Talking to the audience: The animated film musical addressing contemporary issues

This thesis discusses the animated film musical in terms of its commentary on the issues of gender roles, family structure, and prejudice. The analysis begins with defining the animated musical genre. An overview of the animated musical follows to establish the historic trends within the genre. The formal analysis begins with a discussion of the gender roles, stereotyping, family structure used in Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), and Aladdin (1992). Following this analysis, the issues of race and class prejudice are discussed in the relation to the same films.