Bức tranh khắc họa chủ nghĩa đa văn hóa và xã hội đa văn hóa qua câu chuyện về loài vật

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION/
FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS & CULTURES OF ENGLISH SPEAKING
COUNTRIES

(PHAM MINH DUC)

GRADUATION PAPER
ZOOTOPIA: THE DEPICTION OF MULTICULTURALISM AND
MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY THROUGH A TALE OF ANIMALS

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT
FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS

Supervisor: Dr. ĐẶNG NGỌC SINH

Ha Noi, 05 / 2019

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TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ, ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH / KHOA NGÔN NGỮ VÀ VĂN HÓA CÁC
NƯỚC NÓI TIẾNG ANH

(PHẠM MINH ĐỨC)
LUẬN VĂN TỐT NGHIỆP
ZOOTOPIA: BỨC TRANH KHẮC HỌA CHỦ NGHĨA ĐA VĂN HÓA VÀ
XÃ HỘI ĐA VĂN HĨA QUA CÂU CHUYỆN VỀ LỒI VẬT

NỘP THEO TIÊU CHUẨN BẰNG CỬ NHÂN KHOA HỌC XÃ HỘI

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Dr. ĐẶNG NGỌC SINH

Hà Nội, 05 / 2019

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ACCEPTANCE PAGE

I hereby state that I, Pham Minh Duc, QH2015.F1.E2, being a candidate
for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, accept the requirements of the College
relating to the retention and use of Bachelor‘s Graduation Paper deposited in the
library.

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited
in the library should be accessible for the purpose of study and research, in
accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care,
loan or reproduction of the paper.
Supervisor‘s signature

Signature

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ABSTRACT

This paper is an analysis of multiculturalism as depicted in Disney

animated movies and examine one of the studio‘s recent box office success
Zootopia as a model of how far Disney has gone to bring its audience‘s attention
to the cultural diversity and multiculturalism phenomena. The research will begin
with establish a foundation on the definition of ‗cultural diversity‘ and
‗multiculturalism‘, as well as the depiction of said concept on the big screen by
examining previous works of both American movie industry in brief and Disney
animation throughout the years. Then, Zootopia will be examined as a case study
to identify the new aspects of multiculturalism that have been integrated into the
movie by comparing and contrasting its characters, settings and semiotic features
both with previous Disney‘s movie of the same theme and with real-life
historical and contemporary accounts and researchs on multicultural societies.
Key terms: multiculturalism; cultural diversity; Zootopia

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Table of content
Chapter 1: Introduction

6

1.1 Background of the study

6

1.2 Research problems

7

1.3 Methodology

9

1.4 Significance

9

1.5 Chapter overview

10

Chapter 2: Multiculturalism throughout American history

11

2.1 Cultural diversity – the acknowledgement of differences

11

2.2 Multiculturalism

13

Chapter 3: Multiculturalism in Disney movies

16

3.1 Multiculturalism in American movies

16

3.2 Multiculturalism as a theme in Disney movies

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Chapter 4: Zootopia as a stand-in for modern multicultural society

23

4.1 Zootopia and its improvement on Disney‘s traditional concepts : animal
anthropomorphism as a mean to express cultural diversity

23

4.2 The formation of a multicultural society
4.3 The sociological issues of multiculturalism
4.2.1 Racism

26
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4.2.2 Equal opportunity with a twist: tokenism for minor ethnic groups37
4.3 The solutions: inclusiveness through infrastructure

38

Chapter 5: Conclusion

42

Reference

44

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Chapter 1: Introduction

Background of the study
Multiculturalism has always been very rare, not to mention a very hit-ormiss theme in the American movie industry. Not many big theatrical releases that
feature a diverse cast has done so with a clear and serious intention to address the
concept, and those that do does not receive due recognition and quickly fade into
obscurity for all but the avid moviegoers. Whether because ‗multiculturalism‘
itself is uninspiring for the studio giants, the execution leads to grim, heavy and
in-your-face narration that puts off casual audience, the scripts coincidentally
land in the hand of incompetent director and screenwriters, or some other factors,
a comprehensive answer to the lack of exposure to the topic is unknown, and
multiculturalism remains a rather untravelled road for movies and animations.
Then came along Zootopia, a breath of fresh air into the old yet new territory
with its unique presentation of a culturally diverse metropolis with animals of
different races not just coexisting but living in harmony.
The movie Zootopia (known as Zootropolis in some regions) is a 2016
animated movie produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by
Walt Disney Pictures. As the 55th Disney animated feature film, Zootopia
inherits a lot of Disney‘s familiar theme and character designs from its
predecessors during the execution yet still remain in many ways a unique and
unprecedented movie for the studio. The movie does not directly follow the
recently surfaced trend in Disney movie of embracing different real-life culture
that started with Mulan in 1998 in an attempt to satisfy their globally expanding

audience with box office successes. such as Big Hero 6 (2014) which is based on
the Marvel comic from the 90s with the same name that tried to ride on the
Japanese anime culture that was taking up America‘s entertainment industry by
storms, or Moana (2016) which explore the Polynesian culture with both casting
and homage to a lot of aspects from Polynesian mythologies and legends.
Zootopia features a cast of all talking mammals with no apparent
acknowledgment or reference to any real-life non-conventional American

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culture. However the characters and plots of Zootopia operates on the
acknowledgment that a society can be made up of individuals of different
origins, cultures and physical characteristics and rather than making it a static
setting, it turns the idea of cultural pluralism into the main source of conflict in to
movie, bringing it to the forefront for screen without imposing cold hard
philosophies onto the audience.
On the real-life side of the matter, Zootopia is also released in the same
year as the US‘s 2016 presidential campaign, in which debates on immigrant and
refugee policies are one of the central themes. President Donald Trump had at the
time as a nominee promised the American citizen policies, which was enacted
the following year following his presidency, to ensure national safety by banning
entry from Muslim immigrants and refugees, which is largely rooted in the
current public fear of Muslim terrorism. While it cannot be stated with absolute
certainty that the director of the movie inject their personal opinion on the matter
or attempt to impose it on the audience, the movie‘s concept of prey majoritypredator minority and the subsequent conflict between species of the two
category does hold a lot of similarity to the contemporary real-life issues of
public fear and hatred.

Research problems and questions

While the movie is definitely popular, Zootopia is not exceptional in its
box office and accolades. Zootopia was chosen by the American Film Institute as
one of the top ten films of 2016 and won the Academy Award and Golden Globe,
two of the most prestigious film awards beside BAFTA awards and SAG awards,
for ‗Best Animated Feature Film‘ in 2017. According to Box Office Mojo, the
most reliable and comprehensive box office database, Zootopia totals out to 341
million dollars, which ranks only 6th among Disney‘s animated releases.
However, the movie is still extremely well praised for its originality and message
on social media and online critic database such as Rotten Tomatoes:
The brilliantly well-rounded Zootopia offers a thoughtful, inclusive
message that's as rich and timely as its sumptuously state-of-the-art
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animation -- all while remaining fast and funny enough to keep younger
viewers entertained.
While the movie can be interpreted to breach several sensitive and heavy
topics along its narrations, the fact that it utilise a cast of characters comprising
of only talking animals and does not go out of its way to reference any real-life
events or people outside of the typical brand of Disney humor ensures that the
movie does not end up being too heavy or complicated and the younger audience
can absorb its message in general and abstract way, while the more mature
audience can appreciate its more subtle depictions and messages. While the
movie does make use of references to real life, it goes the extra mile to soften the
impact under the visage of witty animal jokes to not be offensive or sensitive to
any group of people.
As a whole, Zootopia is an excellent execution of taking a serious and
complicated concept of cultural plurism and apply it in a visually pleasing, easy
to understand and accessible to all the audience. This level of intricacy and
subtlety in a movie for children compels me to explore the concept of

multiculturalism with its associated issues and solutions and evaluate how far
Zootopia as a movie, especially as a Disney movie, has gone to integrate it into
the story. As such, this research will first aim to present the definitions of cultural
diversity and multiculturalism as well as previous studies and opinions on
multiculturalism using America as the case study. Following that, I will
investigate the depiction of multicultural societies in American media and
especially in Disney‘s animated feature films. I will examine some of Disney‘s
previous movies that touch on multiculturalism and what is already depicted
regarding social issues and their solutions, as well as taking note of any
shortcomings due to the restrictions of being a family-friendly animated movie.
Then, I will examine Zootopia on what the movie has improved on or contributed
to the depiction of a multicultural society in Disney animated movies.
In short, this research aims to answer two primary questions: which
sociological issues of multiculturalism and their solutions have been presented

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through Disney animated movie, and how Zootopia has contributed to bringing
the problems and solutions in a multicultural society to the audience of Disney.

Methodology
To achieve the goals of the research, I intend to answer my research
questions using the textual analysis and contextual analysis method.
Textual analysis is the method communication researchers use to describe
and interpret the characteristics of a recorded or visual. It includes the study of
content, structure, and functions of the messages contained in texts. As the name
suggests, this method is traditionally used for analyzing text-based subjects literature (short story, novels and so on) - but is also suitable for film studies
since both have plots, characters, dialogue, settings, symbolism, and, just as the
elements of literature can be analyzed for their intent and effect, these elements

can be analyzed the same way in film.
This method plays an important part in the research since multiculturalism
is already a familiar if the underrepresented theme in movies. The research is
based on the theoretical basis of definitions and opinions on multiculturalism
throughout history along with its commonly associated ideas, issues and
solutions and assumes that Zootopia faithfully translates these concepts into
animation format while applying its own creative license to make the movie
more appealing and easier to understand to its audience. This method will help
me analyze the scenes, lines, characters, and dialogs to then compare it with the
real-life context that the movies take place or are created in, the culture, time, and
place of creation in relation with the film‘s predecessors of the same theme.

Significance of the study
While Zootopia is one of the more successful movies of Disney, it
unfortunately runs into the problem of being a straight detective-comedy film
unlike Disney‘s recent popular releases such as Frozen or Moana which are all
musicals with very memorable standout songs and as such has little place in the
research priority now that its period of popularity has passed outside of existing
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articles which are not as in-depth in their appreciation of the movie‘s value as
they could be. I choose Zootopia as the case study of this research both because it
put the messages of multiculturalism in an aesthetically pleasing and easy to
absorb format, and because the movie, much like its predecessors, is a gem in
Disney‘s progressive and open-minded approach to animation that has been
underappreciated. It is my hope for this research to bring out the true values of
Zootopia as a new breakthrough in the depiction of multiculturalism in Disney
movies.
Overview of chapters

In chapter 2, I will briefly analyze the concept of cultural diversity and
multiculturalism throughout the course history, especially in America.
In chapter 3, I will give an overview of multiculturalism as a theme in
American media and analyze its execution in previous Disney‘s movies both as a
setting and as the central theme. This chapter will serve as a checklist for
Disney‘s past achievement in faithfully or optimistically portraying a true
multicultural society with its inherent issues and the solutions that have been
implemented.
In chapter 4, I will present the contribution of Zootopia to further refining
that portrayal, which failings it has improved upon and which elements it has
brought about to make its standing in the line-up.
In chapter 5, after discussing the sociological issues and rectifying policies
in the movie, I will draw a conclusion on the achievements and drawbacks of the
movie and which aspects of the topic it has left open for the future films to
explore.

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Chapter 2: Multiculturalism throughout American history
2.1 Cultural diversity – acknowledgement of differences
While ‗cultural diversity‘ is often used with a similar annotation to
‗multiculturalism‘, it should be first stated that the two terms are not originally
mutually inclusive. ‗Diversity‘ is defined as ‗the idea that there exist many
different types of things or people‘. These differences include but are not limited
to gender, sexual orientation, social status and wealth. In the scope of this study,
‗cultural diversity‘ is the acknowledgment that there are people hailing from
different cultures with defining qualitíe such as place of origin, physical features
or religion. The many separate societies that emerged around the globe differ
markedly from each other, and many of these differences persist to this day. The

more obvious cultural differences that exist between people are language, dress,
and traditions, there are also significant variations in the way societies organize
themselves, such as in their shared conception of morality, religious belief, and
in the ways, they interact with their environment.
Most literature accounts excavated of the ancient human civilizations have
peculiarly agreed upon the fact that all human have the same source of ancestry,
either because the first man and woman are born of the same deity or human as a
race is created simultaneously of the same mold or material. According to The
epic of Atrahasis, which predates and is heavily referenced in The epic of
Gilgamesh (often referred to as the first model for subsequent hero epics of other
cultures), the human race was created to bear the burden of labor for the gods:
[190] Let the midwife create a human being!
Let man assume the drudgery of the god."
They summoned and asked the goddess
the midwife of the gods, wise Mami
"Will you be the birth goddess, creatress of mankind?
[…]
[225] Nintu mixed clay with his flesh and blood.
That same god and man were thoroughly mixed in the clay.
For the rest of the time they would hear the drum.

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From the flesh of the god the spirit remained.
It would make the living know its sign.
("The Epic of Atraḥasis - Livius", 2019)
While these texts and what they imply about human origin does not
immediately tie in with, even contradicting the concept of ‗cultural diversity‘,
they does prove that what amounts to writers, philosophers and that all human

are created equal, and as such logically should have the same physical features,
eat, think, dress and talk the same way. There was absolutely no awareness of
different culture due to the geological segregation that prevented cross-culture
interaction. It might not have been till the advancement of horse-taming, wheels,
and chariots that these ancient countries were able to travel far enough and
discover others that are not adjacent to them.
There are several schools of thought about how ‗cultural diversity‘ came
around. One of the first theory about cultural diversity is that in the progress of
The one of the recognition and explanation for the diversity of cultures came
from Anthropologist Julian Steward (1902-1972) who coined the term ‗cultural
ecology‘, which is the study of human adaptations to social and physical
environment. Human adaptation in this context refers to both the biological and
cultural processes that enable a population to survive and reproduce within a
given or changing the environment, which indicates that the environment
determines the direction of culture. In this sense, ‗cultural diversity‘ can be
viewed as analogous to biodiversity, which is thought to be essential to the longterm survival of life on earth. Over time this theory has been challenged by many
scientific discoveries and opposing philosophies, contesting the idea that the
physical and biological environment affects culture, which has been rather
controversial due to its implication of environmental determinism over human
actions, which some social scientists find particularly problematic, particularly
those writing from a Marxist perspective. Regardless, these studies all operate on
the framework that there exist different cultures in the world and there are
various influencing factors during human evolution and history to facilitate such

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diversity rather than cultures being genetically predetermined or psychologically
inclined since the dawn of human civilizations.
2.2 Multiculturalism

While ‗cultural diversity‘ originally refers to the acknowledgment that
there exist different cultures in the world, ‗multiculturalism‘ in the context of this
study is used by the definition of ‗the presence of, or support for the presence of,
several distinct cultural or ethnic groups within a society‘. In reference to
sociology, multiculturalism is the end-state of either a natural or artificial process
(for example legally-controlled immigration) and occurs on either a large
national scale or on a smaller scale within a nation's communities. On a smaller
scale, this can occur artificially when jurisdiction is established or expanded by
amalgamating areas with two or more different cultures (e.g. French Canada and
English Canada). On a large scale, it can occur as a result of either legal or illegal
migration to and from different jurisdictions around the world, a primary
example of which is America itself.
While the idea of media diversity started around the 1960s, America's
been diverse for a long, long time. During its early years, the first American
colonies, New England and the Chesapeake, were largely homogenous, settled
almost entirely by Englishmen or a small minority of people who came from
other areas by way of England. Even with the importation of African slaves and
living near Indians, English culture prevailed.
While the Spanish-based transatlantic maritime expedition led by Italian
explorer Christopher Columbus encountered the Americas in 1492 in an attempt
to look for alternate sea-based routes that would allow them to bypass Venetians‘
monopoly on the European-Levantine spice trade route, the European
colonization of America only began in earnest in the early 16th century. The
colonies started to become more diverse with the acquisition of the Dutch colony
of New Netherland in 1616. New Netherland's population, comparatively a
fraction that of the New England or Chesapeake colonies, was astoundingly
diverse, with 18 different languages spoken between them, including Dutch,
French, German, and Swedish. and a multitude of Natives‘ languages and pidgin

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languages ("A lesson from history: Languages in 17th century New Netherland",
2019). However, with the arrival of the English, these "Dutch" settlers began to
meld together, teaching their children Dutch, attending Dutch Reformed Church
services and even giving themselves Dutch surnames. Around 20 years after the
English captured New Netherland, in 1681, Quaker William Penn established the
land that would later be called Pennsylvania in his honor, meant to be a haven for
persecuted religious groups in England, particularly Penn's own religion, the
Quakers. In addition to a large number of Welsh and English Quakers, Penn did
a lot of recruitment for his colony in continental Europe, meaning that a large
percentage of the colony was German. The fact that various colonies, most
notably Pennsylvania, New York, and Rhode Island, promised religious freedom
meant that small numbers of religious refugees were also incentivized to settle in
America. So, by the start of the 18th century, the American colonies were
already an extremely diverse place.
Early interpretations and opinions on such a diversity of culture coexisting
in the same space were not exactly negative, but also not terribly positive either.
The assimilation of immigrants to the United States was traditionally described
as a ‗melting pot‘, or ‗melting together‘. The first use in American literature of
the concept of immigrants "melting" into the receiving culture are found in the
writings of J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur. In his Letters from an American
Farmer (1782) Crevecoeur writes, in response to his own question, "What then is
the American, this new man?":
[…]leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives
new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the government he
obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American by being
received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all
nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will
one day cause great changes in the world.

While this interpretation does not carry a certain degree of positive
annotation, the term ‗melting pot‘ evolved over time to mean that customs and

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traditions of people of different race and ethnicities would blend and lose their
own distinctions.
[…]Here you stand, good folk, think I, when I see them at Ellis Island,
here you stand [Graphically illustrating it on the table] in your fifty
groups, with your fifty languages and histories, and your fifty blood
hatreds and rivalries. But you won‘t be long like that, brothers, for these
are the fires of God you‘ve come to‐ these are the fires of God. A fig for
your feuds and vendettas! Germans and Frenchmen, Irishmen and
Englishmen, Jews and Russians — into the Crucible with you all! God is
making the American!
It was then that the term ‗multiculturalism‘ become relevant to describe a
state in which various ethnic groups collaborate and enter into a dialogue with
one another without having to sacrifice their particular identities, along with
terms like ‗mosaic‘, ‗salad bowl‘, or ‗kaleidoscope‘. However, the divide
between what was perceived as ‗multiculturalism‘ then and now is still very
wide. The idea of benignly co-existing cultures that interrelate and influence one
another, and yet remain distinct is paradoxical in and of itself (Rajaee, 2009). A
more progressive and widely accepted view on multiculturalism nowadays is that
‗multiculturalism‘ means a society with many cultures overlap with each other,
where the best of each can thrive and worst can be shamed away. Society is not
forced to promote all religious practices simply because they are seen to
contribute to cultural diversity. People allowed to criticize the bad aspects in
another culture, forcing the abolishment of unethical cultural and religious
practices including female genital mutilation, polygamy, child brides, and human

sacrifice.

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Chapter 3: Multiculturalism in Disney movie
3.1 Multiculturalism in American movie
To preface this section, I would like to make a clear statement that it is not
in my intention to criticize every single one of Hollywood‘s movie of all the
failings I am about to examine. The American movie industry has achieved its
fair share of progress in promoting multiculturalism and produced masterpieces
such as Gone with the wind (1939) which covers both racial and gender relations,
particularly from the perspective of 1930s southern US and simultaneously
marks the first African-American Oscar Winner in the US history - Hattie
McDaniel. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) is also a classic film in Hollywood‘s
attempt to embrace the racial dynamics and tensions in the 1930s American
society. In 1995 To Kill a Mockingbird was selected for preservation in the
United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being
"culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". However, there are still
many problems Hollywood and the American movie industry in general in their
portrayals of multiculturalism.
The under-representation of African and Asian culture through the
practice of whitewashing is one such problem. The term whitewashing refers to a
casting practice in the film industry in which white actors are cast in historically
non-white character roles or in roles which are scripted for non-white characters.
The film industry has a history of frequently casting white actors for roles about
non-white characters and limiting any meaningful interaction between the
character of different ethnicities and culture. The African-American actor that did
make it into movies are often overshadowed supporting characters generating
comical relief or conforming to several racial stereotypes. This is a problem that

began in the early 20th century and still exists in movies even until today. The
root of the problem at the time was surprisingly not the lack of black characters.
The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American form of entertainment
developed in the early 19th century. Each show consisted of comic skits, variety
acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people specifically of
African descent. The issue here is that instead of employing an all-black cast,

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these shows instead were performed by white people in make-up or blackface for
the purpose of playing the role of black people. These shows also served to
perpetuate the stereotype of black characters being dim-witted, lazy, buffoonish,
superstitious, and happy-go-lucky. This practice of casting white actors wearing
make-up instead of actual black actors eventually bled into the movie industry,
not only for black characters but also for characters of other non-white colors.
The use of greasepaint and makeup to disguise the actors has fallen out of use,
but for some movies, the directors simply refuse to stay faithful to the historical
or literature accuracy of their inspiration. Hollywood‘s track record stubbornly
casting a white actor for characters has been astounding. The most notorious
example of whitewashing in modern movies would be Avatar: The Last
Airbender (2010), which is based on an American animated television series that
aired for three seasons on Nickelodeon. Set in an Asiatic-like world with people
possessing psychokinetic variants of the Chinese martial arts known as "bending"
to manipulate the elements. Unfortunately, while the starring roles of the show
(Aang, Katara, and Sokka) were intended to be of Asian and Inuit descent, but
were cast by Caucasian actors in the film: Noah Ringer as Aang, Nicola Peltz as
Katara and Jackson Rathbone as Sokka. The casting of white actors in the East
Asian and Inuit-influenced Avatar universe, as well as the fact that the casting of
the heroes and villains seemed to be backward racially from the show, triggered

negative reactions from some fans marked by accusations of racism, a letterwriting campaign, and various protests, eventually coining the term
‗racebending‘ to ―refers to situations where a media content creator (movie
studio, publisher,...) has changed the race or ethnicity of a character. This is a
long-standing Hollywood practice that has been historically used to discriminate
against people of color.‖ ("What is ―racebending‖?", 2019)
On the other side of the spectrum, we also have Tokenism. The term is
used to refer to the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to be
inclusive to members of minority groups, especially by recruiting a small number
of people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of racial
equality within a workforce. Tokenism in movies manifests in a cast consisting

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of actors coming from different races with their exclusive characteristics but only
for the sake of pandering to the racial diversity movement without any
justification or effects on the film, with the movie then underselling the impact
and values of having characters from different culture interacting in meaningful
discourse with each other. This is how we got the cultural stereotypes such as the
African-American black guy will always be the first to die in a horror movie, the
Asian man always looking like a Chinese even though he is from the Eastern
region and is extremely proficient in martial art.
3.2 Multiculturalism as a theme in Disney animated movies
Conceived by Walter and Roy Disney with the simple dream of pursuing
the career of an animator, it all started out as a small independent company under
the name "Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio". The studio had made a name for
itself producing animated movies based on fairy tales, Brothers Grimm‘s and
Andersen‘s classics, and popular children books, altering the plots and character
to its own brand of whimsical humor better suited for family entertainment.
However, despite being a company usually associated with children‘s movies,

Disney has not been averse to tackling serious topics into its productions, and
multiculturalism, or at least the interaction of different culture, has been present
in its movie from the very beginning. in the form of Dumbo (1941), specifically
the Crows characters.

From left to right: Specks, Dopey, Jim, Deacon and Fats

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The most progressive thing about the crow characters is the fact that they
are all given separate characterizations in their short screentime, giving them a
distinct personality. Jim Crow is the leader of the bunch, rolling his trademark
cigar, spats and derby hat and carries himself with a slick, self-assured and
stylish hair, has a commanding presence and perform most of the socialization.
Fats dons an open-front red vest and blue hat over his rotund body has a deep,
baritone voice and a jolly deposition. Deacon is refined with an attire resembling
the church deacon, a prim and proper demeanor with his wings firmly tucked
behind his back. Dopey has a sloppy posture with a hat missing the top and
Specks has his signature oversized, pink-lensed glasses. The crows could have
been replaced by actors of any color in a normal movie with similar
characterization and it would not make much of a difference. Despite the nods to
various African-American aspects, the crows were portrayed first and foremost
as compelling and memorable characters and second as a homage to black people
in the US. The movie subtly portrays the African-American people in the US as a
minority ostracized by their physical appearance but in a gently and humanizing
way rather than heavy-handed pandering of racial oppression and black rights.
The movie is still enjoyable for young children who cannot understand the
reference, yet can still be appreciated by the more mature audience.
However, subsequent movies by the studio have not gone beyond

Dumbo‘s achievement. There has not been another depiction or implication of
meaningful interaction between different culture. Disney‘s movies have been
praised for their celebration of different cultures – Mulan (1998) based on the
legend of Hua Mulan from China, Arjun: The Warrior Prince (2012) inspired by
the protagonist prince Arjuna of the Indian epic Mahabharat, Moana (2016)
portraying various aspect of Polynesian culture and Coco (2017) celebrating the
Mexican‘s Día de Muertos tradition of honoring the dead. However, while they
have broken away from the typical all-white cast in a European setting, none of
them have described a society where multiple cultures intersect and interact with
each other. The only movie to have come close to that has been rather
disappointing in artistic values. The studio does take inspiration from real-life

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and historical events to spin its tales of Pocahonta (1995) which was loosely
based on the life of the Native American woman of the same name. It portrays a
fictionalized account of her historical encounter with Englishman John Smith and
the Jamestown settlers that arrived from the Virginia Company and the clash of
culture and subsequently arms between the Native American and the Europe
settlers. It‘s a sequel, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998) focuses on
Pocahontas's journey to England with John Rolfe to negotiate for peace between
the two nations, presenting a heavily abridged version of historical account and
verging on being an image of two cultures interacting and agreeing upon
peaceful coexistence. While the ending is certainly uplifting, the fact that both
movies portray many contradictions to real-life events promptly discounts it as a
depiction of multiculturalism in Disney‘s repertoire.
The Princess and the Frog (2009) had been promising with its mixed-race
setting in New Orleans and the prospect of the first African-American princess –
Tiana in a relationship with the white prince Naveen, but in any aspect of

multiculturism felt to the wayside..

The Princess and the Frog promotional poster

The characterization of Tiana is commendable in the fact that similar to
the crows, she is presented as a compelling protagonist before her ethnicity is
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brought into the picture. Tiana is an African-American 19-year-old waitress and
aspiring chef/restaurateur. She is a smart, hard-working, and independent young
woman, but one who works so hard that she often forgets important things such
as love, fun, and family. The whole movie seems to be a character arc where she
along with Prince Naveen grows up and mature in their personality.
That‘s interesting that you put it that way with Tiana. She is perfect to a
fault, let‘s put it that way. She is very disciplined, more so that Prince
Naveen, but to the point where she is so focused on her dream and her
goals that she kind of pushes the rest of her life aside. So, she doesn‘t
enjoy life as much as Prince Naveen. And those are the kind of the
elements that each of them bring to each other in their relationship.
Prince Naveen probably needs a little more discipline in his like, and
Tiana needs to learn from Prince Naveen how to enjoy life a little more.
And through that process, of course, they both find love, which is very
critical to the theme of the movie. That‘s the one thing that Tiana had
forgotten, the thing that her dad had tried to tell her as a little girl never
to forget. And that‘s the thing that she did forget and had to re-learn. She
re-learns that through the journey with Naveen. (Noyer, 2010)
As compelling and relatable as Tiana‘s personality is, it also seems to go
so in depth into that character construction that it forgets to take into account
Tiana‘s ethnicity. There is no cultural discourse during the movie, and it would

not make much of a difference on the plot of the movie if Tiana had been white,
seeing her skin color is actually a coincidental choice rather than a planned
theme of the movie:
In retrospect, it was certainly about time. But we didn‘t approach this
movie with that as any kind of agenda. John Lasseter suggested taking the
fairy tale The Frog Prince and setting it in New Orleans. The idea of
making our heroine African American simply grew out of the setting and
that was an integral part of the story we pitched to John in March of 2006.
We all thought it was a great idea. But it wasn‘t until later that we fully

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realized the importance of this in the African American community.
(Noyer, 2010)
While Tiana does become a model and positive influence on the younger
generations of African-American girls, there is none of the ‗multiculturalism‘ we
are looking for in the film. The mix of race in New Orleans is present in the
movie, but the setting itself is static with no organic tension or conflicts expected
of such a society, or an indication of any particular social movement or
governmental policy to create such harmony.

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Chapter 4: Zootopia as a stand-in for modern multicultural society
This is where the Disney original movie – Zootopia comes in. To begin
this chapter, I will provide a brief narration of the movie as follow: Set in a
modern world populated by anthropomorphic mammals, the movie tells the story
rabbit Judy Hopps from rural Bunnyburrow who finally got to fulfill her

childhood dream of becoming a police officer in the city of Zootopia.
Unfortunately, the city has been plagued by the serial disappearance of fourteen
inhabitants of the mammalian metropolis. A volunteering Judy weaseled her way
into taking the case of missing Emmitt Otterton with a little nudge from Assistant
Mayor Dawn Bellwether but not without an ultimatum: Judy was given 48 hours
to find Emmitt on the condition that she must resign if she fails. She roped a
cynical con artist fox Nick Wilde whom she had encountered previously into the
investigation and had to solve the case with the deadline looming over her head
with a not-too-willing partner.
The movie has been highly praised by critics as ―very entertaining, easy to
recommend movie… and then the film‘s true themes kick in and it turns out to be
something even more meaningful and thoughtful‖ (Goldman, 2016)... With its
iconic use of anthropomorphized animals, Disney went beyond giving them
human attributes by also inscribing them into gendered, racial, ethnic, and
classed categories (King, Lugo-Lugo & Bloodsworth-Lugo, 2010). According to
Stephanie Zacharek, ―even if the movie‘s overarching message to humans is an
obvious one—people of all races need to learn to live in harmony—there are
enough under-the-radar subtleties, rendered with a refreshing lack of smartaleckiness, to make Zootopia feel current and fresh‖. ―The world of Zootopia is
one where all mammals, excluding humans, are anthropomorphous and coexist in
a civilization mirroring ours. Characters go to work, do yoga, fight with their
roommates… and otherwise, lead a life that Disney‘s target audience can relate
to very easily.‖ (Kopic, 2016).
4.1 Zootopia and its improvement on Disney’s traditional concepts : animal
anthropomorphism as a mean to express cultural diversity

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The first interesting thing about the movie is that it manages to bring
together many of Disney‘s old concepts in previous movies, both directly and

indirectly related to multiculturism and managed to make them work fluidly in
delivering the message, specifically the concepts of ‗talking animal‘ and ‗animal
kingdom‘
As quoted by Sierra Galloway (2016), anthropomorphism is the act of
attributing human-specific traits and characteristics such as speech, emotions,
and societal tendencies. to non-human beings, objects or natural phenomena. The
use of animals for characters, anthropomorphic or otherwise, in fictions,
especially those aimed at children, is not an evolutionary concept, nor is it
patterned by Disney by any means. Classical literature seems to employ
anthropomorphism based on the assumption that animals share a similar if
limited range of emotions and psychological tendencies with humans,
disregarding the fact that the organic structures that facilitate such behaviors are
fundamentally different between species (Kaplan, Hill, Lancaster & Hurtado,
2000). Stories in which animals talk are a very ancient genre, or a group of
genres, dating back to Aesop or beyond. They can be used to teach a moral, to
satirize humanity, to allegorize spiritual or political messages, to invert
hierarchies in a carnivalesque mode (Cosslett, 2002). According to them, the
nature of these stories is arbitrarily assumed to be more compatible with the
younger audience through routes that are not exactly science-grounded. It is
seemingly believed that as young children have more resemblance to baby
animals than to adult human, they are by extension closer to nature and as such
more receptive to stories that take their characters and settings from nature. ―We
give them stuffed animals to cuddle up beside before they go to sleep, live
animals as companions, and elaborate zoo visits, endless animal allegories,
stories, movies, and cartoon animals to teach them implicit morals and values
while entertaining them.‖ (Fawcett, 2002). On the other hand, anthropomorphic
animals are a related but ultimately separate invention.
Nevertheless, Disney took on the formula and spun in his own thread of
creativity, and nowadays the use of anthropomorphism is almost iconic in Disney

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films targeted towards young children, spawning classic animations with a cast
of walking, talking and smiling animal characters in various role from supporting
characters, to central protagonists and antagonists. And it is with this diverse cast
of talking, walking animals that helped Disney in categorizing specific character
traits that are then inserted into certain species of animals.
One of the most memorable species of animal used in Disney movies is
the rabbit, often in conjunction with a fox character acting as a foil. The first
rabbit character in the studio‘s production would be Br‘er Rabbit, appearing in
the live-action/animated musical film Song of the South.

Br'er Rabbit and Br'er Fox

The Br'er Rabbit stories that predate Song of the South can be traced back
to trickster figures in Africa, particularly the hare that figures prominently in the
storytelling traditions in West, Central, and Southern Africa. These tales continue
to be part of the traditional folklore of numerous peoples throughout those
regions. The character of Br'er Rabbit employed by Disney was voiced by
Johnny Lee in the film, and rather than being a trickster who succeeds by his wits
rather than by brawn, provoking authority figures and bending social mores as he
sees fit, was portrayed as more of a "lovable trickster" than previous tales. He is
not as physically imposing as Br‘er Fox or his henchman Br‘er Bear, yet has
consistently out-smarted his adversaries and come out on top every time. In the
first instance of the story, Br‘er Rabbit is caught in a trap by Br‘er Fox and is left

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