Disneys Views That Reflected In His Cartoons And Films - Research Paper Example

Disney’s Views That Reflected In His Cartoons And Films Introduction The story of Walt Disney is the story of a poor cartoon artist who became a founder of a multibilliard empire, the leader in the world entertainment industry. How come he is now included into the ratings of the most influential and successful businessmen that profuced significant impact upon the lives of people in the 20th and 21st centuries? It is quite possible to state that this happened due to the fact that Walt Disney managed to create not just movies but sort of “parallel worlds” – the ones existing in fairy tales, yet able to hide the entire families from the problems of reality, yet those reflecting the values and views of the real people, namely Disney himself. Thesis A person would never listen to something that is not understandable to him or her. If someone does not understand you, it is hardly likely he or she would support your position or viewopint on something. That is why Walt Disney used cartoons and films as the metaphorical means to bring his thoughts and ideas across to his audience. The great ideas of the creator were put into the simple form using allegoric fairy tales and characters. Let us therefore have a look at some of Disney’s values, ideas and biases and analyse how they reflected in his creative work. How are Disney’s views reflected in his cartoons and films? American traditional values in Disney’s films Researchers often claim that Walt Disney in his cartoons and films “romanticized 'traditional' American values” (Brittain-Catlin, 2003, p. 97), and this fact should not be overlooked when we talk about the film director’s values and beliefs. As Steiner has it, Disney “helped ordinary Americans define themselves” by reflecting and sometimes even shaping their values and beliefs. (Steiner, 2003, p. 1017) Disney's theme parks, cartoons, feature films, television programs, business practices and marketing strategies provide a curious lens through which to view American popular culture and the politics of gender, race and class. (Chris 1995, p. 8) Walt Disney had a fairly good idea of his consumer: he always targeted familites. He offered to both parents and kids the family entertainment that was positive, allowed to be watched by the children and interesting enough for the adults. One of the ideas Disney clearly promoted in his works was the idea of the family and traditional family values, the family’s reinforcement and preserving. The Disney’s films and cartoons do not bear any “negative energy”: they are totally free of scandals, vices, offence of certain categories of people, etc. The famous “Disneyland” also targets families. The unique nature of Disney and the corporation that he created is that the notion of “family” – the audience that he pirimarity targets – comprises the “kids” of all ages, people of different generations and social levels, those who are able to be happy and amazed. Disney takes people who are tired of everyday routine and boredom to the magic kingdom of his tales – and these journeys are going to be remembered through the lifetime. Traditional Midwest values People who are born in the Middle West normally know the value of labour. They are persistent and do not change their views and outlook easily. That is how Disney who was brought up in Missoury was like. He was proud of his ancestors, and this attitude and character reflected in his films’ characters with their farm wit and humor. His movies being quite realistic and telling about both positive and negative events, still the good always conquers the evil. Disney’s positive outlook on life The natural optimism and positive outlook on life that Disney has always demonstrated in all situations reflected in his filmd and cartoons. The “famous” optimists are Mickey Mouse and the Three Little Pigs, who had played a significant role in boosting the spirit of the American nation during the years of the Great Depression; and this optimism helped Disney himself to overcome the betrayal of his own staff when the “labour conflict” put an end to Disney’s utopical dream to create a team of equal colleagues in his studio. Disney’s everlasting motif was the fight between the good and the evil, and the “happy end” is essential to all of his stories. Walt Disney spent much of his life creating a world of fantasy, filled with characters that have become America's cultural icons. Through his live action theater and television films and at his theme parks, Disney also invented a U.S. history that made conventional optimism meaningless. These fantasies and histories contributed to the commodification of experience by which Walt Disney Productions earned its keep. (Fjellman 1992, p. 319) That is why no wonder that people have always viewed Walt Disney as a person whose mission is to present people with the moments – or even the whole hours – of happiness and joy. This mission was truly congruous to Disney’s own outlook and attitude to life. He was hardly ever depressed or even in the bad mood, and considered himself a happy person. Striving at innovation Walk Disney has always been an innovator. It’s due to his creativity that cartoons became a kind of art that is understandable and loved by everyone. However, his cartoons and “Disneyland” were only the beginning as they gave start to the huge company that has been developing even without its founder and conquers new markets and spheres of business. Walt Disney had always been the first to find out what was happening in the whole world, its wonders and new technologies – and surely used it somehow in his cartoons and films. He was the first to understand the opportunities that the sound cinema was holding, and started to add sound to his cartoons. Before the “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”was released, there had been a belief that nobody would watch a cartoon that is longer than an hour. What Disney was doing is simply breaking the stereotypes – and constantly introducing innovations. Walt Disney is the embodiment of the American Dream, a self-made man who achieved everything by himself. Walt Disney creative strategy Walt Disney was, perhaps, one of the most creative people of our times. He even invented is own strategy of being creative and achieving the highest standards of perfection, creativity and quality. His cartoons combined exaggerated character traits, excellently selected music, meticulously developed plot, all of which were able to bring people into a wide range of emotional states. In order to ensure this bursting creativity Disney used his own strategy that was later named “The Disney Strategy” by Robert Dilts who was researching the strategies of successful people and genius. Walt Disney's ability to connect his innovative creativity with successful business strategy and popular appeal certainly qualifies him as a genius in the field of entertainment. In a way, Disney's chosen medium of expression, the animated film, characterizes the fundamental process of all genius: the ability to take something that exists in the imagination only and forge it into a physical existence that directly influences the experience of others in a positive way. (Dilts, 1996, np) The core of Disney’s approach to creating was to have “three different people” in one, working in turns: the Dreamer, the Realist, and the Spoiler – and, as his work collagues said, one could never know which “Walt Disney” would come to the meeting. They say that in Disney’s studio there were even different rooms for people working in them being in one of these three particular states: a room for “dreamers”, a room for “realists” and a room for “spolers”. While deciding on particular plot lines or images for his cartoons, Disney would use the “Dreamer” state for constructing visual images; the “Realist” state – for detailed imagination of how these characters would act in the movie; and, lastly, the "Spoiler" character in order to take a look at the characters from the standpoint of the audience or film critics so that to know what exactly should be taken into consideration when creating these characters. Whereas the Dreamer was not constrained by any limits, conventions and evaluations, the Realist created a detailed plan of how to implement the fantasy of the Dreamer into reality, and the Spoiler brought into the logics and the correct consequence of the steps and actions while making the dream come true. “Bambi” and Disney’s ideas of environmentalism Walt Disney was a strong adherent of environmentalist movement. For him, the lives of humans were inseparable from the natural ensironment, and are part of the natural world. From Disney’s cartoons and films the viewers have been getting the message that “[n]ature is immanent in human and other life systems. Connections among parts of this world – including human groups – are ecological, systemic, and nonlineal - full of feedback loops. Natural species are part of a nonhierarchical web of life. For others, human life is transcendent, not immanent. It exists alone and beyond other parts of the natural world – whether animate or not -as the pinnacle of existence in the universe. (Fjellman 1992, p. 321) Walt Disney “tells stories that propose a particular set of relations among human beings, corporations, and the natural world.” (Fjellman 1992, p. 322) Walt Disney’s Bambi “has played and continues to play a key role in shaping American attitudes about and understanding of deer and woodland life. It is difficult to identify a film, story, or animal character that has had a greater influence on our vision of wildlife than the hero of Walt Disney's 1942 animated feature, Bambi. It has become perhaps the single most successful and enduring statement in American popular culture against hunting”. (Lutts, np) In “Bambi”, Man is the only enemy of the forest and its inhabitants who brings along fear and deaths. Every time Man appears in the forest, the animals are unhappy. It is him who killed Bamby’s mum, and at the end of the cartoon he wounds Bambi himself, and besides the criminal negligence of Man caused the fire in the forest… We cannot really see the image of Man in the cartoon, yet we always know when he is there because of the ominous music that starts to play. Hunters not only kill Bambi's mother, they also kill the woodland creatures indiscriminately, their dogs attack Faline, and their fire ravages the forest. The fierce, hungry flames that devour the forest and its creatures become a surrogate for Man that continues and subliminally magnifies the hunters' destructive hunger for the lives of Bambi and his friends… Hunters are represented virtually as a satanic force. (Lutts, np) The way Disney shows the scene of the death of Bambi’s mother is amazing and very powerful. It shows Bambi’s deep grief and vulnerability, and these feelings become especially acute because the Man shots Bambi’s mum right after the scene where she and her little hungry son found the new spring grass – the symbol of new life and hope. It is Bambi’s mother who finds the grass – therefore Bambi himself seems even more vulnerable and helpless without her. Even though there is no actual scene of her death in the cartoon, it produces a most powerful imression upon the viewers, therefore ensuring that Disney’s mission of making people aware of how animals can suffer was complete: This death scene is central to the film's antihunting message. The dog pack chasing Faline, the shooting of Bambi, and the general panic among and killing of the wild animals during the hunt certainly contribute to this message. It is, however, the death of Bambi's mother that people remember. Disney spent nearly three-quarters of the film building sympathy for Bambi as a cute, lovable, vulnerable child. His mother nurtured and cared for him, and then, just as they had come through winter's hardships, she was killed. Bambi was left a virtual orphan, without his principal caregiver, alone until his loving but aloof and uncommunicative father appeared. The film never voiced a word against hunting. The antihunting message was conveyed on a completely emotional level through sympathy with its characters. It was targeted at children in their most impressionable, formative years. The memory of the incident remains with them even into adulthood. (Lutts, np) According to American Film Institute (AFI), Man was acknowledged one of the top 50 villains. (American Film Institute, 2009) Not only did “Bamby” reflect the views of Disney himself – it also produced a powerful impact upon the American culture and development of social responsibility. Such words as bamby-effect, bamby complex, bamby factor, bamby syndrome came into being to denote the extreme degree of compassion to the nature and animals. Bamby is one of the most significant and long-term symbols of animals right fighting. (Lutts, np) However, the cartoon reflected not only Disney’s view but also his bias: researchers often accuse Walt Disney of being “ecologically shallow” and showing only one sided view of nature and of hunters. For instance, in the forest there are predators; and death only comes to the forest from Man, nobody and nothing else. As Ralph H. Lutts has it: “the story lost its ecological and philosophical depth, but the film gained an aesthetic elegance and simplicity that have earned it a reputation as one of Disney's finest works of art”. (Lutts, np) But together with that, Disney’s Bambi produced a most powerful impact upon the American society’s views on hunting, and gave the nature defendants some additional points in this complex debate with many a perspective. The image of Bambi lives in the hearts of people since their childhood, and therefore many grown-ups, sometimes even subconsciously, begin supporting the animal rights defenants. “Bambi has become one of our most widespread and emotionally powerful national symbols of nature, one that motivates deep concern, and dedicated action to protect wildlife.” (Lutts, np) Conclusion In order to get his ideas across to his audience, Walt Disney used his cartoons and movies, and that is how he produced a most significant impact upon many generations of the people in the United States of America. In his cartoons and films, many of Disney’s views and biases can be traced and analysed. First of all, it is necessary to pinpoint that Walt Disney was an adherent of traditional American values and promoted them in his cartoons, and perhaps one of the most important values for him was family. His movies also bear the sign of their creator’s bright and positive outlook on life and sticking to such values as labour or the good always being able to conquer the evil. No wonder Disney’s characters easily became the American cultural icons, and are staying such till our times, influencing the system of values of modern kids same as they did with their parents and grandparents. Walt Disney was also an innovator and a very creative person, which certainly was reflected in his films. Perhaps the most well-researched topic is Disney’s “green” views – no wonder since there is hardly any other person in the USA who would produce the impact of the same power upon shaping the views of the community upon the issue of animal rights and hunting. Being an adherent of environmentalist movement and considering humans inseparable part of the natural ensironment, he sent the same message in his cartoons, the most important of which is certainly Bambi. Bambi definitely played the greatest role in shaping the American’s vision of wildlife, and even though there have been accusations of Disney’s “ecologiocal shallowness”, the image of Bambi has remained an icon for the defenders of animal rights and environmentalists. Works Cited 1. American Film Institute official website 2009. http://www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/handv.aspx 2. Brittain-Catlin, Timothy. “Walt Disney and the Quest for Community”. The Architectural Review, Vol. 213, Issue 1276, June 2003, p. 97. 3. Chris, Cynthia. “Beyond the Mouse-Ear Gates: The Wonderful World of Disney Studies”. Afterimage. Vol. 23, Issue 3, 1995, p. 8. 4. Dilts, Robert. “Walt Disney: Strategies of Genius”. 1996. Retrieved on April 27, 2009 from: 5. Fjellman, Stephen M. Walt Disney World and America. Westview Press, Boulder, CO, 1992. 6. Lutts, Ralph H. The Trouble with Bambi: Walt Disney's Bambi and the American Vision of Nature. Retrieved on April 25, 2009 from: 7. Steiner, Michael. “The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life”. The Historian. Vol. 65, Issue 4, 2003, p. 1017. Read More