Film producers like Disney are primarily concerned with engaging the
audience and filling seats in the theater. As professional storytellers they
understand a great deal about characterization, plot, setting, and all the
other elements that make or break a production. Is it too much to expect
film makers to consider other issues, as well? Does the storyteller have
any obligation to the viewers? These are questions that cannot be answers
in this context, but they require close consideration.
As one of the primary storytellers in the life of American children of all
colors and ethnicities, Disney’s films have a deep and long-lasting effect
on socialization and the development of identity – for both self and other.
There is a growing body of scholarship which looks at Disney in a wider
context and without apologist rhetoric, and that work makes clear how
systematically Disney animated film goes about setting up conceptions of
good and evil with strong correlations to race and ethnicity. (Giroux’s The
Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence (2010) provides an
overview of this literature.) The manipulation of accent is part of that
process, and it works very well.
Discussion Questions and Exercises
Compile a list of Disney characters who speak English with
a clear Anglo-New York City area accent. What do these
characters have in common? Look at sociocultural
characteristics, personality traits, motivations, style, and
role in the plot. How do your findings support or
contradiction the idea that stereotype does not have to be
overtly negative to be limiting and prejudicial?
Murnane (2007) proposes that Disney films can be used in
the classroom to teach multiculturalism. See:
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/whc/5.1/murnan
e.html. Choose one of the Disney animated films and
outline a middle school lesson plan that would accomplish
such a goal. Be sure to include some aspect of language