'he Battalion
O
PINION
Page 5 • Wednesday, July 21, 1999
inner for
he mixed-up world of Disney
^cent animated films distort original fairy tales, sacrifice story quality for merchandising
1 Chastain,
Cup T-il
'rman^+B 111610 were no
' making! ; jlk , in ? Pf a '
Reels in Ara-
■Neither ani-
dn'
the
ralk nor
Scurr,Me' '
of the
laids turn into
?a foam when
Chris
HUFFINES
■ rzn die - And in
;;; tal life, nobody
V npnv PRonls to specific demographics,
'times I tlie normal P e °P le of tl ie
goalkee may wel1 aware these
roSEg’ that awareness is being erased
■ the minds of America’s chil-
1 team’s
ren. And they aren’t even being sub-
New Yoi
elbout it.
ictorv oveJ They ” are ’ of course > Disne y-
tch Ther® 8 ri 8 htj the biggest animation
l e | as( „ Mse in America, the bastion of gay
“■ts and family values, is doing the
| Hdren of America an enormous dis-
■ice. By cookie-cutting out “Ani-
i lajed Classics” (like I said, not even
Htle), Disney is destroying fairy
®es for America’s children, and it
T'TTIM t0 St °P‘
pi /iwhe current crop of Disney films,
CJudlncluding its most recent release,
ftan, follow a very simple formula,
o win iiJJ’kere is the hero. The hero has a
1 th e WesitMantic interest, who is usually go-
lere hefo:B t0 g e somehow helpful in fixing
t0 t ' ie : «hero’s almost-fatal flaw.
Run, Pa. Sphere is the bad guy, who is going
erve abci*h W art the hero, usually in some
? ei ^!"'T a Y relating to the romantic interest.
?atpackenK hero tries to do the right thing
6 InP I s rebuffed. At this point, the
nin ' ero, with the aid of the cartoonish
Ml! ’ idt?kicks, saves the romantic interest
ng bat' Tom t |-,e villain, and the villain is de-
dcing i eal;ecL
out ’ ™ J Brhe villain’s sidekicks and fatal
said. w hich is usually arrogance or
■underestimation of his enemies,
are important here.
indfo5ti| They a11 live happily ever after,
irport,
ng io n ; '
/ell as tel”
uni e. “Reader criticizes
Older Disney films, like Bambi,
Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella, never
bothered with a formula.
They realized the structure of the
fairy tale would work well enough
without talking parakeets, dancing
gargoyles, apes with Brooklyn ac
cents or the other straws Disney has
heaped on the back of this camel.
Older Disney films really were Ani
mated Classics. Recent Disney movies
are tired leftovers.
And then there is the next cardinal
sin: adding characters to appeal to
children.
In every Disney film, there are the
silly little sidekicks whose sole pur
pose is to appeal to children. They do
not really do anything that cannot be
done by other characters. The only
purpose for these kinds of ploys was
identified by Mel Brooks: “Merchan
dising. Where the real money from
the movie is made. ”
As if that were not enough, the
fine folks at Disney are also ruining
the messages of the films they are
making into “Animated Classics.”
Take Beauty and the Beast, for ex
ample.
What is the purpose of the fairy
tale? Quite simply, it says that appear
ances are only skin deep.
But what do the children remem
ber? They remember Gaston, the ob
noxious bully. They remember Lu-
miere, Mrs. Potts, Cogsworth and
Chip, the most lovable servants-
turned-household goods. They re
member songs like “Be Our Guest”
and “Gaston.”
In fact, no song (which are the
most powerful points in a modern
musical) in the entire score of Beauty
and the Beast is centered around not
judging the Beast because of his ap
pearance.
The closest is “Something There,”
which is more a statement of the
Beast becoming more human, not
Belle seeing him for who he really is.
It seems the real purpose of Beau
ty and the Beast is to say the Beast
may not human, but he can be if he
really tries. The same message ap
plies to the servants. That’s right —
beasts, clocks, teapots and candles
are people, too.
Well, that’s not too bad. After all,
it is not like Disney is teaching chil
dren bad things, just different good
things, right?
But if that is the case, then would
someone please answer why it is
that, in Beauty and the Beast, Belle is
an object for the men to possess?
That’s right, Gaston wants a trophy
wife. Maurice, Belle’s father, basical
ly wants her so he can remember her
mother. And the Beast and his ser
vants just want to be human again,
for which they need Belle to break
the spell. Nobody wants her for who
she is.
And so Disney is ruining the plots
of poignant fairy tales, tacking in a
few cheesy sidekicks to make some
money, then ruining the message of
the original fairy tale. What’s the
harm in that?
The harm is that America’s chil
dren, and increasingly, the world’s
children, are turning to Disney to
learn what they used to learn from a
book at bedtime.
They are learning these mangled
stories, these vacant shells of what
used to be true and telling. They are
being spoon-fed inadequacy from
the same mouse their parents think
are teaching them things that are
good, right and true.
Maybe they should make an ani
mated movie about that. Without
the mistakes.
Chris Huffines is a senior
speech communication major.
Mark McPherson/The Battalion
MAIL CALL
jioff:
; • portion column
added. n res P° n se to Tom Owens’
me invol ^ 20 column.
wayorrf-
win, winf' 1 was shocked and ap-
staystha(P 8iled by Owens’ call for
e process. l B vert “war” against abor-
|ibn clinics.
■ This is an example of the
mston Religious Right’s willingness
I deceive and bend the law
at makio:J| get their own perverted
ifiers las Way.
ed the # Well, the end does not
justify the means.
g d il Let’s, just for a second,
e s , ' || nsider what would hap-
mily, nl0 »n if abortion were made
et up to illegal.
I L Several doctors who
3n a ’ i Seated women for wounds
d it tlieP 5171 se| f-inflicted abortion
u ?L 0 iiil terri Pt s in the ’50s and
idr seasf'jr s will tell you grim sto-
1 Ips about permanent muti-
||tion, death from infection
and destroyed sexual func
tions.
I People will always seek
abortions as long as people
Spntinue to get pregnant.
I If abortion is made ille-
n zulle^ 91 ’ the Portion industry
n'to the Wlil continue to exist and
in the Wl11 be much more danger
ous to the woman involved.
igainst
ersity
age 3
If Owens really thinks the
government is a “terror to
good works,” then he
should refuse police help,
ambulance care and drop
out of Texas A&M.
Why do you think tuition
is not as much as it is at,
say, Baylor or Rice?
Ben Braly
Class of '99
Officers do not
need to show ID
In response to Scott
McCrosky’s July 19 mail call.
This is just to correct a
little advice to fellow Ag
gies.
According to the Texas
Code of Criminal Procedure,
a peace officer (all police of
ficers are peace officers)
must only state that he or
she is a police officer and
display his or her badge of
office, whether in uniform or
plain clothes.
A peace officer is not re
quired to show picture ID to
prove that he or she is a
peace officer.
So, the next time a po
lice officer asks for your dri
ver’s license, it is in your
best interest to go ahead
and show it to him or her.
Not doing so could land
you in the Brazos County
Jail for “failure to identify,”
a Class B Misdemeanor.
I would hate for fellow
Aggies to take McCrosky’s
advice and end up facing up
to 6 months in jail and up
to a $2,000 fine.
Besides, if there are peo
ple out there impersonating
police officers with $4
badges, I will be the first to
tell them they will be caught
and charged with a third-de
gree felony.
Celebrity death prompts reflection
A
Caleb
MCDANIEL
Peter Schulte
Class of 2000
The Battalion encourages letters to
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11 official re
ports now
.seem unani
mous. John F.
Kennedy Jr., his
wife and her sister
are still missing but
presumed dead.
As a result, one
can also presume
that media coverage
will continue on the recovery opera
tions in New England and tributes to
the victims of the crash for weeks if not
months. The long litany of Kennedy
misfortunes will be once again paraded
before a captive national audience.
This media and mourning blitz is al
ready being roundly criticized by some
who question the newsworthiness of
the accident. The justification for devot
ing hours to news on the search even
when there are no new developments
will be questioned.
Others will rightly point out that lay
ing tons of bouquets in front of
Kennedy’s apartment will neither bring
him back nor advance the causes he
advocated in life.
Such critics certainly make some
valid points. If Kennedy was the hum
ble, admirable and media-sheltered
man he is reported to have been, he
would blush at the thought of his death
receiving so much coverage.
And if Kennedy was the social bene
factor some believe he was becoming,
he would surely wonder whether ex
pensive outpourings of grief in the form
of flowers is the best way to benefit so
ciety’s needs.
However, we must be careful. Critics
of the way in which the nation is re
sponding to the tragedy make some
valid points.
But there are another breed of critics
who are in the wrong. They are the
cynics who argue the crash is not worth
responding to at all.
Unfortunately, this latter group is
probably more extensive than the first.
You have probably met some already.
They usually begin by sounding the
criticisms of the first variety about the
media or the mourners, but they usual
ly end up by saying something to the ef
fect that it does not matter if a wealthy
son of a president dies. Their watch
word is a question: “Who cares?”
Apparently, they do not. And as ex
aggerated as the response to the crash
may be, it is much worse not to care
about the deaths at all — to pessimisti
cally attribute the accident to the pilot’s
stupidity and treat his demise as a re
duction to the surplus population.
Excessive mourning is not as dis
tasteful as this kind of extreme misan-
thropism. The nation may be chastised
for grieving in the wrong way, but they
should not be scolded for grieving be
cause feeling and expressing sorrow
over celebrity deaths accomplishes two
worthy goods.
First, mourning JFK Jr.’s death is a
natural and healthy human impulse.
If the Kennedys .were a family at the
bottom of society, their losses would be
no less staggeringly tragic. And society
is in trouble when people are cynically
chided for seeing tragedy for what it is.
Humanity cannot become so hard
ened that it treats the death of a human
being with unflinching coldness —
whether that human being was a
celebrity or not. It matters little whether
the victims were great people. They
were people, and that alone should vali
date mourning them.
Secondly, JFK Jr.’s death reminds us
of our own impending deaths. We
sometimes forget they are impending,
but they are. And whether we are
wealthy and well-liked, as JFK Jr. was,
or poor and forgotten, we have the
Great Equalizer in common — the
brevity of life.
Reflecting on that sober truth is valu
able because it places our plans and our
possessions in perspective. JFK Jr.’s
celebrity status in life can matter little to
him now. What matters now to him —
and what should matter to us — is how
lives should be lived.
So if for no other reason, disregard
those who say JFK Jr.’s death does not
matter. Death matters.
Consequently, giving it our attention
is valuable. The writer of the Old Testa
ment book of Ecclesiastes was right: “It
is better to go to the house of mourning
than to go to the house of feasting, for
that is the end of all men; and the living
will take it to heart.”
Caleb McDaniel is a junior
history major.
oard of Regents should keep Joe Routt open to campus traffic
ne
shop-
n . P in g
a u is enough
College
tation. All of
[°e Routt
oulevard Ma™®!
Should remain Marc
pen to cars. GRETHER
Two weeks
8 g°. the Student Senate passed a
^solution supporting the closure
pi the portion of Joe Routt be
tween Houston Street and Well-
porn Road to non-bus vehicular
traffic.
This closure would be used to
E[ ea t ea “mall” environment by
f hmiting traffic to pedestrians, bi-
pycles, and University buses.” Stu-
aont Body President Will Hurd
Us expressed his support for this
3r oposal.
An even more restrictive plan
^hich would exclude buses from
the area has been proposed.
These are unnecessary, un
wanted and unwise ideas.
Why should the road be
closed? The Senate resolution of
fers no reasons for the support of
the measure.
Hurd suggested that the road
closure would improve bus ser
vices through the area. How ex
actly would this be accomplished?
The area in front of the Memorial
Student Center (MSG) is one of
the best areas on campus in terms
of bus traffic. In my experience,
foot or bicycle traffic, not car or
truck traffic, causes most of the
slow downs in the area. The mall
proposal would compound the
problem, not fix it.
Moreover, if that section of
road is closed, more car traffic
would likely head down the road
behind the MSG. Because that
area is a major loading area for
buses, the mall proposal could
wROAD
^-^CLOSED
have the unintended consequence
of seriously slowing down bus
traffic behind the MSG.
And what happens if portions
of Wellborn, George Bush Drive or
University Drive around campus
are ever closed for construction,
as Texas Avenue recently was?
Traffic will have no where else to
go. The sections of Joe Routt un
der consideration for closure are
needed for travel on several routes
through campus that would be vi
tal if these roads were closed.
Leaving all of Joe Routt open is
necessary for good traffic flow.
The only area on campus with
bad traffic problems that are easi
ly solvable has already been fixed.
Just because closing Ross Street in
front of the Chemistry building
made traffic better does not mean
every road closure will improve
traffic patterns.
Closing Joe Routt would also
adversely affect visitors to Texas
A&M. Currently, visitors can drive
all the way around campus to see
sights or get a feel for where their
sons, daughters or grandchildren
will be attending college.
Of course a walking tour is bet
ter, but A&M’s size prohibits
many people from walking
through campus. Do we really
want to limit these people's ac
cess?
Few Aggies outside of Student
Government want the road closed.
People often drive through the
area to drop off friends or simply
to take another route through
campus. They would like to con
tinue to do so.
Perhaps other students do not
see the necessity in closing Joe
Routt because they spend time on
other parts of campus. The area
around the MSG and Koldus al
ready has a large number of green
spaces, fountains, art and other
non-academic amenities. Few oth
er parts of campus have this much
development. No other area of
campus has a mall. Joe Routt
should not be closed to further de
velop this already well-developed
part of campus.
The closure of Lubbock Street
in front of the commons has pre
cluded access to too much of cam
pus already. One can only hope
that the Board of Regents will not
make the problem worse by sup
porting the closure of Joe Routt in
front of the MSG.
Keep Joe Routt open for cars.
Marc Grether is a mathematics
graduate student.