4) Education
There are few people who can deny that Disney was the first to introduce them to at least one or two things that would later turn out later in life to be quite useful information. For some it was the existence of certain historical and literary characters such as Robin Hood, Fagin (although Disney’s Oliver and Company might have polished the corners off the original Fagin somewhat), Pocahontas, and Sherlock Holmes (Basil the Great Mouse Detective….agreed that that one’s a bit more tenuous).
For others, Disney provided excellent (read: vaguely acceptable) foundation courses in Greek mythology (Hercules), English legends (The Sword in the Stone) and Chinese history (Mulan). Disney movies were also useful for expanding young vocabulary; when a six year old can refer to an elephant as a pachyderm, or to spitting as ‘expectorating’ – this has not likely been learned in the average second grade school class (unless they picked it up during end-of-Christmas/Easter/summer-terms when-all-the-teachers-mentally-checked-out-three-days-ago-movie-marathons, which incidentally is a whole other reason adults have to be grateful to Disney). Disney even introduced us to the sounds of entire new languages: French, Swahili, Hawaiian. Whale.
Of course, since we grew up we can appreciate that Disney have been applying a bit of artistic license to some of these stories. Because despite the carnage that they so gleefully deploy in most of their films, Disney are also well known for doing something else with their storylines. In a splendidly blithe process that surely deserves a title of some kind it’s so accomplished (‘Disnefication’?), Disney have an almost unrivalled ability to look at some thoroughly inappropriate story or historical legend, and see …well, not that. Pocahontas was approximately 12 years old and not in love with John Smith. She did actually go to England (with someone else), but unlike in Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World, she remained there until she died of pneumonia at the age of 21 (at least Disney took notice of this fact and spared us any more sequels).
Hercules was actually the illegitimate child of Zeus and a mortal woman. He fell out with Goddess Hera at some point in his life, and in a blind fury killed all of his own children.
In Hans Christian Andersen’s original story of The Little Mermaid, she fails to marry the prince and is instructed to kill him and let the blood wash over her feet if she wishes to return to her mermaid form; instead, she kills herself, and her body turns to foam. And finally, with shattering troll-mirrors and landscapes that looked like ‘boiled spinach,’ saying that Andersen’s The Snow Queen differs from Frozen is a bit like saying that Goodfellas differs from The Notebook (although to Frozen’s credit, The Snow Queen did feature a reindeer).
While other film companies were busy creating loyal adaptations of these stories (see the 1975 anime adaptation of The Little Mermaid for example, if you have a spare hour and fancy ruining your day), Disney were bouncing cheerily along with “come on chaps, what are you all playing at – just a bit of tweaking and there’s some excellent children’s films to be made here!” If there was an Oscar for ‘screenplay that most effectively looks on the bright side of any situation,’ Disney would win every time. (They would also win if there was one for just plain lying).
However, there is actually good reason for us to be grateful for these stories being Disnefied. This is because Disney have, in the past, taken it upon themselves to actually try and properly educate people – and we’re not just talking about the day we realize that The Lion King is loosely based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth (although they didn’t exactly tone down those death sequences – the Macbeths had a pretty peaceful end compared to Mufasa and Scar). No, we’re talking about actual life issues, about important and serious matters, about events that have permeated world history… we are talking, in short, about Donald Duck wearing a swastika.
During the 1940s, some of Disney’s contracted work involved them producing propaganda and education films for the government. The most famous of these is The Fuerher’s Face, in which Donald Duck plays a Nazi struggling to keep up with production in an ammunition factory. The sequence turns out to be nothing more than a nightmare (and the entire thing is of course anti–Nazi), but most people have a few things in their life that they would pay good money never to see again, and Donald Duck saluting the Swastika in full SS uniform would likely be one of them.
Incidentally, the subjects covered by the educational films also include menstruation, the fact that insects carry disease, how German children were being brought up to be good Nazis, and how to play golf/ride a horse – with Goofy as the instructor (Goofy was a golf instructor. There’s a sentence you didn’t expect to read today).
However else Disney might have doctored the informative content of their feature length films, at least most of us can be grateful that we didn’t grow up at a time when Disney education consisted of lines such as “mother nature manages so much of our living without us ever realizing there’s a woman at work,” and, “contrary to popular belief, golf is not a waste of time.”
