6) Escapism
Once upon a time, there were some children who loved a particular type of movie very very much. With beautiful princesses and handsome princes, loveable sidekicks and colourful scenery, hilarious action and sigh-inducing romance, unforgettable music, a dash of tension, and always holding a promise of a happy ending (again, not you The Fox and the Hound – you just go and sit in the corner and think about what you’ve done), these films entertained and charmed the children in their thousands, and brought hope, comfort and inspiration into homes the world over for almost a hundred years.
Then, one day, a new villain appeared on the scene. At first it seemed to be a certain character that all the children had been desperate to meet for a long time; his name was Independence, and the children were delighted to finally see him! But it wasn’t long before Independence threw off his disguise of fun and freedom, and revealed his true colours. Made up of worry, bills, problems, health concerns, duties, job applications, relationship breakdowns, desks, early mornings, responsibilities, dependents and guilt– and bringing with him his own two sidekicks, Good Choice and Bad Choice (Bad Choice is a particularly attractive fellow) – Independence turned out in the end to be the much more complicated super-character, whose actually goes by the name of Life.
Life. Remember the days when you would watch Tramp finally settle down with Lady, and then wander off and make a fort under the kitchen table? Or when you would spend five minutes rewinding and rewinding the same minute of Bedknobs and Broomsticks until you could repeat the spell absolutely perfectly (kudos to anyone who can still recite it – without Googling it) before going to investigate the more pressing matter of whether or not it was fish-fingers for dinner? You know how these days once the film has ended it’s more likely that your next task is moving some money between bank accounts/working out how to make some money to move between bank accounts/disassembling the fort that has suddenly appeared under the kitchen table because they’ve used the guest sheets and also trapped the cat inside. Or that you are the person responsible for the fact that it is not fish-fingers for dinner and the most pressing matter right now is calculating which room would provide the best barricade while all holy hell breaks loose? Yes, life happened to us all in the end, and not very much of it looked like a Disney movie.
But actually, it is precisely this that gives Disney its last, ultimate and continuing role in the lives of people other than children. Because as much as we all become adults, very few of us ever really become grown-ups. Whether it is the nostalgia of remembering watching these movies at a much simpler time in our lives, or whether it is just being stunned by the sheer beauty of the advances in the animation, Disney has managed to create a bridge between the worlds of make-believe and reality that has legitimized so many things that people simply never grow out of, and yet without Disney’s enormous influence in the world might never have been able to admit to. People’s dreams actually can come true if they believe in themselves enough! Finding Nemo has barely one bad guy! How unbearably cute is Wall-E? Laughter really is more powerful than screams! How envious are most girls of Rapunzel’s hair? Family really is, a lot of the time, where it’s all at.
Whatever else life has delivered us along the way, Disney always has and forever will offer both pure and simple escapism, and straightforward messages that cannot help but lift our spirits.
Just keep swimming folks. Just keep swimming.