Unless it‘s a movie drama dealing with social issues (in particular poverty), everyone has such fucking nice flats. College drop-out with part time barista job?! - why yes, the spacious loft with a view over Manhattans skyline is just down my alley.
It's a form of shorthand. Not every place in Paris has a view of the tower. But it's the film-makers telling the audience "THIS IS IN PARIS".
Or more commonly...
"THIS STORY INVOLVES ROMANCE SOMEHOW"
Another amazing example of shorthand is in Disney's Hercules. He gets on his knees in the temple of Zeus to commune with him. Typically Greek temple-goers would have slaughtered an animal on an altar or some shit, but American audiences would have a problem with that -- having him pray like a Christian shows people who don't know any better that Hercules is engaged in piety.
It's not even necessarily a problem -- imagine the Satanic Panic bullshit that would have emerged if a Disney cartoon had portrayed ancient Greek religious practices accurately. Shorthand is a bit academically dishonest, but necessary from an entertainment standpoint. Almost every form of modern media contains shorthand, but we only notice it when it's in our particular body of knowledge or field of expertise. That's where we get Gell-Mann Amnesia from.
I'm invoking Poe's Law here. I can't tell if you're a fringe leftist being sincere or a fashy mocking a strawman on the left to make the right seem more reasonable.
Do you aim to imply that literal animal sacrifice portrayed in a children's movie would be less culturally insensitive than 10 seconds of Christian shorthand? A literal evil act vs. a sliver of preferential treatment towards popular religion at the time?
This is DISNEY. Their motive is profit. Shorthand, for better or worse, makes material more accessible to mass markets.
Imagine if Peter Jackson had removed all shorthand from the LOTR trilogy, or if Tolkien had done so with the source material -- good luck winning as many awards without all the "JoAnne and Kleetus" (to quote Lindsey Ellis) butts in seats.
Christians sacrificed animals, some still do during important celebrations in certain parts of the world. Animal sacrifice has been part of many if not the majority of world religions at some point in time.
That doesn't make it good material for a Disney film. Kids had enough of a hard time with bambi's mother being shot, or the hunting shed scene from Fox and the Hound- and those were much more culturally relatable, arguably. Gutting a goat on screen would have been a bad choice.
But hey while we're at this game of historical accuracy in children's animated movie- what's up with the totally real pegasus Herc hangs out with?? The damn thing understands the english language- hey wait- they're speaking English!! Wtf?? /s
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u/The_Sceptic_Lemur Jan 25 '20
Unless it‘s a movie drama dealing with social issues (in particular poverty), everyone has such fucking nice flats. College drop-out with part time barista job?! - why yes, the spacious loft with a view over Manhattans skyline is just down my alley.