Walt Disney cartoons ‘contain secret messages on the environment’

[snopes]

Walt Disney films such as Bambi, The Jungle Book and Pocahontas have played an important role in educating the public about the environment, a new book by a University of Cambridge academic has claimed.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co....cle3613496.ece

[geminilee]

I don't think the message in Pocahontas was all that secret. The movie was pretty preachy about it.

[MidgardDragon]

I was gonna ask how they did this list and left out Fern Gully, but I have just learned it wasn't Disney. :O

[RealityChuck]

Disney also did many live action "True Life Adventure" films in the 50s. Though occasional sequences are faked, they set the standard for nature films.

Walt even showed up occasionally as a presenter. It's clear he was fascinated in nature.

[Brad from Georgia]

Those of you old enough to recall Jiminy Cricket's "I'm No Fool" safety cartoons might like to know that a new Jiminy series, about treating the environment kindly, is in the making.

[Pseudo_Croat]

The Lion King was probably the Disney film that was the most upfront with its environmental message, with all its talk of the "circle of life" and the disasters that happen when the hyenas upset it.

- Pseudo "greenears" Croat

[Tarquin Farquart]

The nature-loving Bambi and Nemo wouldn't have survived long in a green paradise mowed down by the Disneyworld bulldozers

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/film/200...o_warrior.html

I looked at that list, and I think they're reading waaaaaaaay too much into some of those films.

I believe Walt Disney used animal characters because they're fun and the audience responds well to them. For the most part I don't think there are any 'secret' environmentalist messages, although I strongly believe that the films have inadvertantly had a powerful influence on people - mainly city-dwelling folks who've never been around a real wild animal in their life (except maybe in a zoo) who now think that all hunters are evil meanies who kill the mothers of vulnerable young deer leaving them to fend for themselves. (Herd animals, anyone?)

I remember reading somewhere that Disney wanted to make sure that the hunter in Bambi didn't come off as a villain, but personafy him more as a force of nature. Unfortunately, it didn't stop the young and the naive from getting the hunter = evil mindset.

I liked The Lion King because of its straightforward approach to predation. The lions hunted and killed - and that was part of life. Killing didn't make you evil, but wanton destruction wasn't acceptable.

[Chloe]

Originally Posted by Syera

I liked The Lion King because of its straightforward approach to predation. The lions hunted and killed - and that was part of life. Killing didn't make you evil, but wanton destruction wasn't acceptable.

A somewhat whitewashed approach to predation, surely, suggesting that prey animals are also ok with the whole thing.

[snopes]

Just how much of a friend Disney has been to woodland folk (and their kin in the sea and the jungle) has long been batted about by scholars and writers. The latest addition to the debate comes just in time for Disney’s announcement that it is creating a new production unit for nature documentaries.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/books/23bambi.html

[mags]

Originally Posted by Chloe

A somewhat whitewashed approach to predation, surely, suggesting that prey animals are also ok with the whole thing.

I used to always talk at the screen whenever I watched my Lion King tape- at the beginning when all the prey animals are bowing and celebrating at the birth of little Simba. "Oh, yay, a new predator!"

[songs78]

Finding Nemo was a Pixar movie before Disney bought the rights so that doesn't really count. But all Disney movies contain some sort of message.

Beauty and the Beast = Interracial dating
Fox and the Hound = Race relations
Hunchback of Notre Dame = Disabled people
Mulan = Feminism
Snow White = Orphans
Lady and the Tramp = class relations
Lilo and Stitch = foster care system

[TrishDaDish]

There was a commercial a few months back that had clips of The Little Mermaid and music from it (instrumental version of "part of your world" or whatever the song's called) and a voiceover (usually associated with Disney DVD commercials) talking about how important the water ecosystem is and keeping it clean. I don't remember what group the commercial was for, if it was a Save the Bay type deal or a national water conservation company.

[BatmanBeatles]

Originally Posted by Chloe

A somewhat whitewashed approach to predation, surely, suggesting that prey animals are also ok with the whole thing.

Timone and Pumba were not OK with predators. They told Simba he had to eat like them if he wanted to stay with them.

[MacLloyd]

Originally Posted by BatmanBeatles

Timone and Pumba were not OK with predators. They told Simba he had to eat like them if he wanted to stay with them.

Timon and Pumba were predators. Just because they hunted bugs and insects doesn't bugs and insects weren't prey.

MacLloyd

[Danvers Carew]

Originally Posted by Chloe

A somewhat whitewashed approach to predation, surely, suggesting that prey animals are also ok with the whole thing.

In the film, the lions justify this by going on about the circle of life - the lions chow down on hundreds of zebras during their lifetime, but it's okay because when the lions die, their bodies turn to dust which helps the grass to grow...which the zebras eat, so it's all okay.

It's sort of like a life-long slave trader justifying it all by leaving a couple of quid to the emancipation movement in his will. It's all part of the great circle of life.

[Darth Credence]

Originally Posted by songs78

Finding Nemo was a Pixar movie before Disney bought the rights so that doesn't really count. But all Disney movies contain some sort of message.

Beauty and the Beast = Interracial dating
Fox and the Hound = Race relations
Hunchback of Notre Dame = Disabled people
Mulan = Feminism
Snow White = Orphans
Lady and the Tramp = class relations
Lilo and Stitch = foster care system

Really? Not snark, just a question - that is really all contained in those movies?
I don't remember Fox and the Hound enough to comment and the only other ones I've seen on that list are Beauty and the Beast, Lady and the Tramp, and Snow White. Of those, I guess I can see class relations in Lady and the Tramp, although I think that's sort of a stretch. But what does Snow White really say about orphans, and what does Beauty and the Beast say about inter-racial dating?

[applepwnz]

Walt Disney was an environmentalist (not in today's definition of a tree-hugger) but as someone who truly appreciated nature (IE. Theodore Roosevelt) so I don't find it odd at all that he would promote his particular brand of environmentalism in his movies. It raises a funny point though, like how people who ski and tree-huggers consider themselves to be opposites although they both support preservation of the environment.

[candy from strangers]

And here I thought Beauty and the Beast was about beastiality and/or LSD (a teapot that sings like Angela landsbury?).

[TrishDaDish]

Or about abusive boyfriends or indentured servitude ("You're gonna stay here or I'm gonna have your dad offed" attitude doesn't really scream "interracial dating" to me. Unless your interracial boyfriend is a jerk.).