Growing Up With Disney

Growing Up With Disney

A Study on How Visual Storytelling can Impact

Children in Connection to Disney

By

Michelle Kiernan

Word Count:

3858

Module- 6DM022 Animation Research and Practice                           Tutor- Tracy Staunton

                                                                                08th of January

Table of Content

Introduction                                                                                            Page 03

“What is Animation and Who does it Appeal to?”                                Page 03    

“Disney- Roles in Young Peoples’ Lives”                                     Page 04

“How Disney Stereotyping, Racial and Ethnically                          Page 05

Effects Children”

“Research into how Disney Movies Have Affected People                Page 06

from Childhood, and Carried that Impact through to Adulthood”

Wells survey from the chapter Animation and Audiences:                   Page08

‘My mother used to call me Thumper!’ In the book Understanding

Animation. On the Percentage of People Who Watched

Disney Movies.

“Reflecting on the Impact Disney Movies had on Myself in                Page 09

Relation to Well’s Survey”

“This Essay in Relation to my Major Project”                                Page 14

Conclusion                                                                                         Page 15

Bibliography                                                                                      Page 16

Filmography                                                                                 Page 17

Image References                                                                             Page 17

Introduction

This essay will deal with the visual impact storytelling has on children in connection to Disney. The following questions will be asked, “How Animation affects children?”, and “how it helps them develop?”. This essay will address the effects and influence animation and storytelling has on children and how that effective memory could stay with us as a distant or a vivid memory as an adult. Closely looking at animations from the Walt Disney Studio The Lion King and 101 Dalmatians. Using Well’s survey from Understanding Animation Chapter 6 Table 6.1 which focused on how many people have seen Disney movies and use the figures of this survey to make a conclusion on whether or not it does affect children. Also discussing the cultural stereotyping Disney have been faulted by. Then looking at the characteristics Disney movies discussing them. The next part of this essay will deal with how the research will help inform my major project and how it helped structure it.

“What is Animation and Who does it Appeal to?”

Animation has been a part of cinematic history since the late 1800’s when the first motion pictures were made. Animation is the technique of photographing successive drawings or positions of puppets or models to create an illusion of movement when the film is shown as a sequence. Wells says that animation self-evidently reaches large audiences, appeals to them, and has an effect. All humans, especially children use storytelling as a way of communication and it is considered as a form of play. (Kalogeras, 2013). Children use storytelling as a huge inspiration source when playing with friends. When children tell stories, they relive the story they are telling. Children tend to go into this imaginary world and they become that character in their own story. This is what Kalogeras means when he says it's a form of play. Children learn to tell stories at the moment they learn to speak, mostly from listening to others but also from television, radio and other digital media, they develop a want and a need to socialise and communicate with others which cause them to join in.  For example, while children are telling or recreating a story to one person or an audience of people, they are not only developing their storytelling competencies but also gaining verbal artistry (Grainger, 1997). What Grainger says here is that children begin to tell stories right from the moment they begin to speak. This is why animation is a vital role in young children's lives. Animation is a form of visual storytelling. Which is fundamental to children when learning to communicate with people. It encourages young children to create new stories and play them out as scenarios. According to Bjorkqvist, K. and Lagerspetz, K. A child’s brain from early ages is looking to seek new experiences, animation provides these rich new visual stories that children really engage with. It is through a well written script, audio, the visual effects and the characters that provoke children to follow the animated story from start to finish and leave them glued to their seat. Children can even go as far as copying how the character speaks, acts, their body language and also have the child wanting to dress like their animated hero, because they are copying these characters this could have an impact on their mode of socializing with others and the world in general. Elaborating on how it could impact a child's social life, children all watched different animated shows while growing up. If a boy decides to take an interest in an animated series about a princess and wants to dress up as his favourite princess character he could be taunted by society because society does not agree with boys being more feminine as society suggests they should be masculine and be into superheroes etc.

“Disney- Roles in Young Peoples’ Lives”

When one thinks of the greatest animation company, Disney springs to mind first. When you think back to your childhood everyone has a childhood memory of Disney. It seems to have the biggest role and impact in young people's lives. In this next part I will discuss why Disney has such a big impact on many lives, including my own experience with Disney. I will discuss Disney stereotyping, racial and ethnically effects on children. The next quote supports the statement made on how largely affected children all around the world are by Disney

“Everyone it seems has a childhood memory of seeing a Disney film. This is such a taken-for-granted, yet uninterrogated fact, that it seems absurd that little attention has been given to Disney films and the nuanced responses of their audiences. Statistics mount concerning how many people worldwide have seen Disney feature films, or purchased them on video, implicitly suggesting that commercial success is a self-evident barometer of enjoyment and acceptance. Critical reaction to the Disney canon has always been mixed, and largely constitutes the discourse about animation itself” (see Peary and Peary, 1980: 49-58, 90-2; Smoodin, 1994)  

“How Disney Stereotyping, Racial and Ethnically Effects Children”

Disney has also been faulted for stereotyping, racial and ethnicity wrongs there are an endless amount of banal Disney princesses, beginning with Snow White in 1938. Disney princess movies defined the romantic and romanticized worldviews of several generations of girls as well, establishing female gender identity and relationship roles that often create artificial and unreasonable expectations regarding love and marriage. This gives young girls false apprehension of the world and how women should act and be treated.

“Each of the Disney Princess movies feature a central female character, the princess, and a male character who is romantically linked with the princess. Analysis approach to these primary characters’ gender portrayals to reveal the roles present in this popular genre of films, and assess changes over time. Gender roles—how gender is portrayed via assumed behaviours and social roles—can be stereotypical, neutral, or counter-stereotypical to traditional gender roles” (Durkin 1985a).

The quote above supports that the characteristics of interest in this study include traditionally masculine (e.g., athletic, brave) and traditionally feminine (e.g., helpful, nurturing) characteristics exhibited by the prince and princess characters through their behaviours and actions. In addition, these films contain climactic rescue scenes which were examined for the role each character played (i.e., whether the character was rescued or performed the rescue). The constructivist approach and cultivation theory suggest that the gender role portrayals present in the films may influence children’s beliefs and ideas about gender, social behaviours, and norms (Gerbner et al. 1980, 1994; Graves 1999; Martin et al. 2002) Castillo’s following quote explains that he views many of the Disney movies as bad influences. This support the statement Wells has made previous that Disney movies have been overlooked, and that they could be the influence on today's society.

“Many of the movies and characters created by Disney are far more of an unacceptably bad influence on children than we realize. Parenting groups have long blamed more adult media for the problems with our youth, everything from the obvious violent television to the mundane school. Where they have failed to look is what seems like the least likely place: Disney” (Paul Castillo, 2006)

Having discuss the impact that Disney has on people the following quote is from an online article which a girl describes how she feels about Disney and the impact it had on her.

“We learn so much from every film that the Walt Disney company has made. We learn to accept people for who they are no matter what our differences may be. We learn that true love triumphs any evil that means to get in the way. We learn that the love of family can break any spell. We learn that helping others is more rewarding than doing what is good for ourselves. We learn to be good people. Growing up watching Disney movies has shaped me into the person I am today and I know that the messages in Disney films are meant to provide us with ways to overcome the evilness in the world and strive to be the best people we can be. Above all else, Disney movies are there to entertain us, make us laugh, and tell a great story.” (Odyssey. 2017)

“Research into how Disney Movies Have Affected People from Childhood, and Carried that Impact through to Adulthood”

Wells explains that Disney although always having a beauty to it, and it was always original for its time. Disney was creating images greater than any artistic achievement around, Disney also had some images that may have been overly sad or may have been exaggerated and it lacked thoroughness in movies. It was unexpected that the films were offending cultural cynics.

“It may be argued that it is the very tension between beauty and banality which informs much of Disney's work, often creating images of profound intensity and technical and artistic achievement but, at the same time, scenes of great superficiality and over-determined sentimentality. This, ironically, means that the films can operate on a number of levels and facilitate the appreciation of the art critic and the disapproval of the cultural cynic. Disney's view of culture essentially promotes the idea of a classless agenda underpinned by moral and aesthetic integrity, and it is this code which informs much of the contemporary debates about Disney's work” (Wells P. 1998, Page 231)

Wells goes on to research how and what Disney films affected children when they were young looking back as adults. In his primary research, Wells intention to address how the Disney film had affected and influenced children, but instead of constructing a more clinical approach to studying this phenomenon, Wells asked different varying ages of a number of adults from all different backgrounds, to answer a simple question. Which was to state their first Disney movie memory in as much detail as possible. For example, “Where they saw the film?”, “Who did they see the film with?”, “Why did they go?”, “What was the most vivid memory of the film?”. Essentially, Wells explains he wanted to evaluate the actual experience of viewing Disney films from the adult perspective which ultimately shaped and expressed the memory. Wells view of this process helps to reveal the real influence and effect that the film had because the memory was being articulated in a way which had already subconsciously determined its significance. Such an approach necessarily assumes that the viewer has chosen what to recall, repressed what seems inappropriate to admit, heightened or marginalised aspects of their memory, partially evaluated or interpreted it etc. In other words, the viewer has already prioritised the important aspects of his/her spectatorship, and signified how and why the Disney text has connected with the individual's formative gaze as a child viewer, and the individual's mature gaze as an adult fully conversant with a Disney ethos which has imbued itself within a global popular culture.

These figures are inevitably affected by the age of the participants and the particular Disney films which were released during their childhood, or the period in which they actually encountered a Disney film. A large proportion of the sample did remember viewing a Disney film when they were children, but some suggested that they may not have seen a Disney movie as a child but maybe in older year as a teen or some even not until they were adults.

What wasn’t surprising in this survey Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Jungle Book and Bambi were watched the most. What was surprising in this survey that out of 435 people only 25 people had not seen a Disney movie. Wells explains that everyone has a significant bond to a film. He explains why and how we develop a certain relationship with different movies.

“The spectator is intrinsically bound up in a particular relationship to a film, identifying, sympathising, resisting, endorsing, dismissing, etc. in the course of a film narrative. The interaction between the film, with its highly constructed, deliberately manipulative strategies

to engage and affect the viewer, and the spectator, who brings a personal perspective to matters of interpretation and experience, is a relative and sometimes complex process” (Wells P. 1998, pg.225)

Wells survey from the chapter Animation and Audiences: ‘My mother used to call me Thumper!’ In the book Understanding Animation. On the Percentage of People Who Watched Disney Movies.

Table.1

Age group                                           Participants                            Percentage of sample

15-25                                                        158                                              36.3

25-35                                                        117                                              26.9

35-45                                                         67                                               15.4

45-55                                                     53                                               12.2

Over 55                                                     40                                                9.2

Table. 2

Disney Film                                   number of citations                   Percentage of sample

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs         87                                             20.0

The Jungle Book                                         78                                            17.9

Bambi                                                          50                                            11.5

101 Dalmatians                                            31                                         7.1

Dumbo                                                     17                                         3.9

The Rescuers                                              15                                         3.5

Lady and the Tramp                                  13                                        3.0

Mary Poppins                                               13                                         3.0

Sleeping Beauty                                           10                                         2.3

Pete's Dragon                                               10                                        2.3

Others (25)                                                    86                                       19.8

Not a Disney film/couldn't remember        25                                         5.7

“Reflecting on the Impact Disney Movies had on Myself in Relation to Well’s Survey”

Reminiscing back to my own childhood, the Disney movie that had the most impact on me as a child would have been The Lion King. Although The Lion King was a favourite, it was also very emotionally scarring. The Lion King was a film about the animal kingdom. There was three main characters Mufasa (protagonist) Scar (antagonist) and Simba (protagonist). Mufasa and Scar are brothers and Simba is Mufasa son. Mufasa is King of the animal kingdom. The antagonist Scar kills Mufasa and falsely convinces Simba into thinking that he in fact murdered his own fathers which makes Simba run away from the kingdom. When Simba’s father Mufasa died right in front of Simba it was a very hard moment as a child to watch. I remember watching this moment for the first time begging the television to let Mufasa wake up, but he didn’t. Leaving me extremely sad. Another aspect of the film that is still vivid in my memory is the character Scar. Scar was an evil character he falsely convinced Simba into thinking that he in fact murdered his own father. Scar was a master manipulator and a dominant evil character. Disney influence our opinion on this character from the moment we see him on the screen starting with Scar’s appearance which was visual different to all other characters in the film he had a horrid scar across his eye. This wasn't the only difference Scar colour was much darker and depressing colour palette. Having two central character with different colour palette causes conflict.

Figure 1 Mufasa Design In Comparison to  Scar

Figure 2. Simba Finding his Dead Father.

Figure 3. Scar throws Mufasa off the rocks, killing Mufasa

Looking back now, a lot of other Disney movies through the years I’ve watched also have a character or storyline where a significant other has died. For example, Bambi, Tarzan, Cinderella, and even more recent movies, Up, Finding Nemo, Princess and The Frog and Frozen. Disney seem to like to build a story that begins with tragedy and ends with happily ever after. Having watched many of these as a child and probably saw some of them before having seen The Lion King, The Lion King seemed to hold the most vivid memories. The Lion King had the biggest impact on me as a child due to the age the movie was watched. This age is the age that my Mother had lost my Grandmother. My Mother would have talked openly about the little memories she had and always talked about how young she was when she died. It could also simply be that the character traits were traits I could relate to. Sometimes if a character has similarities to a person they can have a deeper connection.

Nevertheless, going back to Well’s survey The Lion King wasn’t in the list of mention movies Bambi was one of the films mentioned in the survey which is very similar to the storyline of The Lion King. When asked about Bambi, people talked about the death of Bambi’s mother which goes back to the reason The Lion King stuck vividly with me which makes Well’s survey on Bambi relevant. In Well’s Survey people talked about the scene from Bambi in which Bambi's mother is shot, which reduced boys and girls to tears in equal measure. Simon (23) from Port Talbot, admits 'I remember weeping profusely when Bambi's mother was killed', while Barry (39) remembers screaming and being dragged out after the death', and Rachel (40) recalls going with her best friend and then 'bawled our eyes out when Bambi's mother got shot'. Robyn (22), perhaps best summates the symbiotic relationship between what is occurring on the screen and what was happening in the cinema:

‘The first Disney film I saw was Bambi, with my mother and brother. [It was a] very   emotional film. [I] cried lots at the age of six. I can't remember much of the story but it was very sad, especially when Bambi's mother was shot. Having my mother there was comforting to me -a shoulder to cry on.’

The inevitable anxiety caused by the loss of a mother or a father figure is assuaged by the

comforting presence of the viewer's own mother or father, and the reassurance of continuity

in her own life in spite of the trauma she has experienced. Wells explains that the viewer recognised that nothing, not even her own mother, can offer order and reassurance in the face of difficulties problematically raised within the supposedly safe haven of the Disney text. Even knowledge in adulthood cannot revise childhood experience and merely endorses the idea that some Disney texts create formative moment when notion of 'wholeness are disrupted forever, and innocence is fundamentally lost.

Another movie that had an impact on me was 101 Dalmatians. 101 Dalmatians was a movie based on animal cruelty. Cruella De Vil the main antagonist was a fashion designer who wanted to make a coat out of these Dalmatians. She had her minions try capture all of the dogs to make her dream coat. Cruella De Vil was an evil character. Not understanding how Cruella De Vil could be so cruel and evil to the tiny harmless puppies was what affected me. Cruella De Vil character still terrifies me to this day because of the how she bullied people and taunted people. Going back to Wells survey Stuart, Paul, Sue and Rachel seem to have the same opinion on Cruella De Vil.

“Stuart (25) demonstrates his anxiety about her identity and behaviour when he suggests, 'Cruella plucking out eyelashes filled me with horror and disgust', while Paul (26), freely admits 'the woman scared the crap

out of me'. More troubling for Sue (34), was the fact that her 'mother wore a red coat with a synthetic fur collar' and this reminded her' of the red coat in the film and scared me'. Unlike the viewer above, Sue was clearly not reassured by her mother's presence and, indeed, her mother's role was undermined by the representation of the evil 'mother' on the screen. Rachel (24), even recognised that the power of the emotion she experienced in relation to Cruella led her to completely forget that 'this was an animated movie, or even that it was a movie', and to her 'hiding behind a chair', and later having nightmares. Cruella's identity and actions usefully conflate a number of anxieties which might occur in children, chiefly, that she is prepared to harm animals in the creation of her maternal persona. This both undermines the supposedly benign nature of motherly affection and the protective agenda which should attend the care of pets.” (Wells P. 1998, Pg.237)

Disney had a clear purpose for the character of Cruella and that was to unease for viewer.

Even Cruella De Vil’s character design was off-putting. She was angular in shape, the colour of her was an off-purple with big green eyeshadow which was visually off-putting. Disney was also very clever when putting a character like Anita along Cruella De Vil. Anita who was the mother of the pups was kind and maternal. Introducing Cruella who was the complete opposite to maternal gave the film that sense of conflict which drives the film. It was because of this conflict in characters that made the viewer straight away know that Cruella wouldn't be a nice character and she would be the antagonist in this movie.

Figure 4. Four of Dalmatians from the movie.

Figure 5. Cruella De Vil character design

“This Essay in Relation to my Major Project”

When deciding the topic for this essay researching into the impact animation has on young children seemed to be an interesting topic to me. Being able to incorporate research from this essay into the major project was the goal. The part of my film the essay helped develop was the ending. The ending for my major project was inspired from the research of The Lion King. The Scar and Mufasa cliff scene is the scene that will be in my major project but due to my knowledge of the effects of that scene I decided to change the outcome of that scene. In The Lion King the protagonist (Mufasa) dies because antagonist (Scar) throws him off the cliff in order to become King of Pride Rock. The main reason this scene from The Lion King was used for inspiration was due to its camera angles and how great the anticipation in this scene is. In order to recreate this scene but not wanting to have the same negative emotional effect The Lion King had on people and also on me. The change that needed to be made was the protagonist would be the one hanging off a cliff. The antagonist would have to decide whether or not to save the protagonist. She will decide through a flashback scene whether or not the protagonist deserves to be saved due to all the hurtful actions and wrongdoings the protagonist has committed previously to the antagonist. The antagonist does save the protagonist and they both become better people due to this. Changing the story of this scene will have a more positive effect of children rather than a negative one.

Conclusion                                                                                                             In Conclusion it is evident that visual storytelling does have an effect on children in connection with Disney. Having studied about children as an audience experiencing visual storytelling for the first time and how it helped children develop. Then Discussing how socially visual storytelling could affect children. For example, children dressing up or recreating a character in which the society doesn't approve (i.e. young boy dressing up as princess). The next part of the essay was the staple to my agreement, reading and discussing ‘Wells’ along with other arguments on the influence Disney has worldwide. Connecting Stereotyping, race, ethnicity and the emotional effects Disney has shown to have Enough information has been formed to conclude that Disney does have an influence on children.

Bibliography

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Kalogera, S. (2013) International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education: Media- Education Convergence: Applying Transmedia Storytelling Edutainment in E-Learning Environments. Yorkshire. United Kingdom.

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Michele, A., 2017. Good Girls and Wicked Witches. John Libbey Publishing.

Orenstein, P., 2011. Cinderella Ate My Daughter. HarperCollins.

Odyssey. 2017. The Impact of a Disney Movie. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.theodysseyonline.com/the-impact-of-disney-movie.

PAUL CASTILLO. 2017. The negative effects of Disney on children | The Sundial. [ONLINE] Available at: http://sundial.csun.edu/2006/12/thenegativeeffectsofdisneyonchildren/

Peary, D. and Peary, G. (eds) (1980) The American Animated Cartoon: A Critical Anthology, New

York: E.P Dutton.

Wells, P., 1998. Understanding Animation. Routledge.

Filmography

101 dalmatians, 1996. [DVD] Stephen Herek, America: The Walt Disney Company.

The Lion King, 1994. [DVD] Rob Minkoff, Roger Allers, America: The Walt Disney Company.

Image References

Amperez16, (1994), Simba Finding his Dead Father. [ONLINE]. Available at: http://usfblogs.usfca.edu/aylin/files/2016/09/Simba-and-Mufasa-wrgold.jpg [Accessed 3 January 2018]. (Figure 2)

Entertainment.ie, (1996), Cruella De Vil character design [ONLINE]. Available at: http://images.entertainment.ie/images_content/rectangle/620x372/Cruella-de-Ville.jpg [Accessed 3 January 2018].(Figure 5)

Mathew Guiver, (1994), Mufasa  Design In Comparison to  Scar[ONLINE]. Available at: https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2015-11/13/14/campaign_images/webdr12/are-you-more-scar-or-mufasa-2-4561-1447442485-13_dblbig.jpg [Accessed 3 January 2018].(Figure 3)

plugged in, (1996), Four of Dalmatians from the movie. [ONLINE]. Available at: http://images.contentful.com/7h71s48744nc/4VGWUPV9CMC68MYUoWwcqq/fc2f3b72c9cb6899c0fff388c660a677/101-dalmatians.jpg [Accessed 3 January 2018].(Figure 4)

Rebecca Lewis, (1994), Scar throws Mufasa off the rocks, killing Mufasa [ONLINE]. Available at: https://metrouk2.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/lionking.jpg?w=748&h=420&crop=1 [Accessed 3 January 2018].(Figure 1)