Good ol' Disney

I love Disney. I should clarify, l love classic Disney movies. None of this Disney channel junk that has poured into TV streams now. I’m talking about the movies that defined most of our childhoods, the ones with the songs we all can still sing word for word today…well some of us can do that. For me, Disney was my babysitter. If my mom needed something done and my five-year-old self couldn’t and wouldn’t leave her alone, in would go a Disney movie of my choosing and she’d get a solid hour and a half of uninterrupted work done. And due to this, I’ll be honest when I say that my childhood was based on Disney ideals. Of course you don’t realize this until you’re faced with it in college and it’s too late. You realize you see the world through Disney’s eyes.

Now before anyone thinks I’m delusional and have no concept of reality, let me stop and say it’s not as if I have a full Disney world view, but it does affect the way I see gender roles. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Disney taught me what a father looked like. I basically grew up without a dad after my parent’s divorce, so in a way I got the notion of how a good dad can act towards life and his family. The biggest example of this is the Lion King. Mufasa is an awesome dad. First off his voice could shake a mountain and he genuinely cares for his son and does whatever he can to protect him. Even when he dies, Mufasa still cares for his son and helps him out with weird monkey prophets and spectacular cloud visions. He equipped his son with all the knowledge he could before he left him, and tried to reinforce these morals and standards all he could. In the end, the son rises to King and makes his dad proud. I loved this movie. It said I could be King. Did I take this literally? No, of course not. But I do now have a standard of fathers to love and care for their children. Even if they don’t roar and fight of hyenas, due to Disney, dads have a certain level to live up to.  And if dads can do it, I can too.

Disney also taught me what a hero was. Hercules, Robin Hood, Aladdin, they all were some of my greatest heroes. They faced the odds that they were outcasts and chose to rise above that fact. They risked everything for the ones they loved, and even though they all fell into trouble normally brought upon by themselves, they overcame that and won. Now, every time I’m faced with a problem do I stop and think, “Gee, what would Herc do in a time like this?” No. If I did I would hope someone would get me help. But as a child these subliminal messages of what a good guy looked like were ingrained into my brain. Thanks to them I don’t stop and think what would they do, but what is it that I have learned I should do. And we still get these reinforced messages today in all the superhero movies pouring into the media. Disney was just the first to get those ideals to me, in a highly entertaining way I might add.

So this “superhero” culture that surrounds us is not necessarily bad. At least not in the way I view it, and if we really look and focus in on the good of Disney, I think we’ll find some of the same ideals we’ve always had. And maybe, just maybe, some of those were given to us by dear ol’ Walt.