Once upon a time before the Internet and Social Media cartoons were shown as features in movie houses. The propaganda boys and girls of the United States used this as a medium to educate the people against propaganda and at the same time use it as propaganda against their enemy Adolph Hitler and the Nazis. Originally, the title of the book Foxy Loxie was reading was Hitler’s Mein Kampf – they changed it to Psychology. This morality tale is still important today as it was during World War II.
After watching the animated short, I can say one thing is for sure: this is not the Disney that I grew up with. Harsh realities are often avoided by The Walt Disney Company by replacing them with quixotic dénouements. A great number of fairy tale productions exemplify the tendency to censor horrific details found in the original texts such as those of the Brothers Grimm.
The formula for years has always been “the good guys always win”. Unfortunately, this is not the case for the 1943 version of Chicken Little. For this reason, I believe that this cartoon was specifically made to target adult audiences due to its heavily political theme. Although strikingly different from what I am used to identify as Disney, I applaud the creators for the compelling depiction of how the habit of gossiping can spread faster than wildfire. It is also worthy to heed Foxy Loxy’s advice: “Don’t believe everything you read, brother.” In this way, we can perhaps avoid having a fate similar to the naive characters who absorbed all information without carefully filtering them.
In spite of the stark contrast from how the brand of Disney is marketed nowadays, somehow the old and the new Disney productions both strive to incorporate important life values that old and young folks alike can benefit from.
Sy, Azl N.
2012-28637
STS THX