#YearOfDisneyMovies

I decided one of the things I wanted to do in 2017 was watch more Disney movies, and maybe also get my son interested in them. I have my favorites, but there are some classics that I've never even seen in their entirety! I also haven't seen many of them since I've had a child of my own, so I'd like to review them and gauge them for appropriateness before exposing my son to the stories.

I have a list I made of the movies I will watch, in order of original release. Not EVERY Disney movie made the list, because there are only 52 weeks in the year and many more Disney movies than that, so you'll find I may skip some.

In the first week, I watched Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937). I had never seen the whole movie, but I was very familiar with the story because growing up, we did the Disney version of the play every year for Halloween in elementary school, and I was always the narrator.

The movie felt simultaneously really slow and very short. I feel like it dragged on some, but there wasn't very much to the story. I also didn't much appreciate the goriness of the queen asking for a heart as proof of murder (thankfully, the heart is only mentioned and not shown) nor did I like the whole "murder" concept in general. This is one my son can do without seeing for a long while.

The second movie on my list was Pinocchio (1940). Again, I have never seen this movie in its entirety. I was just never interested, and to be honest, it took quite a while to motivate myself to watch this now. My only experience with Pinocchio is from old Sing Along Songs compilations.

So, lots of threats of violence against Pinocchio = strike one. The idea of threatening noncompliance to societal norms with child slavery = strike two. I do appreciate the visual about lying and the emphasis on honesty and goodness, but strike 3 comes just then with the creepy old dude being extra evil about swiping little boys to take to Pleasure Island. The creep factor is just way too much. I don't even need to tell you how I feel about the underage smoking...I don't think my son needs to see this one, period.

Maybe I'm extra hard on the older stuff unjustly, seeing as it's from a different time...but I'm glad I'm reviewing these before my son gets a chance to internalize these sorts of messages. I do appreciate how game-changing these films were for the time and industry, and I'm glad I got to see them from that perspective. This week, I'm watching Fantasia, another movie I have no experience with. Let's see how it goes!