Disney: readers reply

Last week Jonathan Glancey railed against the worldwide grip of the Mouse ...

One thing we don't need about Disney is the implicit and persistent representation of the British as the baddies. All his heroes and heroines speak American, but all his major villains have an English accent. I hadn't noticed until my daughter-in-law drew my attention to it, but since then it has stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb. Would I be right in suspecting that I was not the only one who had failed to spot this contribution to the alleged special relationship?

John Berridge

Dundee

Yes, we do need Disney! For most children, their first real introduction to wildlife is via a Disney cartoon. Can it therefore be so terrible if that first memory stays with them? If there are any subliminal messages tucked away in Disney cartoons perhaps they're not so bad after all. If like me you leave the cinema having fallen in love with Bambi and Thumper, you'll find it impossible ever to do anything that could endanger the real Bambis and Thumpers in the wild.

S Stiling

Nottingham

With the resources to model Pocahontas after Christy Turlington and stretch her out all over the globe, what about spending a little on some research into the representation of her culture? Does the cryogenically preserved perversion know that 70 per cent of native American tribes were matriarchal, or that she sat on a Black Lodge council that voted to save John Smith's life? Where were her Mother Elders in Disney's cartoon? Even in school we learned that their alleged romance was bunk. In fact, the little princess married an Englishman, John Rolfe.

Thanks for another nail in the coffin of feminist icons, Uncle Dis.

Marianne Hyatt-Jones

London N16

In Esmerelda, Disney has depicted a woman who is mature, brave and kind, protecting the innocent and outcast, even at risk to herself. Good characters in the story see her that way and value her for those moral qualities. The villain sees her as an evil temptress, inflaming his vicious passions. Part of his villainy is the way he sees Esmerelda. My four-year-old came out of the cinema loving Esmerelda because she was good, knowing Quasimodo was good and his ugliness a misfortune, and that adults can pretend to be kind, while being truly evil. Well done, Disney. Thank you.

Sara Clarke

Hayfield, Derbyshire