The New York Times ran an article last week about Mickey Mouse’s latest makeover. It seems the sunny-faced cartoon mouse of the last six decades isn’t connecting with “new generations of texting, tech-savvy children.”
"Naughty" Mickey: Disney's crass new face?
Disney’s answer: a new, naughty Mickey with lots more attitude that will, supposedly, reconnect him with jaded, X-box frenzied youth. The first star turn is Epic Mickey, a video game that will have Mickey fighting for survival in a “’cartoon wasteland’ populated by forgotten and retired Disney creations including a jealous, embittered Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a precursor to Mickey from the mid 1920s, as well as a “disemboweled, robotic Donald Duck” and “twisted, broken, dangerous version of Disneyland’s ‘It’s a Small World.’” Nice.
Of course, anyone with kids old enough to watch the programming that Disney serves up won’t be surprised at the corporate change of heart over Mickey. The new selfish and misbehaving mouse brings gentle Mickey in line with Disney’s newer, more hormonal headliners like the (now-retired) Kim Possible, as well as flesh and blood acts like Miley Cyrus’s Hannah Montana, Dylan and Cole Sprouse from Zach and Cody and Disney’s Manchurian Candidate: Selena Gomez of Wizards of Waverly Place. They’re a potent bunch that started popping up on the screen in the Roberts household this year, as my two oldest daughters’ viewing habits took a hard turn in the direction of tweenagerdom: that pre-teen netherworld that seems to reach further and further into childhood with each passing year. These days, I see much less of Pablo, Uniqua and the rest of the happy, funky bunch from the Backyardigans — a show I loved for its mellow vibe, cool story lines and for Evan Lurie’s amazing soundtracks. Instead, there are endless variations on Disney’s main themes: dating, fashion, shopping, the oppression of school and homework and the tyranny of parents. The show summary for “He Ain’t a Hottie, He’s My Brother,” an episode from the last season of Hannah Montana, is pretty typical:“Miley has a dream that Lilly almost kisses Jackson. When she tells Lilly, she reveals that she has a crush on him, which shocks Miley. She tells Jackson about it, and at first he thinks its weird but then when he thinks about it he admits that he likes Lilly too. To keep them apart, Miley lies to them both that the other isn’t interested, but her conscience catches up with her and she admits they both like each other. Lilly and Jackson make up, but then Miley wakes up and realizes that the entire thing was a dream.”
Help us Annette Funicello. You're our only hope!
It’s like that — a kind of manic, ditsy, celebrity splashed froth. Think of it as a Brothers Grimm for the vapid, materialistic lot that grow up to populate shows like Laguna Beach and The Hills. I’m (sadly) old enough to have seen both re-runs of the original Mickey Mouse Club and its lackluster 1970s disco revival. That show always projected a kind of saccharine sweetness and “golly gee” enthusiasm that was hard to swallow, but its heart was in the right place. I’m not so sure about the new Disney, which seem to promote the kind of cynicisim, celebrity and crass materialism that President Obama took aim at in his recent address to school children. I like to call it “stupid chic”:
“I read a book,” Alex from Witches at Waverly Place begins in one recent episode.
“You read a book?! No wonder you’re so irritable!” her friend Harper responds. Har har har!
And, kids being kids, my daughters have started to try on some of the behavior they’re seeing modeled on these shows. Unwelcome requests might now be met with a pronounced eye roll and hair-toss. There are ironic asides and stage whispers. Sometimes I can almost see them pausing for the laugh track to kick in. I worry that, imbibing a steady stream of cynicism and materialism from these shows, that they’ll become cynical and materialistic. I blame Disney. My wife thinks I’m nuts.
Uniqua good! Selena bad!
So what to do, right? As it stands, in my house, we have strict rules about TV watching. We don’t allow any TV during the school week – from Sunday evening through Friday afternoon. On the days when TV is allowed, we keep the viewing time to around 1 hour a day. That’s been a good recipe for us — it keeps the focus on school, homework and extracurriculars during the week, but also gives the girls something fun to look forward to on the weekend. Much of what they watch is perfectly fine — and even Disney serves up some good shows. My five year old absolutely loves Handy Manny, the mellow, competent bilingual repair man who never rips anyone off. He kicks Bob the Builder’s a** and I’d hire him in a second if he ever decided to leave Sheetrock Hills and take Pat, Squeeze, Turner and Phillipe east. My girls still watch plenty of good PBS – Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman is a blast and is produced right here in Boston. We all love The Dog Whisperer.
Beyond that: there’s nothing overtly offensive in these shows: they’re “G” rated and steer clear of inappropriate content or situations. A kiss is about as heavy as it gets (accompanied by the canned “oooohh! ing from the laugh track). And, much as I like to rail against Disney, stupid is hardly something they’ve cornered the market on. The shows over at Nick or on the networks aren’t much better. Flatly outlawing the Disney programs will just make them seem like more than they are, while my girls may just mature out of their fascination with these shows (and hopefully mature into something better). For now, we’re trying to keep the Disney time to a minimum and stomping out the Miley-like behavior when it crops up — I’ll remind my daughters that this is not Waverly Place, its the Roberts household. About once a month I’ll get fed up with the whining and bickering over shows and threaten to drag the TV out to the curb, given that it provides absolutely nothing of value to anyone. Who knows…maybe one day I’ll do it!
