Okay so there's this
stupid story from the usual sources about how there totally aren't any positive male depictions in kid's films and Disney is bad and should feel bad. So... really, how does Disney fair on the role model scale? For this analysis, we'll primarily be judging characters by how 'heroic' they are, generally meaning that they a) accept responsibilities for others (or act on their responsibilities), b) admit fault where it occurs and c) take positive action to correcting mistakes or addressing their responsibilities. We'll be looking first at the lead characters, and then at the most important supporting character of opposite gender. We'll be looking at the Disney Animated Canon, omitting films that are anthologies for various reasons (for starters I haven't seen most of them, 'cept Fantasia which doesn't have characters in the regular way)
So we go.
1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Lead: Snow White isn't much of a character because, well, 1937 and based on a fairy tale. While she has some positive attributes (she seems to be kind and hardworking), on the whole she's a character things happen to, not a character who does things. Pretty much a damsel in her own movie, very sad.
Leading Male: Prooobably Grumpy, but really I'd think of the Dwarfs as one character that can argue with himself seven ways. They don't really do much aside from try to impress Snow White then chase the shit outta the Queen. It's a very villain driven movie is what I'm getting at here.
2. Pinocchio
Lead: Pinocchio's whole deal is he's a newborn that believes whatever stupid con people feed him and doesn't have the wisdom or experience to know right from wrong. The whole thing is a morality tale of him doing bad things of various severity and being punished for them in increasingly karmic ways. Certainly not heroic in any sense, but that's basically The Point.
Leading Female: The blue fairy by default. I guess the fish is a girl? Yeah. Anyway the blue plot device is not a character.
3. Dumbo
Lead: Dumbo doesn't really have agency for the first half or so of the story. Once he learns he's not helpless he definitely flies his damned heart out because, well, it's what he's got so gotta make it work for him somehow. In a way this has more in common with more modern Disney than the other really early films, the emphasis on family and especially parent/child relationships first really shows up here.
Female Lead: Dumbo's mom (Jumbo I think) is basically shown as The Best Mom Ever. Aside from the part where the cruel human slave masters (...increasingly I'm thinking there's supposed to be parallels to African slavery in this movie, weird) lock her up but throwing shit is how most mom's react to their children being an object of public ridicule.
4. Bambi
Lead: This is, well, baaasically an animated nature film. Except they talk. Bambi is just this stag, y'know?
Leading Female:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWHelIqiV3Q5. Cinderella
Lead: Hey, a female protagonist again. AND she's actually not just a plot device. Okay so fairy tale plot holes aside (Cinderella stays with these bitches why?), once we accept that for whatever reason her step-family is important to her she's really pretty decent. She wants to attend the ball and try for something better in life, she works hard by her own 'basically a slave' standards to make sure she can go, tries to make her own dress, does basically everything in her power to achieve a goal and better life for herself. The contrast between how much effort she puts in and what her goal actually is is a bit dissonant, at least 70 years later, but hey. You expect that in Disney. Interesting message if you want to think in those terms; when a situation is sufficiently fucked, working within that system will never get you out of it, no matter how hard you work. Sometimes you'll just need something to get you started.
Leading Male: I could pretend this is Prince Charming (to my knowledge his canonical name, unless the cash in sequels gave him more of one) and chalk one up for the men are useless tally, but that's not, well, true. The mice, especially Jaques, are much more present and important to events. And the dude risks life and limb to help a friend in an hour of need. Pretty good man.
6. Alice in Wonderland
Lead: A lot of what I said about Pinocchio applies here. not as severely, but Alice is young and lets her emotions get her into danger, and the story is in part about her learning better judgement.
Leading Male: Sorta pointless, because one of the larger points is that all of Wonderland, even the seemingly harmless bits, are working against Alice. The most prominent character is probably the Cheshire Cat, who will between scenes go from helping her to actively sabotaging her.
7. Peter Pan
Lead: Peter Pan is an eternal 11 year old. Which is synonymous with selfish asshole. He seems to be brave and does shepard the Lost Boys around, but he also basically encourages them to do nothing but either lay about or rush into ludicrous danger just on the confidence that he can handle anything that comes up.
Female Lead: Wendy is, uh, basically Alice except with younger brothers. Except she starts off more responsible because she feels responsible to them, and the end is basically her saying "well this has been fun but we can't just abandon real life for being young and lazy forever" so... points? Eh.
8. Lady and the Tramp
Unlike a lot of Disney films about animals, they actually interact with people a lot and the fact that they are dogs is pretty inescapable. The context of "dog" is so important that it seems weird to look at them as characters. Mostly examining Lady from a gendered perspective doesn't really work for me. Moving on.
9. Sleeping Beauty
Lead: The three Faeries share the role, despite being pretty distinct characters. This also puts Aurora in like
sixth on the character import list, but that's okay, she's boring and dumb anyway. Anyway the faeries are pretty great, everyone loves them for good and valid reasons, nothing happens without them.
Leading Male: Phillip is interesting for this list because he's a pretty noble dude all told, but realistically he's just sort of a medium by which the three faeries save the day in the last act. I kinda like the subversiveness of it, and in the end his intent is heroic even if he's not personally accomplishing great deeds out there.
10. 101 Dalmations
Leads: Pongo and Perdita are pretty clearly more important than every character that's not Cruella DeVille, and while they're not the same character their motives and actions are pretty equal. A big chunk of the movie is with the secondary cast over at the DeVille Mansion, who are exclusively male, and indeed the only other ladies in the cast are bit parts (the maid and... for the life of me I don't remember the wife's name), so uh... default?
11. The Sword in the Stone
Leads: it's open whether we want to call Wart or Merlin the lead here. The story is a lot of them just faffing around with some life lessons tucked in, although both majorly abdicate their responsibilities towards the end and it just kinda works out anyway.
Female anything: If there is a single lady in this cast besides Mad Madam Mimm, I don't remember her. And she's the villain such as the movie even has a villain.
12. The Jungle Book
Leads: Picking just one from among Baloo, Bageera, and Mowgli is too hard so hell with it. The movie boils down to the three of them arguing on what the right thing to do even is and misadventures brining them all around to the idea that Mowgli has to leave the Jungle. None of it fits cleanly into the lines I'm using for this post, but it's not something the previous films had so kinda cool I guess.
Female anything: singing water girl is the only girl I'm aware of besides, like, Mowgli's wolf mom who doesn't even get a speaking line I'm aware of. Plot devices are plot devices.
13. The Aristocats
I don't remember this movie well enough to even accurately say anyone's name. Skip.
14. Robin Hood
Lead: It's Robin Hood, the straight up Heroic kind of Robin Hood.
Leading Female: Maid Marian... sure does exist and do stuff? If she accomplishes much besides romantic strolls and being a quest object for Robin I don't remember it.
15. The Rescuers
Lead: Good question. Penny's struggles with her captors and Bernad's misadventures pretty well run as parallel stories, and it's been quite some time since I've seen the movie so I couldn't say for sure which one gets more time. I lean Penny I guess? She's a spunky kid just trying to survive in a fucked up situation, and does anything she can think of to get away, so props I guess.
Male Lead: Which bumps Bernard down here. He's totally a You Are Better Than You Think You Are story and does some stuff that gets stuff done so hey, everyone looks pretty good here.
16. The Fox and the Hound
I'm just gonna refer back to lady and the tramp here. The fact the animals are animals is important to the story and how the characters relate to it. Pass.
17. The Black Cauldron
Actually never seen it.
18. The Great Mouse Detective
Lead: Basil is a fop who has to be nudged into acting on his better nature. Unlike his neighbor he's not a complete wreck and ultimately pretty decent and hardworking under the bluster though.
Leading Female: Olivia manages to seek out a famous detective to find her kidnapped father. Well above and beyond the call of duty for a small child just in setting up the premise.
19. Oliver and Company
It would be great if I could remember the genders of any characters out the leads. Like I think there's one girl dog who may or may not do anything and... maybe a little girl that adopts Oliver? Maybe not. Couldn't tell you.
20. The Little Mermaid
whee into stuff people have actually seen.
Lead: Ariel is kinda a gratuitous fuckup who gets in way over her head most of the movie. She's got an altruistic streak but otherwise a very unheroic character.
Male Lead: well now. Really this is King Triton, who for his bigotry is genuinely trying to do the right thing in the movie. Not always very wisely, but hey. It's worth noting though that Eric is pretty badass as Disney prince's go, he stabs a fucking giant octopuss in the stomach with a wrecked ship. Much better showing for the men than the ladies.
21. The Rescuers Down Under
Lead: While there's still a lot of split storytelling in the line of the first Rescuers here, this is much more solidly Bernard's movie and one of the ways this movie is clearly a sequel is how he's clearly carried on and matured in between films, being firmly heroic and awesome the entire time in this one.
Leading Female: this naturally means Bianca is firmly the female lead and, well, her deal is that she really wants to do good in the world instead of just paying it lipservice. I don't remember her accomplishing much but hey.
*Break*
