-inc-wants-to-trademark-dia-de-los-muertos-toon/>.

Rodriguez, Cindy Y. "Day of the Dead trademark request draws backlash for Disney." CNN. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. <http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/10/us/disney-trademark-day-dead/index.html>.

Is the Disney princess ready to be a hero?

When I saw this post on Facebook earlier today I immediately smiled at the excitement in this little girl's face and it brought back happy memories of my own princess phase.  However, as I read the caption, "That moment when she meets her hero," my excitement faded a little.  Is a Disney princess really who we want young girls to look up to as their hero?

Part of me thinks that it shouldn't matter who our heros are when we're young children because our heros are likely to change as we mature and grow up.  On the other hand, we learn a lot of important lessons when we're very young, so the influences in our lives at this age do have a big impact.

I googled "disney effects on children" and my webpage immediately filled up with negative titles, such as "Top 10 Ways Disney Corrupts Children" and "The Negative affects of Disney on Children."  It seems to me that the majority of articles on Disney, including the ones that we read in our class such as "Mickey Mouse History: Portraying the Past at Disney World" and "The Little Mermaid," are criticisms of Disney.  If Disney is an overall negative influence, which is a much longer debate than I can cover in this blog post, then we certainly should not be encouraging young girls to look up to these princesses as heros.

However, although they are less common, there are also articles describing Disney as a positive influence.  One positive article that I especially liked is "Ten Things Disney Princesses Taught Me" by Lauren Cochrane.  Lauren emphasizes 10 Disney princesses and presents the positive lessons that she thinks they teach.  Some of her interpretations offer the exact opposite view as those posed by critics we've read.  For example, in her piece "The Little Mermaid," Roberta Trites argues that Ursula equates love to a kiss, essentially suggesting that love is just a matter of physical attraction.  However, in her analysis of Aurora, Cochrane argues Sleeping Beauty teaches that a simple kiss can very powerful, which she says is an especially important message because "sex is more mainstream" in today's society.  Although these two points are referring to different movies, it is interesting to see how different their interpretations are.

There is no right or wrong interpretation of the Disney films, as the interpretation will change from person to person based on what past experiences they bring to the table when viewing the films.  Yet, even if you think that Disney is the upmost positive influence on a child, I think "hero" is too strong of a role for a Disney princess.  I don't doubt that the Disney movies can teach children lessons, but I think the role of hero should be reserved for a more substantial role model than an animated character in a children's movie.  

Do you think the Disney princess is ready to be a hero?

Cinderella Continues!

 

Cinderella is a trilogy!  I only recently discovered the existence of Cinderella II and Cinderella III after reading "Dopey's Legacy: Stereotypical Portrayals of Intellectual Disability in the Classic Animated Films" by Karen Schwartz, Zana Marie Lutfiyya and Nancy Hansen.  These latter two films are likely not as popular as the first, given that I only recently learned about them, but I'm always excited to add a Disney movie to my watch list!  The two films portray Cinderella's life after she has married the prince and transitioned into royalty.  Part of me wants to leave the "happily ever after" part of Cinderella's life up to my imagination, but it would be interesting to see what Disney has thought up and I don't doubt that it will be entertaining.  If you've seen these movies, let me know what you think!

Celebration: a Disney town

 

Have you ever heard of Celebration, Florida?

Celebration is a "community", as the town website puts it, 20 minutes west of Orlando International Airport, home to about 9,000 residents, and founded by Disney.   

I only recently became aware of the Disney town after reading Kevin Shortsleeve's "The Wonderful World of the Depression: Disney, Despotism, and the 1930s.  Or, Why Disney Scares Us."  Shortsleeve's piece focuses on showing how Disney is, quite frankly, obsessed with the 1930s, but he mentions the town of Celebration.  According to Shortsleeve, Disney created the town Celebration as a means of extending Disney World.  He explains that Disney could only avoid certain environmental regulations if a residential community existed within the park, and so Celebration was created.  

I think it might be fun to live in a Disney town.  The town website implies that it is a tight knit community with frequent family-frienly events for residents.  The only catch: residents don't have total control over their government.  Shortsleeve points out that Disney couldn't allow Celebration residents to have power to vote on things that affected the park, so residents had to sign a contract with a hidden clause stating that while Disney's real estate firm owns land in the town, it has "veto power over any changes in governance."

Interested in learning more?  Check out these resources:

Celebration website: http://www.celebration.fl.us/

Kevin Shortsleeve's piece: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/lion_and_the_unicorn/v028/28.1shortsleeve.html

Follow Disney on Instagram!

Hello fellow Disney followers!  I saw this post (pictured above) on Facebook earlier today and thought I would share it with all of you!  If you don't already, I recommend following Disney on Facebook, and now Instagram!  While I'm sure this is just another advertising strategy, they post all sorts of pictures that usually bring a smile to my face.  The only downside is that the pictures usually make me wish that I was at a Disney Park, but they're still fun to see and can bring a little magic to your day :)  

Mickey's Transformations

How would you describe Mickey's character?

How you answer this question may depend on which generation you belong to.

In his piece "The Masks of Mickey Mouse: Symbol of a Generation", Robert W. Brockway describes 3 "rite de passage"s of Mickey Mouse in Mickey's lifetime that have transformed his character since he was created in the 1920s.  They are:

1. Although the first Mickey Movie that Ubbe Iwerks drew was Plane Crazy (pictured on the left above), Mickey Mouse was not born into stardom until the release of Steamboat Willie (pictured in the middle above) in 1928.  In this stage, Mickey was a slapstick character at this point.
2. Mickey's second "rite de passage" came with the release of The Band Concert (pictured on the right above) in the 1930s.  Brockway refers to this stage as Mickey's "initiation into maturity" which was called for by a desire for a more charming cartoon as views changed during the Great Depression.  In this phase, Mickey's character was "addressed to the inner child in the adult rather than to actual children..."
3. Mickey's third and final transformation came in the mid 1950s when he became the "King of the Magic Kingdom" and became "gentle and sentimental."  This is the Mickey that we see in Disney today.

Brockway expressed the concern that Mickey may not make it many years beyond 2001 because of a connection that Mickey has to the generation that grew up with him, but I am glad to say that I expect Mickey to be around for decades to come.  Having been born almost half a century after Brockway's last described transformation, I only associate Mickey the fun-loving character he is today, and I don't think that this less complex association will shorten his life span.  In fact, I am not a fan of slapstick comedy and I think that association would weaken my fandom.  I will continue to love Mickey and treasure him as a part of my childhood as I hope many future generations will as well.  Do you think Mickey will endure?

Welcome to my Disney blog!

Disney has been a part of my life since as long as I can remember, from my Winnie the Pooh nightgown (pictured above) to my most recent trip to Disneyland only months ago.  I am excited to share my passion for Disney through this blog and I hope you all enjoy reading and responding to my posts as I investigate and follow Disney in the months to come.