The Disney Corporation is raising our Children: How Disney Movies Mold Social Values

The Disney Corporation is raising our Children: How Disney Movies Mold Social Values

Introduction

Entertainment is a field that influences our lives in many profound ways. There are various sources of entertainment available to us today and, for children, the most popular source is cartoons. It would be appropriate to say that a vast majority of children across the globe have grown up watching cartoons and animated movies (Giroux & Pollock, 2010). Walt Disney is known as the world's most famous architect and inventor of cartoons in the world and a majority of the most famous and widely recognized cartoon characters are the construct of his creative imagination. Classics like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Cinderella, the Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Jungle Book are evergreen cartoons that have been a tremendous source of entertainment for global audiences and have been watched by young as well as adult viewers.

In his work, “Maintaining connections in children's grief narratives in popular film” , Sedney supports that children naturally associate countless memories with their most favorite cartoons during their developmental stage and try to connect favorite cartoon characters with their own individual personality (Sedney, 2002) . Cox, Giroux, Lanigan and Rabison and numerous other researchers have assessed the overwhelming influence of cartoons on children and a majority of them have provided sufficient evidence to support their theory that overexposure to cartoons has proved to be the primary factor that has molded the social, moral and ethical development of young audiences (Cox et al., 2005).

Discussion

In a world where parents cannot afford to dedicate much time to children in order to educate them morally and socially, they think that overexposure to Disney cartoons can cause good impacts on their children. The Disney cartoons can have overwhelming influence on children in teaching them social values that are different from the traditions that pass into generations. The cartoons and animated movies do not only provide fun and entertainment but also help children to increase their IQ level. Most of the researches claimed that the characters and content which are used in the cartoons have significantly helped to mold social development in children.

There are many parents and families that are unable to spend quality time with their children in today's busy world. Most of the times, the parents are not at home and are at work. Even when they return home from work, they get busy with various domestic chores. These are the leading reasons why they are unable to take out time from their schedule to dedicate to their children (Lanigan et al., 2008).

As a result, television essentially takes over the role of parents in educating children on social values. And since children are naturally more attracted towards colorful animated cartoons as compared to movies. The children perceive themselves as the characters presented in the cartoons and act accrdongly. Hence, they start believing that whatever they see and whatever is being portrayed is a part of their society and they ...