Underlying Messages in Animated Films

[Halo]

Granted all films have messages of one sort or another, but are there any you've watched that make you feel counterculture or against the majority opinion?

The main film that makes me feel that way is Lion King.  Had to see it because the grandkids wanted to.  Contrary to majority adulation, I thought Lion King emphasized obsolete monarchial servility.  The film was void of aspiration since lionhood/alpha/leader was achievable only by birth, not effort or merit.  

Hyenas were stereotyped villains, the usual suspects were clowns, and even elephants, rhinos, hippos, and buffalo were depicted as bowing down and getting all excited about the birth of ... another arrogant Lion King cub to grow up and boss them around.

Bow down my posterior.  Grab the torches and head for the castle gates.  Oops, wrong film, but same idea.  Some monsters are pretty, but they're still monsters.  Admit it, weren't you rooting just a little bit for the hyenas?

[Russian]

Go watch Ghost in the Shell......aim is more for adults than kids.

[rpm]

ANY Disney film has layers upon layers of subliminal social programming. I'm more of a Cowboy Bebop fan.

[Wolfala]

On that note - goto video.google.com  Type in Exosquad. If that isn't an adult aimed cartoon you'll never find 1.

I'll link you an episode:  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8410067548612142916&q=exosquad

This is a particularly interesting one: The short version is the CV fleet was off fighting 1 group, and another group decided to backdoor earth. There was a mutiny, and the Admiral is in the brig - with the mutineer crew going full bore toward earth to try and stave off the attack. Their fleet gets mauled by 2 of the other fleets - bad things happen.

Key points:  Bad guy is akin to Hitler, lotta WW2 type references

Worth watching.

Wolf

[1K3]

Princess Mononoke

I don't feel like writing an essay on this... but pro environmentalists would love this film:D

[Roscoroo]

These guys ....   The Chubb chubbs   there's gotta be sublimial messaging here  

[Debonair]

the cartoons
http://www.k4.dion.ne.jp/~suppon/
have hypnotized me

[Halo]

Interesting selections.  Innocence and goodness triumphing in the Chubbchubbs has to be a favorite.

[Gunslinger]

"WTF is an aluminum falcon????"

[Dux]

Which Disney film is it where there's a teenage boy, parentless and living by his own wits outside of society's rules, who has a cocky grin and boy-band hair, who uses something in a skateboard-fashion to escape from the bumbling authorities and impress the virginal girl?

Which film was that?

I don't know about subliminal messaging, but there certainly is a formula being followed.

[Apeking]

"Granted all films have messages of one sort or another, but are there any you've watched that make you feel counterculture or against the majority opinion?"

Well, there's Ralph Bakshi's "Fritz the Cat" (1972), but I imagine that it was in sync with the opinion of the majority of people who saw the film (although not society as a whole). The other obvious example is "Watership Down" (1978), which is a big metaphor for the persecution of Jewish people and the eventual founding of Israel.

Robert Zemeckis' "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" (1988) made me want to perform trangressive acts with Jessica Rabbit - acts that, if they were to be filmed and broadcast during pre-watershed television, would be distasteful to society as a whole and therefore against the majority opinion. And I was not alone in my lust for this unattainable woman.

The animated version of George Orwell's "Animal Farm" (1954) strikes me as having a deeper message but I just can't quite put my finger on it. There must have been at least one animated version of "Gulliver's Travels", which is another satire dressed up as a kid's story.

Shin and Friedman's classic "Transformers: The Movie" (1986) is perhaps the most subversive of all; a reworking of Mussolini's rise to power with an openly pro-fascist message that went right over the heads of the contemporary audience.

"Which Disney film is it where there's a teenage boy, parentless and living by his own wits outside of society's rules"

I read this as pantless. Which is even ruder in Britain, where pants are not the pants you know. Perhaps I am still thinking of Jessica Rabbit.

[Roscoroo]

Jessica Rabbit

Woooo hoooo .... (Insert catcalls here)


Nothing sublimial here

[cpxxx]

Apeking I think Animal Farm was essentially a critique of Communism or perhaps Fascism. The animated version is essentially the same except for that the good guys win. The underlying message I suppose is that freedom will always win in the end. Which may or may not be true.

Gulliver's travels is a satire of the scene in Europe at the time and was not a children's book. I don't remember an animated version but I suspect it would have concentrated on Gulliver's adventures in Lilliput and the underlying message was lost.

But as for Halo's original point. The Lion King may have

emphasized obsolete monarchial servility.

But imagined how silly it would be if it was called the 'The democratically elected Lion president' or these days the more PC 'The democratically elected Lioness president'.


But you are right in one sense. If you have to watch kid's stuff, you might as well regard it with a critical adult eye. At least then you will get something from it.

Now I wonder what the underlying  message in 'Toy Story' is?

[Mustaine]

http://www.illwillpress.com has got to have some underlying message

be sure to go to "toons" and watch some of the archived ones

[lasersailor184]

Originally posted by rpm
ANY Disney film has layers upon layers of subliminal social programming. I'm more of a Cowboy Bebop fan.

Robin Hood.  "Stealing from the rich to give to the poor."  If that's not social engineering, I don't know what is.