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Last Blog Post

This course has certainly been eye opening for me. It took a subject I was very familiar with and forced me to view it in a different way. It asked me to focus on the villain and evil, as well as topics like racism and gender roles https://youtu.be/ENDnqHjBalM. Personally I had never watched a Disney movie focused on these things. I watched them for entertainment, as most children do. I think Disney has an impact on the minds of children, but maybe not as much as our good friend Henry Giroux argues https://www.henryagiroux.com/online_articles/animating_youth.htm. In my mind kids pick up on big things like the clear allegory and stereotypes in Zootopia, but maybe not the racism aspect in The Lion King.

Is Disney evil? Personally I do not think Disney is evil. I think it is cooperation trying to make as much money as they can. A cooperation that I would like to think has some social responsibility to influence the lives of children in a positive way, but I don’t expect that from any cooperation. Disney is a company that has certainly evolved with the times, realizing that it is the only way to make money. They went from Cinderella, a movie filled with issues about gender roles to Zootopia a movie addressing the issues wrong with the American society and how we view minorities. I don’t blame the old Disney movies for their mistakes because art reflects a society at a certain time, so it is just how the time was back then. I do however blame them now when they get it wrong. A prime example is The Princess and the Frog https://jezebel.com/5356476/5-possible-problems-with-the-princess-and-the-frog. This movie could have turned heads, it could have addressed racism much better, but it didn’t. The main character, and first African American Princess spent most of her time as a frog, seems very offensive. Disney is not evil. Yes they have made mistakes, but it seems like they can just never win.

The Disney villain has evolved a lot over time http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Disney_Villains. They started out as being obvious, ugly, scary looking, and often time has scary eyes and wore dark colors. These were the common traits that stood out for villains as well as being evil and usually they try to kill the protagonist. Now the Disney villain can often times be hard to spot. Hiding in plain sight like Hans in Frozen or Assistant Mayor Bellwether in Zootopia. These characters look like good people with their charming or cute looks and the fact that for most of the movie they act like great people. It is only in the end of the movie that we see their true colors and what they really think.

I have really enjoyed this class! It was a lot different than I was expecting, but I am very grateful for this experience!

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Pixar

https://www.buzzfeed.com/briangalindo/can-you-name-these-minor-pixar-movie-characters?origin=filqui&utm_term=.lqeDNaxle#.pxM8PoMa4

Pixar movies are great. They brought us The Incredibles and Finding Nemo and Dory. I took a buzzed to see if I could name some minor characters in Pixar movies. It made me realize how great Pixar movies are such as Toy Story and Monsters Inc. I feel as I am getting older I’m not always up to date on my Disney movies such as, A Bug’s Life and Inside Out. I have no idea what these movies are about and I’m not super curious to find out. I love Disney , but I think I am stuck on the classics from when I was little. I probably won’t see Coco. What I find strange though is I do want to see sequels to the movies I loved when I was little. I was dying to see Finding Dory when it came out and have probably seen it 4 times since. I heard a rumor about an Incredibles 2 and I am so excited!

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Guessing Disney Characters

https://www.buzzfeed.com/christopherhudspeth/can-you-identify-the-disney-character-from-a-single-line?origin=filqui&utm_term=.dgyglpdNQ#.uhR2jMzVN

According to Buzzfeed I am a Disney expert! I took a test that involved simple drawings of characters and you have to name the characters. Some of them were easy because the characters have very distinctive features, like Merida, Stitch, Maleficent, and Baymax. Others were more difficult to name, but Urusla and Elsa were pretty much the easiest. The drawings are really cool because they are drawn without lifting the pencil. I think this is talent because they still look exactly like Disney characters! Without taking this class I don’t think I would be able to guess half of the characters, but after learning so much about Disney I can! I challenge you to see if you can guess the characters!

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More Racism in Disney

Zootopia is a great example of Disney new villain. It is also an allegory for racism in the United States. Assistant mayor Bellwether is the new villain of Disney. She doesn’t fit the stereotype of the ugly mean villain. At first we don’t know she is evil because she comes off so nice. It is not until the end when we find out she was actually the villain trying to make everyone afraid of predators. She wanted to rule by using fear and the fact that prey make up 90% of the population.

Throughout the movie we don’t really know who the villain is. It could be Nick Wilde the sly sneaky fox or Mayor Lionheart the huge lion predator that falsely imprisoned fourteen “savage” animals. This was wrong on his part keeping everything a secret from the public or even the animals families. There are certainly a few different options of villains the writers could have gone with; I think they picked the most shocking person. Bellwether is so small, fuzzy, and adorable I would never expect her.

Zootopia is supposed to be the perfect Utopia where predator and prey get along in harmony. This is almost true, but there is a lot of prejudice, racism, and fear. For example when Nick feels the urge to touch Bellwether’s wool represents how people have to urge to touch hair that is different than theirs, for example African Americans. Odd I know, but for some reason it happens. Judy is a little racist as well when she tells Nick that he “is a real articulate fella” this represents the fact that most people assume minorities are uneducated. The animals all live in different Neighborhoods in Zootopia. This represents how minorities typically are all grouped together in an urban setting; Hispanics all live together, African Americans live together, Caucasians all live together somewhere else. It just naturally separates. The best thing about this movie is that it shows that everyone is subjected to racism. Little Judy does receive a lot of prejeduce from people calling her cute, assuming that she is just some dumb hick from the country, and the fact that she is bunny trying to be a “bunny cop.” Even when she does become a police officer she is automatically made a meter maid because people still didn’t believe a bunny could be a cop. Luckily she is still optimistic and tries to make the best of the situation.

The stereotypes in this movie are so obviously which is very good because they are trying to get their point across. Nick is a sly fox who is a criminal. Mayor Lionheart is the leader of Zootopia just like he would be in the wild. Mr.Big is the typical Italian mob gangster; modeled after The Godfather. His daughter is the typical Italian girl modeled after Snookie. Clawhauser is a  fat donut loving cop, exactly like the stereotype. Some people think Zootopia did not portray racism correctly therefore yet again Disney gets it wrong. I disagree I love the movie and find their examples of racism very modern and easy to get. I also really like how no one was above receiving racism showing that everyone has parts of them that other view as a disadvantage or minority. No one is above anyone else.

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Coco

Coco is already setting big office records! It is Disney’s newest animated movie. It is set in Mexico, where Miguel learns about his family’s history swell as Día de los Muertos. Miguel also loves music, so I’m sure the soundtrack for this movie is going to be awesome! Coco has already broke a box office record in Mexico grossing $43 million in less than one month. This passed The Avengers becoming the highest grossed movie ever in Mexico. It has a 96% rating on movie reviews which is really good predicting it to do well in the states and all over the world. In 2016 Finding Dory grossed over $1 billion worldwide, so hopefully Coco can have the same success. As of right now I am not planning on seeing Coco, but maybe that will change hopefully it will go on Netflix!

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Utopia vs Dystopia

Zootopia was originally going to be much darker script. Originally the predators were going to have to wear shock collars that went off every time they thought or something dangerous or got angry or something like that. For me this takes the humanity out of them. I agree with Petra Halbur in saying that it isa reminder of the Jews during the time of the Holocaust, the Japanese Americans during WWII, and even the voting restrictions for minorities back in America’s old days. These topics are in the past, but still very scary to think about, especially if they made it allegory. These are topics for a history lesson not a Disney movie. When Disney switched their approach in my eyes they got it correct. They made the issues more modern and blunt so that you can’t miss it. They made it more relatable to every race, gender, and sexual orientation. I am very glad Disney changed the topic because I love Zootopia. I love the idea of a utopia not a dystopia.

https://www.themarysue.com/zootopia-story-darker-less-awesome/

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Wreck It Ralph

Out of the three movies we watched Wreck it Ralph is definitely my least favorite. I still really enjoy this movie and I always have since I saw it in the movie theaters. The message of this movie is to be who you are and to be happy with that. I think this is a great theme to teach little kids because it is so true. I also really liked the concept of video games and characters being able to interact with each other in different games. However the only part that is bad is if you die in another game the you don’t regenerate and you are dead forever. This is very dark and scary, but it sure does keep things interesting. Ralph seems like the villain or bad guy in the beginning because he wrecks everything, he looks scarier than the others, and he attends bad guy meetings. We quickly learn that he is intact not a bad guy and he also doesn’t want to be a bad guy anymore. He is treated horribly by all of the other characters in the game. This makes me sad because Ralph didn’t choose to be a bad guy its just the way he was programmed. Its his job to do wreck the building which takes everyone until the end of the movie to realize that. Without him the game would be nothing. However the real villain, King Candy, is in Sugar Rush. He wanted to be in power, so he locked up everyones memories causing them to forget who the real queen is. Im seeing a theme of Disney villains and it usually involves wanting power. He made Vanellope a glitch and made everyone hate her. Girls can be very mean and Vanellope experienced this with the racers. All she wants is to be is a racer and she will never give up. Her and Ralph have the cutest friendship. Ralph tells her he only ruins everything, but she doesn’t care. They are very similar both being outcasts. There is a love plot in this movie, between Felix and Sergeant Calhoun, but I found it pretty insignificant. Im also not a fan of Jane Lynch, so I kind of got annoyed overtime she was on the screen. I really like this movie because I think the games are so detailed and amazing. I just want to be in Sugar Rush. That place looks so amazing and so yummy. That would be my dream. I don’t know why I didn’t enjoy this movie as much as Frozen or Zootopia, but I think those movies were just better. King Candy is also Turbo so that was an interesting twist. Turbo was able to leave his game and then become the King of another game; sneaky evil stuff. Luckily he dies in the end which I was very happy to see. This was a good movie I would definitely recommend it.

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Zootopia

Zootopia is one of my favorite Disney movies. I think Disney has definitely done well with their newer movies with this being one of them. I’ve never been a big fan of all animated animal movies, but for some reason this one is different. I love cheesy movies  and I think this is one. It shows all of the animal kingdom being able to live in peace and harmony. They live in a utopia where everyone is safe both predators and prey. How cute. Although there is still crime, the whole movie is about how anyone can be anything. I think this is an important message for children growing up. Always follow your dreams and never give up, like Tiana almost did by staying a frog. *shade thrown* Even though the theme is super cheesy the biggest plot twist happens when we find out predators are going savage. Savage is okay to use in this movie because it involves animals not people, unlike in Pocahontas. For a second we question if it is just in their DNA or biology as mentioned many times in the movie, but then we find out they are actually being targeted. Not before the mayor is arrested for incarcerating “innocent” animals. However later we find that it is really the little sheep, assistant mayor Bellwether, who is behind the whole incident. She doesn’t want the utopia. She wants power and one of the worst types of power there is. She wants to rule by bringing fear to the citizens. This is very scary and dark for a fuzzy little sheep. She does not fit Disney’s stereotype for a villain. She is adorable looking, clumsy, small, and very kind in the beginning. We would never expect her to be so devious and conniving. Like I said I loved this movie, but I didn’t like how Judy basically ruined Zootopia with her comment about predators. Yes she was stating the facts, but she should have said it better. One of my favorite characters is Nick Wilde. He is so sly and sneaky, very typical stereotypes for a fox. In the end he changes becoming a good animal that actually contributes to society instead of cheating the system. In the beginning I had a love hate relationship with him. I ate him because he was rude and didn’t follow the rules only cheating and lying. However I did like him because I thought he was very clever in how he made money. If he continued to live like this he would have wasted so much potential because he is a very creative thinker and society needs those. We learn that he only acts like this because he was bullied as a child and had a traumatic experience. I think he adds so much to this movie. I also really like how this movie doesn’t have a love story. I think it is a lot easier to get a point across if it is not trying to fight with the plot of a love story. Disney did a great job with this movie and I always love watching it.

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Frozen

I love Frozen. I think it is one of the best Disney movies ever made. It has princesses and magic, but it doesn’t play into the classic princess stereotypes. The movie starts with Elsa hurting Anna, so the trolls made it so Anna had no memory of Elsa’s magical powers. The parents also locked Elsa in a room which was bad because Elsa and Anna never hung out anymore. Classic Disney with the parents dying. At least one parent always dies in a Disney movie. I think its really sad that Elsa and Anna were basically strangers their whole lives. The whole scene where Anna and Hans fall in love is so Disney. Falling in love in a day is way too soon and Elsa was right to not give Anna her blessing. When Hans says he has 12 older brothers its foreshadowing that he is only in it for the title of being a prince and eventually King he hopes. He seems like great guy, but we soon learn that he is not. He is an evil person and the villain of the movie. Throughout the movie I think we question who the villain really is. Some may think Elsa because she froze everything and ran away, but we know she didn’t mean to do any of that. Others will say the Duke that is always trying to uncover Elsa’s secrets. Although I dont think he is a good person because he did try to kill Elsa I think Hans is a lot worse. Hans was going to let Anna die and lock Elsa up so that he could be king. Power will make people do crazy things. I love this movie and I think it is some of the best work Disney has ever done. Olaf is so funny and definitely has the best lines. Hans isn’t like any of the Disney villains before, besides maybe Flynn Rider. He is attractive, muscular, and acts like a gentleman. He seems perfect which is probably a hint that it is too good to be true. I do think Disney went backwards with their race issues though. After The Princess and the Frog came out Disney was doing so well with their diversity, then they make a movie with no diversity. They went back to what they know and its kind of annoying because they were doing so well. I love the plot of Frozen especially the love story where Anna is looking for a Prince and everything he has when all she needed was right in front of her. Also Olaf never melted which is awesome because Olaf is everyones favorite character. I also loved all of the songs because Idina Menzel gives me life! She is amazing. I just can’t express how much I love this movie. I just think Disney did very well making it. Good job Disney thank you for providing the world with Frozen and all of the merchandise that came with it.

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Top 20 Disney Movies

IMDb ranked the top Disney movies. Peter Pan is ranked 20th which I greatly disagree with. I think it should be ahead of Sleeping Beauty, Bambi, Alice in Wonderland, and The Emperors New Grove. Although these are all great moves, I think Peter Pan is much better. Frozen was ranked 13th. This is outrageous, that is by far one of the best Disney movies easily overpowering some of the older Disney movies like Robin Hood and The Jungle Book. Even Moana was ranked higher with Frozen. Although I have never seen Moana, because I fall asleep every time I try to watch it, I highly doubt it is better than Frozen. I agree mostly with the top 5. Tangled, Aladdin, Zootopia, Beauty and the Beast, and to top it all of The Lion King. The only thing I would switch out is Frozen for Aladdin otherwise the top 5 look good. It makes sense that The Lion King is at the top because it is most peoples favorite Disney movie, ask anyone.

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Disney Streaming Service

Disney is doing something amazing! They are starting their own streaming service and offering new series like a Monster Inc. series, Star Wars live action, and a High School Musical series! Like most girls my age HSM was my life. I saw every movie and now there is going to be a tv show! Am I too old to watch it? Probably, but im going to buy this streaming service because who doesn’t love more Disney! I wonder who the cast for this tv series is going to be? Hopefully they are able to bring back a few original characters, but im sure the show will be great either way.

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The Astros Go to Disney World

The Houston Astros just won the World Series and where is the first place they go? Disney World of course! Continuing their victory parade down Main Street, meeting fans, and going on rides, I would say this was certainly a great trip for Jose Altuve, George Springer and Carlos Correa. It seems like they really enjoyed their time. The article made it seem like they weren’t expecting their to be many Astros fans in Florida, but Disney being such a tourist hot spot their were plenty to congratulate the team and even go meet them. Altuve gave his hat to a little boy making all of his dreams come true. The players also seemed to remember what it was like to be a kid and just have fun when they rode all of the rides and met the characters. Disney is certainly a great place to relax and have fun right after winning the World Series!

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Female wins Disney Half Marathon

A female runner, Giovanna Martins, finally won the Wine & Dine Half Marathon at Disney. The overall race has never been won by a woman until this year. Martins had won the female division back in 2015, but this is the first time she has beat the top male as well. She finished the race in an hour 19 minutes and 16 seconds. She beat the top male runner by 6 seconds running with him for most of the way. There was one point where she wasn’t thinking about beating him because he was a male, but instead thought if him as another female that she wanted to beat. This strategy clearly worked because in the end she achieved goals. I love stories like this and I also had no idea Disney had a half marathon, that must be so fun!

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More on Disney being Racist

As we have seen Disney has had many problems with their movies having some racist aspects. This week we discussed the Lion King and how parts of it are racist. The hyenas are the best example because they are voiced by black and latino characters. They are portrayed like inner city stereotypes. They live in an elephant graveyard and are not allowed to live with the rest of the animals. This represents how black and latinos usually live in the inner city and don’t really fit in, but here they are actually outsiders and are not allowed in. They are portrayed as being less educated and stupid and lazy. No one likes them and Scar only uses them to better himself and his goal of taking over. After Scar lets them in we see the once beautiful landscape die. Everything is killed, there is no more grass, no more animals, no more food for sustainable living. This suggests that in societies if we let minorities in everything in society will be wrecked. This is such a white superiority ideal that disgusts me. I can not believe Disney put this into their children’s movie. I can’t believe no one caught on and stopped it. As much as we want to deny it more evidence just keeps coming up of how this is true and how intentional it was. The movie was based in Africa and there are barely any African voice actors only the ones that are lower class American stereotypes. Thankfully they are changing this in the new live action version. This is certainly not the only Disney movie that presents racism. My favorite song in the Little Mermaid is “Under the Sea” can be considered racist because Sebastian is Jamaican and is singing about a carefree life portraying Jamaicans as lazy. Also I watched a video that talked about some of the larger fish in that song have big lips and black accents which can be offensive, this is clearly less noticeable, but it is still there. Disney has yet to portray Native Americans as being more than savages. In both Peter Pan and Pocahontas they talk about how savage they are and portray them as being as being violent partially ignoring how horrible the colonizers were to them. Tiana was the first black princess in Disney’s history and she spent most of her time on camera as a frog. I see this as being offensive. Also the prince she ends up marrying isn’t even African American! No one knows his race, but it is just annoying because they couldn’t even give us a black prince. There are so many more examples of Disney being racist, but I just hope in the future they will start to be more aware of this and fix it.

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Zootopia

https://ohmy.disney.com/quiz/2017/10/23/quiz-are-you-more-judy-hopps-or-nick-wilde/

Zootopia is a great new Disney movie. I have watched it 3 times and I can’t stop I absolutely love everything about it. I took a quiz to see if I was more like Judy Hopps or Nick Wilde. In the end I got Nick Wilde which I personally disagree with, but its ok Nick changed in the end of the movie and actually started caring about other people. In the beginning of the movie I disliked Nick so much because he was cheating the system and was only existing in life to scheme his was through life. I am really excited to watch this movie for class!

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Toy Story Land

Disney is opening a Toy Story Land in the summer of 2018. This is so exciting because everyone loves Toy Story and this new land will offer new rides and rollercoasters as well as toy story themed restaurants. Reading an article on this made me instantly want to go to Disney because I love when they offer different places that are themed. The article talked about how it will shrink you down to the size of a toy which reminds me a lot of A Bug’s Life in Disney because they shrink you down to the size of a bug. I think its really cool when make everything larger because it just makes you feel so small and magical. Toy story midway mania was always one of my favorite rides/games at Disney, so I can’t wait to see how well Toy Story Land is made and all of the fun rides and games!

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Another Buzzed Quiz

https://www.buzzfeed.com/sarahaspler/if-you-get-perfect-on-this-timed-quiz-youre-a-di?utm_term=.pg8adO5gzD#.odGmRDQMP2

Quizzes are stressful, whether they are for school or even timed quizzes on Buzzfeed! I thought I would do better on this than I actually did, but the timer is so stressful! I knew a lot of the answers but first you have to find the correct answer then check the spelling. A lot of my mistakes were due to spelling. I think these quizzes are funny because they test my Disney knowledge usually from movies I haven’t seen in many years. I would recommend taking it and seeing if you can beat the time!