Rachel's Media Criticism Blog Posts

The documentary Life, Animated, follows the story of an autistic man named Owen and his struggles from childhood to adulthood. Throughout his life, one theme remains existent; his love for Disney films. The documentary showcases the various impacts that Disney movies can have on autistic people such as Owen and many others. From a young age, there was always a language barrier between Owen’s parents, older brother and himself. Desperately trying to find ways to communicate with Owen, his parents came across what seemed to be a miracle. His father shares an intimate moment with his son, where he learns that his son communicates through movie dialogue using a Iago puppet, popular from the movie, Aladdin . From then on, Owen’s Disney obsession truly blossomed. He was taken to Disney World, Disney Broadway shows, and even part of an adult Disney club. Throughout the film, his prized Disney merchandise and experiences have been showcased in many ways. Much like his mom said early on in th...

  Disney Channel is one of the most popular children’s television channels, well known for their shows such as Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Hannah Montana, and That’s So Raven. With all shows being equally unique, Disney Channel is known for their brand in which they maintain through all their shows throughout the years. Although it may seem as if Disney Channel is diverse, they mainly include characters of different races and ethnicities as background characters,and do not seem to take the spotlight often. Although Disney Channel has included shows where the main characters are African American such as That’s So Raven, Corey in the House, and K.C undercover, they fail to often include other ethnicities as the main characters.  My suggestion to this would be to possibly create a new television show, which includes several different characters of different ethnicities and races. The place of the show could also be placed in a diverse environment such as a performing arts scho...

            In an article on usatoday.com , it explains Walmart’s gift list for Christmas 2020. This includes Walmart’s most popular sold toys broken down into categories such as popular character toys, high-tech toys, interactive toys, and more. One of the most popular character toys on the list was  Blue’s Clues & You Peek-A-Boo. Coming from the popular children’s television show, Blue’s Clues & You, the toy features the popular character, Blue, in a stuffed animal form with mechanics to make playful interaction between the toy and child.  Being one of the most popular children’s characters, Blue represents every preschooler’s best friend who is playful, imaginative, curious, and always willing to learn. Throughout the television show, Blue is always showing her curiosity and playfulness through her adventures with Josh. In the episode, “Happy Birthday Blue,” Blue sets up clues for Josh to findto figure out what Blue wants for ...

  Julie’s Greenroom is a children’s netflix series where legend Julie Andrews leads a workshop for children at a performing arts center. Here at the Wellspring Center for the Performing Arts, Miss Julie has a set agenda for her students, with different episodes focusing on different aspects of the performing arts, such as singing, acting and even stand up comedy. Not much like other children’s shows, Julie’s Greenroom showcases several different aspects of diversity and intersectionality that one may not see in other children’s shows. “Every part big or small is important” is Miss Julie’s number one saying throughout the series, explaining to her students that although one may want to be the star of the show, that without the small parts there also would not be a show at all. Miss Julie’s students are also a very diverse group of children, not often seen in one room in television shows. They are all of different races, ethnicities, and disabilities, almost always having a differen...