Lesson 07: Disney's Villains–What Makes Evil?

• Unit: Horror and Villains
• Duration: 1hr 30min

• Cycle: 3
• Topic: ELA

To critically examine media.

To not simply agree with the media or with the teacher, but to actively think critically about what they see.

• Cross-Curricular

COMPETENCY 8 • TO COOPERATE WITH OTHERS

COMPETENCY 9 • TO COMMUNICATE APPROPRIATELY

• Subject Areas

• Essential Knowledges

4. To pilot teaching/learning situations.

5. To evaluate student progress in learning the subject content and mastering the related competencies.

6. To plan, organize and supervise a class in such a way as to promote students’ learning and social development.

8. To integrate information and communications technologies (ICT) in the preparation and delivery of teaching/learning activities for instructional management and professional development purposes.

12. To demonstrate ethical and responsible professional behavior in the performance of his or her duties

Introduce the lesson of the day:

We will look at famous villains in Disney films, compare and contrast them with their “good” counterparts, and look at their features and characteristics. The worksheet will help with this. Students may reference the word wall to help come up with adjectives.

Pass out the worksheet. Click here for the worksheet.

The worksheet lists the pictures we are going to look at. Students must write one unique adjective for each character and one sentence comparing them.

Ask students to fill in only PART 1.

Mulan

Shan Yu

Simba and Family

Scar

Ariel and Friends

Ursula

Aladdin

Jafar

Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)

Maleficient

Snow White

Queen Grimhalde

Hercules

Hades

Click on the images to open larger images, one at a time.
Offer to show any pictures that students would like to see again.

There will now be a discussion that will be largely teacher led.

What do all of the villains have in common?

What did you notice about their skin colour?

Why would their skin colour be darker?

Do all evil people have dark skin?

Can light skinned / white people also be evil?

The only Disney villain with white skin is Queen Grimhalde. She is supposedly the fairest in the land before Snow White was born. Do you think these are related?

Look at Jafar and Shan Yu compared to their “good” counter parts. Notice their features? The ethnic features of the villains are much more pronounced than their good counterparts. Look at Mulan’s eyes compared to Shan Yu. Look at Aladdin’s nose compared to Jafar.

The racial features of the villains are emphasized while those of the heros are masked. What do you think about this?

What is Disney trying to tell us?

Is this message acceptable?

Are we reading into this too much?

Allow students to share their thoughts and opinions.

Help them to understand what racial stereotyping is, what cetain racial/ethnic features/stereotypes may be.

Help them to see that this is unacceptable.