Figure 7.5 Character distribution by story setting
The breakdown of characters by their language variety (Figure 7.4)
becomes interesting when we examine that variety in relationship to the
motivations and actions of the character’s role. Disney films rely heavily
on traditional themes of good and evil, and with very few exceptions they
depend also on happy endings. Characters with unambiguously positive
roles (185 of them) constitute 49.9 percent; those who are clearly bad or
even evil, only 19.4 percent. The remainder is divided between characters
who change significantly in the course of the story (always from bad to
good) and those characters whose roles are too small and fleeting to make
such a judgment (86, or 23.2 percent of the total).
Further, female characters are more likely to show positive motivations
and actions (Figure 7.6). Unlike male characters who sometimes are bad
and then become good, bad females show no character development. At
this point it seems that there is no relationship between non-native English
accents and the portrayal of good and evil.