Disney’s legacy spiraling down

Sunita Mistry
Contributor
Last week’s Excalibur featured an article on Disney which, as an all-time Disney fan, I had to read. I have to agree with the writer, Barry Germansky, in that, as sad as it is, Disney movies no longer have that authentic style in animation or story creations.
I agree, too, that the overrepresentation of postmodernist theories has clouded the essence of what Disney once stood for.
Creators of Disney films, specifically those of Pixar, disregard the real aspect of Disney, which was once similar to that of Aesop’s fables: helping kids develop character, morals and simply provide a didactic purpose using anthropomorphism and personification.
The past few years Disney has been raking in its profits using three-dimensional filming. “What strikes me is the fact that in our society, art has become something which is only related to objects, and not to individuals, or to life,” said philosopher Michel Foucault. Disney is moving away from hand-drawn animation to digitally made 3D films, fixating itself on entertainment.
Disney used to sell itself; now it seems that in order to keep its audience, 3D animation is being used as a security blanket. Take Alice in Wonderland for example: the upside-down world of “Wonderland” showed kids how absurd the rules and order in the adult world is.
Kids who once watched Disney movies were given space to imagine, dream and idolize their favourite Disney characters, whether it was being able to fly like Peter Pan or having an old powerful genie to grant your wishes. Disney art no longer offers personal development nor does it teach life lessons or universal morals.
The Lion King used an anthropomorphic approach to teach us about the circle of life, as Pocahontas personified nature (i.e. Grandmother Willow) to illustrate the consequences of power relations using specific historical allusions to the colonization of the aboriginal community.
Disney’s Alice in Wonderland was recently revamped, made 3D and digitally animated. The movie pulls away from the authentic original and instead focuses on the digital animation. The trailer, like that of a video game, builds up to an important battle between Alice and the Red Queen, which seems to be the focal point of the story.
The story of the new movie Beastly is taken directly from Disney’s version of Beauty and the Beast, and although it has the same moral approach, the story once meant for kids has now turned toward an adolescent audience; it takes away from the authenticity of Disney’s motive and its
lessons.
Disney is creating movies built on postmodernist discourses like The Simpsons or Family Guy. Although not subjugated by vulgarity, there is plenty of sarcasm and wit that drives the humour in Pixar movies such as Up!
There are some Pixar movies, however, like A Bug’s Life, that have sarcasm and humour but don’t use it to drive the plot. The movie is an exercise in Disney’s digital animation and shows us how it can be used in individual development and in identifying or reevaluating societal flaws.
Disney-Pixar films need to pick up where they left off in terms of revaluating their discourses. Toy Story and A Bug’s Life demonstrate the balance between an acceptable means of Disney digital entertainment. Disney as whole needs to move away from this availability of insurance over 3D films because it will only drive a deeper wedge between its legacy and its profit.