Craziest revelations that I have learned throughout the semester

In this final reflective blog post, I am going to reflect on the entire semester by talking about the things that I thought were the coolest revelations. As a kid, there are so many aspects to Disney movies that I didn’t understand whatsoever.

One of the most interesting in my opinion is Scar being homosexual. Due to his lack of mating partner, mannerisms, and lack of a child, Scar is seen as a homosexual character. As a kid that was the last thing going through my mind. Scar was a terrifying villain, and I wouldn’t have even tried to label him with a sexuality.

Another revelation is how historically inaccurate Pocahontas is. I had always thought of the movie as a historical fiction of sort. However, after watching and analyzing the movie, the inaccuracies are pretty astounding. First of all, there are no gigantic mountains or waterfalls in the fine state of Virginia. Second of all, it was a very happy ever after story of a very not so happy story. In real life, Pocahontas didn’t marry John Smith and she ended up dying from syphilis. I’m also not saying Disney should be talking about STDs in their movies, I’m just saying that it shocked me.

Another crazy reality I learned about The Lion King is the sense of Nazism throughout the movie. Being Jewish, Nazism is not something I take lightly. I had never realized until this year, however, how much Scar resembles Hitler and the Hyenas his special enforcers. The way the Hyenas march is so similar to how Hitler’s troops marched. Also, the song “Be Prepared” is filled with Hitler-like claims and statements. I guess this all makes sense given how evil Scar is in the movie, but it’s still pretty crazy that I never realized the Hitler allusion.

I didn’t realize how apparently racist some of Disney’s movies are, also. The Princess and the Frog, I thought was a progressive movie, incorporating the first black princess. Looking at it now, she isn’t a princess for most of the movie, she is just a frog. Making the only black princess into an animal for nearly the entire movie is a pretty bad look. In my opinion, it totally creates racist undertones in the Disney realm. Another very blatant showing of racism is in The Jungle Book. Mowgli, the main character, speaks good English and is white. The monkeys however, all speak in “jive” and are played by black actors.

The last thing that I will say I learned throughout this course is that Disney is getting better at what they do. If you look back at the really old Disney movies you’ll find they are increasingly more racist, misogynistic, and prejudiced in general. Disney is making strides towards becoming more inclusive and less prejudiced. Now Disney has a pacific islander princess and a Nordic ice shooting one too.