Disney’s Dolls

Analysis of the presentation
Kathi Maio’s article Disney’s Dolls is a critical essay that analyses all the animation
films produced by Walt Disney Company. The authors' main purpose in the article is to show
how Walt Disney movies have portrayed all the female characters in their movies as happy
homemakers that are looking for a man. This text analysis analyses how the author, through
examples managed to show how Walt Disney portrays all their female characters as the
happy homemakers.
One of the main points of references is the Mulan that narrates the Old legendary of a
Chinese fighting off the foreign invasion in their region. However, the article chooses to
build up the points by highlighting references from other movies first before focusing on
Mulan. The article first focuses on Snow White. Before she was poisoned, she was living
with seven dwarfs and she cleaned the house for them. However, her evil grandmother
tracked her and poisoned her with an Apple that put her in a deathlike comma. Only a kiss
from someone that loves her will wake her up. From this interpretation, the author argues that
Disney has portrayed the women as the natural homemakers who are in a state of suspended
animation until a man gives them life. It also highlights older women as enemies especially if
they want power.
Over the years even though Disney land has been producing several movies, but still
have the same basis of portraying the women. The storyline is the same from Snow White to

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Cinderella in 1950 and the Sleeping Beauty, the woman is still a happy homemaker who
needs a man. Little Mermaid, was also their movie, although portrayed differently she still
has the same yearning for romance to full fill her heart. The character is still portrayed as a
woman who is silenced by the world while seeking the male approval. After all the examples
and the interpretations of the portrayal of the female characters, the article then focuses on
Mulan and Pocahontas
The Mulan and Pocahontas are characters that existed in real life. The author then
outlines how forcefully, Disney land distorted their storylines to make a movie and force it in
their usual storylines. The author outlines, for example, that Pocahontas who was a true
female character was supposed to be portrayed better than how Disney land did it. In her life,
she was kidnapped and was forcefully married to a stranger. The movie made no mention of
that but just gave her a cute cartoon face and made her fall in love with a hunky Anglos just
like other romantic movies, except this one is about a true character. The same can be said
about the Mulan hero. According to the author, the distortion level is almost as similar to the
Pocahontas. The Disney land portrays Mulan as a lady who entered the army because of
romantic motivation. In the real story of the myth, she just wanted to protect her people and
had no intention of romance.
One of the structures that make the article full fill the thesis is the use of a variety of
examples. Additionally, all her points are developed in a chronological and timely manner.
The author follows all the movies as they have been written, and compare it to the real story
they want to depict and outline the themes. The amount of evidence that the author has
managed to write about is sufficient and accurate to show that Disney was not sensitive to
gender issues.

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In the writings, the authors strongest tool in critical analysis is the use of satire and
irony. For instance, when describing Mulan, she writes ‘’at the end do not worry, all they
really want to do is to marry her and turn her into a Disney Homemaker.’’ Disney land does
this, by story distortions without considering the effects it will have. According to the author,
these stories that portray historical happenings are taken as a palatable history lesson and not
as colourful cartoons as Disney intended.
Response to the presentation
After reading through the article, the arguments presented by the author are true. I
agree with authors points on turning their characters into happy homemakers and distortion of
stories. First, the target market of the Disney land cartoons is mostly small children who will
be greatly influenced by the storylines of the movies. Once the movie only messages to the
young girls is to wait for a man, or you are only helpful if you have a man, is misleading.
Additionally, the historical depiction of true life history and forcing them to be romantically
motivated distorts the audience's understanding of historical stories.
The author managed to keenly conduct the research across all the movies from Disney
and did not make the judgment from one single movie. However, she ensured she observed
all the movies themes and storylines all through from 1930-1998. I agree with the author's
points of how the movie has been insensitive to the female gender. I watched the movies but
never critically analyzed them in that manner before. However, after reading the article and
running the comparisons, it is clear. The movies depict women as over-dependent on men,
only focus on romance and seek male approval. In that regard, Disney should reorganize its
future movies to outline other features of females other than those three.
The author has accurately been able to show how Walt Disney makes sure, at all
costs, it has created a character that fits their narrative of looking for love and marry her off

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and become a homemaker. The article critically analyses and compares Walt Disney movies
all through from 1930 to 1998 which increases the validity of the findings. All in all, it is an
article that has summed up all the inefficiencies of Walt Disney movies in terms of female
insensitivities.