#disney channel

Does Mahree’s assertion that being held at the South African embassy was “like being in prison” constitute a problematic appropriation of the struggles of black South African activists?

In portraying the US as the opposite of, and even the solution to, South Africa’s racist society, does The Color of Friendship erase the US’s own history of racism? Consider the scene in which Mr. Dellums recommends Mahree read Roots. Is this an acknowledgement of the US’s troubled history, or an attempt to confine American racism to the distant past?

The Color of Friendship opens with Mahree and Piper each asking their fathers’ permission to participate in the exchange program. What does the film have to say about family dynamics? Recall that both fathers have significant institutional power in their home countries. If the two fathers represent the governments of their respective nations, what does the film say about the relationship between government and the governed?

Was anyone else shocked that both Piper and Mahree straight up say the N-word in The Color of Friendship?

The Color of Friendship is the first Disney Channel Original Movie set in the past. How does our knowledge of history affect our reading of the film? Consider the importance of technology in films like Smart HouseandGenius. Is the lack of modern technology in The Color of Friendship noticeable? Does this movie shed new light on the role of technology in the DCOM canon?

Up, Up and Away! was too terrible, so we decided to skip it and jump right into the golden era of DCOMs. The next episode will be about The Color of Friendship, the movie that taught a generation of kids that there are white people in Africa.

Analyze the portrayal of Horse Sense’s Gina as the archetypal “California Girl.” What anxieties about gender, class, mass media, and consumer culture does she embody? Is the “California Girl” a fundamentally sexist trope?

While Horse Sense appears to have a classic meaning-over-money moral, preaching family relationships and appreciation for nature over accruing wealth and material goods, in fact the film endorses an older understanding of wealth as tied to land and agricultural products. The upwardly mobile Beverly Hills branch of the family is portrayed as morally bankrupt, while the Montana branch, with its old money symbolized by the antique cabinet, is saintly in its reverence for land and tradition. Horse Sense has at its core an anachronistic anxiety over class mobility.

The Purity of Poverty: Money as Spiritual Contaminant in Horse Sense

Family Business: Labor, Capital, and Family as an Economic Unit in Brink and Horse Sense

Analyze the different roles horses inhabit in Horse Sense. How does the film use the horses to comment on or represent the humans who interact with them?

How do Disney films depict domestic workers and their employers? Consider Arlene, Twister, and Mule in Horse Sense, Chessie and Martin in The Parent Trap, Pat in Smart House, and Flora in The Color of Friendship. Does Disney erase the work of domestic work? What role do these characters play in the films?

Michael actually died in the car crash at the racetrack. The rest of the movie is his journey through purgatory.

So, you can calm down a frantic horse just by petting it, but only if you’ve undergone significant character growth? Is that how horses work?

26th March 2021

Bomber Beagle

Bomber Beagle makes his sole appearance in the DuckTales episode Top Duck. A skilled pilot, Bomber breaks his brothers Burger and Bouncer (but not Big Time) out of jail to try and rob Scrooge McDuck’s money bin, but is thwarted by Scrooge, the triplets and the McQuack family.

22nd January 2021

Megabyte Beagle

Megabyte is the only one of the Beagle Boys whose name doesn’t begin with B. He’s also the only one who’s been to college and has a degree in computer programming, which he uses for hacking. For nefarious purposes. His only appearance was in Super DuckTales.

22nd December 2020

Danny Wrigley

Danny is a teenage boy who appears in the Disney Channel Original Movie ‘Twas the Night. He has a good relationship with his uncle Nick, who is petty criminal. When his parents get called into work on Christmas Eve, he and his younger siblings are babysat by Nick, who decides to impersonate Santa Claus. Together, Danny and Nick decide to deliver presents to the kids, but Danny is left feeling betrayed after his uncle Nick is stealing presents rather than giving them out. He returns home and apologises to Santa for stealing his sleigh. When his uncle returns home and saves Danny and his siblings from home invaders, Danny and Nick make up.