Not Exactly Betrayal
We don't expect 20th Century Fox or Paramount to care about us. But with Disney, I think American Christians toss childhood, wonder, cartoons, innocence, “let the little children come to me”, Sunday school, and their religious beliefs into one unexamined soup and then are outraged to discover that one major part of that soup (the cartoon part) is basically the product of a large, impersonal and soulless corporation like any other. It's like growing up and learning that a favorite uncle, whom you only knew from visits during summer vacation as a child, is really a boor and a penny-pinching lout. You expected more, but you weren't really justified in doing so. He hasn't exactly betrayed you. You just childishly expected him to be something he wasn't.
Dumb, Dead, and Dirty Disney Dads
However, saying that Disney isn't as bad as the malignant creatures who gave us Fight Club is not exactly a compliment. Disney has, for instance, shown itself to be particularly helpless in its prostration to all the most tiresome bromides and caricatures of political correctness. With increasing frequency, Disney accepts without question all the dominant and ignorant prejudices of the chattering classes in Hollywood and happily enshrines them in its products.
So, for instance, virtually without exception, Disney fathers are a) incompetent ninnies, b) abusive thugs, or c) not there for you when you need them. Indeed, as Steven Greydanus points out at Decent Films, Tarzan managed to have all three negative father figures: Tarzan's dead human father, his nasty ape father, and Jane's dimwitted ineffectual father. These join a long line of moronic fathers (Mary Poppins, Aladdin), abusive fathers (Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid) and absent fathers (Hercules, Bambi).
