Jim On Film
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My Disney Defense

As a Disney fan, you have no doubt had to deal with people wondering exactly how low your IQ is. You tell your friends about how funny Lilo and Stitch is, and they say, "I don’t go to kids’ movies."

Or you want to stop at The Disney Store when you’re shopping with a member of your family, and she says, "Okay . . ." as she rolls her eyes far inside her head.

Maybe you’ve come to dread, "Oh, he just likes to relive his childhood" or "You’re just a kid at heart" but have ceased to fight it because you’ve fought it enough.

If you’ve been at it long enough, people just might look at your love for Disney as an unexplainable odd quirk in your otherwise sensible thought processes.

If any of the above be the case, print out the following letter, write someone’s name in the blank, sign the bottom, and give it to the one who understands it the least.

Dear ________________,

I have finally found the way to explain my love of everything Disney. I know you’ve never really understood it, but that’s all right. We’re still good friends or, if anything, we’re related by blood or marriage, so you’re stuck with me.

First of all, thank you for going to all those Disney films with me. I know you refuse to see The Country Bears with me, but that’s all right. I know everyone has a limit.

Kids’ Stuff, part one
One of the big hurdles in people understanding my love of Disney is Disney animation. Many people remember fondly sitting in a movie theater seat and watching Snow White fall to the ground after taking a bite of the apple. They don’t know how I can possibly enjoy it as much as an adult, or more accurately, enjoy it more as an adult than I did as a child.

The first detail to remember is that you are looking at animation culturally. In other countries, such as Japan, animation is not reserved only for children. Animation from Japan spans all ratings and genres, and it is a very successful business. To them, animation is a medium of storytelling, not an age-based genre.

And we wonder why Japan is so advanced.

Historically, animation in America wasn’t always viewed as a children’s medium. Animated shorts used to play before all movies in the early half of this last century. The viewing dynamic changes once something is viewed by an audience of one or two in front of a television screen, but an adult audience watching the latest Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, or Humphrey the Bear cartoon short would have been laughing throughout. With Disney shorts, it has been said that there were instances where the Disney animated short shown before a movie would receive larger billing than the feature itself. Humor is humor. If it makes you laugh as an adult, then it can’t be simply kids’ stuff.

It was probably around the time of television that animation came to earn the labels it has now. Animation done cheaply, though enjoyable, has less of an appeal to the average adult audience member. Of course, limited animation can have special artistic appeal, but it is hard to put a fun show like The Flinstones on the same plane as a Goofy short or Lady and the Tramp.

There is also an art to Disney animated films. The average Disney theatrical animated feature from either Pixar or the Walt Disney Feature Animation department has more thought and development to it than your typical Adam Sandler comedy, Julia Roberts romance, or Vin Diesel action film. The process is too long to elaborate on here; however, Disney takes great care in every character’s development, every color, every voice, every line, every joke, every image on the screen.

In a way, it’s a little like football. When you understand the game, you can see the masterful coaching, the talented players, and the hard work that goes into preparing for a game. It’s the same way with animation.

Animation also has a special quality to it than cannot be found in live-action films. With skillful use of color, drawing, and music, animation can make you experience emotions and characters like no other medium. Think of the scene in The Hunchback of Notre Dame where Frollo accuses Quasimodo of helping Esmeralda escape. It’s is a harsh, violent, and disturbing scene, one that could not be duplicated in a live-action film.

The same could be said of Peter Pan’s flight in Peter Pan. In a live-action film, even today, green screen flight scenes are rarely convincing, but in Peter Pan, not only does it look natural, but it is a beautiful image.

Or how about the vine-swinging scenes from Tarzan. The screen follows Tarzan around at lightning speed, creating the most exciting Tarzan that there ever has been, or likely ever will be.