The Disney Corporation...

Hello and thank you for accepting this challenge… It is not only in the old fairy tale stories that the parents are dead…in "chicken little" a story that had absolutely nothing to do with a mother being dead, they made the mother dead. It would not be so bad to follow the original story of the fairy tales if they didn't put so much stress on the fact that the parents were dead…but aside form that…I do think that Disney didn't use to be quite as bad as it is now…I am, for the most part, not that offended by the earlier films…Probably the first of their movies that were meant to be psychologically traumatizing, was, of course, Bambi. "One big reason is that all these movies have happy endings." This seems to be the main points of you're argument. But in reality, when a child goes through a traumatic experience, it does not blow away when there is happy ending…it lingers…in the same way that my younger cousin would tell his parents "I'm gonna go find my real family" for weeks after seeing the tigger movie. And it IS traumatic. The child closely relates with Simba. They, then, think of it as their own father, when they see the daddy lion being thrown off of a cliff and trampled by animals. And also, most traumatic, is the unbound hatred that the evil lion (what's his name?) shows when THROWING HIM OFF OF A CLIFF. A child should not be exposed to the idea of someone savagely, hatefully, maliciously, murdering there parents in some of the most gruesome ways imaginable. You think that it goes away as soon as they sing some pointless song at the end of the movie? Of course not, and I can hardly say the ending is happy. Someone is viciously murdered by hungry hyenas a few minutes before the credits; I could hardly call that "happy". Also, in Tarzan, another one of the worst Disney films, both his human parents AND gorilla parent is killed, and it is not exactly happy. "There are kids who have been adopted and kids with abusive parents." Right…and the prince of the forest telling Bambi: "Your mother can't be with you anymore" the end of the movie is going to make them feel just plain old jolly isn't it? Of course not. It will make them feel horrible. You must be kidding to say that Disney's purpose in killing the parents is to make the kids feel "good", that is insane. "And regardless of what kind of home a kid comes from, I don't think it's okay to teach a child that everything in the world is nice and sweet. Yes, you want to sugar coat a lot of things because you don't want to disturb them, but sheltering a child too much will make them feel even worse when something bad does happen." WHAT?!?!? You said: "sheltering a child too much will make them feel even worse when something bad does happen" Here are the flaws in that statement: 1. An extremely vast majority of children watching the movie will never have their father be forced to whip them, have their father thrown off of a cliff by a talking lion, or have you're adopted gorilla dad shot by a hunter. 2. These movies do not present real-life situations, (see above), and children will probably never have to deal with having their father thrown off of a cliff. Therefore, it does not help them in real life, because it is uselessly traumatic. In other words, IT DOES NOT REPRESENT REAL LIFE, IT REPRESENTS A NIGHTMARE. 3. It is one thing having conflict in the story, it is another to have it be a completely traumatic, and terrifying experience for the kids. I can tell you from personal experience, because I have several younger siblings, that 3 year olds or 2 year olds (lion king is rated G) have little distinction between real-life and a movie. The way that Disney presents it, is meant to give the maximum trauma. "I don't think that Disney movies are too harsh" If a little kid watching his father thrown off of a cliff in hatred, to be trampled by stampeding animals, is not harsh, then I have no clue what is. If a father watching his son be token away by a boat, and as fast as he goes he can not catch them, and sinks in to the lowest possible depression, is not harsh, I do not know what is. If an infant witnessing a cheetah eat his parents is not harsh, I don't know what is. "Kids should be used to the idea of single parent families, or pretty much any type of family that is different than their own. As for the others, like Simba, Mufasa's death isn't gory, his reaction is appropriate and normal (crying). It's done tactfully." Maybe, but doesn't strike you as strange that nearly every single movie produced by Disney has a plot that almost completely revolves around the death of a parent, or the absence of a parent…does it maybe seem as if they WANT kids to feel detached from their parents; making it easier for a capitalist corporation to manipulate the kids in a way to suit their own marketing interests? "And on a different level, there's a big difference between real life and movies that kids understand, and these are movies. They're lions and princesses with animated bodies. Even when I'm emotionally invested in something, tragedy in a movie can't elicit emotions that a real tragedy can." I beg to differ, my friend. Though mature minds understand the difference, most kids do not. Like you said, the kid relates with the character. To a 3 year old, it does not matter whether they are talking animals, they think of them as real people, as they think and talk like real people. If you want proof, check out this: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com... It says: "Not until second grade were a majority of children able to differentiate human from animated and puppet characters" That is proof enough that kids don't understand the distinction very much…and to the very least, a child's sub-conscious mind will always think of the characters as real people.