Brooke Seipel | Contributing Writer

Once upon a dream we just couldn’t wait to be king, see a whole new world and go the distance. We believed that a happy little thought could make us fly, “hakuna matata” was our motto and we painted with all the colors of the wind. Despite ditching Peter and growing up, we’ve remained loyal to the studio we grew up watching.

It doesn’t matter how old or young an audience is, Disney manages to reach it. The company has a secret– call it “magic” if you wish–that powers the psychological draw to Disney for audiences of all ages.

Part One: The Formula

Disney’s Frozen was estimated to earn $200 million at the U.S. box office on Thanksgiving weekend, which is slightly less than Tangled made in November 2010. When set side by side, the leads of Frozen, Anna and Elsa, seem identical to Rapunzel, the heroine of Tangled. Not only do they look alike, but they also carry the same spunky, take-charge attitudes leading them to desert social norms and save the day. Sound familiar? It’ s the same as Mulan, Ariel, Aurora, Pocahontas, Tiana, Cinderella, Belle and others. Alter this formula slightly and you get: Hercules, Aladdin, Fox and the Hound, Toy Story (1-3), The Lion King, Robin Hood and many more.

Emma Coats, a director and story- board artist for Disney Pixar studios, recently tweeted fans the guidelines for script writing which includes creating a character liked for grit more than actual successes and asking what the stakes for the character are and why the audience should root for it. According to Coats, any Disney story can fit into this particular formula: Everyday ____, one day ____, because of that _____, until finally ____. Apply T angled, Hercules and Sleeping Beauty to this formula, and they all fit the bill. While other studios also use this formula, Disney’s cartoons strictly adhere to it.
The formula works because it’s timeless. Since Disney movies don’t use pop-culture references, they’re not confined to a certain era and can be enjoyed 50 years later. Whether you’re watching these movies in the ‘90s or 2020, it’s natural to still want the villain to go down, the lead character to get the girl (or guy) and to hold our breath during underwater scenes and get anxious hoping they’ll make it out in time, even though Spoiler, they always do.

Dr. Daniel Pawley, APU communication studies professor, explained that the appeal of Disney’ s timeless- ness relates to the culture and psychology of their fans.

“The Disney universe (films, theme parks, products, etc.) promotes a powerful myth that transcends age, race, gender and culture,” Pawley said. “It’s a myth we might think of as ‘sentimental modernism’ in which nostalgic sentiment persuades people to become and remain fans… Disney makes us feel good, secure, happy and more so than almost any other cultural product it is the reservoir of positive emotions.”

P art Two: The Animation

It is easy to look at Disney animation and see the similarities in character design. Princesses have large eyes, small noses and impossibly pinched waists; villains are dark with deep eyes and long faces; animals are friendly, humorous and talkative.

Characters are purposely designed this way because their looks have a psychological appeal that the audience might not realize. Design can be affected by the desire to illustrate a visual development that reflects a character’s personality. However, it is also largely affected by the way different facial types attract or repel audiences.

Dr. Ronald Riggio, a psychologist who has studied nonverbal communication and facial expression, said that facial features have everything to do with both physical attractiveness and emotional appeal.

“Facial features are important in sexual attractiveness; men prefer female faces to be highly ‘feminized, ’ which includes more childlike, or ‘baby-faced,’ features, such as larger than average size[d] eyes and lips,” Riggio said. “This is likely because baby-faced features suggest youth and female fertility… in males, faces with wider jaws are more attractive because wide jaws suggest strength and masculinity. ”

Animation also includes the set- up of scenes, movement and setting. One technique that continually slips by audiences is repetitive slapstick scenes, dance numbers, facial expressions, movements and settings that are used to move the story along.

Part Three: Music

Disney movies aren’t the same without a few short sing-along-songs for the audience. The studio can’t quite take credit for this idea; you may have noticed that there is mu- sic in every movie. If music wasn’t in movies, imagine how awkward some scenes would be; montages just wouldn’t work. However, unlike other studios, Disney has its own specific uses of music for viewers.

Psychologist Peggy Orenstein ex- plains that the studio uses songs to break the tension after a serious moment. “Under the Sea” comes just after Ariel’s statue of Eric is destroyed and “Hakuna Matata” comes after Timone and Pumba find a forlorn Simba on the brink of death.

In other instances, songs tell the audience what the character wants or what they are thinking about. “Something There” from Beauty and the Beast illustrates the changes in Belle and the Beast’s relationship, while “Someday My Prince Will Come” works better than Snow White saying, “I really want a boyfriend.”

Music also serves as a way for audiences to emotionally connect with the film. Dr. Stuart Fischoff, a psychologist, has studied media psychology and explained the importance of how music in film relates to the emotion- al meaning for listeners. Music helps viewers to understand the character, their mood and the gravity of situations in films. All of this, Fischoff explains, evokes an emotional response.

By associating the music with audiences’ feelings, Disney manages to pull people back to their movies both old and new. Pawley explains this emotional connection as a relation to the brain’s processing of emotion.

“Many parts of the brain respond to Disney-relevant stimuli, but it’s most likely that a product like Disney causes deep resonance within the brain’s limbic system (and particularly within the small part known as the amygdala), which is the center of emotion in the brain,” Pawley said.

Part Four: Other Patterns

What’s with the dead parents, villains and animal sidekicks in Disney movies? Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Lilo and Stich, Cinderella, Tangled, Tarzan, The Little Mermaid, and dozens more have main characters that are missing one or both parents and/or suffering under malicious guardians.

According to Disney studios, the strength and power shown by mother characters hold back characters from finding their own self-sufficiency. By removing parental figures in its movies, Disney eliminates the possibility for a character to run to their parents for help. This parentless feature has been influential in children’ s development by encouraging them to rely on themselves.

Animal sidekicks aren’t as significant as dead parents; however, they serve as an interesting cheat to characters. Because it is important for the characters to be self-sufficient, the help they get can’t come from some- one too strong. Animals are a way for main characters to receive the help a main character needs without it looking like they’re weak.

As for villains, there are several kinds: status-seekers, wealth-seekers, throne-seekers, revenge-seekers and evil-seekers. Characters that come to mind in each of these categories include: Scar, Ursula, Maleficent and Mother Gothel.

Dr. Orenstein’ s psychological analyses of Disney villains show that they ultimately transmit critical messages about the American view on crime. Disney often depicts crime as individualized, unconnected to social conditions with villains embodying a sense of total and utter evil. Most villains have no redeemable characteristics as to keep them separated from any emotional attachment. While villains’ motives vary , they always serve as a form of indoctrination to teach children values in society.

Villains serve as an audience attachment to Disney for a number of reasons, mainly in how they teach us values, but also in our desire to always see good triumph over evil. Pawley explains how this balance affects fans.

“There is often a very prominent basic desire among Disney fans to know that good always triumphs over evil, and because of that we can be optimistic about our lives and world,” Pawley said.

Whatever the psychology may be, Disney looks like it will continue to make timeless movies that are audience favorites. And knowing this generation, the next time a new Disney movie comes out, we will momentarily leave our provincial life and become a part of their world.

Disney, you’ll forever be in our hearts.