Introduction
Walt Disney movies have continued to entertain children throughout the world as most parents try to protect their children from bad influence and at the same time desiring to keep them happy as well as busy.
Through these movies, children are able to gain the much needed creativity and critique that enables them to be significant to the development of our society. Most of Disney movies such as fantasia, among others, offer creative and innovative skills to children as well as entertainment. This has however been refuted by various people as they continue to observe actions that they believe are bad influence on children.
Among these movies includes Dumbo, in which several events points to several disastrous impacts on children. This has caused sharp criticism on the movie as others try to defend it. The potentially bad influences on children include elements of racism, gender stereotypes, demonizing and personalities, among others. This paper will explore Walt Disney’s movie “Dumbo” and how it affects children negatively.
Dumbo
Dumbo is a film that was produced in 1941 by Walt Disney. It forms part of the Walt Disney Classic series of animation and was done based on Aberson’s story. It is considered as one of the shortest films created by Disney in history and was done to help finance Disney studio because their previous releases had resulted in great loss.
The story is done at a time of transporting circus animals. The protagonist in this film is an elephant named Dumbo who is born with very big ears. He is ridiculed by other elephants as they glare his big ears.
This annoys his mother who tries to retaliate but is caught and locked up in the pretense that she is mad. This leaves Dumbo in a worse situation as his mother cannot care for him anymore, he has to live and grow without his mother and continue to face ridicule from other elephants. The only comfort he gets comes from the mouse, Timothy who comes in to assist, out of sympathy. This makes him much happier as he faces a tough life ahead.
The director adds to Dumbo’s problems when he tries to make for him a pyramid stunt. What follow are injuries to other elephants as Dumbo’s ears continues to grow, in the end falling the big top. This makes situations worse for Dumbo as he is made a clown, which him even worse off than at the beginning.
To subside his anger, Timothy takes Dumbo to his mother and then for a drink which is unknowingly mixed with champagne. This makes them drunk and they find themselves, the following morning, in a tree. Dumbo is surprised, and Timothy tries to convince him that they had flown to the tree; these sentiments are shared by the crows and aid him to fly.
They move back to circus and he is set on a higher building to perform a stunt; this helps him to fly and eventually get even with his tormentors thereby affording his mother a car and freedom. Dumbo ultimately becomes a star with Timothy as his manager. The movie is intense and painful in some scenes especially for sympathizers of Dumbo.
Discussion
The movie is full of ridicule and hate along with violence as Dumbo tries to get even with his tormentors. Children who watch this movie face several themes that are a bad influence to their lives and growth. Among the bad aspects of the movie include elements of racism, gender stereotypes, ridicule and horror as well as violence.
Racist elements are conveyed in the crows which are given to black Americans, in effect portraying the blacks as inferior to the whites, who get powerful responsibilities. This is very detrimental to children’s development as they grow to look down upon other races and in effect cause stigma on black children that repeatedly watch the movie.
Throughout the movie, male sex get relatively important roles than women, this is clearly observed when Dumbo’s mother is locked up and referred to as mad, while the director is male. Such actions have the propensity of instilling gender stereotype in children as they grow, in the process, impacting badly on developments made to close gender disparity.
Ridicule is also witnessed in the movie as is observed in other elephants’ ridicule of Dumbo for his big ears. This has the propensity to instill such attitudes on children regarding disabilities in others. Such characters are also able to extend to adulthood, leading to broken societies.
As much as big ears are entertaining to children, these characters also scare some children and can also influence bad dreams. In addition violence is paramount in the film and this has the ability of developing violent children, which can work negatively on the gains of a society. It is also important to note that alcohol drinking is not carefully handled in the movie as the author makes viewers believe that alcohol makes them more creative as in timothy and Dumbo.
Conclusion
Walt Disney productions have been significant in influencing creativity and innovation in children as well as developing their critique. However, there are also negative influences that have kept infiltrating the minds of these children. Dumbo movie clearly conveys such activities that are likely to cause bad behaviors.
These include violence, racism, gender stereotypes along with ridicule and drunkenness among others. These are elements that can deprive growth of good morals in families as well as the society at large. Dumbo movie is therefore a negative influence on children.