Values Dissonance/Western Animation: Difference between revisions

* Most [[Disney Princess|Disney Princesses]] have no specified age, but Aurora and Ariel were both explicitly said to be 16, and at least Ariel married [[Fourth Date Marriage|at the end of the movie]]. This would be legal in Europe, where most Disney Princesses live, [[wikipedia:Ages of consent in Europe|down to the present day]], but even though it's legal within 60% of the United States (depending on state), it's generally frowned upon.

** A straight example would be Snow White. In the original story she was ''seven'' when she was married, and in the Disney movie she can't be much older than 14.

** It's actually not unheard of for the idea of aspects of the Santa Claus myth [[Accidental Pervert|coming across unfortunatly]] to be played for comedy, for example: The song ''Things are Looking Bad for Santa'' by [[The Arrogant Worms]]

* Speaking of old cartoons coming off as having pedophilic undertones due to [[Paedo Hunt|paranoia over children being abducted and/or molested]], the public service announcements from the 1985 version of ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' (the ones that Fensler Films redubbed) have become hard to look at through the [[Nostalgia Filter]] these days because all people keep asking about is, "How do these GI Joes know where the children are all the time?", "Where are the kids' parents in all of this?", "Why is this GI Joe standing outside a bathroom window/running through the house without knocking/etc," and, in a specific example, "What is Deep Six doing underwater spying on little boys in a lake?" The original PSAs are on the "G.I. Joe" animated movie DVD as a special feature. Watch them and see for yourself.

* ''[[Jonny Quest]]''. The depiction of non-European characters in the original series was fairly common in style for its time, but now is embarrassingly colonialist in tone. By contrast, there is real diversity in the depiction of Indians, not just with Hadji, but with his guardian the Pasha Peddler, who may be a rather mercenary trader, but also gives lifesavingly good value for the money.

** To see how things have changed, look at some of the edits that were made for the DVD release. A line was removed from "Curse of Anubis" relating to the Egyptians as camel-worshippers. Removed lines by Race Bannon referring to the Po-Ho as "savages" and "heathen monkeys" in "Pursuit of the Po-Ho." The removal of Jonny's comment: "Here comes the Oriental Express" in "Monster in the Monastery." All of these were done to address "modern" sensibilities, but were deemed perfectly fine for family viewing during the original broadcast.

* ''[[Scooby Doo]] Where Are You'' had a rather embarrassing example of this in the episode "Mystery Mask Mix-Up", where Scooby and Shaggy dress in Chinese garb and both don bad Chinese accents (real bad). This scene ends with a scene of Shaggy randomly gaining squinty eyes and buck teeth.

* Non-negative, possibly deliberate example in the [[Kung Fu Panda]] movies: Both [[Big Bad|Big Bads]], who are villainous by at least Western standards as being mass murderers, are even worse morally from a Confucian perspective, which makes sense [[Fridge Brilliance|given these are movies about China]]. [[Arrogant Kung Fu Guy|Tai Lung]] is pretty guilty of familial impiety (turning on one's mentor), which is a major sin in the value system (as in "actively counter to the philosophy"), while [[Evil Overlord|Lord Shen]] is more-or-less a living blasphemy against it's moral code ([[Complete Monster|cruel]], [[Bad Boss|disloyal]], and again, [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|filial impiety]]).

* The entire [[Four-Fingered Hands]] trope is this to Japan, as the [[Yakuza]] used to [[Yubitsume|chop the fingers off of those unable to pay debts]].

** The Yakuza typically cut off fingers from each other as punishment for failure. In Japan missing fingers are seen as a sign of ''being'' a Yakuza, not being a victim of Yakuza.

* Drug use in many early animated programs and films could also fall under this category since it’s now a factor in rating system

 

{{reflist}}