release of any full-length animated film, Disney begins to release
marketing tie-ins, which include “toys, apparel, accessories, footwear,
home furnishings, home décor, health, beauty, food, stationery and
consumer electronics” (The Walt Disney Company Fact Book 2008,
http://goo.gl/P9UrJ)..)
Stereotypes (whether or not language and accent are manipulated) are
not subtle, ranging from Lady and the Tramp’s cheerful, musical Italian
chefs to Treasure of the Lost Lamp’s stingy, Scottish-accented McScrooge.
In the post-1997 films this trend continued; for example, Disney continues
to portray side-kicks as scrappy inner city tough guys with hearts of gold.
Consider the following:
Bolt (Howard and Williams 2008, directors), in which the side-
kick street-smart character is a cat voiced by Susie Essmann, a
native of Brooklyn.
Mulan (Bancroft and Cook 1998, directors) where the main
character has a small, very scrappy guardian dragon called
Mushu voiced by Eddie Murphy. The illogic of a sidekick who
speaks twentieth-century AAVE in ancient China seems to have
been secondary to the need for this particular character type.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame’s (Trousdale and Wise 1996,
directors) Quasimodo has only three friends, stone gargoyles
(inanimate objects who become animated for him alone) two of
which speak American English with distinctly urban accents
(Hugo, voiced by Jason Alexander, and Laverne, by Mary
Wickes).While Disney did not hesitate to include an AAVE-speaking sidekick in
Mulan (set in ancient China), someone involved in the production of