Building characters with cultural values: textual analysis of protagonists versus antagonists in disney animated films

Abstract

This research mainly focused on examine the ways in which protagonists and antagonists are portrayed in Disney's "Princess Series" animated films. The researcher selected five animation films from Disney's "Princess Series" animated films, including Snow white and the seven dwarfs, Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, Wreck-It Ralph, and Frozen. Based on two main theories, gender role and stereotype, the research used textual analysis as the research method and analysis the content in these five Disney animation films. Gender role and stereotype all have influence on the characters in animation films. Moreover, with the change of gender role and stereotype of the society, the characters are becoming different in the animation films. There are mainly five parts in this research First of all, the researcher introduced the background of the research in introduction part. Then, in the literature review, the researcher review the related theories which could help to have a deeper understanding of the research. Third, the research method was introduced. The last two parts in this research are findings and discussion. In the finding part, the results of the textual analysis of the content in the five Disney animation films. Last but not least, the finding of the research was discussed in the discussion part.