Disney’s Cinematic Influence and Cultural Representation
Since its inception Disney has been pioneering filmmaking technology. Whether it be the first visual and audio synched animation of Steam boat Willie, the first Multiplane 3D camera created for Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in 1937 or as recently as 1995 when under Pixar they released to first ever-3D animated film. Inventions such as these have pushed filmmaking and specifically animation further than people first believed possible and has also broadened the reach of such technologies. Since 1923 The Walt Disney Company has been one of the world leaders in content creation, entertainment and media distribution. It has pioneered animation techniques, CGI technology as well as marketing strategies and brand management in order to become one of the world’s most powerful companies (The Walt Disney Company (n.d.). Culminating in 2016 when Forbes listed them as the world’s most powerful brand. Disney has managed to turn a small 2D animation company into a multinational conglomerate owning companies such as Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Pixar, 21st Century Fox and ESPN. Having ownership over so many different media outlets Disney are able to control what billions of people all over the world see (Dixon, 2018). With such a wide reaching audience and the platform to reach them Disney have a much more significant impact than many realize.
The Classical movies from Disney are especially widely known and loved by most people all over the globe, but particularly to the western population. Disney can basically be defined to have a socialization factor which helps it play a distinct function in the American movie industrial unit. Within the last twenty five years, there has been an array of Disney films that have helped to show that culture is an important theme that keeps re-occurring among the characters and the entire Disney movie setting (Morrison, 2011). Disney has over the years been releasing movies most especially for the children that have greatly raised its acceptance within the society which helps to intensify the alleged magic that there is around Disney.
This research paper investigates Disney’s utilization of culture, most especially the foreign cultures and its awareness of the responsibility that comes with it. The paper will investigate the manner in which foreign cultures are represented in the movies produced by Disney most especially the animated movies. This will help in understanding the levels of representation that are utilized and the manner in which they are brought out. In order to better understand this analysis, it is important to understand what culture is. Culture is in this study denoting the ideas, customs and the social behaviours of various ethnic groups.
The power of the American culture
Due to Disney’s sheer size and cultural reach, it constantly come under plenty of academic scrutiny discussing the organization’s impact on human society. One big cause for concern is the idea of Cultural interventionism (Dixon, 2018). The idea is that the Walt Disney Company regularly performs acts of cultural imperialism, (that is the imposing of the norms, morals and values of one culture onto another), where it not only appropriates another culture’s stories, but then “Americanizes” these stories by the creation of characters who are clearly American in their appearance, motivations and actions (The Walt Disney Company (n.d.). Credit must be given where credit is due, and the Disney Company’s products have long been considered as entertaining and high quality, but this same quality is part of the reason the company is so frequently accused of furthering American cultural imperialism.
Media interventionism as illustrated by Buonanno (2008) originally emerged as an articulation of the cultural expansionism or prosperity that is applied by nations all over the world platform of politics and finances. Referencing from this, the media imperialism can hence be viewed in the modern day as an instrument that reinforces cultural imperialism (Morrison, 2011). In the case of the movies which depict performances or even courses of cultural control, the media is used to exemplify these actual or illusive imperialist engagements and therefore back the supremacy of both the US and the western world at large. All the same, aboriginal cultures could be more suppressed in their right to be existent because their history is revitalized in the movies. The depictions of the foreign cultures in the American films, is not unusually white washed and it contains caricatures (Buonanno, 2008). US has always been perceived to be the world leader and this could be one of the reasons why the American films try to embed the foreign cultures. It is always common for people to be interested in new things because they always appear to be interesting and at the same time fascinating which is another reason why most Disney American films embed the foreign cultures.
Another reason why foreign culture has greatly been adopted in the American films is because the American media recipients do not like dealing with the unsophisticated truth, thus the truth has to always be adjusted to that level that brings some excitement which makes the story much more marketable (Morrison, 2011). Using the American culture in the Disney movies for the American audience is not fun for them because they like to assume that their world is perfect and they prefer not to deal with the issues that are happening in their society. The foreign culture in the films helps them to enjoy other cultures knowing that this is something that is not happening in their society and so it becomes enthralling for them (Buonanno, 2008). Restriction of movie contents to one’s own culture is wrong and it is racist, so the choice of Disney expanding their contents to the foreign cultures helps to encourage diversity as people from different parts of the world learn about the various cultures that are there and they learn to appreciate every ethnicity without bias.
It is important to consider all facets of cultural influences on and in media, it is only reasonable to make a distinction between the media content and the media distribution. Because of the enormous export and circulation of the American television programs and the films, the American media in one way or another spreads certain pictures of certain cultures which are primarily acknowledged by the audience and viewed as the truth (Morrison, 2011). The integration of the ethnic topics in the media content may subsequently lead to a simulated cultural multiplicity. It is not an infrequent thing to notice that the American media assumes foreign culture and ends up integrating them to become an Americanised creation hence making the foreign culture to become a part of the American media whether they are spread to the world or not (Buonanno, 2008). The adoption of the foreign cultures for the films can be said to be senseless and also redundant, the Disney movies are mostly a blend of ethnic vicinity and racial concession which seems to be fundamental to this inconsistency. With implementation of a narrative which is played in a foreign ethnic background, into the American way of producing these films, Disney is able to create an ethnic exoticism with simultaneous vicinity. The exotic narrative, background and the characters are all consequently Americanised and this seems to be the accomplishment procedure for Disney.
The most important factor in the American films is for them to be instituted in their exclusive blend of the precise and the worldwide, the local and the multinational. This is normally caused by the fact that America is largely diversified and these ranges of ethnic groups have a great demand variety of media and entertainment. This makes it necessary to progress a production volume with a high gradation of amplitude basically meaning that the industry has to chase the final common denominator. It is however important to understand that even though cultures may blur more and more with US, they are still unique and the omission of cultural facts and choosing to crush into the typical American forms without any precise classification might also induce feelings of ethnic denial as well as racism (Buonanno, 2008). Additionally, this continuous serving of the uncritical average media content could lead to an even louder outcry when the cultural setting of a certain ethnic group is adopted in the movies or in other media programs. Just a small nonconformity could upset ethnics that are characterized in these films and aggravate a huge debate.
On the other hand, this could also become publicity for the producer and often not many people care about such a devious step because they are not affected on a personal level. On the other hand, it is important to understand that the audience first filter and regroup whatever comes from the prevailing culture and they assimilate it and combine it with the fundamentals of their own historical recollection (Morrison, 2011). Consequently, they renegotiate the arbitrated message because of their own cultural situation and the danger occur when the meaning that is brought out turns out as totally different from what the producer envisioned and much farther from the authenticity.
This brings about the question of who has the right to choose the people who are indigenous and the ones that are external in a society that is constructed on the posterities of the inborn people as well as the European victors. What is the motivation of racism in the media in these eras of globalization? It is the domination of the western domain and the entrepreneurship which also regulates the power dealings and hence panels the depiction of the peculiar and the alien cultures. Americanization in the media scope appears to be as consequences of the American endeavour after regulation through circulation with the aid of the varied content that is unfortunately also standardized (Buonanno, 2008). As a result of this, the cultural risk causes a liberal devastation of the local philosophies, not only through suppression of the local media but also through the proliferation of the Americanised or even totally wrong descriptions of the foreign beliefs.
The construction of the foreign culture in films
As earlier mentioned, the regulated diverse media content is something that has been occurring in Disney world for a while and most especially in the recent classical animated films that are produced. In the years between 1992 and 2000, Disney particularly created a variety of movies that saw the foreign cultures play a great role in the films which can be cited to have been the beginning of the incorporation of the foreign culture in the American films (Olen, 2012). This noticeable build-up may have been as a result of the world wide alterations just before and also during the 1990s. This was the period when the cold war was concluding, the downfall of regimes for instance the apartheids and the independency of many colonial states. This world-wide turn around appear to have been the drivers of capturing and also addressing the cultural issues in the films (Morrison, 2011). With the development of a new aesthetic and the new era of animation, Disney seems to have noticed the potential of capitalization that lies within the genre which has motivated it to implement this animation trend in its films but ensuring that it is Americanized all the same.
The early fairy tales for instance ‘snow white’, sleeping beauty, and Cinderella among others, the legends like the ‘Hercules, Pocahontas’ and the oriental stories like ‘Aladdin’ were produced in the 1990s and their origin was Europe (Morrison, 2011). The stories were mainly bound by the American culture but they were able to cover content from various ethnicities and thus the cultural context of the films was from the modern western world which is diversified. This different context not only makes the movies oriental and exotic but also makes them more appealing to all people irrespective of their culture. The addressing of the foreign cultures in the films is mostly bound to a story that portrays the conflict between the different ethnicities for instance in ‘Pocahontas’ and in ‘Mulan’. These two stories though animated are however not appropriate for children because of the cultural conflicts that are presented that are not easy for children to understand and Disney should not produce them (Feminist Disney, 2011). Disney has acknowledges this fact but tries to assimilate the stories to make them less frightening but tis ends up affecting the principle and emphasis of the stories and hence draws a settled image of the culture.
Gender roles in Disney films
With the need to incorporate different cultures, the characterization also gets altered most especially when it comes to the role of women. The coloured female protagonists have in recent years started appearing to be much more active and strong, with their sexual attributes getting more highlighted as compared to those of the white female characters who are presented to be rather quiet and passive (Gabbard et al., 2008). The women in the foreign cultures are presented to be more brave and athletic a good example being with the case of the films ‘Mulan’ and ‘Pocahontas’ when they are fighting for their people (Olen, 2012). With making such choices of stories, Disney makes the choice to show the strength of other cultures that are different from the common western culture. The physical features, skin colour and costumes of the characters used for the foreign cultured films for instance in a character such as Mulan are all elements that are used to aid to show the diversity of cultures. The costumes are based on the traditional clothes of the particular ethnic groups but they are somehow adjusted in such a way that they seem to be more appealing, interesting as well as modern to the audiences (Feminist Disney (2014).
A good illustration is the dress for Pocahontas, that is short and it leaves her shoulders bare. All these characters are dressed in such a way that a lot of focus is drawn to their physic which is all unlike the reserved dressing of white characters (Gabbard et al., 2008). It can then be assumed that despite the fact that the Disney movies are normally made for children, there are some adult themes that are brought out for instance the fact that women from other ethnicities are signified as sexual objects while the white women characterize the personified innocent beauties that match the conventional female role (Olen, 2012).
On the other hand, the male protagonists are brought out very differently in the foreign cultured films as compared to the classic American cultured films where the male protagonists are always presented as strong and reliable heroes that the women depend on to save them (Feminist Disney, 2014). in the foreign cultures, where in most cases the protagonists females are women from other cultures other than the American; the men are always brought out from the European descent a good case scenario being John Smith in ‘Pocahontas’ and Phoebus in ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ or even Aladdin who is a European look alike who asks people to call him ‘Al’ which is an American name though his skin is much paler. There is always a great difference that is made amid the upright characters and the antiheroes (Joseph, 2007).
The villains are always presented as people who have conventional individualities of the culture that is being denoted while the good characters are always brought out to be people that have some European features even though they are supposed to be the foreigners. A good illustration of this is with King Lion that happens in Africa, two white characters are used to voice simba who is the protagonist while the hyenas that are the antagonist characters are voiced through the use of atypical English language to signify the foreign culture (Moon, 2016). This depiction is a good illustration of racially biased Disney society where the good characters are always expected to be white while the bad characters who are evil are from the foreign cultures. This greatly affects the perception that the audience most especially the children who are the main consumers of Disney have on people from other ethnicities right from when they are young. Disney by negatively presenting other cultures encourages the issue of racism because it implies to the children that other cultures and ethnicities are evil which is not true.
Racism in Disney films
Disney movies do not really contain vicious racism, and this is not their intention however, Disney has the tendency of using subconscious racism and discrimination that can occur either in words, appearance or even in behaviour in reference to their content. A good illustration of this is in ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame and also in ‘Pocahantas’ where there are many discriminatory vocabularies that are used throughout the films. The titles are already discriminatory enough take for instance ‘Hunchback’ which is a very inappropriate word that is often used to denote a person with some physical disability. Furthermore, the portrayal of the characters with the huge back, warts and a deformed face and the fact that this character is presented as a gypsy is very discriminative (Pewewardy, 1996).
A term like ‘gypsy’ was historically used as racist terms in history and reviving them in children movies is very conflicting. The same instance happens with ‘Pocahontas; where terms like ‘savage, disgusting race and vermin’ are frequently used in the film to denote the Indians (Pewewardy, 1996). Though these words could be said to help in showing the cruelty of the colonialism era, children can easily adopt this terms and use them in a racist manner to refer to people from that ethnicity hence bringing about the issue of racism in the society.
Another aspect of unconscious racism that is occurring in the Disney movies is with the fact that the largest ethnic groups that are always the Black Americans have always been ignored or even when they are presented, they are brought out as the inferior race. The animals that are used in the case of the animated films also helps in illustrating the issue of racism, a good illustration of this is in ‘The Little Mermaid’ where the crab named Sebastian has a very resilient Jamaican intonation and it sings about the senseless people that are overhead the sea slaving away in the sun (Moon, 2016). The crab in this film is the inferior character that is desperate and hates everything about their world, which is replica of the lives that the black Americans are forced with.
Another illustration of this is in ‘Lady and the Tramp’ where there are two Siamese cats that have East Asian intonation and they are singing East Asian harmony which is a very cruel representation of the Asians (Moon, 2016). It is however important to note that most of this movies are from a time when racism was a normal occurrence, this should however not be an excuse for Disney to incorporate such contents in their movies. Disney’s utilization of the foreign cultures is still too much driven by the emphasis on the differences between the American culture and the other foreign cultures.
The distinction that is there between the American and the foreign cultures is presented in the Disney world as antitheses which are mutually exclusive. Though the love story can be seen as a reconciliation of the cultures, the foreign cultures in Disney are always degrading with racial stereotype (Larsen, 2002). Their characteristics are way too exaggerated that the recipients cannot fail to recognize the ethnicity of the characters. At the same time, the audience that get in touch with the used ethnicities for the first time have that assumption that these people are inferior, a concept that is not true. With this wrong perception, the children that watch these films may start treating children from other ethnicities with a changed racist perspective because they follow what they watch.
Profit gains for Disney
Disney has made a concerted effort to make their products accessible to people in foreign markets. Their movie Tarzan was dubbed in over 35 languages, and this “localization” is credited by a Buena Vista (a Disney-owned distributor) executive as allowing the Disney Company to take our movies around the world and make them sound like local movies (Davies, 2016). As such, Disney products don’t appear as an imposition from outside the local system but rather as a prolongation or continuation, as something that naturally adheres to fit within local culture (Davies, 2016). While one cannot necessarily fault the Disney Company for trying to expand its consumer base, this expansion has placed the Disney Company as the standard by which local and regional productions are judged (Davies, 2016).
Disney features in recent times have become highly profitable in Hollywood as studios produce successful films one after the other. Disney marvel films are performing well not only in the United States but around the world and taking up to ninety per cent of the revenue this genre generates. Disney studios have witnessed excellent box office control since 2008, which has led to the creation of Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which has produced great films such as Captain America: Winter Soldier, Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy and most recently Avengers: Age of Ultron. Marvel has exceeded sixteen billion USD worldwide making it be the most successful film franchise in the history of film. Disney entertainment group is built up of a collection of smaller ventures all built around the original characters first created by Stan lee and Jack Kirby back in 1939 when they were first known as Timely comics (McLauchlin, 2015). The group includes Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, Marvel Television and Marvel Animation. The group was formed in 1998 to bring all of the ventures under the same name and back to the same individual owner. Famously some comics had their rights sold to companies like Sony who bought Spiderman and famously had the highest ever-opening weekend at the time when they made 141million in 4 days (McLauchlin, 2015).
Disney pursues the concept of being a strong brand which was established over decades. With the expansion of their movie repertoire in the 1990s, established the so called ‘Disney Classics’ which are talked up as jewels in the movie history and reinforced by a huge marketing department which develops related paratexts that grab the viewer before he or she influences the text and try to regulate the viewer’s entry to the text (Gray, 2010). This strategy is supported by artificial scarcity, Disney leaves their 14 most successful movies in a safe for seven years and the rereleases them only for a short period of time (Disney. de. 2013). Disney also splits up the release of their films into phases. This is in order to release them so they can maximize profit for each individual film. Planning their releases this way allows them to avoid clashes in box office weekend with their own films and they can also grab the key release slots. They are also able to build anticipation as well as adding to the storyline in correct order since the actions in every marvel film have consequences in the worlds of almost every other film in some way or another. These phases are basically the parts in which the entire MCU is divided. Actually, this is done to make all these movies easy to understand for fans and all viewers. If you’ll go into the details of these movies then you’ll find that the timeline of MCU is very complex and all movies are somehow connected that’s why these phases were made (Boxofficemojo.com. 2019).
Since the 1990s, moreover, the frequency of the published movies increased very so that one could refer to the growing number of Disney Classics as a certain kind of flow with which consumers should be gained and kept. With these strategies, Disney also immobilizes many people because they are such great fans that they ignore the negative effects that Disney movies contain under their magic surface.
Production advantages for Disney
Disney influences the principle of storytelling by setting the whole film franchise within a short period of time to win the industry with films being set in the same time frame as others while being released separately. Another reason why Disney films have been so successful is the strong and complex characterization of their superheroes. The whole franchise is full of complex and diverse characters and they all have on going creative potential compared to DC whose characters seem to lack originality, which has led to poor branding. Some of the methods Disney used to ensure a tremendous success in the industry include; Disney devoted both money and time building personal stories. The franchise made each film one after another thus expanding its market. A good illustration of this is with marvel production where the storyline of Ironman created a background and springboard so that when The Avengers was released in 2012 the audience already had a strong idea of the background of the film and the characters. Iron Man also managed to land one of the biggest names in the industry by getting Robert Downy Jr. on board. Marvel created the story so that the viewers were aware of what happened previously. It created a brand for Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) making its product both admired and anticipated within the film industry.
The simple patterns Disney benefits from is that sometimes the consumption choices are motivated by previous consumption for instance the children may have loved it the first time that they watch it and so the will want to watch it again and again (Gray, 2012). This supported by impressive advertisement like the ‘I am a Princess’ video clip where girls from various ethnicities and ages describe why they perceive themselves as princesses (Disney on YouTube 2012). Through this video, Disney wants to highlight the good qualities that the Disney princess teaches the children and thy may be right to a certain extent because they convey some good and helpful values with their films. All the same, not all the critiques can be wrong in regard to their discoveries about racial and sexual stereotypes and also attempt to whitewash their mistakes and omissions. It is however unfortunate that only a few critiques as compared to the large fan base of Disney notice this fallibility and they will hence go on with their strategies of gaining more fans both adults and children for their brand.
The critical representations of the foreign cultures and otherness could also help Disney to gain even more success because the cultural aspects appear to be a marketing instrument that is incorporated to make the films to become more interesting for the audiences. The cultural discount is likely to attract the people and the American features are more likely to persuade them and make them feel more familiar with the content. Disney has been able to create a market place of culture from which the spectators only have to choose the most liked movies (Lacroix, 2004). All the same, the cultural proximity seems to be more important because when it comes to frequency with which Disney characters are shown, the one that represents the European descent is viewed to be more important and current. A good illustration of this is with Disney online shop where the striking, glamorous princesses like Cinderella, sleeping beauty and snow white are much more visible as compared to the other characters from the foreign cultures like Pocahontas and Mulan who are not presented as appealing hence not matching the Disney princess (Feminist Disney, 2014).
The application of the foreign or the familiar cultures for the children shows could also be a philosophical stroke. The fact that Disney is one of the chief media multinationals in the globe owning television and cable networks; it has so much influence which allows it to spread its values all through the world with their representations and embodiments of ideological values (Lacroix, 2004). Disney basically Americanises all the stories and thus giving them a familiar appeal. The fact that they are able to capture the attention of so many people with their magnificent Americanised ideology in their movies and series, they receive few criticisms as they continue to increase on their profits.
Example of culture misrepresentation in the movie Pocahontas
Pocahontas is a very ambivalent movie in regard to the manner in which it represents culture most especially the native America. The movie is based on true events that are however adjusted so that they fit the Disney structure, it tells the story of an Indian princess that belongs to the Powhatan tribe during the 17th century in Virginia. The princess who is known as Pocahontas was 12 years of age when the English conquerors arrived in Virginia and she was later on shipped to England to marry an English man named John Rolfe and the by lived at the English royal household (Pewewardy, Cornel, 1996). The movie brings her out as an emancipated adult woman that falls in love with John Smith but in the end feels that she has more responsibility to her family and tribe and she chooses them over her love for Smith.
Pocahontas as the Disney princess is in this case different in that her skin tone is darker and she wears a typical dress, she is brave, physically attractive and she is independent. Pocahontas is designed as a heroine and a negotiator between the local populations and the foreign conquerors. Moreover she is brought out as a very attractive woman who has exaggerated body dimensions that make her look like a supermodel (Lacroix, 2004). This strategic visualization by Disney combined with her good heart help to emphasize her foreign culture and at the same time makes her look adorable and more desirable for the audience. Though she is supposed to represent a view from the foreign culture, she is just basically mirroring the American most basic culturally rooted principles Feminist Disney, 2011). Disney portrays Pocahontas and her tribe as a very wild and uncivilized and thus illustrates them as enormously contrasted to the European Conquerors.
The movie is characterized by a high degree of diversity; it leaves a lot of space for several interpretations because the scenes are very different over the course of the movie. On one hand the Indians are represented as people that are very close in touch with nature. It is very easy for the viewers to sympathise with them because they are the victims, the Europeans can be defined to be the evil ones in that they enter their homeland to find gold and they try to displace them in the process (Feminist Disney, 2012). This movie in the overall presents the Indians as a community that is uncivilised, which could have great effects on the modern Native Americans, making them feel misrepresented and ridiculed by the English Americans (Pewewardy, 1996).
The reaction of the Indian community to the invasion is brought out by Disney as something that was wrong and also the course of the war between the two communities. This is however wrong, the Indians were defending themselves as is normal for people to defend themselves when danger threatens. Standing and fighting a community that invades your way of life is not equivalent to the violence of those that are invading (Feminist Disney, 2011).
Conclusion
Disney has brought a competitive and significant change in the film industry by taking advantage of a huge fan base and back catalogue of previously untouched yet hugely popular material with a cult following, as well as impacting and defining the genre of heroes and princesses by pushing all of the studios to improve their product. These changes have made Hollywood studios look for new ways to fit in the industry as well trying to move in the same direction that Disney is moving. With the current success of Disney it shows that there are various ways of making the industry differ, but the best way of building a brand in any industry is to do something different which creates a change in the market.
After the discovery of the racial and sexual stereotypes as well as the misrepresentations of the foreign ethnicities and cultures, it is only right to question whether it is condemnable to utilize the patterns in the children movies and whether they evoke feelings of insults among the people that belong to that culture. The answer can be said to be yes but there are a few restrictions. On one hand it is of course reprehensible if someone integrates racist and sexual insults on purpose, on the other hand however, it appears to be quite difficult to avoid stereotypes at large.
It is not really easy for Disney to produce a movie that is based on foreign culture and make it to entirely focus on the foreign culture. The producer has at least to try and obtain as much information as is possible on the foreign culture in order to effectively incorporate it in the film. Disney as an entertainment company that dedicates its productions to capitalism fails in the issue of producing authentic foreign cultures. There are some reoccurring characteristics that are in the Disney movies that can be cited not to be occurring by chance because Disney’s main focus is on children who can easily be impressed and manipulated. It is however important for Disney to understand that it is required to act more responsibly and always ensure that they do not transmit a perverted picture of genders and ethnicities.
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