Popular Culture Review Vol. 10, No. 2, August 1999 | Page 86

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Popular Culture Review

films, and on occasion, during unguarded moments, are heard humming the tunes
to “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” and “Bibbidi- Bobbidi-Boo.” As children we are not
always consciously aware of the thematic content of the films, but subconsciously
the messages are imprinted. As children we may have been caught up in the
antics of an idiosyncratic nanny, but as adults in academic and business organiza
tions, we know the truthfulness of the statement “a spoonful of sugar makes the
medicine go down” and apply the adage liberally in many forms of organiza
tional communication. Similarly, as children, we were enchanted by a puppet
coming to life, but many of us still have not learned the lesson Pinocchio learned
a long time ago: “[we’ve] got no strings to hold [us] down.”
Although entertainment has always been the primary goal of Disney
films, they do convey thematic messages in the minds of the viewers. Regardless
of the physical and temporal settings, the films are intended to have a timeless
application. Thus, whether the setting is London in the early 1900’s (as in Mary
Poppins) or suburban America in the 1990’s (as in Toy Story), the films are in
tended to entertain and speak to the modem audience. Disney’s recent films are
no exception. The plots are more complex, the characters are more fully devel
oped, the music is more sophisticated, and the themes are as powerful as ever.
What messages do these cartoon characters convey to children? Specifically,
what do these characters teach children about leadership? This paper will ex
plore the leadership themes of three of Disney’s recent box office hits: Beauty
and the Beast, The Lion King, and Toy Story.
B eau ty a n d th e B east

The film’s first comments on leadership are revealed in the opening
scene. The movie begins with a flashback to an earlier event when a prince was
subjected to a spell for not offering hospitality to a haggard old woman. The old
woman, really a beautiful “enchantress” in disguise, had offered the prince a rose
in exchange for protection from the night’s bitter cold. The prince refused her
lodging and the woman cursed him and the castle’s inhabitants with non-human
forms. The prince, the legitimate mler of the land, and the one endowed with
legitimate leadership power as defined by French and Raven in “The Bases of
Social Power,” was rendered ineffective, essentially stripped of his leadership
ability, for being “spoiled, selfish, and unkind.” He became a beast and a recluse.
An analysis of Beauty and the Beast reveals only two central characters.
Although the Beast plays a central role in the film, he is not, in and of himself, a
main character; the Beast is a manifestation of two other characters in the film Belle and Gaston. When the Beast is playing the part of the brute, he manifests
Gaston, the boorish, hyper-masculine character; when the Beast is genteel, he
manifests Belle, the kind and beautiful feminine character. The main conflict and