Live Life Team
After taking two young children under five to see Disney’s recent animated film “The Princess and the Frog”, I’m wondering what Disney animators were thinking when they created the evil voodoo villain Dr. Facilier. How did the movie earn a G rating,
Naturally a story has to have conflict, but even the animated bad guys are quite scary – too scary for the under-6 set for whom this movie has been mass marketed. Dr. Facilier himself is drawn with bone-chilling fierceness. With skeletons, cemeteries and spirits, the movie heightens the threat with heart-pounding music. You can’t cover their eyes and their ears at the same time.
Think back over past Disney animations: Cruella De Vil in “101 Dalmatians” wanted to make coats from the puppies. “Poison them, drown them, bash them in the head,” she exclaims. Ursula, in “The Little Mermaid” is drawn as a large and intimidating octopus. Jafar in “Aladdin” is a fearful vizier who transforms to an even scarier cobra. Maleficient in “Sleeping Beauty” is ugly incarnate with devil’s horns and a green face.
While older children and adults can move past these terror-inducing characters, younger children cannot. These characters prey on their fears of the boogey man and things that go bump in the night. While no one wants to watch banal kids movies that seem to proliferate, there must be a middle ground where young children can still be entertained with the plot and characters of “The Princess and the Frog” without being scared to go to bed at night.
