Disney

[LRThunder]

If anybody wants to see a very clean Disney movie, see “Meet the Robinsons.” There weren’t any problems with it that I could detect.

The last two that I saw or tried to see either had juvenile toilet humor (Home on the Range) or propaganda for New Age beliefs (Brother Bear…even more so than Pocahonatas).

 

[KGM06]

Some Snopes references for your (uninformed) claims:

snopes.com/disney/films/lionking.htm

snopes.com/disney/films/minister.htm

snopes.com/disney/films/aladdin.htm

~Liza

Thanks to referring me as ‘uninformed’
Yes I have seen the snopes stuff before. Snopes is not infallible. However, on the Little Mermaid phallic symbol, snopes classified that as false in regards to the ‘disgruntled Disney employee’ claim. The artwork does show a phallic, intentionally or otherwise, the image is there.

 

[Bobby_Jim]

Here’s my take. I don’t pay much attention to the gay days, sexual shenanigans, and what not. The cartoons, characters, and movies are generally cute and innocent. Who could object to Winnie the Pooh or Donald Duck.

What I object to is the overhyped marketing of the brand that has insinuated itself into practically evey aspect of life. You can even get Disney Princess-themed bridal gowns now. The whole “Princess” thing really bugs me anyway. And now I see they’re adveritisng “Cinderella 3” on DVD. The previews look really cheesey, like a second-rate telenovella. And come on, I didn’t even know there was a “Cinderella 2”. It just seems like a gratuitous exercise in brand management to me.

That, and some of the recent feature films stray too far into Broadway musical/showtune territory. Just give me Goofy on skis, forget about the whole chorus line and big production numbers.

 

[whatevergirl]

A few years ago the Southern Baptist Convention encouraged all thier members to boycott Disney. I think they were protesting the Disney company giving spousal benefits to gay couples.

My kids love all the movies. We watch them all the time. I wouldn’t boycott them. Disney is one of the last places to go to get good wholesome family entertainment.

I, too, work for a company that offers spousal benefits to gay couples, and to heterosexual couples who live together, not married. I am not sure what to make of it. I wonder if there are a lot of global companies turning to this, nowadays?

 

[whatevergirl]

I’m moving to Florida soon, and I absolutely love the Disney theme parks…the movies, eh. We sometimes watch Disney movies, but not often. But, we are looking forward to going there for a day. It just seems like a fantasy land, of sorts. (but, the prices are insane…) You come back to reality real quick.

 

[carol_marie]

I’m moving to Florida soon, and I absolutely love the Disney theme parks…the movies, eh. We sometimes watch Disney movies, but not often. But, we are looking forward to going there for a day. It just seems like a fantasy land, of sorts. (but, the prices are insane…) You come back to reality real quick.

When you become a Florida resident, you get a discount. At least you used to when I lived there - of course I’ve been gone for 12 years now. If I remember corectly, they’d give a discount for an entire month? Maybe someone else from Florida can clarify.

You will LOVE Disney & Florida is so sunny & beautiful also.

 

[Brenda_V]

I think some people just look for things to bust them on - like phallic symbols all over the place. I think if I squint my eyes and look at it upsidedown, the cover of my son’s math book has a phallic symbol on it. Or is that a large banana?

I just don’t believe it. But I’m very suspicous of that sort of thing. Just like I generally don’t believe it’s the face of Jesus on the pancake or the Blessed Virgin on the grilled cheese.

But as I said - to each his own.

Just so you know, this whole discussion made me curious and since “The Little Mermaid” was my 20 yo daughter’s favorite movie, we have it on both DVD and Video. We took out the DVD copy, no castle on the front cover with any phalic sybmols on it, then we pulled out the Video copy and sure enough, right there on the front cover, a castle, Mid-eastern style with towers that could if you really pushed it look phalic! Maybe a little more than that banana on your son’s math workbook but still, it took someone who was looking for it to see it!

So, if you will note, Disney did take notice and changed the cover art on “The Little Mermaid” so those “phalic symbols” were no longer there! Does this show a company that isn’t concerned about the children? Someone pointed it out to them, they fixed it even if it was an innocent thing and most of us wouldn’t see it if someone hadn’t said “look, look you see it now!”

RE: the new movie “Meet the Robnisons”, just wait until it is on DVD/Video and someone will find something because they can put it in slow motion and then use their fantastic imaginations to find it!

As for the S E X in the dust clouds, my friend told me about that one so we sat down as two adults with the children in another room and it took us like a billion takes to even remotely, possibly see this!

Brenda V.

 

[sanctamaria17]

I love Disney World and Beauty and the Beast is still my all time fav movie. I never noticed anything phallic or sexual in Disney movies (I honestly see a lot more of that in Spongebob Squarepants), not when I was five, and not now at eighteen.

As for Disney supporting gay couples, you’d be hard pressed to find a company that doesn’t support something bad, whether it’s sweatshops, abortion, or anything.

 

[Heather07]

I love Disney World and Beauty and the Beast is still my all time fav movie. I never noticed anything phallic or sexual in Disney movies (I honestly see a lot more of that in Spongebob Squarepants), not when I was five, and not now at eighteen.

As for Disney supporting gay couples, you’d be hard pressed to find a company that doesn’t support something bad, whether it’s sweatshops, abortion, or anything.

Exactly. My whole reason for this thread was to get other Catholic takes on this since my aunt’s take, while I love her to death and think she is a very Godly Catholic woman, just seemed a bit extreme and bothered me a bit since in the world we live in, it is really hard to avoid supporting companies with questionable agendas, as much as I would ideally like to avoid them. I think the children can innocently enjoy a good Disney movie and remain untainted by the ‘behind the scenes’ gay stuff that may or may not go on with Disney. And if you really love the movies but purchasing their movies bothers you because they may send a percentage of the sales to questionable organizations, then you can purchase them gently used from Amazon.com and your money does not go to Disney. This is what I have done when I wanted to purchase some of the older Platinum dvd releases. My aunt seemed to approve this option a bit more. Whatever works for you.

 

[Orthodox_Guy]

My dad was an animator for 11 years at Disney. I grown up with Disney and love Disney and will always love it.

While I don’t approve of “gay days” it doesn’t mean that the whole company is screwed up or that it makes the movies or going to the theme parks sinful.

James Cameron just did that bogus documentary on “The Tomb of Jesus”, does that mean we shouldn’t watch Terminator 2 or Titanic? No!

Or, Tom Hanks starred in “The DaVinci Code”, does that mean we can never watch “Forrest Gump” again? No!

As for the “hidden messages” in the films, most of those are fakes “seen” by people who WANT to see them.

Fakes:

-Aladdin tells teenagers to take off their clothes.

-A phallus was drawn on the video cover of The Little Mermaid by a disgruntled artist.

-A minister becomes aroused during the wedding scene in The Little Mermaid.

Cannot be proven one way or the other:

-Letters spelling the word S-E-X are formed by a cloud of dust in The Lion King.

-Mischievous animators drew Jessica Rabbit naked.

True:

-Photographic images of a topless woman can be spotted in The Rescuers (This since has been removed).

snopes.com/disney/films/films.asp

 

[cpayne]

As for the “hidden messages” in the films, most of those are fakes “seen” by people who WANT to see them.

Fakes:

-Aladdin tells teenagers to take off their clothes.

-A phallus was drawn on the video cover of The Little Mermaid by a disgruntled artist.

-A minister becomes aroused during the wedding scene in The Little Mermaid.

Cannot be proven one way or the other:

-Letters spelling the word S-E-X are formed by a cloud of dust in The Lion King.

-Mischievous animators drew Jessica Rabbit naked.

True:

-Photographic images of a topless woman can be spotted in The Rescuers (This since has been removed).

snopes.com/disney/films/films.asp

Nobody “wants to see” this stuff. Of course, it’s the fault of the people blowing the whistle, right? Not the fault at all of a Disney illustrator or two?

On the Little Mermaid cover: Whether or not the artist was “disgruntled,” I don’t know. We’ve got the original case, however. If it looks like a duck and acts like a duck–

The aroused minister: On the tape, it does not look like he is kneeling. Maybe he is, but it LOOKS like the other. Again, I recognize that we must blame the silly people who pointed this out, not the illustrator who oh-so-innocently drew the material.

 

[Mousey]

I started boycotting many years ago when the movie Dogma came out. Disney takes money that it earns through family films and produces anti-catholic films such as Dogma. It owns ABC which promotes the most anti-Christian programing.
A search found this newsbusters.org/node/12222

ince the mid-1990s, Miramax has been associated with four Catholic-bashing movies: “Priest”; “Butcher Boy”; “Dogma”; and “40 Days and 40 Nights.” Now it has added a fifth, “The Magdalene Sisters.”

The Vatican understandably blasted “The Magdalene Sisters” for a gross distortion of history. The film purports to show how nuns cruelly dealt with wayward young women in Catholic institutions in the 19th and 20th centuries. No doubt by today’s standards, those conditions were harsh. But what is the purpose of maligning nuns, most of whom gave of themselves selflessly to care for and empower these women—women whom society had cast as pariahs? Perhaps the best answer comes from the film’s director, Peter Mullan.

Mullan has compared the Catholic Church to the murderous Taliban. He has said of the movie that it “encapsulates everything that is bad about the Catholic Church,” etc.

You know as well as I do that Disney/Miramax would never be associated with a film that encapsulated everything that is bad about Judaism or Islam. You also know as well as I do that Disney/Miramax has no track record of offending Jews and Muslims. This begs the question: why is Disney/Miramax bent on offending Catholics?

We will not give up on our protest of Disney’s relationship with Miramax until Disney’s board of directors severs its ties altogether. That is what I am requesting of you on Tuesday.

[NOTE, DPierre: Disney and Weinstein did apparently sever their ties.]

I also found this kuidaosumi.com/JKwriting/disney.html

If they want to boycott Disney, it should be for Disney’s blatant exploitation of women and children who work under sweatshop conditions throughout the world. Disney contracts with factories in Indonesia, Thailand, China, Honduras, El Salvador, and Haiti. Independent monitoring groups sponsored by unions and religious groups (with the exception of the Southern Baptists) have reported abuse and terrible working conditions in Disney sweatshops.

I was raised with Disney and I am sure if you would open Walt’s grave you would find him in China do to the rotations in his grave.

 

[cpayne]

If you want to see the difference between today’s Disney and yesterday’s–check out the last five minutes of the original Fantasia. The forces of evil dispelled, a candlelit procession singing Ave Maria passes over a bridge, and a luminous Door opens to the final image of glowing Light rising in the sky. Not only is it visually lovely, it is also very specifically Catholic.

Would anything like that be made by Disney today?

 

[gmarie21]

Um, didn’t Disney release The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, and aren’t they doing all the Narnia movies? Have they made terrible movies? Yes. Have they made some pretty darn good movies? Yes. Both questions can be answered the same for any era of Disney movie. I think the Incredibles was an excellent Disney film (especially the line “Valueing life isn’t weak and disregarding it isn’t strength” or something pretty close to that). They don’t put out complete trash, yet they don’t put out complete wholesome all the time either. I guess that’s why they aren’t a faith system. I can say (and it is okay to be this) that I am a Cafeteria Disney Fan.

 

[cpayne]

Um, didn’t Disney release The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, and aren’t they doing all the Narnia movies? Have they made terrible movies? Yes. Have they made some pretty darn good movies? Yes. Both questions can be answered the same for any era of Disney movie. I think the Incredibles was an excellent Disney film (especially the line “Valueing life isn’t weak and disregarding it isn’t strength” or something pretty close to that). They don’t put out complete trash, yet they don’t put out complete wholesome all the time either. I guess that’s why they aren’t a faith system. I can say (and it is okay to be this) that I am a Cafeteria Disney Fan.

Ha! Well put. Despite my previous criticisms, I would have to agree. “Cafeteria Disney Fan” would fit me, too. (Yes to The Incredibles.)

 

[gmarie21]

I also LOVE! LOVE! LOVE! Lilo and Stitch (in the beginning it states that genetic experimentation is evil and the scientist who did the genetic experimentations was arrested). It also isn’t the typical princess/prince charming movie and discusses the importance of family.

 

[AngelRose81]

DH and I LOVE LOVE LOVE Disney. We go at least 2 times a year. In fact we are going again in May! As far as what they support. Yes, they do have “gay days” the 1st week in June and they have had them for about 30 years. But that is the only thing that I know of that they have like that.
Still, though, I really do like Disney. DH and I are so happy when we are there. I can’t get him to go to Mass here at home but he was happy to oblige (sp?) when I asked could we go to the Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe in Orlando this year when we go to Disney. Its just so nice to get away from our stressful jobs (he’s an attorney and I’m a paralegal who’s a part-time student) and be just us for a change!

DH even wishes we could move to Florida!

 

[Orthodox_Guy]

Oh, as far as “Gay Days” is concerned, Disney does not sponsor it, as in, they don’t give money to the people who run the “Gay Days”. “Gay Days” is run by a private organization.

They even go so far as to put up warning signs.

They allow Gays to come and celebrate, but they don’t sponsor it.

I’m not saying that this justifies it but Disney does not put any money into the “Gay Days” celebration.

I started boycotting many years ago when the movie Dogma came out. Disney takes money that it earns through family films and produces anti-catholic films such as Dogma.

Does this mean we should boycott Columbia Pictures because they produced The DaVinci Code?

Or boycott all James Cameron movies because he produced that bogus Tomb of Jesus documentary?

 

[Heather07]

Oh, as far as “Gay Days” is concerned, Disney does not sponsor it, as in, they don’t give money to the people who run the “Gay Days”. “Gay Days” is run by a private organization.

They even go so far as to put up warning signs.

They allow Gays to come and celebrate, but they don’t sponsor it.

I’m not saying that this justifies it but Disney does not put any money into the “Gay Days” celebration.

Well thats good to know.

 

[cpayne]

I think Christians should have a Gay Days using the original meaning of the word–you know, everyone just go around having a happy time and discussing natural law. We could have rides like the Rightly Ordered Rollercoaster and eat Synderesis Snowcones. I’ve already got my credit card out!