Sep
13
As a new mom, I’m quite excited to begin to introduce the things I loved as a child to my daughter. One of these things is, of course, the infamous Disney classics. Over Labor Day weekend, I was especially excited when Comcast On Demand was doing a promo for their new Disney subscription and were showcasing Tarzan, 101 Dalmations, and Mary Poppins. I chose to watch Tarzan and 101 Dalmations over the weekend.
I still thought these were good movies, but I noticed a few things about them that got me thinking. 1) These were violent movies. Especially 101 Dalmations. They are not only trying to kidnap the puppies, but they are also trying to kill and skin the puppies. That’s horrible! I don’t want to explain to my daughter what it means to “off” a puppy! 2) Why the heck do 99% of Disney characters not have both parents. Most of the time, the mother has been killed or died somehow and the father independently raises the child. Or, somehow, the child is orphaned or runs away.
I was reading something that said Disney movies are the way they are because they are written after old folk tales which were written during a time where children were often motherless. While this makes sense, haven’t there been other good children’s stories written since way back in the day? Maybe one’s that teach good morals, don’t have bad guys that would scare me to this day, and have both parent’s?
On the other hand, I watched Disney movies as a child. I loved them and I still do like them. Somehow, I’ve managed to end up as, what I would consider, a decent person. I’m pretty sure watching Disney movies as a child didn’t scar me into being a horrible adult.
So, what do you think? Are Disney movies too “bad” to let our children watch? Or do they actually teach us good moral values and add some character to our kids?
One Response to “Family Friendly Fun”
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September 15th, 2009 at 10:05 am
This is weird because my cousin Kate and I, were talking about the motherless disney movies yesturday without prior reading your blog entry. We didn’t get into deep thought about it just that it was strange.. I’ve since thought about this situation and really other then these movies and the de-ranged cartoons that are on tv nowadays what else do our children have to watch? The fact of this is I’m scared of our children’s generation. Besides that maybe it gave us as children a unconcious thought of not everyone lives forever, and not to take people or things for granted in this world. That and there are “bad” people out there that our children do need to be cautious of because everything isn’t butterflies and roses all the time. Most of the time they don’t understand the actual movie until 10 years old or so and then they start with the “offing of one’s puppy” questions. That’s my 2 cents.. I agree we watched them and I don’t think we are terrible people, but these movies shouldn’t be a babysitter and if they have questions we as parents should teach them the right and wrong’s of the movie, so they can grow up to be better individuals.