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Exploitation in Children's Movies

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Exploitation in Children's Movies
Exploitation in Children’s Movies Movies are meant to be help children learn life lessons visually and explore different areas of their imagination that they would have never seen otherwise. Children’s movies should meant to have a positive message and subconsciously be educational to watch but for some Disney movies and fairytale stories this is not the case. The Little Mermaid by Jean Hersholt, “Puce Fairy Book” by Alice Major, “Forget Prince Charming” by June Callwood and the movie Brave are only some examples that could potentially have a negative impact on a child proven in the documentary “Sext up Kids” on CBC. These movies and stories tend to give off an inappropriate message with unrealistic views that can create misleading expectations of the world and life for a young child. They also tend to have a negative mood that may encompass the child’s thoughts and irreversibly affect their body image as well as self-esteem due to the privative development of their self-concept. Since these movies and fairytales tend to impact a child dramatically it can also cause them to have shaded views on society and life itself through the many bias topics such as sexuality and intimate relationships. Overall, exposing children to some of Disney’s explicit movies and fairytales can be harmful in their development.
The hidden messages, themes or morals that a child must interpret in a movie allows them to analyze and compare the situations to real life expectations. In many Disney movies these morals or messages are not appropriate for creating a basis knowledge of life for a child. Many of the messages underlying the plots are unrealistic and have bad views on society, taking into account the tale of Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs which is about one woman being shared within seven men. One of the worst stories for an unrealistic message is the Hans Christian Andersen’s version of The Little Mermaid which is about a fifteen year old girl realising self-sacrifice turns


Cited: Hersholt, Jean. “The Little Mermaid”. 12 Jan. 2012. Web. 4 June. 2013. http://www.andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/thelittlemermaid_e.html CBC. “Sext up Kids”. 23 Feb. 2012. Web. 4 June. 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RxKPQ12Iw4 Anastasiayiasemidmublog. “The Little Mermaid Disney vs Hans Christian Andersen”. 2 Jan. 2012. Web. 4 June. 2013. http://www.google.ca/search?output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=The+Little+Mermaid+Disney+vs+Hans+Christian+Andersen&btnK= Gornstein, Leslie. “Merida’s Disney Princess Controversial Makeover”. 13 May. 2013. Web. 4 June. 2013. http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/merida-disney-princess-controversial-makeover-brave-heroine-really-224924634.html Callwood, June. “Forget Prince Charming” Echoes 12. 2002. Page 322-324. Major, Alice. “Puce Fairy”. Echoes 12. 2002. Page 39-37.
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