[DEBATES TOURNAMENT]: Year 11 - Round 1 - Disney Movies: Yay or Nay?

Since the very first full length Disney animated movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937), Disney movies have been known for their mastery of art, cultural significance, innovation and all around amazing nature.

The popularity of Disney animated movies is never the question. Walt Disney Animated Pictures holds 3 spots on the 50 highest grossing films world wide of all time. Frozen ranking in at number 9, The Lion King at number 25, and Zootopia (which is still in theaters and doubtless to earn even more money) at number 46.* When just the North American top grossing films are looked at, different films pick up different spots: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs comes in at 10, One Hundred and One Dalmatians at 12, The Lion King at 19, Fantasia at 23, The Jungle Book at 32, Sleeping Beauty at 33, Pinnochio at 40, and Babmi at 50.** The numbers don't lie, people see Disney movies while they're in theaters and see them more than once with how well they perform. Just why do they perform so well though?

First it should be said, not all the movies have been met with success, Mars Needs Moms is an example from 2011 of a recent Disney animated flop and is the fourth biggest flop in cinema history at that [1]. Despite any failures though, when you mention Disney movies people think of all the amazing films out there. As well they should, because Disney animated pictures have won 11 Academy awards in total, including Best Animated Feature 3 years running from 2012 to 2014 with Brave, Frozen, and Big Hero 6 (only to be ousted by their own acquired company Pixar's Inside Out in 2015) [2]. The various other awards the films just of Walt Disney Animation have won can be gone on for miles without even counting all the nominations the films receive. Walt Disney Animation practically sweeps the American Film Institute's Top Ten animated films of all time, losing only spots 6, 8 and 10 (to Toy Story, Shrek, and Finding Nemo respectively) [3] Clearly, industry wide Disney is synonymous with quality.

That isn't even mentioning the innovation that has always been a key feature in bringing forth animated films from Disney. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first full-length cel animated feature ever produced (and Walt Disney was told such a venture would fail) [4]. In 1940 Fantasia became the first commercial movie shot with stereo sound, allowing audiences a fully new experience of hearing different sounds from the left and right sides [5]. 1955 brought a new widescreen CinemaScope experience to the animation world with Lady and the Tramp [6], and then produced the first 70 mm widescreen animated film with Sleeping Beauty in 1959 [7]. 1961 brought about a cheaper way to do animation with the use of xerography for the first time in a full length animated film with One Hundred and One Dalmatians [8]. Each advancement always brought forth other animation companies following suit. After taking a breather from always being at the forefront of things, Disney came back in 1990 with The Rescuer's Down Under to become the first animated feature using digital ink and paint [9]. Disney movies have paved the way for advancements across the board in animation.

Culturally, the films have had a huge impact, as well. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs changed the way people went to the movies by introducing the idea that animated films could be profitable. Disney's first animated adventure is preserved in the U.S. National Film Registry after being the Library of Congress decided that it was "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" [4]. More recently, no one could escape the Frozen fever that swept the nation and that includes in naming. After Frozen fever hit, Elsa returned to the top 500 names in the U.S. for the first time in almost 100 years. That's right, there's approximately 1200 little girls out there named Elsa and the majority can probably be attributed to Frozen. Even the odd 230 or so boys sharing names between Hans, Sven, Olaf and Kristoff, might have the movie to thank [10]. Not that it's a trend unique to Frozen. In fact, popularity of Disney movies has often seen an increase baby naming trends including: Merida, Tiana, Mulan, Esmeralda, Nala, Jasmine, Belle and Ariel all raising in popularity after the release of their respective films [11].

The staying power of the films for a long time after is huge as well. Look no further than the numerous live action reboots that Disney has been producing to huge success from 2014's Maleficent bringing a whopping $758 million [12] in to 2015's Cinderella bringing in $542 million [13] with further remakes of the animated classics: The Jungle Book, Mulan, Beauty and the Beast and others already in the works or in theaters, these are stories that people want to heard told again and again. The projects also draw huge names, with Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson, Christopher Walken and Emma Watson being just a few of the names attached to these Disney remakes. Everyone wants to be a part of the Disney magic, even when telling stories that are more than 50 years out from the original.

Further proof of the staying power can be looked at when visiting Disney parks. The most recent addition to Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom is the 7 Dwarves Mine Train, based on Snow White's 1937 film, and it's one of the most popular rides at the park with wait times consistently over an hour every day. Everyone knows of the dwarves and the scene in the ride of the mine is classic and endearing despite the film being almost 80 years old. Further, seeing little girls dressed as Cinderella, as Aurora, as Jasmine or as Belle is just as common as seeing little girls dressed as Anna, as Rapunzel or as Merida. There is a whole meal devoted to meeting Cinderella, Prince Charming, and the evil Tremaine family at Walt Disney's Grand Floridian Resort, a breakfast to eating with Winnie the Pooh and Friends, and not one, but two different meal options to eat with Belle, Aurora, Cinderella, Jasmine and Ariel. None of those characters are from the most recent movies, they're all at least 20 years old or more, and yet, these meals routinely sell out. Why? People these characters, old as they might be, still hold a special place in everyone's heart after watching the Disney animated films they're a part of.

Disney movies have also been shown to tackle important issues that adults and children alike need to have addressed. From Cinderella and Snow White early on, facing terrible situations with kindness and dignity to Belle learning about the inside mattering more than anything else. From Pocahontas and John Smith getting to know someone different from themselves to Lilo and Stitch learning that a family is what you make it. More recently, Disney films have been getting harder hitting on the issues it tackles and have come out victorious with audiences and the box office as a result. From Elsa showing symptoms of anxiety and depression, to Hiro dealing healthily with the loss of his brother and the process of grief, to the messages about racism in Zootopia, Disney animated pictures are giving children - and some adults - a look into how to handle extremely relevant issues of the modern day.

Some people might try and say that Disney movies are not for adults, that they're specifically for children. This, however, is simply not true. There are plenty of jokes in the films that are placed there specifically for adults. No child is going to understand the concubine joke in Mulan, they won't fully understand the foot size question in Frozen, Hercules' joke about Oedipus is geared toward those who've read some classical literature, and there's also the classic "I want to do something for her, but what?" "Well there's the usual things, flowers, chocolates, promises you don't intend to keep..." from Beauty and the Beast that are just a few examples of the many, many sources of humor with an adult audience in mind.

Still, some might argue the jokes are thrown in as an after thought for the parents who have to suffer through the movies with their children. To that, it should be noted that adults are the ones naming their children after Disney characters. That the Disney Cosplay Facebook page has over 50,800 people who have liked it, all of which have to be 13 or older. There are multiple pages as well, so the numbers are not all inclusive. 7,500 people packed into the D23 animation panel to hear talks of what was coming next from the company in 2015 [14]. If those numbers aren't impressive enough, consider the 16,000+ posts about Disney movies, books, TV and music on the disboards.com a forum filled with almost 490,000 members coming together to talk about Disney related events and activities. Not all of them go back to the movies and not all of them are adults, but all of them are old enough to use a computer and a forum and most of them started their exposure to Disney through the movies that have touched so many.

The numerous awards that the movies won are decided upon by adults as well and the animated features don't just beat out other animated features, but often win for things such as best original song and best original score. Not only are adults watching these movies, they're recognizing the mastery present within them and awarding the movies accordingly for being flat out incredible.

Essentially, Disney animated movies are not only undeniable works of art, but they're important pieces of cultural identity within the West and North America especially. Moreover, the stories told resonate so deeply not only with children who look up to the characters, but with adults who also look up to them and name their own children after them. It'd be a tough challenge to find any other institution so meaningful to so many people with such a deep impact within and without the animation community as the Walt Disney Animation company.    

*Please note these numbers include only pictures produced by Walt Disney Animation. If Walt Disney live action were included it'd also have Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at 17, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides at 19, Alice in Wonderland (2010) at 22, and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End at 28. If acquired companies were added into the mix (Lucasfilm, Pixar, and Marvel) then they'd own a further 6 spots, including the number 3 spot with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. For the sake of this argument though, these films are not being counted. Source: Wikipedia

**Once again, this is just Walt Disney Animation. Adding live action and acquired companies adds a further 4 spots. Source:  Wikipedia