I actually think this video is pretty inaccurate. First, we have to look at the context of the clips. Gaston and the gender scenes in Mulan were pretty obviously overexaggerated to make the narrative arc stronger for the heroines. Furthermore, Beast and Li Shang both learn how to be better men throughout the course of the film. Granted, this is done through experiencing life with a woman. I don't see that as a problem though. Li Shang does not prove his masculinity with a fight as he is injured. The Beast barely does.

While we see a scene with Kuzco from Emperor's New Groove being quite sexist (again, a narrative choice to make audiences uncomfortable with him), Pacha gets along greats with his wife and is gentle and kind.

Pulling clips from Hercules or The Incredibles to show male dominance is also not that convincing. Greek mythology and superhero mythos. All you can hope for in these cases are strong women to equal the representations of men. I think Megara and Ms. Incredible definitely count.

Anyway, I think this was rather lazily done and should have only been an analysis of a certain time period (90s maybe?) or specific movies because Disney has 45 theatrical releases and definitely varying takes on gender (http://homepage.usask.ca/~jjs142/movielist.htm).

As for black people, let's just hope The Princess and the Frog is good. Then, Disney will finally have its "people of color" collection complete although 'Emperor's New Groove' might be considered a stretch to for Disney's Latino film. There's an area they can really improve upon. Thankfully, Disney Channel is better with race AND gender.

I think the video was pretty selective. Kuzco is skinny and weak, and Gaston is a bad guy. You're not supposed to want to imitate him, in fact you're supposed to want to find him repulsive. Also, isn't the Mulan song about being a man ironic, since Mulan proves herself to be just as capable? There's something to there always being a damsel in distress for a man to rescue in Disney Movies, but I'm not sure that its messages about gender are always consistent.

Yes, that's quite analytical dnA. You think an 8 year old will see the irony in the roles and think to act outside of them?

Obviously the maker of this video missed all the points the featured Disney movies were trying to make about masculinity.

The characters Gaston, in Beauty and the Beast, was never portrayed as what little boys "should be". This symbolism comes full circle when the beast loses the aggressive characteristics usually portrayed by stereotypical masculinity. The video even showed footage of the beast backing down to a fight, and just because Gaston mocks him doesn't mean Disney is saying that the beast should fight back. It is just characteristic of Gaston. It is just what his character would do...because he's the villain, he's not supposed to be nice.

The Emperor from the "Emperor's New Groove" is also shown in this video. In that movie he becomes much nicer in the end. That is the point of that movie, he's selfish until he learns to care about others.

The point of Mulan was that women and men are equal and that woman can do everything a man can. Because the group of men sing about how they are chauvinist again is characteristic of them. The point of this in the movie is that they are all proven wrong, because a woman has been with them the whole time accomplishing the same thing they are.

If anything this video proves itself wrong by its own evidence. The point isn't valid anymore.

Maybe the older, politically incorrect Disney movies have more the video creators could complain about. But it's frustrating when people are to simplistic to understand the theme of a children's movie, and that the negative characteristics are there because you aren't supposed to like the character or the movie is about the character's growth into a better person.

If one were to ask a child who the good and bad characters of the movie were they would be able to tell you, and most likely why. It's unfortunate that the maker of this video can't.

what's sad to me is the castrastion of men for having testosterone....what the clips didnt show was the hunch back having physical deformaties and overcoming with sensitivity and inner strength...or in sleeping beauty the BIG MALE woodsman having compassion on sleeping beauty and telling her to run because the evil WOMAN"WICH QUEEN" wanted her heart...what i see is a on going goal to make men into the image of women....look i appreciate a woman's femininity and her strength but dont make it seem that men have it all wrong because of desires,males especially young males are targeted because of our gender...what i see from disney is the push for WHITE MALES to be the strongest of all races that is why you wont see a strong hispanic male or a strong Native American male and most assuredly AFRICAN/ AFRICAN-AMERICAN we are surplanted by the strength of a woman as we sit by hopelessly wounded or angry to find out that she who we thought was he is actually her....follow that....i as a boy growing up African-American MALE i thought from watching a disney movie that my goal was to grow up and protect her which would be my girlfriend from the dangers of life and be there strong fearless and i can let my guard down for her and show my sensitive side........now it's like a man will be punished for being a man peroid... hey here's a thought if we really wat to make things equal for woman let them open the doors for us, pull out the chair,kill the mouse in the kitchen,.......and if some big dude tries to start something because he's feeling angry let her fist fight him while we scream stop somebody call the cops......then we'll be in a pretty equal world even by disney standards

Wow. Way to miss the point of all of these films. Did he miss the part where Simba was just going to let Scar go? Did he miss the part at the end of "Aladdin" where it was Aladdin's wits that won the battle and not his strength? Does he honestly think anyone watching "Beauty and the Beast" believes that Gaston is the one you're supposed to emulate? And, yes, Kusco was a self-absorbed jerk but nowhere in the movie is that quality celebrated by anyone besides Kusco. As for "Mulan" ... which part of "it takes place in early, early, early China" didn't he understand - having men who who thought women were their equals (without any help from the plot) would have been a complete anachronism.

At first I thought "He's over thinking this, they're just kids movies" but then I started to remember how the female charecters made me feel like, someday I wanted to be the "damsel in distress", so how could I know how boys felt watching these? So it was very interesting, and I would love to see one about young girls as well.

Honestly, Disney movies have about as much sexism as Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Somebody says that little kids aren't going to be able to see the irony in characters like Gaston. That's not true, I saw that movie when it came out, when I was about six or seven years old, and I got it perfectly. That's why Disney movies are the best ever: they can communicate these universal truths to you no matter how old you are.

For all those who think it cant be done: I kill my own mice, pull out my own chairs, open my own doors, and do pretty much most things by myself. But then again, I didnt look to Disney to define my role as a woman or to learn manners--I looked to my parents.

It is a parent's responsibility to discuss the context of these kinds of movies with their children, and how it is the same or different than what they do in their own families.

I'm gonna have to concur with the commentary above; his examples were not particularly well chosen.

The thing is, he's not exactly wrong, but boy did he ever miss out on some better examples. Even if we just look at The Lion King, there's the part where Pumbaa and Timon glorify the bachelor life at the expense of hanging with Nala, or how the females basically wait around for Simba (i.e., a manly dude) to come back and kick Scar's butt rather than doing it themselves.

I think this is an awesome mini-documentary. Yes, many of the above comments raise valid points, but ultimately the filmmaker is raising the flipside of the feminist issue: namely, how men should act & how we should raise boys to be men. The socialization that happens when we watch movies is a very strong one which cannot be discounted. I'd be interested in seeing some others of Mr. Newton's films.