Disney and the gospel

        

        Although there have been posts of mine about specific movies, I wish to draw now some parallels between the whole Disney culture and the message of the gospel. It’s undeniable Disney has greatly influenced the Western culture and printed its concepts on the general sense. Who can look at a juicy apple and not wonder if it’s poisoned? Who doesn’t feel that, if they believe, they can make their dreams come true? Who falls in love and don’t see themselves happily ever after with the enchanted and loved one? Especially for those who go frequently to the Disney parks, there are very clear and persistent messages from the foundations of the company’s productions that are proclaimed to convert the guests (as the clients are called) to its doctrines. Hence, let’s treat about the basic and primary Disney concepts and take notice of the work of God, the Savior, through them.

           

The Damsel in distress. Maybe the very Disney productions’ atom is the endangered princess. It’s interesting to observe, by the way, how bolder and self-acting those princesses have become through the decades. Snow White, Cinderella and Aurora, who are older princesses, really are completely undefended until a prince appears to save them. Jasmine, Ariel, Nala and Belle, who are newer, already show a more rebel spirit against the rules and actively contribute to the victorious ending of the script. Mulan... well, she is Asian, so she doesn’t count. :P. She is the one heroine of the story, but remember she can only be so by taking literally the role of a man; she can do nothing as a woman. Rapunzel, one of the newer princesses, accomplishes almost everything in the story with independence, determination. Nevertheless, every Disney princess end up needing the male hero, the prince, even if only at the last minutes. Giselle, although saves Robert in the end, reveals to be always the girl who yearns to be saved by her prince (including own Robert, when getting close to the end). This state of need, of self-incompleteness, of yearn for covenantal love – for Disney always works love within the context of marriages – is true about God’s people, the church. We, the church, were made not to find meaning apart from the groom, Jesus Christ. We are indeed victims of Satan’s traps, of sin and death, and totally undefended against them. We need a royal Savior. Also notice the princesses are always virgins and pure. In the same way, the church which shall encounter her Savior is pure, without stain or wrinkle (Ephesians 5, Revelations 14:4, etc.). Purity is essential so the church marries her Prince. However, purity comes from the outside, and that’s the next point.

The Prince Charming. In order to pair with Disney princesses, nothing more adequate than the charming princes. The prince is a man of battle, and it is him who gives the final act for the girl’s redemption. Eric killed Ursula, Aladdin trapped Jafar, Simba defeated Scar, Phillip killed Maleficent. The Disney prince is brave, heroic and constantly risks his life to save the princess. We need a Savior like that. Jesus Christ, our perfect Prince Charming, is brave and lovely enough to not only risk his life, but to give it up willingly and consciously to save us from the villain. Ezekiel 16 tells us how God is the Prince Charming who marries his people, which is personified as a woman whom he made pure. Now here we have a crucial difference to emphasize: in Disney, both man and woman are pure. Sometimes, the man is not apparently pure, but is pure in the inside (Aladdin and Eugene are thieves, but “good thieves”), while the woman is always pure. In the gospel, we have the opposite: Jesus Christ is the ultimate pureness and perfection, but the church… is actually a prostitute! We prostituted ourselves with our made-up gods, committing adultery against our Prince. But Jesus Christ creates inside us, by the cleanse of his shed blood, spiritual pureness. He takes care of us and prepares us to be stainless when we meet him in heaven. He is our Prince. Not the boy whom you, girl, chose to worship! Nor can you, man, play the redeemer of your girlfriend. It is the Son of God, who shall come to defeat evil on his white horse, bearing a sword from inside his mouth, the most handsome groom of his church.

True love’s kiss. “It’s the most powerful thing in the world”, Giselle said. Also, for the comfort of traditional families, Disney always pictures the first kiss in the context of a marriage or, at least, with an expectation of a future marriage. Kisses are never shown in a lame way by Disney. The kiss is the guarantee sign of a marriage to come, if it doesn’t happen only at the time of the marriage. It is definitive, something that transforms the relation between the prince and the princess, it divides the relationship in “before” and “after”. Frequently, it awakes ever sleeping princesses, like Snow White and Aurora. Just like so, Christ’s cross and his resurrection are our “true love’s kiss”. Given we have been in an eternal sleep by the power of evil, by sin’s spell and poison, it is necessary our Prince do something to arise us. What Jesus did was give up his life, and then take it back. By the sacrifice of our Prince, we are awaked for only then be irresistibly attracted by his love and able to marry him. Repeating, kiss is the guarantee sign of an assured future marriage. Our marriage with Jesus in heaven, as Revelations 19 tells us, is assured out of the kiss he gave us at the cross. Because we were rescued and captivated by his kiss, we receive the promise of becoming his wife, ruling with him forevermore. So, yes, it is true our Lord’s work at the cross “is the most powerful thing in the world”.

The Fairy Godmother. Many of Disney’s tales show fairies that, by their supernatural power, enable the princess to achieve her goal of reaching the prince. Let’s draw another distinction: in Disney, it is usually the princess who longs so much for her prince, and what he does is a reaction towards her wish. Although I said God’s people yearns for a rescuer, this rescuer is always a distortion of the true one. We never really want God while we are dead in our sins. It is his the plan, the initiative, the beginning and the end of our salvation. Despite this difference, the fairy has yet an interesting role alike the Holy Spirits’ while regenerator. Look: it was the Blue Fairy who gave Pinocchio life and movement – as the Spirit of Christ revives us to start our journey with him. It was the Fairy Godmother who gave Cinderella the robes of a princess and a carriage, as the Holy Spirit makes us holy, wearing us with the New Man nature and leads us to the groom. It was Tinker Bell who cast the pixie dust on the children so they could fly, in the same way the Spirit of God will rise us and take us to the heights, where the holy groom dwells. Only a supernatural power of fairies allows the script to end up in marriage. Only through the supernatural power of the Spirit, we are regenerated and led in spirit and in body unto our Prince.

The poisoned apple. Although this is particular to one movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, it is one of the most central Disney icons. The poisoned apple is offered by the witch queen, disguised as a poor beggar, in order to “kill” Snow White. What did Satan do to the first woman? In a distinct disguise, he deceptively offered the forbidden fruit, with the same intention. Although we don’t know which was the forbidden fruit, it is interesting to notice how often it is thought as an apple, precisely the same fruit as Snow White’s. What did the queen say to deceive the princess? “Taste it and all your dreams will come true”. What did Satan say? “Taste it, and you will be like God”. Deceived and in disobedience, Eve ate the fruit, just like the Disney princess (for Snow White also disobeyed the dwarfs, who told her not to talk to anyone who tried to enter the house). That fall is the end of the beginning of the Bible, and the end of the beginning of Disney long productions. The fruit was poisoned and the princess falls asleep. But it isn’t possible for this fruit to be permanently lethal. There is an antidote, about which I already spoke. As the kiss given by the prince awakes the poisoned princess, the work of our Prince cancels sin’s deadness.

           

Dreams come true. I think this is the most repeated sentence in Magic Kingdom. The song at the parades have this chorus “Celebrate the dream inside of you, dream that just came true”. The show Dream Along With Mickey teaches us that, if we repeat loud and clear and with much faith “Dreams Come True”, evil is defeated (on the stage, Maleficent flees). The chorus of the main song in this show is “Come join the party where dreams really do come true” (yep, I memorized it after so many trips). And the final song says “Find your dream inside of you”. The second Disney feature Pinocchio (1940) contains the Oscar winner song “When you wish upon a star”, which says, in the end, that... your dream comes true. The great celebration for Cinderella is that “her dream of happiness came true”. Gaston, flirting with Belle, says “this is the day your dreams come true”. This phrase is everywhere! Unfortunately, I think it is also the most led astray from the gospel phrase. It teaches, in all the Disney context, it is up to you to make whatever dream of yours come true. “Anything your heart desires will come to you”, said Jimny Cricket. According to Magic Kingdom, all your dreams may come true if you believe it “very much”. This is the kind of thought that ends up denying God’s sovereignty and proclaiming ourselves as gods of our lives. James said the boast about tomorrow is demoniac.  And what’s “funny” is that a considerable part of Christianity thinks of God exactly like that, like the Gennie of Aladdin, that makes true everything we ask, as long as we ask with “much” faith. Now, let’s redeem the phrase “dreams come true”. I don’t think it is right, as some believers do, we must “dream God’s dreams”, because the omniscient and sovereign God doesn’t dream, he just determines and does. This anthropomorphism is exaggerated. However, if we understand the princess’ only dream is to find her prince, if we understand that this is only possible when a fairy comes to aid, and that it is up to the prince to fight and make this dream come true… then, it’s a whole other matter. Cinderella’s fairy came because she had faith. The truth is, however, the Spirit comes and then he grants us faith. Faith isn’t a man’s deed, it’s a God’s gift. And the true faith is the one who points to the true object, which is Jesus Christ. Aware of all that, knowing our greater dream as a bride is to meet the Prince of Peace, then we can truly declare that dreams come true. For, as Paul says in Romans 5, this hope does not put us to shame.

           

Happily Ever After. Every Disney movie ends with the marriage. Every prince’s and princess’ story is finished with the aim of all the script, which is the covenant, fulfilled. Disney stories aim to the marriage. The centrality in the covenant is biblical – naturally, the right covenant. We can be certain that the aim of all the world history, the object of scatology, the inexorable result of everything, is the marriage of Christ and the church. A marriage with a true happily ever after. In fullness of communion with the Savior, we shall enjoy eternal happiness, for “God will wipe away every tear”. This is the purpose for which the true love’s kiss – yes, the kiss from he who is Love and True – is given at the cross. As the fairy is empathic with the princess, the Spirit and the Bride cry “Come, Lord Jesus”. There is no other happily ever after than with the only Prince Charming, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. The end of all Disney story is like the end of the Bible: “And they lived happily ever after”.

André Duarte.