I yearn for the days of Up, Wall-E, and Finding Nemo. I don’t know the quality of the people who made those films, but I know the quality of the films and what they taught. They were stellar and they built the Pixar name into what it once was. Those days are gone.
You’re likely familiar with the phrase “my body my choice.” Whether it is used in reference to abortion choices or in vaccine mandate criticisms, the phrase is one of the most politically and culturally charged statements in the English language. It’s the sort of phrase you only use in an ideological way. For example, you don’t bump into someone and then reply “my body my choice.” You use it in very specific settings, in very specific contexts, with the intent of making a controversial claim. Namely, the phrase is used to present the idea that a person has full control over everything to do with their own body… although almost always only in regards to either abortion or vaccines.
Check out the 14:50 minute mark of this video.
That’s why I find it completely repugnant that Disney and Pixar would put the phrase “my panda my choice” in a children’s movie on Disney+. It is a deliberate move to put a very similar phrase in a children’s movie in order to have them start saying such a thing. Children emulate. Children roleplay. “My panda my choice” conditions children to be able to easily switch to the ideological and political statement. Therefore, this is absolutely propaganda in a children’s movie.
It is wrong if it comes from the left. It is wrong if it comes from the right. It is wrong to propagandize children. This crosses a line that should not be crossed by Disney, Pixar, or any other company.
We have come to the point that I will now need to screen normal Disney movies before allowing my child to watch them. Why? Because I am not about to have my child be propagandized by either political side of the spectrum in a children’s movie. It is shameful that Disney has put their company in a position where I feel this way.
For shame, Disney.
Propapanda propaganda. It’s disgusting. The liberal “creatives” at Pixar inject their work with blatant abortion messaging…to DAMN CHILDREN!
Disney thinks nothing of parent’s and their rights. Disney want’s to take the place of parents. They’ve just proven that via their denouncing of the recent Florida legislation and putting abortion slogans in Pixar films. If this isn’t an F-U to parents…don’t know what is. Parents, stop giving money to companies that want to destroy/replace your influence on your kids.
Like the author said it could also be coming from the right. But you’re so easily triggered that you ignore that. Also I doubt kids are going to hear that and then want an abortion. They probably dont even know what it is. But you probably teach your kid’s “Christianity” though I doubt its the actual real accepting and loving kind but that’s beyond the point. Isn’t that propaganda. Im a Christian myself but subjecting a child to something at a young age in hopes that they’ll continue when they grow older is the most extreme type of propaganda.
Disney is the international juggernaut that it is bc it was a trusted brand that parents and grandparents trusted and children loved and then enjoyed with their children and grandchildren. It’s going to lose that magic. They’ve lost their way. Remember when we all thought that owning Star Wars was like printing money? They managed to screw that up. They need to listen to the quiet majority.
And yet, Bob Chapek just handed all his power to these people who no longer even make the company money.
You OBVIOUSLY need to watch WALL·E again. That movie was full of social commentary that clearly went over your head.
I’ve seen it a few times. I’ve met some of the people who made it and discussed it with them. :)
My husband and I both thought the message of the film was coded as pro-life more than pro-choice.
Imagine for a moment that the panda is a stand-in for a child and/or motherhood and the narrative makes way more sense. Suddenly, all the lines about Mei-Mei saying “I’m keeping it!” and her aunts saying “she’s keeping it?” make sense (which would be a weird way to put a transformation; would Teen Wolf had said “I’m keeping it” referring to his werewolf side?) Then you start thinking about the “procedure” with the old man and his shiny knife, as well as the literal ripping of life out of the body of a person. And the pressure to do the procedure within a certain timeframe or it will be too late. The magical tree land where the “souls” of the pandas go when they’re essentially aborted also fits better. Even the “my panda my choice” line, which I agree is an intentionally coded reference to abortion just as “i’m keeping it” is, in this context is said as a celebration of Mei-mei literally choosing LIFE. She’s the hero of the story. Her disobeying her mom and choosing life is the moral of the story.
Asian women are coerced/forced into abortions more than any other people on the planet, after all, so it’s not much of stretch to imagine that many generations of women have chosen abortion in the family line, and thought they absolutely needed to. Mei-mei shows them you can choose another path.
Incidentally, I watched this with my husband and our kids and we all enjoyed it. The younger kids didn’t understand the menstruation part that all the moms groups are mad over (if you don’t know about periods, you think the mom is just upset because she thinks the daughter is turning into a panda from the beginning). The 14-year-old girl understood the menstruation stuff and appreciated seeing it in a movie as a normalized thing.
I agree with this, the only part that was about menstruation (which i have no problem with, it’s cool that a movie mentions it) was prior to her mom learning that Mei’s Panda came earlier and it wasn’t her period at all. Also, think it’s interesting that moms are mad about the menstruation talk, like how do your kids not know? You have them, surely they see you buying the products rights? Otherwise, I honestly had no problem with the movie as I remember everything she did as part of childhood. Even though my childhood was slightly different. The only thing I wish was left out was the, “My Panda, my choice” part. It just made me cringe and probably only because of the current social climate around women and abortion.
I think you overemphasize your statement “it is wrong to propagandize children”. With ‘propaganda’ being such a loaded and controversial word, it’s easy to agree with this statement. Where I disagree with you is that there is a very fine line between ‘propaganda’ and ‘education’. What you perhaps might deem as politically charged propaganda in Turning Red might be another’s educational introduction to one’s bodily rights for sexual, marriage, and reproductive choices.
Regardless of how your stance might be on such a topic, political influence touches the core of almost every issue and theme. Had this movie been more allegorical towards another topic such as a coming-to-age story featuring mental health, a relatively bipartisan issue, would you still be so adamant about your stance on ‘propaganda’, or would you have been more content with the movie being perhaps ‘educational’?
Changing a single word in a political statement would seem to be a definitive example of propaganda beyond any other possible thing you could do to indicate propagandist material. So let’s follow your line of thinking:
If the movie’s line is removed and replaced with “Make red pandas great again,” is that propaganda or not? If it is, what is the difference?
Your comment worries me more than most, because I fear that you have bought into a political position to the point that you can’t identify what is political and what is universal morality. Presenting your political beliefs to children in a subtle way that may contrary to what half of the audience believes is a heck of a proposition. It strikes me as very arrogant and a proud means by which to subvert entertainment for ideological purpose (i.e. propaganda).