Drawing Disney: Analyzing Artistic Reinterpretations of Disney Deaths

Abstract

Disney’s notably traumatic character deaths have been the focus of several academic studies that identify the potential harm of witnessing animated deaths during childhood; however, these studies have almost exclusively examined death images within film without looking to images that exist external to the media texts themselves. This paper addresses such limitations by uniquely examining how audiences use/produce images to offer reinterpretations of popular death scenes in Disney films. The components of user-generated images, descriptions, and comments on deviantart.com indicate that audiences utilize creative expression to communicate the traumatic experience of viewing character deaths during childhood, change elements that are frustratingly inaccurate, and re-write narratives to challenge assumptions of sympathy. Such an analysis considers what these artistic expressions might suggest about the decoding of animated death by consumers and encourages new ways of thinking about the consumption and interpretation of death narratives.