The Disney Corporation...

Okay, you talked a lot about the villain in the Lion King (his name's Scar). Now this movie was intended for adults, I'd watch it and probably be affected by his cruelty and by his violent death, because I am expecting complex characters and plots that aren't black and white. But in a kid's movie, I am expecting black and white. I expect the villain to be cruel and heartless and I expect him to die. Children aren't psychologists; if Scar was sad as he killed Mufasa, and kid would think "well, if he's upset, why'd he kill him?" Evil in movies makes sense to children because saying "he's good and he's bad" is simple. And death by fire is violent, but there are a few reasons why I don't think this would be traumatizing. 1) It isn't graphic. All you see are flames and silhouettes, or someone closing their eyes. Which in a lot of cases makes all the difference, and it doesn't just apply to Disney movies. The difference between PG-13 and R movies is often not how a character dies, but if that death is shown. In the news (if not currently than at one point) stations are/were not allowed to show dead soldiers. They can tell you how man died, they can talk about the deaths all they want, but they're not allowed to show it. 2) This is a lesser point, but when I watched Disney movies as a toddler, the villains scared me. When Scar and company did their big musical number I had to have my mom watch it with me. To me he was evil and dangerous, so when he died I was relieved. Now, before you take this as Disney turning kids into vindictive murderers, let me say that children have a much simpler view of the world. They don't see the layers of pain and emotional complexity that adults do, so the villain dying isn't horrible and violent, it's just him going away. And yes, that'd be a pretty messed up attitude for an adult to have, but I don't know a soul who didn't grow out of it by age 8. "You think that it goes away as soon as they sing some pointless song at the end of the movie?" Yes, because the story is simple. This one's good, that one's bad, things are bad, now things are good. A four year old is not sitting their reading into the levels of the characters; if they're smiling than they're happy and that's good. Evil is done and gone, so why feel sad? Again, that's not a healthy attitude for an adult, but they aren't adults. "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) When I said "something bad", I didn't mean that the movie is going to mirror their life. 2) Again, too literal! I doubt strongly a kid's going to see their father die before their 5, but they might before their 50. A lifespan is a long enough time for tragedy to happen. Now, a person's tragedies might not be as traumatic as these characters', but a child watching these movies is not experiencing the tragedy for themselves, so it is not as traumatic to them. Even if they identify with the character, even if they think it's real, it still won't be anywhere close to how their father really dying would affect them. 3) I don't think that they are so traumatic, as I said above" "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." True, but how the events affect them is still different than how it would affect them if it were directly happening to them. History is full of traumatic events; lots and lots of them. As a kid I learned about slavery and persecution, wars and all those other lovely things. It's real. And even though the stories I read might make me angry and upset, I don't think any of them traumatized me because they were part of a different world. Serious trauma and pain is something that has to be experienced personally to fully understand it, and the vast majority of little kids haven't, they won't be disturbed by it. "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?" I'm not being sarcastic when I say I've got respect for most conspiracy theories, but to me this is a little to out there. There's too big of a distance between Aladdin being an orphan and a toddler demanding toys. He might demand them because he liked the movie and wants the doll, but I don't think the character's lack of parents has much to do with it. And if a parents relationship with their kids is so fickle that it can be torn apart by Mufasa's death (and Simba later avenges him) than I think that family needs to work a few things out. I don't think Disney movies ever had a negative affect on my family life. In fact, in some small ways it was better, because the movies were intelligent and funny enough to keep my parents from hating them, and I remember my Dad being able to imitate the characters' voices and acting out skits with my action figures. They were good movies, and as a family we liked them.