Disney Cartoons Are Full of Racist, Sexist and Homophobic Representations. Discuss.

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The Disney Corporation, known for inspiring generations of children since its first animated feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (Cottrell, et al. 1937) to their most recent and still unreleased; Monsters inc. 2 (Scanlon, D. 2013), has clearly had an impact on the masses, if you look to the quantitate data ‘230 million is the approximate viewers of a Disney film (based on visits to the cinema and DVD purchases) per year’ (Disney by the Numbers, 2012). Yet with all these fans there is often much discussion as to whether Disney corporation has actively implemented sexist (discriminating on the basis of sex, usually females) racist (describing one race as superior to another) and homophobic (an irrational aversion to homosexuals) representations within their cinematic cartoons in order to influence audiences whether young or old. When looking in depth and critically at each case study, prejudice becomes more apparent, even to the most dispassionate of viewers. The case studies are: Pinocchio, (Ferguson, N. et al. 1940) a tale of a young boy led astray in his quest to become a real boy through “brave, truthful and unselfish” (Ferguson, N. Hee, T. Jackson, W. 1940) acts, The Lion King, (Allers, R. Minkoff, R. 1994) an anecdote about a pride of anthropomorphic lions particularly the king’s young son who is to avenge his father after a series of tear jerking events, and The Hunch Back of Notre Dam, (Trousdale, G. Wise, K. 1996). a story based on the need for social acceptance through the narrative viewpoint of deformed protagonist Quasimodo. In The Lion King the we witness the death of King Mufassa, due to his characteristically binary opposing, predatorily pedophilic brother Scar, who then blames the consequences of his own actions on young, impressionable, heir to the throne Sinbar. Sinbar flees the “Pride Land” (Allers, R. Minkoff, R. 1994) and in his
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