Review on Henry A. Giroux's "The Disneyfication of Children's Culture"

The Disneyfication of Children's Culture, by Henry A. Giroux is an article that argues how Disney's facade of "innocence and moral virtue" has underlying themes that can be harmful to the education of adolescent minds. Giroux focuses on the fact that Disney is an economic powerhouse that is trying to make their money off of movies that are most of the time not politically, morally or historically correct. Disney is such an influential and readily available source that children are exposed to it everyday, yet their most famous movies (since 1989) include stereotypical ideologies of race, gender and conservative world views. Giroux goes on to suggest how teachers, cultural workers and parents can change the course of Disney pedagogy, and hopefully help children come to the realization that the happy go-lucky animations aren't always correct.
Based on the title of this article, I had the preconception that it was going to dote on how Disney was positively influential in the lives of young children. I soon found out that was not the case. It was difficult to understand how somebody could so easily pick apart a Disney animation, but Giroux was able to identify many underlying cultural problems. When I was in elementary school I didn't pick up on the ideas of gender roles in The Little Mermaid, racism in Aladdin or conservative ideologies in The Lion King because I didn't know what they were at the time, but perhaps they can subconsciously be engrained in a child's mind. It makes me question how many other offensive/immoral qualities lie within the scenes of more recent Disney Animations. It also made me aware of how encompassed and influenced I was by the Disney name. I also agree with the fact that it seems wrong for Disney to not be criticized for these ideological issues and are still making money off of the offensive material. It isn't fair for certain cultures to be ruled as villainous and for Americanized ones to be ruled as "good."
Although Giroux makes impressive points about each controversial aspect, I believe that Disney has indeed attempted/succeeded in improving on these issues. For example, the more recent film of Frozen has the protagonist only being saved by the love of her sister. The movie Moana brings a hawaiian culture to the Disney world and also includes female empowerment in order for Moana to save her people. It also puzzles me how he constantly suggests for educators, cultural workers and parents to make a change in the distribution of these animations, yet it is the company of Disney who has much of the control. Perhaps Giroux should have encouraged to start at the source of the issue as well as asking advisors to implement appropriate solutions. Giroux has a strong passion for how Disney is dangerous to our youth, but being a Disney lover myself and making it out a descent minded person (hopefully :D) I am absolutely bias in my opinions on this topic. I do admire Henry Giroux for having the intelligence and bravery to write about a topic so close to the hearts of many people, especially from an antagonistic point of view, and I definitely learned about another side of Disney that I personally never delved into (nor thought of) before.