Speaker: My project is based around the works of Walt Disney, a well-known Animator famous for such works as Cinderella and Snow White and the seven dwarfs. In most of Disney’s films there is a visible ideology of dysfunctional families and this is a continuous theme throughout all Disney films but does this make Walt Disney an auteur? "A true film auteur is someone who brings something genuinely personal to his subject instead of producing a tasteful, accurate but lifeless rendering of the original material” (item 12).
Clip: [Evil Queen giving Snow White poison apple] Item 3
Walt Disney's first film was Snow White and the seven dwarfs made in 1937. This is the story of Snow White who's farther dies after marrying an evil queen, who tries to kill Snow White because the Queen is jealous of Snow Whites beauty. (Item 3) This is an example of dysfunctional family is a family where”one in which adult caregivers are unable to consistently fulfill their family responsibilities." By definition because the farther (the king) failed to stay alive and not fulfilling his family responsibility, makes a dysfunctional family, as well as the Queen being Snow Whites step-mother failing to take care of her by attempting to kill her as the previous clip shows adds to the dysfunctional family. (Item 15)
Clip: [Snow White cleaning by the well] (Item 3)
This scene shows Snow White a princess in rags and cleaning. This shows how Snow White is treated when her father is not longer around, she is treated like a maid as opposed to the princess she is. This is an example of how the Queen has mis-treated her step daughter, which is also an example of family dysfunction.
Peter pan (1953) is another one of Disney's films with dysfunctional families, as Peter Pan is a boy with no unmentionable parents who takes Wendy, John and Michael who has a strong conflict with their parents (mainly between Wendy and the father) about growing up, to Neverland to meet a group of other young boys with no unmentionable parents and live with them, forgetting about parents all together. (Item 1) Another definition of dysfunctional family is “A family with multiple 'internal'–eg sibling rivalries, parent-child– conflicts, domestic violence, mental illness, single parenthood, or 'external'–eg alcohol or drug abuse, extramarital affairs, gambling, unemployment—influences that affect the basic needs of the family unit” (Item 15) Although by definition Peter and the lost boys are not a family because they are not related by blood but within the context of the film they see each other as a family with Peter as the father figure, so to begin with it was a one parent family and then Wendy becomes the Mother figure. However nearer the end when Wendy wishes to go home, conflict arose and it split the “family” leaving Peter alone.
Clip: [Wendy and Father fight] (Item 1)
Bambi (1942) is another film by Disney, where Bambi is left without a mother by a hunter and creates a family with a rabbit and a skunk, instead of his seemingly emotionally empty father. (Item 2) Using both definitions of dysfunctional family, Bambi fits with both as there is parent/ child conflicts and single parenthood as well as a parent not fulling their duties (item 15)
Clip: [Bambi's mothers death] (Item 2)
This clip shows the death of Bambi's mother, from he clip we can see how devastated Bambi is about losing his mother. This scene is shown as a reflection on Walt Disney and how he felt with the death of his mother as Bambi similar to Walt Disney is not with his mother when she died.
I have mentioned the three key films that clearly show dysfunctional family. But to be an auteur, Disney’s use of dysfunctional family needs to be personal by definition, so is it personal or is it just for development of the story?
Clip: [Peter Pan introducing the Lost boys] (Item 1)
Well… according to Don Hahn who is an executive producer for Disney, in an interview commented on why Disney is usually missing a mother he offered two stories one is that “Disney films are about growing up. They’re about that day in your life when you have to accept responsibility…it’s much quicker to have characters grow up when you bump off their parents”. This poses a good point, would Peter Pan have been able to take Wendy, John and Michael away if they were part of a functional happy family? The Dysfunction leads to a quicker developed and more emotional story. However the second story he told was “In the early 1940s…The furnace leaked and his mother died… Walt never spoke about that time because he personally felt responsible because he had become so successful that he said, "Let me buy you a house." If Walt Disney felt personally responsible for his mother’s death it could have easily effected his work and as he couldn’t have a full functional family, neither could his characters. (Item 7)
Clip: [Bambi's dream] (Item 2)
This still doesn’t answer the question whether the dysfunctional ideology set in Disney films was a personal creative decision or something to ease a story. If we look at the dates, Flora Call Disney (Walt Disney’s mother) died November 26th 1938, meaning she dies before Bambi and Peter Pan were released but after Snow White was made, as that is how he made the money to buy his parents the house. (Item 6) So Snow Whites family dysfunction is only for narrative purposes, to progress the story so that the events like meeting the dwarfs actually happens and the story can continue.
By looking at the dates of the three films I have looked at two out of three point to Disney’s use of family dysfunction being personal and Disney is an auteur bringing something personal to all his films, however is it all his films? Lady and the Tramp is a story of two dogs who find love after coming from two different worlds, although you could argue that Tramp not having owners would count as a dysfunctional family because technically that makes him an orphan but at the same time does the definition of dysfunctional family count with animals, in that case, does Bambi count as a dysfunctional because it is animals? It is difficult to tell if there are exceptions to the definition or not which makes this hard to argue. (Item 9)
Clip:[Wendy wants to go home] (Item 1)
Walt Disney has a repetition for being a family man, who holds family in high regards, this is seen in this clip of Walt Disney with his children.
(Show home video from documentary Item 13)
This clip shows how close Disney was with his own family, hinting to the fact that he was close with his mother and was truly devastated at her death so much he channelled this into his work. Another example of how he regarded family is a quote that reads “a man should never neglect his family for business” This shows that he would always put his family before work. (Item 16)
Image: (Item 17)
Clip:[Wendy wants to go home] (Item 1)
Walt Disney has a repetition for being a family man, who holds family in high regards, this is seen in this clip of Walt Disney with his children.
(Show home video from documentary Item 13)
This clip shows how close Disney was with his own family, hinting to the fact that he was close with his mother and was truly devastated at her death so much he channelled this into his work. Another example of how he regarded family is a quote that reads “a man should never neglect his family for business” This shows that he would always put his family before work. (Item 16)
Image: (Item 17)
