It is amazing how a seemingly educated woman that has won Oscar awards for her documentaries, could possibly be so far off base in her review of the Disney movie “The Lion King”. Margaret Lazarus has taken a movie made for the entertainment of children and turned it into something that is racist, sexist and stereotypes gender roles. She uses many personal arguments to review the movie but offers few solutions. The author is well organized but she lacks alternate points of view and does not use adequate sources. Lazarus utilizes the statement at the end of her review that “the Disney Magic entranced her children, but they and millions of other children were given hidden messages that could only do them and us harm” (118). She makes her point by saying that “the Disney Magic reinforces and reproduces bigoted and stereotyped views of minorities and women in our society” (Lazarus 117). She makes comparisons such as elephant graveyards are like ghettos (Lazarus 118). Other lines of reasoning Lazarus gives us are about Whoopie Goldberg using inner city dialect, the villain Scar being gay, and only those born to privilege can bring about change (118).
Lazarus begins her review first, by informing us that the hyenas lived in an elephant graveyard that was dark and impoverished and compared it to living in a ghetto (118). She does not tell us where she obtained her knowledge of how a ghetto is like an elephant graveyard. It was a dark and sinister place but her comparison of it being a ghetto has no justification. Actual hyenas are scavengers by nature and do not exactly hang out with the rest of the animals out in the middle of the Pride Lands. Disney by all accounts, typically has a location in almost every movie that is dark and sini...
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...t people not want to see or avoid this movie. Lazarus should have found sources to back up her arguments. If in some way, the Disney Company has wronged Lazarus, this may be why she makes these remarks about the movie. People will find out as much as possible about a movie before they let their children watch it, which would be a good idea for Mrs. Lazarus. She does not give us insight into her background or knowledge regarding racism, sexuality, gender roles, or the ghetto to back up the point of view she formulates about the movie. She should remember that she is not evaluating a documentary where the facts are important and just sit back and enjoy a Disney classic.
Works Cited
Lazarus, Margaret. "All's Not Well in Land of The Lion King." Power of Language;Language of Power. New York: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2009. 117-118. Print.
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When you first meet someone, what are the first things that you notice? Sex? Race? Or maybe the brands of clothing that indicate social status? Human beings as a society judge and categorize others, labeling those who stray from social norm as weird or strange. Who are we to make these judgments and where did these ideas of right and wrong come from? The Walt Disney Company plays an important role in depicting who and what people should and shouldn’t be. Every aspect of Disney, including movies, TV shows, and products, are supported by most of the world for entertainment and seemingly honest messages of innocence and magic. Beneath the image of innocence, Disney is also a media empire, a global conglomerate consisting of magazines, media production companies, television and radio networks, studios, cable TV systems, theme parks, and Internet sites – all of them motivated by the goal to maximize profits in an increasingly competitive business. Because this documentary is about Disney, its main audience is parents and people who are planning to have kids, but not only does it point out the issues with Disney to parents, but also to the Disney Corporation itself. Mickey Mouse Monopoly, a documentary released in 2002, examines Disney’s power to influence society and culture as it explores Disney’s depictions of race and gender in Disney movies, drawing on interviews with various individuals. Mickey Mouse Monopoly appeals to ethos and pathos to draw attention to Disney’s stronghold on public opinion, how Disney sensors negative publicity, and how Disney aids in the gender socialization of our youth and paints a vivid picture of our society’s concepts of race, class, and sexual orientation.
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The works of Karl Marx have had a great effect on the world. They influenced many people including Vladimir Lenin. The works of Vladimir Lenin have also been influential. Together they influenced the African Che Guevara who is named Thomas Sankara. Thomas Sankara was a revolutionary hero that enacted sweeping social and economic changes throughout Burkina Faso and inspired many people to believe that Africa could be autonomous and self reliant.
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The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is set during World War II. There are four children who had to be sent to live with Professor Kirke because their mother wanted them to be safe. The children decide to play hide and seek in the house one day and the youngest girl Lucy found a wardrobe to hide in. When Lucy was in the wardrobe she found herself in a strange place. The wardrobe had led her to a land full of snow. When Lucy started walking around she met a fawn named Tumnus. He took her to his house. She became friends with him until he broke down and explained to her that he worked for the White Witch. He was supposed to capture humans, but she begged him to let her go, which he did.
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I chose to view the movie Lion, a movie based on the book A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley. This movie is about a five-year-old boy, Saroo, living in a poor, rural area in India. Saroo convinces his older brother Guddu, to let him tag along and find work in a nearby city. Saroo ends up trapped and alone in a decommissioned passenger train that takes him to Calcutta, over 1,000 miles away from his home.
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Which is still a big issue in the world today. Just last week a customer was kicked out of a Starbucks because he was black. Which proves they is still discrimination going on today. This movie describes people being prejudice in a way even kids can understand.
...ed by its culture just as it affects its culture, but its underlying worldview contains patriarchal and racist dimensions. In addition, the portrayal of Scar and the hyenas as having a dark mane and dark coats in the Lion King seems to be a symbolic coding. Our society has associated it darkness and evil and it has become an issue that is very offensive to AfricanAmericans. In addition to sending conflict messages about valuing all races, Disney implies that in Pocahontas, certain personality types are not considered and valued. Similarly in Hercules, the one and only Muse who is not beautiful stereotypically is the one muse who is the comic. What this means is that only the extremely beautiful and fun loving people are valued in our society (Booker 38). The mixed message brought out is that all people are valued, but really only fun and lively people are valued.
Even though the production of Disney’s film The Frog Princess is a huge step forward to show the equality of all culturals and ethnicities, it just shows that racial components which were once overlooked by most parents and children are now a wide spread controversy. Giroux thoroughly explains the effect Disney films has on the youth, “Rather, it points to the need to address in meaningful and rigorous ways the role of fantasy, desire, and innocence in securing particular ideological interests, legitimating specific social relations, and providing the content of public memory” (Giroux 132).