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Times Disney Made Me Really Think

Films just for children? I think not!

By Louisa JanePublished 12 months ago 9 min read
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The films of Disney and Pixar are the foundations of many childhoods around the world, especially mine. Beautifully imagined and carefully written, they are able to capture imaginations and immerce children into magical worlds and instil the belief that anything is possible. Though they also manage to have deeper meanings to us now as adults and make us think; 'Wow, the feels!'

Here are a few of ones that have pierced my heart over the years and stay with me always.

The Lion King (1994)

The death of Mufasa is a hard limit for many of us. I watched The Lion King all the time when I was little and never shed a tear. I watched it so much that I went through about fifteen years without it. When I watched it years later, Mufasa's death hit me like a train but what crucified me most was Simba's response during the scene. He slowly approaches Mufasa, lying on the ground looking so peaceful that, out of context, you might have thought he was asleep.

This is the first point I want to discuss as, for me, it highlights the skillset behind the animators at Disney. Lying there, Mufasa isn't just a drawing with his eyes shut. There is a stillness in his expression which can only be associated with the traits of death which, from an artist' point of view, is insanely difficult to convey in a line drawing. First, let's give a huge round of applause to the wonderful team of artists that managed to capture this. Bravo!

Secondly, we come to watch Simba's reaction to what has occurred. There was his dad, the man (lion?) whom he idolised and loved more than anything in the world, lying motionless. Simba's so confused, but he knows. He says "Dad, wake up ... we've got to go home." I thought of my own dad, whom I love and cherish more than life itself.

Simba then turns back to the world, the look of terror and realisation in his eye (again, animation at its best), and he screams out for help. "Somebody! Anybody! Help..." and it hit me that that's exactly how I would have responded, had I been in the same awful position. As a young and vulnerable child, what else would you do, but beg and plea for grown-ups to help and fix what is broken?

THEN, Simba does the most natural thing for a child to have done. He curls up under Mufasa's limp paw, sobbing and closes his eyes, desperately trying to cling onto moments lost. Simba always wanted to be like Mufasa, and even in death, he still copies the only thing he still can from his father.

"We've gotta go home..."

The Little Mermaid (1989)

Ariel was always my favourite princess. She looks at her dad on her wedding day. She looks at the man who, despite their fights and quarrels, had nothing but her best interests at heart and wanted more than anything for her to be safe. Now she stands on her wedding day, entering the world he tried to save her from, but about which he was wrong. From the way he and Prince Eric regard each other, it's clear the Triton knows that Ariel will be happy and safe with him. He waits until Ariel hugs him and she can't see his face to let his true feelings show. Conflicted and saddened to let his youngest daughter go. He is being left behind as she embarks on her new life in a new land, with the man who has replaced him as the most important man in Ariel's life. That's obviously lunacy, Eric could never replace Triton, but it's the natural way of things. Children make mistakes and grow up, they find love and move on. Ariel is so excited to begin her new life, but the glint of tears in her eyes show how it breaks her heart to leave her beloved father. All Ariel needs to say to reassure him is 'I love you, Daddy'. What else is there to say?

"I love you, Daddy."

Coco (2017)

Being the big baby that I am, it's pretty unheard of for me not to cry at a film, especially a Disney one. So imagine my utter devastation when I subjected myself to the wonder that is Coco. The ending utterly broke me.

The word 'dementia' is never said throughout the course of the film, though I think that the audience's unspoken understanding that Mama Coco is suffering from such a disease only makes the ending so much more powerful and heart-wrenching. I think it's only right that Mama Coco's illness is never formally identified, as it truly captures how the situation would be seen through the eyes of a child. Miguel feels trapped by his grandmother as she bitterly strives keep him from pursuing a pleasure as simple as music. On the surface, it seems that to him and the audience her intentions lie solely in protecting the honour of their family history. Underneath that, however, it seems, her relentless endeavours are more to try and cling on to her past with Mama Coco, and maintain the dignity and assumed wishes of the mother that she sees being taken more day by day by age and an incurable, invisible sickness.

I am fortunate enough that I can say that I've never known anyone personally with dementia but when Mama Coco's face twitches at the recognition of her father's song and sings the forgotten lyrics, my entire world fell inwards and my heart cracked. Firstly, the very idea that something as special as the song she shared with her father could be forgotten highlights the ruthlessness of the disease and scares the hell out of me. Secondly, the scene is perfectly representative of dementia in reality. There is plenty of research into the positive affects music has on patients with significant dementia-like symptoms, providing emotional and behavioural benefits and can often be the only way that relatives can connect with their loved ones. The power of music, eh?

Have you noticed there's a theme of father death/separation? Go hug your dads, guys!

Remember me

Turning Red (2022)

This last film hit me on a deep personal level that I didn't know was possible. As a twenty-something-year-old-double-X-chromosome human being, the story of Meilin Lee was one that needed to be told on behalf of girls and women everywhere. Firstly, let's address the elephant in the room; Disney took the step into the taboo subject of menstruation and presented it, I feel, in a poignant and meaningful way. It's bizarre to me that something as natural as periods should be avoided as a topic of conversation, considering half the world's population experience them on a monthly basis for nearly a third of their lives. Regardless, that has long been the case. Disney however took the bull by the horns and talked about it as matter-of-fact as the reality. Even as a grown adult, I felt that it was handled excellently, and highlighted the normality of periods and enabled a freedom to talk about such a key subject. It certainly opened some conversations in my household and enabled me to educate and reassure the men and younger ones in my family about what goes on every month.

Secondly, Turning Red falls into a string of films where Disney tackles the all too real impacts of generational trauma. These films present slightly different situations in different kinds of families, emphasising that, no matter how hard parents try; no one is perfect and we're all a little damaged on some level. Turning Red looks at the mother/daughter dynamics and delves further, showing Mei that there are reasons why her mother behaves the way she does. You learn with Mei how Ming is a by-product of her own childhoods demons and that the same broken child that lives in Mei, still haunts Ming well into adulthood. That cut me, when you think that the hardest part of ending generational trauma is accepting that your past happened, however wrong and to whatever extent, and that learning to forgive enables you to make peace and move forward. This last bit helped me immensely to mend my relationship with my own mother. While I cannot condone some of the grey areas of my childhood, I have now come to understand the surrounding factors that influenced my mother's actions and I can now be honest with myself and say that I'm not sure how I would have reacted under the same circumstances. It's easy of me to say I would have been better and done it differently but I now recognise that I don't actually know that for sure, and actually if I'm being brutally honest, I probably wouldn't have had the strength to do what my mother was able to do. She did her very best with what she had and with the horrendous cards that we were dealt. More importantly, I now know that she did do her best, despite it not always being what I would have considered what I needed. It was the best of her capabilities at the time, and the truth is that she loved me. She and I talked it all out one morning over coffee, very naturally and unexpectedly, and I came to realise the extent of how she had been treated by her own mother. Our experiences were extreme opposites and actually, I realised that, however bad I thought my traumas were, they were incomparable to the horrors of my mother's childhood. Suddenly, so much of what I went through made more sense. She lived in survival-mode for so many years. Turning Red helped me to realise that I didn't have to hold on to the pain that my inner child still felt. I could decide how much I wanted to still be haunted by my past, and that to forgive would save me from potentially losing more years of my life in self-pity and hatred, just like Mei.

These four examples support the notion that Disney and Pixar films are not just for children, despite that being their intended audience. There are other countless films which have left their mark on me as an adult and I have no doubt that Disney will continue to entertain and test me in unexpected ways. For me, Disney and Pixar have perfected their craft and repeatedly show that there is an art to storytelling. I can only pray that this skill continues to be showcased in their future endeavours.

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About the Creator

Louisa Jane

British.

Paediatric speech and language therpaist.

Art enthusiast.

Amateur-dramatics amateur.

Francophile.

Traveller.

People person.

Of the general happy-go-lucky sort :)

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