The End of an Era

In the last week of my summer job, I resolved as of today that the current childhood generation is devoid of the wholesome Disney Renaissance of those of us who grew up a decade before.

This afternoon, while I was busying myself in the kitchen cooking dinner, Anne-Claire put in a Disney Princess Sing-Along DVD in the television, admittedly, to my delight. At least until I started singing and realized that despite my ability to belt out all the songs entirely for memory, Anne-Claire barely knew half of the choruses, and Ian knew none of the words at all. I was like, "What the heck??"

But then, we get to one song that Anne-Claire doesn't even know. Reason?? The child has never seen Hercules. Hercules! Seriously?? I was so deeply saddened by this news, I decided to sit down and actually take a tally of the Disney animated classics that Anne-Claire has never seen. Here were the results:

• Alice in Wonderland
• Bambi
• The Rescuers
• The Rescuers Down Under
• The Great Mouse Detective
• Hercules
• Dumbo
• The Fox and the Hound
• Mulan (we already attacked and crossed this one off the list a couple weeks ago--Ian loved it :)
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• Robin Hood
• The Jungle Book

That's nearly like half of my list of favorite Disney movies! What is going on here?!

Well, to be honest, what's going on is that we have officially passed the era of classic Disney. We are, (quite sadly, I might add) in the midst of what I would call the Reign of DisneyChannel Terror. In other words, traditional, loveable stories with real imagination are being cast aside in favor of the originality-destitute real-people movies designed for Disney Channel actors who have pretty faces, but rarely any talent. I find it highly depressing that the company that has defined good motion picture-making for nearly a century has even sold out itself in today's society, opting for the pop star over the infamous 'Disney Magic' that once ruled the world of children's films. We can officially say, that since the dawn of the new millennium (or at least, the release of High School Musical), the Disney Renaissance has come to an end.

My pity for these two deprived children has driven me to a new goal for the remainder of the week: get my hands on as many as these movies as possible, and introduce their loveable characters to Anne-Claire and Ian. First errand tomorrow? Blockbuster.