Engaged in an event for nostalgic remedies (watching old Disney movies) my older sister and I stumbled upon an interesting yet quite strange realization.
Why do movies, often aimed at children, tend to show villains as dark, evil creatures?
We thought it a bit humorous simply because they were overemphasizing something obvious. I considered that perhaps producers created villains to actually look villainous because they wanted kids to recognize and understand from the beginning that "this" is the villain (which brings me to another point wherein the "goodguy" is often good looking, or just "average."
Whatever the reason for the overemphasis, maybe cartoonists should create characters with equal normalcy, thereby teaching children from an early age that those with an air of iniquity aren't always draped in draconian wardrobe.
I remember in elementary school we all were told to go to an assembly in the media center wherein we were shone a video about street safety. The video was paused on a section about strangers and we were asked whom of the four people shone was a stranger. Three of the four people looked like any normal mom, dad, or businessman you'd see on the side of the road. The fourth man looked somewhat... odd sporting a look similar to Harry Potter's Hagrid. Of course everyone chose the abnormal looking man.
Having been exposed to "strange people" as "strange looking," we were convinced that only "strange looking" people could be a possible evil.
1 comment:
To answer your question, it is precisely BECAUSE that Disney's audience is young children that villains are portrayed as dark, "odd-looking" creatures. Tell a five-year-old child that their neighbor across the street--who is always smiling, keeps a wonderful garden, hands out candy--that he/she are a bad person, and the child will be receiving a mixed message. What their instincts tell them and what you tell them conflict, and so they can't tell what to avoid. The reason strangers are portrayed as veiled people in those videos is to raise awareness in children--that appearances don't matter in decided whether a person is good or bad.
I digress a little. As a small child, your mental capacity to understand that you shouldn't "judge a book by its cover" isn't developed. So, Disney does what it knows that they will understand, and that is portray villains as people in dark light, with suspicious voices, and an evil aura. On the other hand, heroes are portrayed as those of light, sometimes with supernatural gifts or beauty (which might counter their own argument), or even as normal, "average" people, to show that anyone can make a difference in standing up to what they think is wrong, which is exactly how our country was founded.
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