Stereotypes In Disney Animated Films

A common stereotype in movies is that villains use English accents and heroes use American accents. There are many movies one could survey to critique this supposed phenomenon, however, an interesting place to start is Disney animated movies. A category that will be added for consideration along with the accents of villains and heroes is the accent of sidekicks, who are often use either specialized accents or are idiolects. Sidekicks are not often thought of, but their existence in a movie do affect the audience and the effectiveness of the narrative, so they should not be ignored. An overview of Disney animation and some clarification will keep the arguments clear. Disney animation is separate from Disney/Pixar. Pixar was a separate

The movie plots New York City over ancient Thebes. The movie itself refers to Thebes as “the Big Olive,” an obvious reference to New York City as the Big Apple. Because of this, many of the characters of New York accents. Hades, the villain, Meg, the heroine, and Phil, the sidekick, all use New York accents, in varying strengths. This simply indicates that these characters are from the city. As opposed to Hercules himself, who uses a generic American accent, peppered with filler words and phrases used to emphasize his innocence. This dynamic is reminiscent of the Superman movies, where Clark Kent was raised in Kansas and uses that upbringing to emphasize his ‘Big Blue Boy Scout,’ or ‘aw-shucks’ personality. Lois Lane, on the other hand, has a more generic, metropolitan

Meg and Hades probably spoke differently, and picked the accent up from contact with other people who spoke the same way. Phil, considering how strong his accent is, probably grew up in Thebes or a similarly big city with similar in-universe qualities. The New York accent is used here to indicate where the character is from and gives the characters a certain street-wise quality that easily juxtaposes against Hercules and his generic American accent.

There are many questions that arise from a survey of this stereotype. One of which is, what might the effect be on the narrative or the audience? Looking at other villains besides Frollo and Hades, there are actually quite a few villains who do not use English accents, especially in the earlier movies. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty all have villainesses who do not use English accents, but high class, lofty American accents. It seems that a class divide is being perpetuated between the heroes and the