ABSTRACT
The Walt Disney company has been the topic of extensive research for decades; among the explored subjects and identified themes is Disney's fixation on death. Disney has capitalized on the incredibly traumatic childhood experience of the death of a parent by featuring parental death as a major narrative component. Speculation remains regarding the accuracy of not only death presentations in media, but death influence on characters. Using textual analysis, this paper explores the role of parental death on child character development within two Disney animated films. Analysis demonstrates an inaccurate depiction of parental death influence on children in a positive light - essentially overlooking the trauma associated with loss during childhood and the mediating factors of long-term bereavement outcomes. Conversations remain to be had regarding how these inaccurate depictions of death and dying in popular culture influence the children consuming them.
ABSTRACT
Disney's collection of character deaths has been described by both consumers and academics as traumatic. Among the most often cited traumatic Disney deaths is that of Bambi's mother. Audiences engage in discussion online about the ways in which the film showcased a traumatic character death that left a lasting impression into adulthood, but the image referenced in these discussions offers more to researchers than mere words. Using a widely circulated audience-produced image of Bambi's mother's death, the following paper connects the symbolic elements within the image to larger cultural ideologies and assumptions about death and trauma. In doing so, it demonstrates how audiences communicate through visual medium the trauma of viewing animated death.
ABSTRACT
Disney's notably traumatic character deaths have been the focus of several academic studies that identify the potential harm of witnessing animated deaths during childhood; however, these studies have almost exclusively examined death images within film without looking to images that exist external to the media texts themselves. This paper addresses such limitations by uniquely examining how audiences use/produce images to offer reinterpretations of popular death scenes in Disney films. The components of user-generated images, descriptions, and comments on deviantart.com indicate that audiences utilize creative expression to communicate the traumatic experience of viewing character deaths during childhood, change elements that are frustratingly inaccurate, and re-write narratives to challenge assumptions of sympathy. Such an analysis considers what these artistic expressions might suggest about the decoding of animated death by consumers and encourages new ways of thinking about the consumption and interpretation of death narratives.
ABSTRACT
The presentation of death in popular culture via media texts can not only serve as a reflection of death's religious and cultural nuances, but also occupies the potential to influence specific audiences. As developing social beings, children witness ample death-related messaging, including how to deal with death through ritualistic practices. The following article considers the observation of character behavior as an important element to message dissemination and uses 15 animated Disney films to analyze death ritual. Through various themes rooted in symbolism and mythos, Disney demonstrates within these films how death rituals in children's media remain imbedded with cultural and religious ideology.
