Introduction: By the age of three, children are aware of racism and already have prejudices. (Nigel Benson, 2012) Disney has a long history of making entertaining films aimed at children, but during that time have we noticed racial and disability stereotypes in films? There is a definitive racial aspect to people of color, as even today they are mistreated because of their complexion, and around the time Disney began making their feature films, Walt Disney himself was racist and was no nicer to them. disabled people. I decided to research this project as I hadn't realized any stereotypes until I watched Aladdin again not too long ago; the opening title song, when released in cinemas in 1992, shocked many because it included extreme racial stereotypes against Arabs. This essay will describe the different "stages" of Disney films and how they illustrate stereotypes towards the younger generation Subsection 1: Disney Films from 1940 to 1970 In the early days of Disney Animation Studios, Disney released classic films that are still watched today. although some racial patterns are included. Dumbo, released in 1940, tells the story of a young circus elephant born with comically large ears and cruelly nicknamed Dumbo. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay One day he is teased by some children, which made his mother angry and then locked her up. Then he discovers that he can fly with his ears, surprising everyone at the circus. This is a positive aspect of disability because it shows that Dumbo overcame the taunts of his big ears which could have given hope to young disabled children of the time, and that they could put them to good use as in those days , disabilities were looked down upon and seen as negative anomalies while Dumbo reveals the opposite. Some may say that Dumbo's ears were not a handicap but simply a defect that he was born with. This is true, but it depends on how one views Dumbo's anomaly and whether he thinks it is a disability or not. In my opinion, I think it was to serve as a metaphor for disability to help young children grow and help them find a good use for their disability. Additionally, the main player in the crow, known as Jim Crow, is named for state and local laws that enforced segregation in the early to mid-20th century (Wikipedia, 2018). There are other flaws with the film's cast of crows: white actor Cliff Edwards played Jim Crow and the rest of the crows were performed by black composer Hal Johnson and his all-black choir (IMDb, n.d.). This shows clear leadership roles, with the main and highest rank of ravens being voiced by a white man and the rest of the ravens being voiced by black actors. Some may say that such stereotypes are a coincidence and that Disney producers would not have thought of such racial stereotypes. In my opinion, I don't think this is true because since it's a movie that was released in theaters and made a lot of money, the casting and plot of the movie should have been reviewed by many people, so I think that giving the choice of casting these voice actors is not a coincidence and was thought through by the producers. Fifteen years later, Disney released the beloved Lady and the Tramp, known for its famous spaghetti scene. But like many films, it is a negative racial stereotype. A rather humorous song included inthe film was the song We Are Siamese sung by the two Siamese cats, Si and Am. The animators drew the cats with slanted eyes and visibly broken English accents to fit the racial stereotype suggesting that the cats were stereotypical Hollywood depictions of Asians . This is supported by the fact that the Siamese cat originated in Thailand. Additionally, in the song both cats cause mischief, which coincides with the fact that in the late 19th century similar stereotypes were used to reinforce fear of the so-called Yellow Peril. It was the idea that East Asians posed a threat to the rest of the world that led to strict anti-immigration policies to prevent them from entering the United States (Screen Rant, 2017). In the late 1960s, The Jungle Book was published. released in theaters with its live-action film which was a big box office hit of USD 966.6 million (Wikipedia, 2018), but was it an improvement over its animated film? Compared to Lady and the Tramp, The Jungle Book also includes some racial stereotypes, but about the black jazz musicians who play the monkeys in the song "I Wanna Be Like You". The monkeys speak in “jives,” a form of slang associated with black jazz musicians. On top of that, the apes also want to become human, which could possibly coincide with how black people were treated during that time which was "not human" and racism was still widely used by white Americans. However, not all the monkeys were dubbed by black musicians; White actor Louis Prima voiced King Loue, which may or may not be a coincidence since his character is a "king" and is voiced by a white man while the other apes are not kings and are all voiced by black people. Therefore, the film's song includes negative ideas towards black people, although it is only a small part of the film. Following cultural and racial stereotypes in films, The Aristocats in 1970 depicted stereotypes of many races; Thomas' gang is entirely racially stereotyped. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article now from our expert writers. Get a Custom Essay Pepe is the Italian womanizing cat who wears a red scarf and Billy Ross is a Russian cat who looks like Joseph Stalin (Screen Rant, 2017). Additionally, Shawn Gahan is a Chinese cat who has slanted eyes, high teeth, and plays the piano with chopsticks. According to a recent survey I conducted, one person pointed out that "Shawn Gahan also speaks gibberish to make fun of the Chinese and their language." As a result, the songs in the films were very negative in the way they depicted the Russian, Italian, and Chinese races. Overall, Disney has not improved its stereotypes about racism due to the fact that films such as Lady and the Tramp, The Jungle Book, and The Aristocats all contain extreme racial stereotypes such as Black Americans , the Chinese and the Italians. On the contrary, they did not include any disability presented as negative, but showed how one overcame his disability which was in Dumbo. Even though no one could foresee the future and know that racism would no longer be tolerated in the future, they needed to improve their films, otherwise, over time, they would have lost a large portion of their audience to the racism being much less used. . Subsection 2: Disney Films from 1992 Disney's Aladdin, soon to be adapted into a live-action film, presents one of the most concerning negative racial aspects of the film industry. Its, 2017).