Blog Post 3

October 30, 2017

   October Blog Post

For my blog I would like to talk about the Disney documentary we watched in class, since we watched a lot of the documentary and there are lots of opinions to discuss on it. The documentary had some points I agreed with, and a few I didn't agree with. As Prof. Ivey explained in class, we were watching a documentary that was from a bias point of view against Disney, so Disney will be criticized as much as they want it to be. Also, the maker of the documentaries want to sell the documentary, so they had to put together as many accusations about Disney making racist and culturally insensitive spots in their movies as they could, hopefully so some people will agree with them on it.

I can start out mentioning what points the documentary made that I agree with. It does seem as if the movies that were made longer ago (let's say in the 40's or 60's) had bias for whites mostly, and have characters that would be considered unacceptable in present day. In Disney movies, and this is almost true as of present day, it doesn't seem as if their has ever been a Disney movie with a good guy character who is black. In the movie Lilo and Stitch, made about 15 years ago, the antagonist of the movie is an African American FBI agent, who turns out to be a good guy in the end. But that is probably the first time Disney has done that. Before this, black characters would be portrayed as black crows and only animals in the older Disney movies. Movies taking place in Africa wouldn't show any Africans, only animals, such as the Lion King and Tarzan.

Their are some accusations of racism that I do not only prove that Disney is racist. The documentary had a lady point out that non-European cultures are stereotyped as bad, such as how in Mulan the father complains that his daughter is ruining family tradition. I think Disney simply has to have antagonists for their stories if it only takes place in one specific culture. Disney shows flaws in all ancient cultures, such as how in Beauty and the Beast all the peasants just want to see the beast die, showing a flaw of the culture that once stood in Europe. Disney was harsh on Indian culture in Aladdin, but India is known for things in the movie that were shown, such as poverty and crime. As Disney is willing now to have characters of all races, I agree with how they have depicted cultures in their movies.