How has Disney shaped me?

Every little kid loves being sick. They get to stay home from school and watch cartoons all day. Disney Channel was part of my sick day tradition with my mom who would let me sit in her bed and watch cartoons like Winnie the Pooh all day. She didn't even mind the occasional puking on her bed, or worry about getting sick herself.

I've always loved Disney movies and tv shows for their simplicity. The theme is always straight-forward and easy enough for a kid to understand, while the end always leaves the viewer with a cozy and heartwarming feeling- at least thats how I watched them as a child. When you're a kid you aren't looking for a meaning you just want to watch the heartwarming story with the cute animals, but subconsciously Disney is engraining values in those little kids. Movies are similar to religions in that both provide a code of ethics to live by. They both teach kids the difference between right and wrong and give people role models to look up to; for example, Jesus Christ or Mulan. 

Watching Disney movies now, we are able to clearly see the main idea of the movie and we can choose to reject this theme by removing it from the warm and fuzzy storyline and adorable and funny characters and evaluating it for its intrinsic message. The Disney princesses have always been a controversial topic of discussion because their male love interests are usually attracted to them by appearance. The Disney princesses have had an impact on me, as I'm sure they have on many other little girls. They made me dream of my own fairytale in which a prince comes and saves the day; however, Disney has now moved away from this theme, trying to create strong heroine, such as in the movie Brave, to teach young girls to be their own saviors.

When I went to see The Jungle Book with my friends, one of them insisted that Mowgli was the villain and Shere Khan was the hero. He took away a different main idea than the one that Disney was trying to teach- not to judge (in this case by species). He came away with the message that humans do not belong in nature. He argued in defense of Shere Khan that the little boy caused the destruction of the forest and should never have been there in the first place. If we were little kids watching this movie, the farthest our conversation would go is to which character was the funniest. As young adults we are able to view Disney movies with the same analytical skills we could for a novel.

Disney has shaped me in other ways than just through the movies and shows themselves. Disney World is the place to go for families. Although I don't remember my two different trips I can still enjoy the cute pictures of my family with the characters. Disney brings families together and seeing the many movies in which one parent is killed off, such as Cinderella, made me much more appreciative of what I had. 

Here is my family during my second trip to Disney World with Tigger. I look pretty old in this picture(I'm in the pink)- you would think I would remember this trip but sadly I have a terrible memory.

Here are my dad and I on a ride during my first trip to Disney world- I am clearly too young to remember this one.

 This picture shows my mom, my older sister, and me on a dumbo ride in Disney World.

Even though I don't remember taking these pictures, or the trips at all for the most part, I still smile looking through these pictures and feel that warmth that I don't know if I would feel if Disney had never been part of my childhood. I might have felt a hole in my life if Walt Disney had never brought me all of the memories that have shaped who I am now.