In cases where an actor is clearly contriving an accent, a decision was
made as to what language variety was most likely intended to be
portrayed. For example, a poorly executed British accent was still counted
as such for the creators and (most) viewers. In Aladdin, one of the minor
characters, a thief, speaks primarily Midwestern or West Coast American
English, but also has some trilled r sounds – definitely not a feature
generally associated with American English. This particular character’s
accent was still classified as *SAE, however, since only one atypical
feature appeared in his phonology. Another character whose speech
exhibits features from two or more dialects is Cogsworth, the butler/ clock
in Beauty and the Beast. He speaks with a contrived British accent in
which some American features crop up unpredictably; thus, though it is
not an accurate imitation of a middle- or upper-class British dialect, for
the purposes of this study it is classified as such.
Disney’s world
Of the 371 characters with speaking roles in the 24 movies examined in
1997, 259 or 69.8 percent are male (Figure 7.3). Female characters make
up the other just over 30 percent. A look at the way female and male
characters are deployed, overall, indicates that within the proportions
established, they are equally distributed as major and minor characters.
Female characters are rarely seen at work outside the home and family;
where they do show up, they are mothers and princesses, devoted or
(rarely) rebellious daughters. When they are at work, female characters are
waitresses, nurses, nannies, or housekeepers. Men, conversely, are doctors,
waiters, advisors to kings, thieves, hunters, servants, detectives, and pilots.
The situation is roughly the same in the newer films added to the analysis
(but see the discussion of The Princess and the Frog).