www.weevilmagazine.com Issue #5 February 2010
The Moral of the Story
News and entertainment media can affect our and The Rescuers Down Under), while other
views and perceptions. Many studies have looked kinds of maltreatment, such as hitting a child on
into the way in which e.g. social issues are the head, are shown to be comical (e.g. The
represented, and the effect this has on the Sword in the Stone).
audience. It is important questions such as these
that inspired D. Hubka, W. Hovdestad and L. Being somewhat of a connoisseur in this field
Tonmyr to look at child maltreatment in Disney (that is the field of Disney rather than child
animated feature films, a study that required each maltreatment), I would criticise the mere counting
of these committed hard-working social scientists of incidences, with lack of attention to the severity
to watch all 45 films from Snow White (1937) to of each case. For example: Frollo’s attempt to
Cars (2006). drown the infant
Quasimodo in a
Films were well, his choice
studied for of name and the
incidents of childhood that
maltreatment the young
for all infant, bellringer
child and subsequently
adolescent endures
characters, and (although the
al
of
the
St
ory
the type of latter is not
maltreatment classed as physical, emotional or shown directly), are surely very clear cases of
M
or neglect. Of the 42 lead child or adolescent child maltreatment, which should have given this
characters, 26 (62%) were maltreated at least film a much higher incidence count. Also, all but
Th
e
once, and interestingly this affected a far greater one of the maltreatments in Peter Pan were
proportion of human than animal characters. deemed “physical” with no cases of “neglect”,
Although the worst case of child neglect regards which is surprising considering that Mr. and Mrs.
Sid, the neighbour kid from Toy Story 1, by far the Darling leave their children under the care of only
worst of all Disney animated feature films is the dog Nana (not to mention the case of the lost
Pinocchio, with a total of 422 incidences of boys). I also disagree with the authors when they
maltreatment, of which 421 are emotional and 1 is say that “the circus employees do not neglect
physical (although it shold be mentioned that this Dumbo the baby elephant [and] Cruella De Vil's
count was an outlier due to crowd scene in which attempts to make a coat of Dalmatian puppies do
200 boys are turned into donkeys for forced not constitute abuse”.
labour). This film is followed by Peter Pan with 38
incidences, Chicken Little (15) and The Black For the interested reader who wishes to have his
Cauldron (12). or her childhood favourites dissected even more,
the study provides references to other papers
In order to apply real world assessments to the discussing the (mis)representation of age,
fictional situations of the films, the authors limited gender, race, class, mental illness, immigration,
their definition of maltreatment to incidents that couples and families and interpersonal violence in
occur between adults and children. These the beloved Disney movies.
characters had to interact socially and it was
decided that neglect could only be committed by Lisa Görs is a Part III Natsci at Trinity Hall who,
an adult who owes the child a care of duty. It is unlike the Disney princesses, can deter woodland
interesting to note that within these parameters, critters with her singing. She is also starting to
The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Monsters Inc. question the morals she drew from her childhood
show very few maltreatment incidences (four and entertainments.
two respectively) while Bambi and 101 Dalmatians
show none at all. The study concludes that many Hubka D, Hovdestad W, Tonmyr L (2009) Child maltreatment
cases of child maltreatment, such as kidnapping, in Disney animated feature films: 1937–2006. The Social
are shown in a very negative light as they are Science Journal 46: 427-441
committed by the “villains” (e.g. The Rescuers
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