Disney Older Adults Movies

The representation of older adults in Disney films ranges, but ultimately they seem to be the same: an obstacle for the main character or characters, depending on the film, “The portrayal of older characters in Disney animated films” written by Tom Robinson, Mark Callister, Dawn Magoffin, and Jennifer Moore shows this. This article looks into how there are both positive and negative representations of older adults. To determine this, the researchers looked at the following items: “gender, race, appearance, role, personality, and physical characteristics” (Robinson et al. p.203). There were a few RQs (Research Questions) that were asked during the analysis such as: RQ1: How many older characters appear in Disney animated movies? RQ2: How
are older characters represented in terms of gender and race
RQ3: What are the primary roles of older characters in Disney animated movies, and what percentage are major or minor roles?
RQ4: What personality traits do the older characters possess?
RQ5: What physical traits do older characters possess?
RQ6: Is the overall portrayal of older characters in Disney animated films positive or negative, and does the character’s gender and race influence the portrayals?
(Robinson et al. p.205). As the study progressed the researchers noticed that the negative impressions that showed were more on the subconscious level, automatic. This may be due to the fact that television and/or movies have such as short time to tell a story. Most animated children’s movies roughly run about 80-85 minutes since children have short attention spans. The study took a content analysis of thirty-four Disney films, the oldest film being Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and the most recent being Home on the Range (2004). Throughout this study it has been proven that stereotypes, since the Disney animated films have such a short time to tell their story, direct children’s experience from the media. There were several films that were excluded from this study due to several reasons. For example, films such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo were excluded due to involvement of other companies in the making of the films. There are also films excluded due to being short and/or having no plot, Winnie the Pooh and Fantasia are examples of this. Then the final determiner of excluding films was sequels or spin-offs, examples of this are The Rescuers Down Under and Bambi
II.
Here is where I have a criticism, films with involvement from another company and short films not being included is ok. The criticism is with the sequels not being included. I believe that some sequels have different older characters than the first film did. I am not saying include all sequels, but some may be useful if there are new older characters included.
Throughout this study the researchers came up with several older characters were identified by one or more of the following eight items:
(1) An appearance of retirement
(2) Extensive gray hair
(3) Wrinkles of the skin
(4) Extensive loss of hair or balding
(5) Cracking voice
(6) Use of aid such as a cane or wheelchair
(7) The parent of a son or daughter who is middle-aged or older
(8) Evidence of grandchildren or great grandchildren (Robinson et al.
p 205).
These characteristics were looked closely at as the study progressed on, along with an age determiner being age fifty-five and older. They were also identified in two different categories of human and non-human. Characters that were non-human such as an animal were coded if they had human characteristics, such as talking. There were also the question of major or minor, did the older character have a major role or a minor role in the movie. Some of the results of the research questions were the following.
The first question focused on the number of older adults that appeared in the census of thirty-four Disney films. The total of older adults that were reported was ninety-three. Twenty-four or 25.8% were classified under the non-human category. The second question focused on gender and ethnicity, 67% of the older adult population were male and the other 33% were female. Caucasians represent highest number of ethnicity, 83%, Asians, 6% and African Americans represented 1% of the older adults ethnic
background.
The third question focused on the roles the older characters played in their perspective movies, whether they played a major or minor role. A major role was determined by the character having a relevant speaking part and on the screen for a long period of time. A minor role was determined by the character having a supporting role, a minor character may have a speaking part, but his/her appearance is not relevant to the story. A total of 39% appeared as major characters in films and a total of 61% appeared as minor characters in their films. Question four focused on the personality of older characters. The top personalities were the following: Friendly, and Angry/grumpy/stern.
The next question focused on the physical characteristics of the older characters. Most of them were in the weight cast of average to overweight. 93% had grey or white hair and the male population was bald or balding and facial hair was present. The final question responded to the overall portrayal, positive or negative. It was pretty close, 58% were portrayed in a positive way and 42% were portrayed in a negative way.
One of the criticisms that I had for this study was the inclusion of the film Dumbo, there were no record of older adults included in this film, when there are other films that could have been included at its place. Overall I was not surprised at the results that were found in this study. I agree that older adults can be seen in a negative way because they are sometimes portrayed as obstacles to the main characters. Overall, it was a very informing article.