Evil Mickey? Anti-Disney ‘Insta-Plot’ Isn’t Even Close To Reality

Wed., Jan. 29, 1997

Jeff Sackmann Mead

I find it interesting that Disney’s latest animated movie, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” was one of the worst-grossing animated movies for the studio in recent years. True, it made more than $100 million at the box office (and who knows how much through toy sales), but the stats just don’t stack up to Disney’s blockbusters of years past.

From the first time I saw “Hunchback,” I knew it couldn’t be as successful as those that had come before - like “Aladdin,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King.”

So why was “Hunchback” a disappointment? It didn’t fit the Disney formula.

You know the one. There’s a good guy, a bad guy and a female love interest. With few exceptions, the bad guy gets in the way of the good guy, the good guy ends up winning (usually destroying the bad guy along the way) and ends up with the girl.

This obviously isn’t very sophisticated, but it’s provided the formula for countless Disney flicks and is at the heart of what’s wrong with them.

Simply criticizing this insta-plot is not difficult. In real life, there is nothing even close to a clear line between good and evil.

And in Disney movies, the good guy will stop at nothing to win the “good fight.” Most of the time, this involves plenty of violence. Sure, it’s cartoon violence, but this is no excuse. There’s been a recent attack on violence on television, but is a drive-by shooting on “NYPD Blue” that much different than a gory swordfight animated in full color? I don’t think so.

By showing small children - to whom Disney films are aimed - that this violence is OK as long as it’s “good” violence. Is that the right message?

Also in this formula, the girl almost always plays second fiddle to the man - whether she’s human or a lion. True, this has changed some in the last few years, but Disney is making millions on reissues of its older movies that show damsels in distress with only men able to help them out.

Surely this type of thinking doesn’t help to eliminate gender stereotyping. When kids are fed a steady diet of stories about two men fighting over a mutual love, are they getting a message about equality and discrimination?

So, back the “Hunchback.” This movie differs from Disney’s formula not only in that it doesn’t have as clear of a line between good and evil, but also because the good guy doesn’t get the girl and the female star has strength the male characters don’t.

Remember, though, that this movie didn’t do as well as the others that stuck to the tried-true-and-trite formula.

Have we developed a society that would rather watch a cartoon about a war fought over a woman than a battle won by one? Do we really need such a clear distinction between good and evil that we don’t appreciate the sophistication and subtlety when we don’t get it?

These twisted ideals are what need to be spoken out against, and Disney’s animated pictures are at the heart of them.

xxxx People disagree on the merits of Disney films Mickey Mouse - do you love him or hate him? Not so much the mouse, but what he stands for. Good or evil? Right or wrong? Some people think Walt Disney movies provide just the right balance of entertainment, morals and grouphug emotion to make them irresistible. Critics say the studio churns out predictable slop that glorifies violence and feeds people’s stereotypes about women and minorities. Two Our Generations writers take their shots at the issue. Jeff Sackmann says Disney movies are more evil than Cruella De Vil; Katie Clarke says they’re as harmless and pure as Snow White. What do you think?

For opposing view see same headline under byline Katie Clarke

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