News
Debating Mysticism In Disney Animation
By Robert Marich
Jan. 8, 2010 – Disney gets ripped by some Christian groups for occult depictions in The Princess and the Frog, which is breakthrough on another front as Disney’s animated feature with a black lead character.
An opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal by religious writer Mark I. Pinksy notes that Disney animation for 70 years has incorporated spiritual themes of various sorts, but mostly steered clear of being overtly religious. Often, characters well up supernatural capabilities from within themselves in what might be called “having faith in faith.”
This is a marketing debate because content of a film -- and the philosophy driving decision making -- is crucial for the ability of a distributor to attract audiences. Religious commentators have from time to time heaped criticism and praise on the Disney company on the faith front, depending on what movie is being discussed.
“Yet the studio’s founding genius (Walt Disney who died in 1966) also understood that, from the ancient Greeks to the Brothers Grimm, successful storytellers have needed supernatural intervention agents to resolve plots,” writes Pinsky. “So, Walt decided, Disney’s cartoon protagonists would appeal not to Judeo-Christian religion but to magic, which was more palatable around the ticket-buying world. It’s no coincidence that Disney's marquee theme park is called The Magic Kingdom.”
The WSJ opinion article notes that Disney movies are filled with “good fairies, godmothers, wishes upon a star (and, later, a blue genie); on the other, there were witches, wizards, sorcerers and malign spirits and spells. Critically, however, while evil and the Dark Side existed, they never, ever triumphed over good.” Pinsky says the late Walt Disney was not at all religious himself.
Pinsky adds that the history of the topic is a zigzag. In 1996, the Southern Baptist Convention mounted a boycott of Disney complaining of black magic depictions in its family films—the boycott was unsuccessful. On the other hand, the 1999 Disney animated feature The Hunchback of Notre Dame is very pro-Christian -- even more so than its foundation literary source by Victor Hugo.
Hollywoodjesus.com posts critical comments of Disney.
For full text, click link below:
www.marketingmovies.net/chapters/chapter-9-major-studios/
www.marketingmovies.net/news/faith-audience-propels-blind-side/
www.marketingmovies.net/news/bo-sheds-light-on-religious-film-debate/