Disney, as Disney is fond of reminding us, is not just a movie company or an entertainment conglomerate: it's a kingdom, a lifestyle, almost a religion. And if that's true, its position on the major issues of the day are more than just fodder for the back pages of their annual stockholder report: they're front page news, or even the subject of scholarly tomes.
Such, as the New York Times reports, is the case with Disney's environmental record. Throughout its history, Disney has played both sides of the ecological fence: it recently announced the formation of a new film unit exclusively dedicated to creating nature documentaries, while its theme parks are denounced by environmentalists as resource-draining, pollution-spewing nightmares; its previous science films have sparked the interest of children in wildlife and conservation, while attracting charges of exaggeration or outright fakery; and its beloved animated children's classics have cemented a protective attitude towards nature in the minds of entire generations, while both hunters and animal rights activists claim that they present a distorted and dangerous view of animal life.
Two new books have recently appeared on the market, reflecting the Disney dichotomy as regards the world of nature. David Whitley of Cambridge University has penned The Idea of Nature in Disney Animation, a prolix pro-Disney statement of purpise in which he argues that Disney has done perhaps more than any other institution to promote environmentalism: "These films", he says of Disney's animated canon, "have taught us variously about having a fundamental respect for nature. Some of them, such as Bambi, inspired conservation awareness and laid the emotional groundwork for environmental activism." Ralph Lutts of Oxford, however, takes issue with that notion in his The Nature Fakers: Wildlife, Science, & Sentiment, taking the films to task for their "Sunday School vision of nature as a place without stress, conflict, or death."
The debate looks to intensify with the foundation of Disneynature, and author Patricia Cohen notes that even internally, the message isn't always clear-cut, as the John Muir unspoiled-wilderness environmentalism of early Disney films like
Bambi is giving way to a Nature Conservatory view in movies like
Finding Nemo, where humans and animals find a happy medium of coexistence. One problem, though: what of Pixar? What message are we sending our children about the issue of safe spaces for robots, living toys, and talking cars?
