Even Disney contains controversy

Almost all individuals within North America and Europe can recall viewing at least one Disney movie within their lifetime. Disney's films are essentially fairy tales, traditional stories that end happily ever after.

Children aim to have their lives turn out like a Disney movie, with girls wishing to be saved by their Prince Charming, and boys wishing to save a damsel in distress.

As these children grow older, they are alarmed to learn of the negative aspects of Disney, most predominantly sexual messages, and racism.

Take Aladdin, for example. This classic movie is the tale of a man and a woman, but is that all there is to it? An infamous controversy surrounds this movie in the form of a hidden verbal message; Aladdin stating "teenagers take off your clothes." While it is hardly audible while watching this cartoon, there are numerous websites that have isolated the sound, making it very obvious that this line is uttered within the movie.

Sexual images and themes occur in many different Disney movies, such as The Lion King, with the spelling out of "sex" within the stars in the sky in one scene, The Little Mermaid, with a penis shape being drawn into the castle, and The Rescuers, with a topless woman being shown in the background of a scene, to name merely a few of these sexual innuendos.

In addition to sexual messages, racism is also a major feature within Disney cartoons. Those who study archetypal theory have expressed their dislike for the dark imagery within these movies. For example, the Lion King possesses a prime villain, Scar. Scar has a black mane (while the rest of the male lions have an orange one), and his sidekicks are black hyenas. This can be viewed as highly racist, as it gives children the idea that everything dark is evil.

The occurrence of "dark" or "dark skinned" villains is shown throughout numerous Disney movies.

Finding out these facts about children's movies makes an individual question the media that they have experienced throughout their lifetime.

Go back, look through these movies, and decide for yourself whether or not these timeless movies truly are as controversial as they appear.