Review of Repressed Brits, evil Mexicans, Arab villains: Why are Hollywood's animated movies full of racist stereotypes?

The article, Repressed Brits, evil Mexicans, Arab villains: Why are Hollywood's animated movies full of racist stereotypes? by Steve Rose, argues the fact that 21st century animation displays extremely derogatory stereotypes of non-caucasian races. Rose starts off with specific examples of animated movies in which stereotypes are negatively protrayed, for instance in Rio 2, Dumbo, Despicable Me 2 and Planes. Many of these movies have main characters voiced by caucasians whereas their lesser, more secondary counterparts are voiced by African-American, Cuban, Puerto Rican or other culturally diverse actors. It is also necessary to note that their outer appearence stereotypically matches their voices. For example, El Macho in Despicable Me 2 is a Mexican villain who has a fat belly, large mustache, hairy chest and a gold medallion. Throughout the rest of the article, Rose goes on to write about the many different Disney and Pixar movies that contain racism and the stereotypical views of it.

Personally, I did not enjoy reading this article. I thought that in the beginning it was going to have some intelligent, credible points that weren't over the top and excessive, yet the further I read into it the more I thought I was reading a Giroux article. For one thing, I did not agree with his ideas about the secondary, spunky/inappropriate characters from movies such as Shrek, Madagascar and Rio. Yes, the voice actors are of different race, but I don't think children are going to think that because the characters are "wise-asses" that they are African-American or Latino or any other race for that matter.  Those animal characters could be thought of as a caucasian just as well. The stereotypical ideas of race come into play when children's parents or surrounding adults teach them about certain stereotypes. Another point I did not entirely agree with was Rose's view on Frozen. I do find myself being the bias person he mentions in the article that says "This is a story set in 17th-century northern Europe, why should there be any people of color?" I would not say it exactly in this way, but I do agree with the concept. Why should Disney display a historically inaccurate representation of Europe when there are people who would complain about that as well? If Disney had in fact chose to display other races of 17th Century Europe, they would more than likely be shown in a vulgar way since that was life at the time, and then these people (like Steve Rose) would write another harsh article about that aspect as well. There are many other claims in this article that I particularly don't agree with, but they run along the same lines of racial representation and at time I feel like I am always repeating myself.

Overall I feel like the large company's of animation will always be criticized for what they produce. When they release a movie with majority African-American characters or multiple racial characters, critics still always find a way to pick the animation apart. It is also difficult because there are so many different themes that are relevant to today's society that simply cannot ALL be covered in one 2 hour long animated film. Ironically, Steve Rose says these movies "won't make your child into a racist, but sure as hell ain't gonna help" therefore, it's not entirely the movies that are creating these stereotypes.