Disney Part II

Hello my peeps. Once again I've taken a breath, held my nose, and dived into the murky shrieking eel-filled waters that are the wonderful world of Disney. It isn't pleasant, but I do it out of a sense of duty to the world. Also because I have no life.

Last time we discussed image issues; namely that Disney seeks to fill innocent child minds with the idea that mice and squirrels are our friends, rather than the disease ridden masters of destruction and gross tiny poops that they are.

That was truly and undoubtedly heinous on Disney's part, and that alone would be well worth castigating Disney forever - BUT the list of crimes goes on! This post will cover Disney's promotion of violence as a solution to problems.

You doubt me, perhaps. You say to yourself, "Surely Disney promotes only acceptance of oneself and others, love, happy bluebirds, and the ability to sing and dance intricate choreography at the drop of a hat." I laugh at your naivete, and present for your consideration one of the victims of Disney's violence - Snow White's stepmother:

In this sequence we see a harmless old woman, chased to the rocky and rainy cliffs by several small angry dwarfs. You might consider this a fair fight since they're small and she's big, but note that while the dwarfs have spent their days in the mines building up sturdy muscles, the shriveled old woman can't even run without hobbling. Consider the fear in her face as she climbs the rocks with her trembling old hands, attempts to stop her attackers with a harmless giant boulder, and then is flung to her death by a bolt of lightening. Is this really what we want to teach our children? And this scene doesn't even show the two vultures who gleefully and lazily drift down to feast upon her remains. Sick.

Here is the next batch of victims:

(Shere Khan, Maleficent, Gaston)

Please note the fear and terror present in the faces of these characters. Are we to understand that because these are "bad guys" it's okay to tie fire to their tails, stab swords through their hearts, and throw them from rooftops??! Is the idea to teach children that they can torment their tormentors back, and it's okay because they're "bad"? You should definitely tie the school bully up and pummel him senseless, because Disney says that's okay.

Lest you think that these are isolated incidents, let me remove doubt from your mind:

(Judge Frollo, Captain Hook, Sir Hiss)

And what horrendous crimes justify this torture, cruelty, and murder? Well actually, the guys in these movies are pretty bad. But that just illustrates my point further. What Disney genius decided that the proper entertainment for young children is watching evil men like Judge Frollo, from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, burn and persecute gypsies? Oh well, it's okay because in the end a gargoyle spews the FIRES OF HELL into his face, and he plummets to his death. Yeah.

Oh sure, Disney tries to pretend that it's all about feel good musical numbers, equal rights for mice, and happiness for all. But what I see when I watch these movies is a dark and frightening trend that teaches children before there can be happiness for all, there must be gruesome and terrible death for some. Shame, shame be upon Disney! Fie on you for first softening children towards disgusting rodents, and then teaching them that murder and torture are justified if your victim is really mean. *

*It should be noted that this took hours and hours to put together because it was truly and ridiculously difficult to find these images. Even though every single Disney villain that I can think of either dies a horrible death or experiences some terribly ironic punishment, pictures of this are few and far between. I sense a cover-up! The deaths that I wanted to show but couldn't find are Ursula the Sea Witch being impaled, Scar the lion being torn apart by hyenas, Edgar the butler being trapped inside a chest and shipped to Timbuktu, and Lucifer the cat plunging from Cinderella's tower.