Disney, Pixar, and the Hidden Messages of Children's Films (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Disney, Pixar, and the Hidden Messages of Children's Films Kathy Merlock Jackson (bio) Disney, Pixar, and the Hidden Messages of Children's Films. By M. Keith Booker. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2010. In Disney, Pixar, and the Hidden Messages of Children's Films, University of Arkansas English professor M. Keith Booker revisits familiar material. The author of Drawn to Television: Prime Time Animation from The Flintstones to Family Guy and May Contain Graphic Material: Comic Books, Graphic Novels, and Film, Booker understands animation and the child audience and lends his expertise to uncovering the subtext of the Disney oeuvre. In his "Personal Prologue," Booker writes, "I am, among other things, a professional academic film scholar and, yes, I should admit up front that I am an unrepentant leftist egghead intellectual. But I'm also a dad, and I've come to understand that the complexities and responsibilities associated with being a parent to kids who watch movies need to be dealt with by all parents, eggheads or not, and of whatever political persuasion" (xiii). The persona of Booker as intellectual-father permeates his analysis. Often written in first person, the book provides a highly personal reading of Booker's and his three sons' responses to Disney films and particular elements in them, such as music, magic, racial and gender roles, humor, or effects. The book is divided into five chapters. In the first, Booker considers the feature animated films that Walt Disney oversaw, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) to Jungle Book (1967), released the year after Disney's death. In the second, he assesses the studio's output after Disney, including "the virtual wasteland in the production of children's animated film" (37) until the release of The Little Mermaid in 1989 sparked a renaissance. The third chapter addresses Disney's relationship with Pixar and foray into digital animation, and the fourth considers Disney's competitors, especially DreamWorks, which Booker regards as farther to the left than Disney and slightly more subversive. Booker concludes with a chapter titled "The Politics of Children's Film: What Hollywood Is Really Teaching Our Children." Throughout, he emphasizes that children's films can have a "profound effect at the level of promoting certain fundamental attitudes and basic expectations concerning what the world is like and how one should live in it" (175). Much of the book consists of Booker's synopses of films and his and sons Benjamin's, Skylor's, and Adam's opinions of them, but the book is [End Page 324] most interesting when it delves into ideology. Booker traces many Disney themes: innocence, finding one's place, finding a mate, friendship, maturation and responsibility, the importance of naturalness and authenticity, and the fleeting nature of childhood. He notes that Disney differs from Pixar in its emphasis on magic over technology and from DreamWorks in its advocacy of destiny over choice. "[T]he most consistent ideological message embedded in children's film," Booker writes, "has to do with the promotion of an individualist mind-set…. not particularly surprising, given that individualism is probably the central constitutive component of the official ideology of the United States as a nation and of capitalism as a system" (175). Booker presents a literate interpretation of the values inherent in the animated feature films children watch, augmenting his work with a useful bibliography and filmography. While one cannot disregard the role that these popular films and the messages that they send play in a child's life, Booker's argument would be strengthened by placing animated films in a larger cultural context, relating them to live-action films, television, books, computer games, and other media, as well as related issues in childrearing and education. Films do not function in a vacuum but rather reinforce the lessons that children receive from other cultural influences. Booker ends his study with a call for parents to actively watch films with their children, ask pertinent questions, discuss values, and encourage critical thinking. One cannot argue with this sound advice. Kathy Merlock Jackson Kathy Merlock Jackson is professor and coordinator of communications at Virginia Wesleyan College, where she teaches courses in media studies and children...