The Magic of Disney

Last year at university I did a Cultural Industries class that ended up completely ruining Disney for me.

My good friend Melissa also did the same class:

I used to adore Mickey Mouse, I even had hundreds of pictures on my walls and Mickey Mouse paraphernalia. This was until I attended the Class Cultural Industries last year. Some how it just ruined the magic of Disney for me. I still like Mickey, but it’s more about the a fondness of the memories I had about him. Maybe this is just a sign that I am growing up.

Basically we learnt about the corporate evil side of the happy we felt as kids.

But for some reason last night, I started watching old Disney songs on YouTube, and I realized how much I still love the music in those movies. I'm not one of those people who feel obligated to like certain music because it is either "cool" or "indy". Call me shallow, but I usually only listen to music if it brings out some kind of emotional side effect in me - basically stuff that makes me feel very good ;)

I started to think about the Disney movies I absolutely loved as a kid and I seem to have an obvious top 4.

1. Pocahontas
2. The Lion King
3. Aladdin
4. Hunchback of Notre Dame

No other kids movies, besides maybe Finding Nemo, have topped these four. Oh, maybe Road to El Dorado...no not even that!

And you know how you always had your favourite female characters who you really really wanted to be? I always wanted to be the three more "exotic" heroines - first, Pocahontas, then Jasmine, then Esmeralda. Haha - I used to imagine I was Esmeralda cause she had green eyes and tanned skin as well!

So as I was watching the old songs (my favourite by far is "God save the outcasts" - the song Esmeralda sings in the church...it is so beautiful and I think spoke volumes about religious hypocrisy!) and I realized just how much I still liked Disney... I guess the things you love as a child never really go away.

But then again, as you do grow up and begin to learn more and look at the world in a new light, you really can't ignore the stupid things Disney put in their movies.

The big bad one on my list has to be Pocahontas - ironically my childhood favourite. I wanted to be Pocahontas and I still remember seeing the movie in the cinema. I think it was her who made me grow my hair long...

Anyway, I knew that Native Americans were very unsure about the movie, but I just can't believe the offensiveness of the whole production. If Disney had made a feature based on Aboriginal culture in the same way, I would never have forgiven them.

Not only did they make Pocahontas into this sexual, sensual creature with a big chest (she was only 12 at the time in real life and obviously looked Native American...not like the Disney Pocahontas), they also had to put in that love story, while all the time using stereotypes as to paint Native Americans. It was also highly historically inaccurate. Pocahontas never had a relationship with John Smith, and in the sequal to the first movie, she was not invited to England - she was taken as hostage. She married another John - but had to by force. I can imagine it wouldn't have been exactly reassuring for Native Americans, who have suffered greatly in the past from Hollywood's portrayal of them.

In the essay "The Indians in the Movies" in Handbook of North American Indians, Michael T. Marsden and Jack Nachbar described the cultural context of captivity narratives, dime novels, stage melodramas, and Wild West shows, all of which contributed to the film industry's rendition of the Native American. They also offer a three-part model of American Indian characterizations on film, in which men compose the first two stereotypes, as either "noble anachronisms" or "savage reactionaries," and women are presented as "Indian princesses" in the third, if they are presented on-screen at all.

- From Redesigning Pocahontas: Disney, the "white man's Indian," and the marketing of dreams.


The Lion King also raised controversy because the hyenas, the bad, easily impressionable hyenas, all had hispanic or black accents, while the proud and ruling lions all had mainstream American voices.

Then there was Aladdin - which was set in a fictional Arabian city despite in the original being set in a fictional Muslim Chinese city. And the main characters - Aladdin and Jasmine - were like tanned Europeans while the evil guys had Middle Eastern features.

Then there was the Hunchback of Notre Dame, which I loved dearly. Until I read the book by Victor Hugo. You can't beat the book. Disney completely dumbed down the whole thing - which was a shame. The book was never intended to be about Quasimodo. It was about the acutal Notre Dame and Quasimodo is definately different to the book!

But knowing full well all these things, when I listen to the songs - like "A Whole New World" and "Colours of the Wind" I just fall in love with these movies again. They market and package magic well....I give them credit for that.

I still adore this song:



And thus, my top ten favourite Disney songs:

1. A Whole New World - Aladdin
2. God save the outcasts - The Hunchback of Notre Dame
3. Can you feel the love tonight? - The Lion King
4. Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride - Lilo And Sitch
5. Colours of the Wind - Pocahontas
6. Around the Riverbend - Pocahontas
7. On My Way - Brother Bear
8. Hakuna Matata - The Lion King
9. The Bare Necessities - The Jungle Book
10. Under the Sea - The Little Mermaid

Luv
Me