What's So Wrong With Disney?
Ever since Walt Disney first created Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Walt Disney Pictures has had a reputation for delivering some of the greatest animated movies in history. The animation, story, music and characters all combine to create many beloved, classic movies that will live on forever in the hearts of all. However, when an older person (above the age of 14) thinks of Disney their general thoughts are nostalgic, a remembrance of the innocent times of their childhood when they played the movies on repeat and made yearly visits to the theme parks. For them, watching Disney is for kids. But why do these thoughts ever have to be nostalgic? Why can't Disney be something one still watches whenever they feel like it? You shouldn't have to use a kid you're babysitting to be an excuse for watching Disney movies. Yet for some reason, when people grow older apparently the appeal of the Disney movie is lost and their perspective becomes one of "I'm too old for Disney movies." Their perspective of other people changes as well for someone who is older than 14 and still watches Disney movies is kind of a freak and/or a bit weird. I fall into that category of the one who is looked upon as a freak. Though I know I am a very strange/unique individual, I'd like to think it was for other things and not because of my long-lasting love for Disney.
One of the many things my two best friends and I have in common is our love for Disney movies. We once had a marathon of 25 Disney movies over the span of a week or two and we were 20 years old. Disney music is one of our favorite genres and songs from movies such as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Pocahontas are played over and over again on road trips or just during a regular car ride. However, whenever I branch away from my friends at college and I share to my new friends that I have all the music from the classic Disney movies, I get looks like I’m such a freak for having that much Disney music. And let’s not forget that I also know almost all the lyrics to all the songs. And then if one of the movies for some reason comes up in conversation and I know a lot of detail about such movie more weird looks come my way. I’m used to the weird looks…it happens a lot. But the fact that these looks have such a negative aura about them makes me feel like the biggest loser in the world. And I just want to tell them “Yeah, so what if I like Disney? I bet there are a lot of things that you like that I could think make you a loser but I don’t. I accept you for who you are.” But there are so few people in the world that can be that open-minded that finding them is a very rare thing. I try to be as open-minded as I can, but even I know I’m not perfect in regards to judging people.
I think what makes all of this worse is the fact that they then use my love for Disney against me. When I say I don’t want to go to Tokyo Disney Sea because it’s expensive they’re like “Why not? You love Disney! And you can’t find Disney Sea anywhere else” And then they go on to say that “It’s so magical. With all the characters…” Now how can they say things like this when they think I’m a freak for liking the Disney movies? They sound almost as “freakish” claiming Disney theme parks are so great. And I like Disney movies…I don’t really do the whole Disney theme park thing (I’m more of a Six Flags person. Roller coasters are a key). Yeah, it’s good for kids, but I don’t like the rides at Disney World, the characters creep me out and its way too expensive. Just because I don’t use “magical” as my justification for liking the movies, is that why? I mean, it’s not like they’re guilty pleasures because they’re really bad movies that I like watching anyway. They’re actually very well done. Beauty and the Beast got nominated for Best Picture for goodness sake.
To cap off the frustrations I have with people about this is the fact that they chastise me for liking Disney and referencing it a lot and knowing too much yet Pokemon is acceptable and cool and that knowing all the characters, the theme song and whatever else there is to know is normal. God, it’s like just because there are multiple people who like it apparently makes it cooler than Disney. Now, I’m not going into anything about what I think of Pokemon because I’ve never ever watched it or played it, but I can say its at least at the same level as Disney movies. And even if they do like it almost as much as I like Disney, I don’t think they’re freaks. I accept them. Why can’t they do the same? Because truth be told, Disney and Pokemon are really on the same level.
So I guess what I’m trying to say with all this is that people need to open their minds a bit more and be a lot more accepting of other interests. Because if they take a closer look at their own, they’ll realize they’re really on the same level. And that even though Disney’s prime audience is younger children, there is a still an audience among all age ranges. And it’s just plain fact, coming from my own personal opinion of course, that Disney movies and Disney music and the Disney princesses just rock. Sure there are people who may think differently, but that’s no reason to disrespect them or treat them as a freak. I mean, one of Disney’s life lessons is acceptance; just take a look what you learn from The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.