Disabled personages in the full-length films of Pixar animation studios (1995-2006)

Abstract

Many of the different characters that appear in the computer animated movies of Pixar Animation Studios (nowadays belonging to The Walt Disney Company) are personages. From a dramaturgical point of view, these can be linked with the concept of Archetype, which Carl Gustav Jung used from the antiquity models of personality.The same types of personages appear in all times and in all cultures. The universal patterns make it possible for the experience to be shared in different histories. These patterns do not identify concrete idiosyncrasies, but they function as a temporary development in a story for the purpose of enriching of it.Another way of interpreting the personages of a narrative history is to consider them as complementary facets of the main character (the hero). As the history develops, the characteristics of these personages modify the personality of the future hero.The aim of this work is to analyze the influence of these complementary personages in the transformation of the main character and examine whether the presence of a disability is used to obtain this transformation. As we will see, not only do we find personages whose disability affects the development of the protagonist, but others that simply fulfill other secondary functions.