Animation As Media Genre (On The Examples Of Aladdin, The Lion King, And Beauty And The Beast)

Genre and film in itself, is greatly influenced by the culture and time of production. Its an integral part of the media itself and can’t be ignored when viewing genre through a critical lens. Although genre is an encompassing mode of identification for films and media, it is fluid and constantly changing through different eras and cultures. A single piece of media, with a preconceived plot can produced with many vastly varying outcomes depending on the time of creation and the values of the society it is created for. A great example of this, evident in the western film industry of today, is the remake of many Disney studio renaissance era animated films, such as Aladdin, the Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast. The latter of which will be discussed further in this essay.

Disney’s animated feature film Beauty and the beast was finished in 1991 and was met with overwhelming support and praise upon its initial release. It was a retelling of the classic fairy tale, La Belle et la Bete, published in 1740 by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuv, a story that had been retold many times but never with as much financial success as the Disney film release. Due to criticisms faced in previous Disney princess films that the female characters were seen to be completed by the prospect of finding a man to love and marry, the executives at Disney studios made the decision to make Belles character that of a strong, “feisty”, intelligent female lead. Belle’s character feels she wants more to life than to just settle down with the town’s good-looking and powerful Gaston, she wants an adventure like the ones she reads about in her books and holds her own against the frightening Beast