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Can Books Save the Earth?: A digital anthology of green literature

Article Summary by Madison H.

          Before films, entertainment, and industrialization, the wilderness was the competitor of humans and exemplified the unknown world to people. Humans naturally needed to take control of this unknown world, and once they had it under control, then it could be tamed and utilized in people’s advantage. Disney is the first company to create nature drama films that captivate the audience into this old-time wilderness. However, Disney films claim to be similar to the untamed wilderness, but the way Disney perceived nature and makes the audience perceive nature is the reason why people go up to a bear and want to hug and pet it. Walt Disney is so successful with their outlook on nature in the films that is has actually changed culture’s mind on nature to being more domestic and cutesy like. Margaret J. King illuminates the change in people’s view on nature from unknown and scary to a human-like and not wild-like based off of Disney’s movies. Walt Disney wants the animated nature films to be as realistic as possible, but he contradicts himself when he starts to introduce the characters as either cute or villainous. Furthermore, the creatures chosen as the good guy and bad guy are based off the type of creature they are (i.e. a spider is the bad guy, but the puppy is the good guy). King suggests the films give the animals rights, “and their ‘homes’ become private sanctuaries to be respected and protected as an extension of civil property rights” humanizing the created characters (King). The films are recordings of the real creatures in their actual setting and most people have not seen a village in the mountain, meadow, prairie, arctic, etc. Some people’s “first introduction to the natural world is via ‘Disneyvision’”. When they see the setting in real life, they cannot help but be disappointed because they are used to this unnatural, nonviolent, dramatic form of the place (King). Even though Disney productions are nature-based and support preserving the environment in an ecocritical way, the films also deceive people’s perception on nature and actually makes it more tamed because of the cutesiness incorporated.
          Disney’s prime examples of the reality of nature was criticized and ridiculed by society because it was ‘too scary’. For an example, when Bambi’s mother is shot by a hunter in the very beginning. The scene was not shown on the film, but the audience could hear the gunshot in the background. As this can be scary for young children, it is reality. Also, Bambi went on to be a happy movie, but Walt Disney wanted there to be a realistic aspect of the movie. Then, a few years later Simba’s father was murdered by other animals in The Lion King. Disney once again was critiqued by their choice of putting in another death in a children’s movie. However, Walt Disney desires realism in his films and nature has an immense amount of death--it’s the circle of life. In the beginning, Walt Disney produced films dealing with a more realistic nature, but he was put to shame for utilizing death. So, the films did not stray too far from Walt’s realistic vision, but there were not too many more deaths in his movies thereafter.
          In the academic journal by Margaret J. King, “The Audience in the Wilderness: The Disney Nature Films,” she claims Disney movies have altered people’s outlook on nature to becoming more tamed because Disney personifies the characters. This ecocritical depiction by King exemplifies the, “importance and meaning as worthy of protection or persecution on a scale of human values” given to animals in Disney films (King). King believes nature and wilderness is not seen as it should be by people, and that the domestic version people see is completely wrong. Animals and humans are equal. People should let the wild be wild, and try to not to control it.


King, Margaret J. "The Audience In The Wilderness: The Disney Nature Films." Journal
Of Popular Film And Television 24.2 (1996): 60-68. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.

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