Contrary to the popular opinion that Disney films contribute to the positive development of morals of the younger generation, some of them contain ‘bad’ morals that can teach children what is wrong. This essay is dedicated to this topic.
Children are easily influenced by what they see and hear and thus what they watch. One Disney movie that shows bad morals and could make children believe the wrong things is ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’. In this movie, Quasimodo (the hunchback) falls in love with Esmerelda and helps her escape from being arrested and even killed. However, at the end of the movie, Esmerelda ends up falling in love and being with Prince Phoebus. Prince Phoebus is a good-looking man, whereas Quasimodo isn’t, to the point where he is constantly mocked about his looks. In Disney, if someone falls in love with someone else, especially a main character, they end up with that person, but Quasimodo doesn’t. The only difference between him and other Disney heroes, is that he isn’t good looking. This promotes that there are no happy endings if you are not conventional in appearance.
Save your time!
We can take care of your essay
- Proper editing and formatting
- Free revision, title page, and bibliography
- Flexible prices and money-back guarantee
Another movie and beloved fairy tale that teaches bad morals is ‘Beauty and the Beast’. In this story, the Beast imprisons Belle and he shouts at here, scares her and even threatens not to feed her. However, a sudden romantic dance with the Beast causes Belle to fall in love with him. The moral this teaches children is that it is okay for your partner to abuse you, as long as his intentions are good. Obviously, this is not the case as it is never okay for partners to be abusive.
Finally, the third terrible moral that Disney taught us: ‘Change everything about yourself and be quiet, then the guy will like you’. This is taught in ‘The Little Mermaid’. In this film, Ariel, a 16-year-old mermaid, falls in love with Eric, a handsome human prince. Tragedy strikes as the ship goes up in flames and Eric falls overboard, meaning Ariel must save him. So, she does and drags him to shore, and proceeds to sing to him. He falls in love with her voice. Ariel then makes a deal with Ursula (an evil sea witch), to give up her voice to become human for 3 days. In those 3 days she has to make Eric fall in love with her and he does. This just shows that you have to be quiet for a man to fall in love with you. And she completely changed herself (into a human), just for Eric to like her.
These are just three of the films with awful morals. There are many more Disney films that promote awful things. Children will grow up thinking this is how they should live their lives. The morals are easy to pick up on as they are often the main focus of the film. Children should be free to act and look how they want, as long as they remain within society’s rules, but Disney is suggesting they often have to sacrifice their own happiness to please other people in their society, which is not the case. However, the films, presented above, do have some positive morals that could be useful for children to understand. ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ teaches children to accept people no matter how they look as people can be nice, even if they are not good looking. In ‘Beauty and the Beast’, the Beast learns to become a better person because Belle loves and believes in him, teaching children to believe in people as they can change to become a better person. ‘The Little Mermaid’ teaches children to value their family and to never take what you already have for granted.
Stuck on your essay?
