Disney’s movie The Lion King was and still is a huge success.  Male characters were taught to be the stereotypical male.  Simba was raised to become the next king of Pride Rock but did not have the strength to confront his Uncle Scar when he was young.  As he grew older with Timon and Pumba, he gained confidence in himself and the courage to defeat Scar so the entire pack would be able to live.  Simba forced Scar to admit that he murdered Mufasa in order to gain trust in the pack.  Without this confrontation and motivation to be a leader, the entire pack on Pride Rock would have died.  All of the antagonists were dark colors, including Scar and the hyenas.
Nala and Sarabi challenged the stereotypical female in American culture.  When Nala and Simba would fight, Nala would always win and say, “Pinned ya.”  Usually, males are stronger than females and can physically overpower the females.  Nala was the one who persuaded Simba to return to his homeland.  Simba was reluctant to return because he did not want to be shunned by his own kind.  All humans are human, no matter their skin color and should not be judged by their appearance.  Without Nala’s persistence, the entire pack would have died under Scar’s reign.  Sarabi confronts Scar when he is “king” and tells him that they should move on to different land or else they will die.  In white society, the female should not question the male in charge.  This keeps the patriarchal hierarchy intact.  Heteronormativity is also enforced in the movie in order for the lions to keep their species alive.  The setting of the movie is also bothersome.  It takes place in Africa, where people inhabit the land, but a human is never shown throughout the entire movie.  It seems that Disney tried to avoid the racist critiques with this movie by not involving black people.

The Aristocats includes many stereotypes about the female gender.  All the female characters, with the exception of the horse, are white in color and have prominent black eye lashes with large eyes.  This gives the females the reputation that they are innocent and pure.  Marie, one of the kittens, is saved by Thomas O’Malley twice.  The first accident occurred when she fell off the milk truck and the second occurred when she fell into the river from the train viaduct.  Her helplessness in both situations gives females in general the stereotype that they always need help from men.  Marie reinforces the stereotypes upon the females in the movie when she tells her brothers that ladies go first through the door and ladies do not start fights, but they can finish them.  It might be polite and respectful for ladies to go through the door first in American culture, but this is not always true in other cultures.  

Marie also gushes over O’Malley’s compliments to her mother.  The two brothers say, “That’s sissy stuff,” and ignore the flirting.  The male kittens are taught to be tough and to keep their emotions inside themselves.  Toulouse tries showing O’Malley how tough he is when he hisses. 

Hypermasculinity is forced upon the male kittens so they are able to take care of the damsels in distress.  During the jazz breakdown at O’Malley’s place, all the cats are dancing and hyper.  Duchess breaks up the scene when she starts playing a harp, and the cats mellow down to listen to her play.  The male cats are in awe of her talent and watch her strum the harp.  It seemed confusing to have a harp in O’Malley’s place where all of the Scat Cats’ instruments were made from pieces of garbage.  The males admired her beauty and the music she played.  

Social status between first class and second class were analyzed in The Aristocats.  The opening scene shows how Duchess and her kittens are first class.  Their master, Madame, has a butler and a horse carriage in 1910.  The cats eat homemade food, not canned or from trash cans.  Unlike Madame’s kittens, the Scat Cats are forced to find food from trash cans.  When first meeting O’Malley’s friends, he warns Duchess that his friends are very different from what she is accustomed.  White people today still have anxiety when they drive through areas of the city that have run down houses.

Throughout the movie, Duchess reminds the kittens to use their manners.  When she tells Thomas O’Malley to thank the two women geese for helping him from the river, he reluctantly and sarcastically thanks the two.  Once the geese find out that he is not married to Duchess, the geese judge him and make fun of his appearance.  It is not fair to bully O’Malley because he does not have the resources that the animals from first class families have.  In most Disney movies, “the spectator’s pleasure results from predicting the familiar plot twists and turns and being pleasantly surprised to be both correct and incorrect” (Greenhill14).  Upon the first meeting of Duchess and Thomas O’Malley, the audience knew that the two would end up being lovers.  The point of conflict was the different social classes and the relationship between Madame and Duchess.  O’Malley suggests at many points in the movie that Duchess and the kittens stay with him at his place with the rest of the Scat Cats.  She declines his invitation because she still has a close connection with Madame.  In the end, Duchess and her kittens make it back to Madame and keep O’Malley as a male figure in the house.  The fact that Madame kept the second class O’Malley cat is a surprise to some of the audience.  On the other hand, when the cats are found drinking milk by the milk man, he calls all five of the cats “tramps”.  It seems that through mere association to people within one social class can cause them to join next social status, whether it be up or down on the social ladder.

Sexism was more subtle in The Fox and the Hound but was still prevalent.  Copper’s two role models are males that teach him to hunt and be aggressive.  They want the puppy to follow in their footsteps as hunters.  They are enforcing hypermasculinity on Copper by secluding him from the rest of the world.  Tod’s two role models are females that teach him right from wrong, how to be compassionate and independent.  His master took him out to the woods to give him more independence and to be more in tune with nature.  Once he is in the woods, his male instincts take over and his masculinity is more evident.

Big Mama and Vixi, Tod’s female companion, have prominent eye lashes to distinguish them from the males.  A spotlight in the woods was perfectly showing off Vixi’s physical attributes when Tod first saw her.  She was sexualized as a fox through human characteristics with big shiny eyes and a curvy figure.  These are all stereotypes forced onto women from society.  He was asked to catch some fish for them to eat.  He was overly confident in fishing, although he had never done it before.  Vixi asks if he needs any help catching the fish, which he clearly needs, but declines her help.  His masculinity gets in the way of goal, to have something to eat.  Tod’s female master had many decorations outside the house and inside the house.  She had colorful flowers and paintings, giving the perception that females are artistic.  Copper’s male master had a dull house without flowers or decorations.  He was perceived to be very goal-oriented on hunting and selling animal hides.  During the fight with the black bear, Vixi is in need of protection from the bear and cannot help fight.  This reinforces the stereotype that women are not able to defend themselves and need saving from a male character.

Disney’s movie, The Fox and the Hound, uses different colors to represent the character’s background and motives.  Big Mama is the owl who watches over the woods.  Her feathers are brown, and the voice actress for Big Mama is African American.  She gives realistic advice to Tod once Copper has been trained to be a hunting dog.  She tells Tod the fox that he can no longer be best friends with the hound Copper due to his training to hunt and help kill foxes for their hides.

Big Mama’s wisdom seems to come from her age.  It could also be related to racism.  Before Copper and Tod were taught what society wanted them to be, the two were best friends.  This could be similar to children, white and black, who play together in elementary school, but as society teaches them how to act, they lose their friendship.

Chief, the older hunting dog, is dark gray in color and stuck in the restraints of society.  Chief always tried killing Tod when he would visit Copper.  He never accepted the friendship between a fox and a hound which he instilled into Copper.  To Chief, all foxes were meant to be hunted and none were considered friendly.  This is similar to racism against black people.  In the 1920s, all black people were second class to white people.  Chief tells the puppy Copper that he has to earn his right to sit in the front of the car with their master, so he goes to the back of the trailer without hesitance.  This is similar to how blacks were oppressed in society by whites and were made to sit in the back of the bus.  The black bear at the end of the movie had red eyes and tried killing Copper and Chief.  He was considered evil in the movie with black and red colors.
Dark colors are considered evil and antagonists in almost all the Disney movies which reinforces the racial hierarchy of whites being more superior to the “colored” people.  In the end, Copper broke free of the restraints of society and protected Tod from his own owner.  Tod saved Copper’s life from the black bear, so Copper reciprocated the compassion.

Secondary characters in the Disney movie, The Princess and the Frog, contain class and racial stereotypes.  As frogs, Tiana and Prince Naveen are startled by many alligators that are predators to frogs, so when they come in contact with a different alligator, Louis, they are both surprised that he does not want to eat them.

Instead, Louis starts playing his trumpet alongside Prince Naveen, and “the two are brought together, predator and prey, through the common language of jazz” (Mask 182).  Music is a strong connection for Prince Naveen and Louis, and their friendship tries to show children that although they are not the same and should not be friends, they can still find connections to be friendly to one another.  This is similar to how it was not acceptable for white people to be friends with black people in the 1920’s.  African Americans had to build their own communities, separate from white people.  The three of them, as animals, sing “When We’re Human” that explains the reasons why they all want to become human.  Louis sings about becoming a trumpet player in a jazz band where he would not frighten other humans.  He wants to be accepted by the humans around him.  This song could also “be read as a song about the claim for black humanity” (Mask 182).  Louis does not want to be segregated from the other musicians because of the fact that he looks different.  His intention is not to harm the humans.  This relates to black people because they did not mean harm to white people, but they just wanted to be accepted by whites and be treated fairly.

On their journey, Tiana, Prince Naveen and Louis meet Raymond, a Cajun firefly.  His appearance makes him look like his from a lower class than the other three animals.  He has crooked and missing teeth and is wearing raggedy clothes.

On the other hand, the “princess”, who is white and grew up with Tiana, is only seen wearing beautiful ball gowns that were custom made by Tiana’s mother.  Although Ray’s physical appearance seems to be lower class, he is a nice firefly with a light to show Tiana and Prince Naveen the way to become human again.

The Princess and the Frog incorporates different races in the movie with the main character and many supporting characters as African Americans in New Orleans.  Throughout the entire Disney movie, Tiana’s main goal is to open her own restaurant, but she does not have enough money.  She is not deliberately trying to find love, although her grandmother tells her that love is more important.  Prince Naveen wants to keep his lifestyle as first class, but his parents are no longer supporting him, so he visits New Orleans to marry a princess with a rich family.  Tiana turns into a frog and Disney still distinguishes races through animals.  

Tiana has a lighter shade of green, almost bluish-green tint to her frog body, while Prince Naveen’s frog body is a darker shade of green.  Tiana’s desire for money seems to be more admirable than Prince Naveen’s desire, which in return, could be the reason why she is a lighter shade of green than the prince.  Having an animal skin tone close to white helps the animal’s acceptance into the swamp.  Tiana’s lighter skin tone as a frog might be a way to distinguish between the female and male frog.  The female animal is usually a lighter color which represents beauty and innocence.  After many requests from friends, Tiana declines all opportunities to dance because she has never danced before.  When they are frogs, Prince Naveen helps Tiana learn to dance.  It is ironic that she does not want to dance because dancing “was a ritual among blacks” and “an expression of freedom, tracing back to the days of slavery” (Mask 189).  The act of dancing tears Tiana away from money, which in turn, set her back from her goal of owning her own restaurant.  

She would rather be successful and independent than dance with her friends and community.  These underlying themes reinforce the racial hierarchy as whites tend to focus on independence and blacks are more focused on family and community.