Library Catalog

Mouse Morality : The Rhetoric of Disney Animated Film / /

Ward, Annalee R.

Mouse Morality : The Rhetoric of Disney Animated Film / / Annalee R. Ward. - 1 online resource (200 p.)

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- ONE • Disney, Film, and Morality: A Beginning -- TWO • The Lion King: Moral Educator through Myth, Archetype, and Ritual -- THREE • Pocahontas: The Symbolic Boundaries of Moral Order -- FOUR • The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Comically Framing Virtue and Vice -- FIVE • Hercules: A Celebrity-Hero -- SIX • Mulan: East Meets West -- SEVEN • A Disney Worldview: Mixed Moral Messages -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Kids around the world love Disney animated films, and many of their parents trust the Disney corporation to provide wholesome, moral entertainment for their children. Yet frequent protests and even boycotts of Disney products and practices reveal a widespread unease with the sometimes mixed and inconsistent moral values espoused in Disney films as the company attempts to appeal to the largest possible audience. In this book, Annalee R. Ward uses a variety of analytical tools based in rhetorical criticism to examine the moral messages taught in five recent Disney animated films-The Lion King, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, and Mulan. Taking the films on their own terms, she uncovers the many mixed messages they purvey: for example, females can be leaders-but male leadership ought to be the norm; stereotyping is wrong-but black means evil; historical truth is valued-but only tell what one can sell, etc. Adding these messages together, Ward raises important questions about the moral ambiguity of Disney's overall worldview and demonstrates the need for parents to be discerning in letting their children learn moral values and life lessons from Disney films.


Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.


In English.

9780292798663

10.7560/791527 doi


Animated films--Themes, motives.--United States
PERFORMING ARTS / General

NC1766.U52D5925 2002

791.43/3