What messages do we get from watching TV and movies? Believe it or not, much of our personality and attitudes are shaped by what we are exposed to at early ages. And what do we watch as children? Those harmless Disney movies, right?


Setting aside for the moment the obvious issue of violence in them, let's look at some of the ways these Disney movies tell us life should be lived. In class we will watch excerpts of 3 movies, and your homework will be to 'think about' 3 others. In both cases, you will need to keep a record of the following attributes of the movies' main characters (probably 3-5 of them per movie). The italicized entry is an example:

Name Prince Charming 
Hero or Villain  Hero
Gender  Male
Apparent Ethnicity  White
Social Status  Rich - Prince -Nobility
Age group  Teenage-Young Adult
Physical Appearance  Handsome, Well dressed, strong
What did they do in the movie (briefly)  Fought and defeated the evil stepmother (swords, etc.), kissed and revived the princess, carried her off to live in his castle
Now after doing that, you get to make your own stereotype story. Using the pictures you brought in of Biff and Bambi, create a story that mirrors the action in a Disney movie. For example, if you found that most of the heroes are young, rich males, make a young rich male the hero of your story. If the hero and heroine usually end up getting married at the end, be sure your story is consistent with that as well. You can get with a buddy to do this, but use at least 4 pictures to tell the story. And of course, start the tale with "Once upon a time" and end with "and they lived happily ever after."