Once Upon A Time: History through the eyes of Disney

[That Duckfan]

2023 marks 100 years of Disney. This comes with a bit of fanfare and the usual look back at the company's last century. As a recent graduate of history, I don't mind a bit of retrospective. And with my recent Disney movie marathon having finished, I still have a wealth of material to draw from. Instead of looking at the company itself, I want to take another look at the animated movies, but specifically from a historical perspective. Consciously or subconsciously, Disney movies draw a great deal from history. From European fairy tales to Main Street U.S.A., there's a lot to unpack. How does Disney draw from history? How does it engage with the popular imagination of history?

Throughout the year, I hope to take you through a chronology of Disney animations, and see how their depictions stack up to our (my) best historical knowledge. Despite a great many of these movies taking place Once Upon A Time, you will see that there are historical fingerprints on everything. Of course, there's no grand 'Disney universe' that ties all of these movies together, but taken together these movies reveal more than the sum of their parts.

And with that, let's start at the beginning. Roll the tape!

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Our Bodies Become The Grass
From the dawn of time to the dawn of humankind

"Back when the world was new..."

The earliest depiction of the universe in Disney animation is The Rite of Spring from Fantasia. In a total of 10 scenes, we see the history of our little blue marble from the earliest days to the extinction of the dinosaurs. What's remarkable about this sequence is its scientific realism. Although it may not seem remarkable at first glance, The Rite of Spring drew on the very latest scientific consensus back in 1940. In fact, the sequence made waves in the paleontology community, because the animators provided as aspect that scientists and illustrators had been unable to capture: they were able to imagine how the dinosaurs moved. The Rite of Spring soon became the definitive depiction of dinosaurs in the public imagination, even after new features such as feathers were discovered.

With the help of modern technology, we may be able to reconstruct which historical periods are represented in The Rite of Spring. Our first scene in takes us back to the Hadean eon, some 4400 to 4000 Ma (megaannum, or million years ago). The moon has been formed, there is a great volcanic activity and an abundance of water. In the water, we skip ahead to the Proterozoic and witness the development of predation and sexual reproduction, which is estimated to have occurred sometime between 2000 and 1200 Ma. Our next tableau vivant shows the beginnings of complex life, possibly during the Ediacaran period (c. 635 to 538 Ma). A further abundance of life may represent the Cambrian explosion (c. 538 to 513 MA). It's a little hard to reconstruct these scenes without the original notes, as more recent depictions of these eras are quite drastically different. After all, few fossils survive today from this remote period, and even fewer survived back in 1940.

Our next scene follows the evolution of a fish, from what is possibly a placoderm (c. 430 Ma), a lobe-finned fish (c. 385 Ma), and finally a fish strong enough to come into direct contact with the air (c. 375 Ma). Next, we jump to the Jurassic period, where we can recognize animals such as the pterodactyl and the apatosaurus (although it is no longer believed that they lived in the water). These animals lived together during 150 Ma. Finally, the battle we've all been waiting for: the triceratops versus the tyrannosaurus, who lived c. 68-66 Ma. There's also a misplaced stegosaurus, who actually also lived 150 Ma.

The last three scenes represent the aftermath of the K-Pg extinction event, the extinction of the dinosaurs, which happened around 66 Ma. The prevailing scientific view in 1940 was that volcanic activity had blocked out the sun, while today an asteroid impact in the Yucatán peninsula is the preferred theory. This event is depicted in Dinosaur, the earliest movie to be fully covered in our chronology. A cursory glance at the characters suggests that the movie wasn't very concerned with paleontological accuracy, depicting animals that had been dead for up to nearly 100 million years at the time the movie is set. Despite the lengths that were taken to develop a realistic art style, there is little realism to be found in its characters.

Another movie that does not feature any humans is The Lion King. This might suggest a setting in the prehistoric past, but in fact, there was no such time. The East African location depicted in The Lion King has been populated by hominids for at least the last five million years, while lions only evolved around two million years ago. Lions are actually some of the youngest species depicted in the movie.
Another young species to make its appearance in a Disney movie is the snowy egret, which appeared only in the Late Pleistocene, perhaps as recently as 126.000 years ago. This bird is the protagonist of Blue Bayou, the second segment in Make Mine Music, where it attracts a mate in the swamps of Louisiana.
It is perhaps tempting to think of humans as somehow separate from nature, but that would be a mistake. Although our role in the environment has changed dramatically since humans first arrived on the scene, we are still an inextricable part of the same ecosystem.

The rise of early man is one of the more interesting omissions in Disney history. It was in fact planned as the final scene of The Rite of Spring, but was ultimately removed from production. It was believed that the inclusion of mankind in the story of evolution would stir up controversy from creationist circles. Apart from being a defeat for science, it also changed the narrative of the film, leaving the story unfinished as it were. Maybe one day Disney will feel confident to return to this era. For now, we will continue our path down the footprints of history.

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[donaldistducktoons]

One question. What could Disney make today on the occasion of the 100th anniversary without live-action or 3D animated films? Probably nothing, considering that today's Disney is not interested in bringing back 2D animation, unless rival companies like Warner Bros. and Dreamworks do it so that Disney copies it.

[That Duckfan]

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Powerful Gods and Extraordinary Heroes
From the Last Glacial Maximum to Late Antiquity

"Ten thousand years will give you such a crick in the neck!"

The earliest historical depiction of humans in a Disney animated feature is in Brother Bear (2003). This movie is popularly quoted as taking place about 10,000 years ago, which is another way of saying that I couldn't find an original source for that. If so, the characters in Brother Bear represent the Clovis culture, which flourished c. 11,000 BP. (BP means Before Present, where the present is reckoned from 1950 for the purposes of the carbon dating method, so this comes to about 9050 BCE).
The Clovis culture is one of the earliest known material cultures in the Americas, and coincides with the disappearance of the megafauna (large animals) that lived during the Last Glacial Maximum (the last ice age). This development is mentioned in the opening scene, set about half a century after the main events. "This is a story from long ago, when the great mammoths still roamed our lands", says an elderly Denahi.
Recent studies have brought this timeline into question, suggesting that mammoths may have held on for another 5000 years. The issue remains unsettled. I would also point out that the Inuit language spoken in the movie was not spoken by the people of the Clovis culture, as Inuit culture developed only about a millennium ago. Other than that, Brother Bear's depiction of the early Amerindians seems to be fairly accurate.

Ancient history in Disney is largely the domain of myths and legends; some of them very old, some new. They reflect America's cultural heritage, from its indigenous and Pacific islander population as well as from the Fertile Crescent and the Mediterranean.

One of these stories is the destruction of Atlantis, reckoned to some 8800 years ago in Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) (or 6900 BCE for those keeping score). Atlantis was first mentioned in Plato's Timaeus and Critias, and while it is generally regarded as an political-moral allegory, confusion over the nature of its existence goes as far back as the story itself. After 2500 years of cultural translation, Disney's Atlantis is nothing like Plato's Atlantis, but the allure of the legendary lost island lives on.

The flood narrative was a popular motif in ancient times. The story of Noah's ark is one of the most famous in the Abrahamic Book of Genesis, and was portrayed by Donald Duck and friends in the Pomp and Circumstance section of Fantasia 2000 (1999). People have long sought to tie the Genesis flood to a specific historical phenomenon, much as we saw with Atlantis above. Some Christian scholars have even set out to calculate a Biblical chronology, according to which the world was created some 6000 years ago. Although it has no scientific basis, I admire the effort. Based on this literalist interpretation, the flood took place some 1656 years after genesis. If we were to follow the popular chronology reckoned by James Ussher, which begins in 4004 BC, this would put the Genesis flood around the year 2348 BC.

An alternative account of the origins of the world is given in Greek mythology. The Titanomachy is the name given to the war between the Titans and Olympians, the old gods versus the new. This myth was worked into Disney's Hercules (1997), where the Titans are depicted as primeval monsters rather than as gods. The 'war between the gods' motif was sometimes thought to be a representation of different ethnic groups struggling for power in a region, such as when the Hellenic peoples first settled in Greece around 2000-1750 BCE. In actual fact, this story may be much older still, as the motif is attested in multiple Indo-European mythologies. Examples include the Æsir-Vanir War in Norse mythology and the Deva-Asura War in Hindu mythology.

Another war briefly depicted is the subjugation of Canaan, specifically the conquest of Jericho by Joshua, recounted in the Abrahamic Book of Joshua. We see "how Joshua busted that wall down" in Whatcha Do With Whatcha Got, one of the songs from So Dear To My Heart (1948). As was common during the time of the movie's production, the Biblical story is treated as undisputed fact. Only later did historians begin to question the Biblical account of this period. And in fact, archeologists yet have found no evidence of a razing of Jericho that fits with the time period. As an interesting sidenote, Jericho may be the oldest permanently occupied human settlement in history, e.g. the first city.
In this case, according to the Biblical literalist interpretation, this event took place some 2709 years after genesis, which takes us to the year 1295 BC. Historical evidence suggests that Egypt held onto the Levant for another century. Around 1200 BCE, the societies around the Mediterranean experienced a rapid decline in complexity, a period known as the Bronze Age collapse. It is at this time that we find events such as the Trojan War, which ended greatly shaping our perceptions of ancient heroes.

One such movie that examines what it means to be an epic hero is Hercules (1997), the first movie in our chronology that provides an in-universe date. A blink-and-you'll-miss-it visual gag in the song "Zero to Hero" sees Hercules receiving his very own Grecian Express creditcard, which records him as a member since "IM BC", which in Roman (!) numerals can be read as 999 BCE. Since the planetary alignment at the movie's climax takes place on Herc's 18th birthday, we can deduce that the prologue took place in 1017-1016 BCE. (Another song, "A Star is Born", notes that "his rising sign is Capricorn", which means Herc's birthday is either in late December or in January.)
The movie's depiction of Thebes as a center of Greek culture and its treatment of classical heroes reflect the cultural memory of Mycenaean Greece (c. 1750-1050 BCE), as recounted by Homer and company in a later era. Due to the relative scarcity of bronze, Bronze Age societies tended to be more hierarchical and their armies were fewer in number, thus facilitating a cult of individual heroism. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, the latter of which came all the way from Brittania. In contrast, iron is a much more plentiful resource, making way for the large armies of Classical Antiquity.

Another famous culture hero is David, who slew Goliath in the Abrahamic Book of Samuel. This event, seen in the same song from So Dear To My Heart, is said to have taken place 3102 years after the creation of the world, or in the year 902 BC. I am unaware of any historical basis for this legend.

The coming of the Iron Age happened in different places at different times, reaching Wales around 800 BCE. It must be around this time when the black cauldron was forged, as witch Orwen notes in The Black Cauldron (1985) that no one has asked about the cauldron in 2000 years. Evidence suggests that the movie takes place earlier than the 1200s, but that would result in the iron cauldron paradoxically predating the Iron Age.

Around the same time as the creation of the Black Cauldron, on the other side of the world, Polynesian settlers finish the colonization of Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga. Unable to cross the Pacific further due to prevailing winds, their wayfinding careers lay low for over a millennium. This period is known as the Long Pause, and it is said to be the inspiration for the backstory of Moana (2016). Again, I could find no source.

Sometime after the Greek Dark Age (c. 1050-750 BCE), classical Greek civilization as we know it begins in earnest, marble columns and all. Some of these columns can be spotted in The Pastoral Symphony from Fantasia, which features an alternative take on the Greek gods. As in Hercules, there's a hint of Roman imprint. Some of the gods were referred to by their Roman names in publicity materials, just as Heracles was referred to by his Roman name in his movie.
What's also interesting about the Romans insofar as Disney animation is concerned, is that they're not there. We've seen Disney take significant inspiration from both Abrahamic and Greek traditions, but not the Romans. They've never made the cut. And unlike with the story of evolution, there's no obvious political reason to avoid this time period.

Speaking of politics, one political event that is shown happens in 405 BCE, when Euripedes Mouse establishes the Rescue Aid Society. This is an interesting period in Greek history, as the human Euripedes had died the year previous, and in 405 BCE Athens was in the process of losing its fleet and its sovereignty to Sparta, signaling the end of Athenian democracy. By the 20th century, the Rescue Aid Society would come to mirror the United Nations in its organization, despite predating it by 2350 years. Alas, the Rescue Aid Society is but a creation of fiction, first seen in The Rescuers (1977).

Reaching the shores of the our Common Era, we return to the Pacific. The Long Pause in Polynesian wayfinding was followed by the Last Pulse, beginning with the colonization of the Marquesas Islands early in the first millennium. 300 CE is the traditional date, but the lack of archeological findings make carbon dating difficult, and anywhere between 100 and 600 CE may be accurate. According to Disney, this period is kicked off by the events of Moana proper.
There are a few things that complicate this dating, however. Firstly, the ships used to reach Motonui are found in excellent condition. Magic is magic, but wood rots, certainly after a few hundred years and definitely in humid area such as under a waterfall. How did they survive in such perfect condition? Secondly, the stones representing the rulers of Motonui number only fifteen. Moana is the sixteenth ruler of Motonui. Even if each ruler reigned for a generation of 30 years, that only gets us to 450 years. Something doesn't add up.

What ties this period together for the most part is an emphasis on the epic scale. From distant origins to great heroes, this period is all about appeals to antiquity and the depiction of greatness. And there's really two sides to that debate. One side is obsequious to tradition, something that can be seen in the earlier depictions of this period. The Biblical analogues, the pedigree of powerful institutions, almost beggar belief in their sanctity and antiquity. The other side is more lighthearted, poking fun at the pomp and circumstance with which we treat heroism and destiny. Even the completely original movies in this era, Moana and Brother Bear, reflect these themes to a degree, with Moana in part taking both sides of the debate.

As ancient glories fade, history too makes a new path. Onwards we go, to the age of swords of steel and men of iron. The Middle Ages are on their way.

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[Matilda]

This is such a fun take on earth's history! A grand attempt to smush together all the explicit and implicit historical and quasi-historical info in all the Disney animated movies.

Yeah, you can make up a date for Noah's flood, or its mythological parallels. On David (it's actually officially St. David's Day today, by the way! That's the Welsh David/Dewi, though, not the biblical king): the Goliath story itself has zero historical grounding. It's one of, I think, three biblical stories explaining the accession of this outsider to the throne: defeating Goliath, befriending Jonathan, playing the harp for Saul. But I believe there is general historical consensus that there *was* a David, somewhere around 1000 BCE.

[That Duckfan]

Mar 1, 2023 17:04:35 GMT Matilda said:

This is such a fun take on earth's history! A grand attempt to smush together all the explicit and implicit historical and quasi-historical info in all the Disney animated movies.

Yeah, you can make up a date for Noah's flood, or its mythological parallels. On David (it's actually officially St. David's Day today, by the way! That's the Welsh David/Dewi, though, not the biblical king): the Goliath story itself has zero historical grounding. It's one of, I think, three biblical stories explaining the accession of this outsider to the throne: defeating Goliath, befriending Jonathan, playing the harp for Saul. But I believe there is general historical consensus that there *was* a David, somewhere around 1000 BCE.

I'm glad you like it! This is basically a spruced-up fictional timeline, working around the caveat that Disney animated movies don't take place in the same universe. That said, I'm only keeping to the events shown on screen, which is the only sane way to doing these things with any rigor. You may remember a post I made a few years ago in which I argued for the 'true' historical placement of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; this is similar, but a bit more concise. It's not always easy, since there's a big element of fantasy in these movies, but as we go forward we'll see the development of technology play a bigger role in determining where these movies go. And it won't always be straightforward, I can tell you.

Thanks for the extra info on David. I didn't have time to check on him, since I want to get one of these out approximately once a month, and anyway the reference was only a brief one.

[donaldistducktoons]

I didn't notice this before, so I apologize for my previous post, I'm just disappointed with what Disney has been doing lately and considering their 100th anniversary that there won't be any major spectacle. My opinion, sorry.

By the way, I can praise The Duckfan for excellent analyzes of the historical context of Disney films so far, and you have good analyzes that I have read and you have excellent historical knowledge. I say this as a historian, that's why I say it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.

Disney itself, as well as other American film companies, do not always stick to accurate historical facts, but always add their own fictional moments or just reshape them in such a way that the films or series themselves succeed. Of course, when it comes to American history, there can be no mistake. As far as Disney's interpretations of various world fairy tales, legends and myths are concerned, they have become the biggest mainstream versions that we know and imagine, but with that, they did not always accurately apply the anime adaptation of various fairy tales and other literary works, probably for the reason that they did not would be successful or not to disappoint the audience or something like that. That's probably why Tolkien didn't want his works to be interpreted by Disney, which is understandable to me.

I'll get back on topic and add to what The Duckfan has already said in his analyses. With the fact that I will also add some animated series related to historical periods, because everyone is talking about animated films, so it would be okay to talk about animated series, plus I will also add comic books. Fantasy 1940 was probably among the first to show the period of the world's creation according to the evolutionary model from the Big Bang to the Cretaceous Period. It's "The Rite of Spring". Of course, before that there was the Gertie the Dinosaur cartoon from 1914 by Winsor McCay (also one of the first animated shorts) and the classic short Daffy and the Dinosaur by Chuck Jones from 1939, which depict prehistoric animals, but is "The Rite of Spring" the best interpretation of the prehistoric era in the most realistic animation and early 1940s era. Considering the knowledge of prehistory at the time, it was really superbly done.

I don't know if The Lion King can be added in the prehistoric period, because it can be that movie set in any period except the present and the future. Although the story itself is taken from Shakespeare's Hamlet, that is, the story of Amleth, which is mentioned by Saxo Grammaticus in Gesta Danorum and part of the biblical interpretations from the book of Genesis and the book of Exodus (Joseph and Moses). Funny how the spin-off of The Lion King, the Timon and Pumbaa series is about Timon and Pumbaa being set in the present day, with humans (especially the hunter Quint), although Timon and Pumbaa have been in almost all the time plots. Yes, I know it's not canon and that most people don't like this, I just found that interpretation funny.

As for the time frame in The Brother Bears, yes I agree, it is very questionable what period it could be, although the best is between the last ice age and the beginning of the Neolithic, and mammoths still existed until the time of the construction of the great pyramids in Egypt. By the way, the Alaska Natives themselves drew and made animal totems until today, but the period would certainly be before the arrival of Europeans in North America. The Inuit religion itself, which belongs to animalism and shamanism, literally interprets when Kenai turns into a bear and the animal spirit itself. As for the movie Atlantis: The Lost Empire and the initial time action itself, it is not known, although I would place it in the period of the Great Flood, although Plato himself first mentioned Atlantis and the suffering of that famous civilization was probably related to the island of Thera in the Aegean Sea when a volcanic eruption broke out and destroyed Santorini (another name for Thera) around 1600 BC. Yes, I know that Atlantis: The Lost Empire is set in 1914 at the time of the start of the first world war, but the beginning of Atlantis is not known, but it should probably be in the time before the Great Flood, 9000 years ago.

Yes, speaking of the Great Flood, it is not certain when it happened, but it was probably during the time after the Last Glacial Period, and some place it at the time when a meteor struck in the Indian Ocean called the Burckle Crater, which took place between 3000 and 2800 BC. You mentioned Fantasia 2000 well, as it related to that time, when Donald is helping Noah build the boat and when he is looking for Daisy. But that wasn't the first interpretation of Noah's Ark, it was "Father Noah's Ark" as part of the 1933 Silly Symphony. And it has "Noah's Ark" from 1959 as Disney's first use of stop-motion animation. Certainly the time of that action should be between 5000 and 3000 BC, but if we use the biblical timeline, it should definitely be around 3500 BC or supposedly 3000 BC, since in the Middle Ages (primarily in Byzantium) it was considered that the world was created in 5508 BC. But also what you stated that it is possible 2348 BC, although according to the historical basis it is not exactly so, but it should be earlier, considering the construction of the Pyramids in Egypt and the beginning of the first empire called the Akkadian Empire with the ruler Sargon in Mesopotamia. And yes, Noah's ark is not the only Disney interpretation of the Bible, there is another, and I will mention that later.

By the way, the Great Flood in the Bible is also mentioned in other myths and legends, but historians believe that it originates from the Epic of Giglamesh, where the god Enlil destroys the world with a flood, and the god Ea warns Utnapishtim about it and he builds a large ark where he houses the animals, their wife, family and friends and themselves and manage to survive the flood. This is mentioned in Table XI. Also, the myth of the flood is mentioned in Greek mythology, where Decalion and his wife Pyrrha survive 9 days and nights in a chest while the world is submerged and then disembark on Mount Parnassus. Although there are other versions, but this is the most important one. Yes, you already mentioned the movie about Hercules, so you should mention that legends and myths about heroes actually came from the Epic of Giglamesh, that is, about Giglamesh, the longest-lived ruler of Uruk, set in the period from 2900 BC to 2100 BC. Gilgamesh's adventures themselves inspired other myths and spread throughout the known Old World, including Egypt and Greece. His tasks and companionship with his friend Enkidu, as well as being a demigod, are exactly like the myth of Heracles (Roman Hercules) and his tasks and companionship with Jason and the Argonauts. I'm surprised, the Duckfan, that you didn't mention that. But I agree with you about the analysis of the time plot set for Greek mythology as well as the link to the Bible.

Although Disney's animated film Hercules is set in the golden age of Greece, primarily in the ancient Greek city of Athens during the time of Pericles, during the 5th century BC, the original mythology itself should be set before the Trojan War, that is, in the period between 2000 and 1200 BC. Although I love that animated movie and the animated series about Hercules, as well as the parody itself, it's kind of strange to me again how Disney placed it all in one period and that Hercules lived after Achilles (that famous line of Phil's about Achilles' heel) and that there used Roman numerals instead of Greek ones. Not to mention that in the Hercules series (otherwise the plot of that series takes place before the movie), Helen of Troy appears and that the Trojan War takes place during the time of Pericles (episode Hercules and the Trojan War). However, even though it deviates a lot from the original mythology, the true characterization of the Greek gods can still be seen through the parody, as well as the appearance of certain famous figures from ancient Greece, such as Homer, Pericles, Hippocrates, Pythagoras, Archimedes, and even Alexander the Great. And they showed an accurate representation of the underground kingdom and Olympus. As for the biblical connection, Hercules is connected to Samson in addition to King David. Samson, a legendary Hebrew hero who fights against the Philistines and a fighter against lions and had great strength given by God and his strength is in his hair, until Delilah tricked him and cut off his hair, and before his death he destroyed the pagan Philistine temple when his hair returns again. Well it's more of a link to Achilles because of the heel, but also a good link to Hercules because Megara at Hades' request seduced and tricked him because Hercules gave up his strength to save Megara. Samson lived between 1100 and 1050 BC, that is, the time when Samuel, the priest who would anoint David, was still a boy. And Samson is mentioned in the Book of Judges which ends that book and with him the book of Samuel begins.

Unfortunately, Disney has not shown movies related to ancient Egypt, but there are links in certain series where it is mentioned. The Ducktales episode "Sphinx for the Memories" (one of the best episodes in my opinion) features Donald Duck as “The Garbled One”, as the pharaoh of the city of Garbabble. The Aladdin series (which I especially love) featured Mirage as the Dark Queen of Morbia, one of Aladdin's enemies, and the very inspiration for that character comes from the Egyptian goddess Bastet. Also the Hercules episode "Hercules and the Romans" shows the three Egyptian gods Ra, Bastet and Khnum fighting against Hercules for supremacy over Rome. And series like Darkwing Duck, Goof Troop, Quack Pack, Gargoyles, Phineas & Ferb, Gravity Falls and The Legend of The Three Caballeros have references to ancient Egypt. Although the best for me is how the pyramids in The Legend of The Three Caballeros are shown as actually spaceships to the moon. Ancient Aliens reference.

As for Aladdin, the time itself is uncertain, but I think it should be in the time before the appearance of Muhammad and Islam, in the time of the ancient Arab kingdoms (one of those from where the legendary Queen of Sheba who came before Solomon comes from). Yes, Allah is mentioned in the movie, but Allah was mentioned as a universal deity by the Arabs even before the Prophet Muhammad. I say this because one Hercules episode was a crossover episode with Aladdin, so back in ancient times. However, although the story of Aladdin as an Arabic fairy tale is told in the Thousand and One Nights, one of the stories told by Hanna Diyab says that the forerunner of Aladdin, or the character of Aladdin himself, is from China, more precisely from the Xinjiang region. How then is the lamp where the Genie appears (more precisely, the djinn, according to the Arabs, a spirit that can turn into an animal or a human, and in Islam, one version of the interpretation of an angel)? Well, it is most likely that the Arabs went through the Silk Road to China and that they passed through today's Turkmenistan and western China and traded with the inhabitants there. Then it would mean that the time of action of that original story of Aladdin originates from the time of the early Middle Ages, when the Arabs, primarily the Baghdad Caliphate, were at the height of their power. Yes, Aladdin got the lamp that he was supposed to give to the evil sorcerer, but he didn't. Nevertheless, the film and the story have links, and characters such as the evil vizier and the wizard Jafar and the monkey Abu, that is, their names taken from the film "The Thief of Bagdad" from 1940. Badroulbadour is the real name of the princess instead of Jasmine in the real story of Aladdin and she is a princess of one of the Arab countries, and the evil sorcerer whom Aladdin killed after him, comes from the country of the Maghreb (today's Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria). I certainly love both the movie and the Aladdin series, but as I've said about Hercules and other Disney versions of fairy tales, legends and myths before, it deviates significantly from the source material. By the way, the name Jafar in One Thousand and One Nights is actually the father of Scheherazade, and Scheherazade was the main storyteller who told the stories to Shahryar, the supposed king of kingdoms, a fictitious Persian king. As in the movie about Aladdin, Jafar is the vizier of that Persian king and he wants to overthrow the Persian king, but he fails and goes to Samarkand. Shahryar himself, whom I mentioned a little while ago, alludes to the Persian rulers from the Achaemenid and Sassanid dynasty, which again alludes to the fact that the stories from the Thousand and One Nights, i.e. the time of the action itself, are certainly between the classical period and the early Middle Ages. That's why I said that the movie Aladdin has an indefinite time frame, but I definitely think it should be before the advent of Islam, although the movie itself alludes to the time of the greatest Arab power, in the period from the 7th to the 11th century.

The movie "Mulan" is also a good interpretation of ancient China, that is, it tells about the period when China was divided into three parts, at the time when the Huns plundered and ransacked China. When I think of the Huns, I mean the Tuoba clan of ethnic Xianbei, a proto-Mongol tribe. The Xiongnu are the tribe closest to the Huns who roamed Europe in the 5th century. The story of Hua Mulan itself is a Chinese folklore story that dates back to the period between the 4th and 6th centuries. Certainly the time after the Han Dynasty. And it was recorded in Wu Shuang Pu by Jin Guliang. The name Mulan itself is actually from the Xianbe language, not the Han language, and it means prosperous, while the other means magnolia, a tree that grows in southwestern China. However, it is not known if this person really existed, but he certainly inspired hope for a better tomorrow, as well as the hope of the Han Chinese that their country would be reunited. Northern Wei itself was held by the Xianbei, and southern China was ruled by the so-called Southern Dynasties, which were Liu Song (ruled from 420 to 479), Southern Qi (from 479 to 502), Liang (from 502 to 557 AD) and Western Liang (from 555 AD to 587 AD). The song itself, or the Ballad of Mulan, which sings the struggle of the Northern Wei against the nomadic Rouran. Shan Yu, the leader of the Huns in Mulan, was inspired by the leader Modu Chanyu, who founded the Xiongnu Empire (the area of present-day Mongolia) and the ancestral home of the Hun people. I wouldn't be surprised if Attila and Genghis Khan found inspiration in their ancestor. The leader Modu Chanyu made a lot of trouble for China, but he was never able to subdue it. It is interesting that Empress Dowager Lü Zhi, the widow of Emperor Gaozu of Han, who was the first emperor of China from the Han Dynasty and the successor of the famous Qin Shi Huang, wanted to marry him, but Moda mocked her. Because of him, the famous Great Wall of China was built, although it started during the time of Qin Shi Huang, the unifier of the Chinese lands. Sorry to bother you with Chinese history, but I would recommend researching the period as it is very interesting as is the history of ancient Rome. I'm not that much of an expert either, I just like to talk about this. Back to the topic, generals Li Shang and Li were taken as inspiration from ancient Han generals, most notably Zhou Bo, Lian Po and Han Xin. Yes, certainly Sun Tzu, as well as the training of the Chinese army and the very training and tactics comes from the book The Art of War. The religion in that film is certainly spiritual, connected to Confucianism and Taoism, with ancient Chinese beliefs. The dressing of Chinese women is quite similar to the dressing of Japanese women, but bearing in mind that Japan took a lot from China in religion itself (Buddhism and the philosophical teachings of Confucianism and Taoism), customs and wearing clothes, then it should not be surprising that only the Japanese applied to their ways, as the Romans did and took from the ancient Greeks. The Emperor of China, I'm not sure who they took the exact inspiration from, but he is certainly depicted as an ancient ruler of China, primarily from the Han Dynasty, which ruled from 202 BC to 220 AD. Mushu represents a traditional Chinese dragon, so it certainly needs no explanation. I say this only for historical context.

The movie Moana probably represents the period of voyages of Polynesian sailors to various Pacific islands between 100 and 1300 AD, or what you stated around 300 AD, in the time of Late Antiquity in the Mediterranean. The character Maui is a demigod and friend of Moana who awakened Te Fiti (goddess of nature) who transforms into Te Kā (goddess of fire and destruction) and who will later save the world together with Moana. Maui is inspired by Māui (Maui), a great hero and trickster, who is spoken of among the Polynesian peoples, above all among the Maori and in Hawaii. But again those stories depend from one nation to another and their stories are different. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about Polynesian mythology, so I can't say exactly everything about it and the link to the movie, but if I find out something, I will tell you.

It's strange to me that after so much time, Disney has not yet made any themes related to Rome, that is, the period of ancient Roman history. For me, Rome is the best civilization that changed the world a lot. However, although there are references to it from Aladdin (when the Genie turns into Caesar) and from Timon and Pumbaa (one episode in Rome), certainly the most references are in Disney comics, primarily Italian, where there are several comics where Donald and his family located in ancient Rome. However, since Italians love old Rome very much, it is not surprising that they do it. Unfortunately, there is no rendition of Scrooge as Caesar and Magica as Cleopatra, but oh well, maybe one day in the future. XD Joking aside, one animated film is set in Roman times, just not in Rome, but in Palestine. The film is called "The Small One" by Don Bluth from 1978 and next to Noah's Ark, the only biblical interpretation that Disney has made so far. It is about a boy who carries an old donkey for sale, but no one wants to buy until Joseph finally comes along and gives the boy one piece of silver and carries his wife on the donkey. That woman is Mary who will later give birth to Jesus. Incidentally, the story is based on a children's book of the same title by Charles Tazewell. The historical context is certainly that it takes place during the time of Emperor Octavian Augustus, Caesar's successor and King Herod the Great of Judea, who hated Jesus. Interestingly, that old donkey is played by Clarence Nash (the voice actor of Donald Duck) and the boy is played by Sean Marshall. After that movie, there is a sequel, but explained in a book from 1998 called "The Small One: A Good Samaritan". Unfortunately, there are no Disney interpretations of the Bible, but if I think about it better not, because who knows what today's Disney could make of it.

And I forgot to say, the Mulan vs. Hun fight is actually a copy of the Roman Flavius Aetius vs. Attila fight. XD The song itself was inspired by that.

All kidding aside, that's all I said. At least as far as my analysis is concerned. Sorry if I overdid something and I hope, The Duckfan, that you are happy with this and continue with the analysis. If something is needed, I will add it and give my opinion about it. Also, Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone for celebrating today.

[That Duckfan]

Mar 17, 2023 3:17:10 GMT donaldistducktoons said:

By the way, I can praise The Duckfan for excellent analyzes of the historical context of Disney films so far, and you have good analyzes that I have read and you have excellent historical knowledge. I say this as a historian, that's why I say it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.

Hi! Sorry for my late response, I've been busy lately. Thanks for the offer, but I think I got this. It's nice to meet a fellow historian in the wild.

Disney itself, as well as other American film companies, do not always stick to accurate historical facts, but always add their own fictional moments or just reshape them in such a way that the films or series themselves succeed. Of course, when it comes to American history, there can be no mistake.

Oho, you're in for a ride!

I don't know if The Lion King can be added in the prehistoric period, because it can be that movie set in any period except the present and the future. Although the story itself is taken from Shakespeare's Hamlet, that is, the story of Amleth, which is mentioned by Saxo Grammaticus in Gesta Danorum and part of the biblical interpretations from the book of Genesis and the book of Exodus (Joseph and Moses).

The Lion King can't be related to human history in any way, but I still wanted to cover it somehow and it seemed to fit the animal theme of that first chapter.

Yes, speaking of the Great Flood, it is not certain when it happened, but it was probably during the time after the Last Glacial Period, and some place it at the time when a meteor struck in the Indian Ocean called the Burckle Crater, which took place between 3000 and 2800 BC.

I'm not aware of any historically-attested flood that gave rise to the flood narrative, and I would hesitate to pin it on that. Some things are just part of the human experience.

You mentioned Fantasia 2000 well, as it related to that time, when Donald is helping Noah build the boat and when he is looking for Daisy. But that wasn't the first interpretation of Noah's Ark, it was "Father Noah's Ark" as part of the 1933 Silly Symphony. And it has "Noah's Ark" from 1959 as Disney's first use of stop-motion animation. Certainly the time of that action should be between 5000 and 3000 BC, but if we use the biblical timeline, it should definitely be around 3500 BC or supposedly 3000 BC, since in the Middle Ages (primarily in Byzantium) it was considered that the world was created in 5508 BC. But also what you stated that it is possible 2348 BC, although according to the historical basis it is not exactly so, but it should be earlier, considering the construction of the Pyramids in Egypt and the beginning of the first empire called the Akkadian Empire with the ruler Sargon in Mesopotamia.

Say what you want about those old creationists, but they knew how to build a timeline. I like dates and I like timelines, so I was just happy to put the famous creationist timeline to use for once. Think of it as a wink.

Loosely related movie tip: one of my all-time favorite stories is Inherit the Wind. I'm most familiar with the the 1999 version, but the 1960 version is considered a classic. Real Americana, that.

Yes, you already mentioned the movie about Hercules, so you should mention that legends and myths about heroes actually came from the Epic of Giglamesh, that is, about Giglamesh, the longest-lived ruler of Uruk, set in the period from 2900 BC to 2100 BC. Gilgamesh's adventures themselves inspired other myths and spread throughout the known Old World, including Egypt and Greece. His tasks and companionship with his friend Enkidu, as well as being a demigod, are exactly like the myth of Heracles (Roman Hercules) and his tasks and companionship with Jason and the Argonauts. I'm surprised, the Duckfan, that you didn't mention that.

I generally only discuss direct adaptations, or we'd be here all day. In the case of Hamlet you mentioned above, the fact that the story has roots shouldn't overshadow the achievement that is Shakespeare's play. Heracles and Gilgamesh might be related, but I consider them distinct characters with their own distinct mythology, and I don't think that's particularly controversial.

Although Disney's animated film Hercules is set in the golden age of Greece, primarily in the ancient Greek city of Athens during the time of Pericles, during the 5th century BC, the original mythology itself should be set before the Trojan War, that is, in the period between 2000 and 1200 BC. Although I love that animated movie and the animated series about Hercules, as well as the parody itself, it's kind of strange to me again how Disney placed it all in one period and that Hercules lived after Achilles (that famous line of Phil's about Achilles' heel) and that there used Roman numerals instead of Greek ones.

Good catch about that Achilles line. But I believe Hercules is set in Thebes, in the 10th century BCE. Achilles would've lived about two centuries prior (according to what we know about the real-life Siege of Troy, anyway), but who's to say how long-lived satyrs are.


I will deal Aladdin and Mulan when their time comes. Rest assured, I haven't forgotten a movie just because I haven't covered it yet. I just have different standards for determining where to place them on the timeline. That doesn't always follow directly from when the 'original' was set/created, since adaptations and retellings have the freedom to change such things. We'll be seeing some examples of that shortly, I think.

[That Duckfan]

When Knights Were Brave And Bold
From the Fall of the Western Roman Empire to the Fall of the Eastern Roman Empire

"He was born and raised to rule / No one has ever been as cool / In a thousand years of aristocracy"

The Middle Ages often get a bad rep. Known by many as the "Dark Ages", it would be more accurate to say that that Western historians were for a long time in the dark about the Early Middle Ages because of a lack of surviving texts. But imperial glory and copious administration is only part of the story. For the average European, life was in some ways better than it had been during the days of the Roman Empire.
All this demonstrates the essential Eurocentrism in the term "Middle Ages". The Arab world thrived during this time, as did various Amerindian cultures. On the steppes, the Mongols amassed the largest land empire the world has ever seen. But in the West, as in Disney, the popular memory of the period between 500 CE and 1500 CE is viewed through a primarily European lens.
The popular image of the Middle Ages has come down to us in various ways. Buckling under the strain of industrial modernization, 19th and early 20th century Europeans loved to idolize the pre-industrial period. To those more favorable to modern life, medieval people were seen as a backwards and superstitious lot. More recent attempts to portray the Middle Ages have used comedy and realism, painting a more human picture of the period. This includes the rediscovery of the Early Middle Ages (c. 500–1000), which was long ignored by artists in favor of the High (c. 1000–1300) and Late Middle Ages (c. 1300–1500).

In the world of Disney movies, the number of stories explicitly set in the Middle Ages is relatively small. Modern aesthetics and technology have a way of creeping into these movies, and many of the feudal fantasies portrayed by Disney actually reflect the early modern or even modern period. However, there are two technologies that divide medieval society from early modern society: gunpowder and the printing press. The printing press revolutionized information technology, while the adoption of firearms shook up empires. That said, the use of swords is certainly no guarantee for a medieval setting.
In terms of Eurocentrism, Disney is sadly reflective of the culture. Generally speaking, you can draw a point in Central Europe, and the further away the movie takes place, the less accurate it is in its depiction. Let's have a look.


The Early Middle Ages are shrouded in mist. One story that could qualify for the earliest medieval setting in Disney animation is Fantasia's The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1940/1999), an interpretation of a 1897 symphonic poem by Paul Dukas based on a 1797 ballad by Goethe. The animated sequence features a fairly minimalist environment: there aren't a lot of props apart from a broom/besom and a bucket. The most easily defined object is the codex, or book that Mickey and the sorcerer use for their spells. Codices gradually replaced scrolls as the preferred way to store texts by the end of the Roman period.
Witchcraft was common across cultures until recently; in fact, I still know a practicing wizard or two. The long robes and sparse decoration suggests to me an early medieval setting (roughly 600 CE to 1300 CE), but this is no more than an educated guess.

Another story that defies placement is Aladdin (1992), but for different reasons. Aladdin is orientalist: it reflects the fantasies white people projected on the Orient in the 19th and 20th centuries. It doesn't reflect any form of Islamic culture beyond the vaguest contours, because it's a genre piece first and foremost. However, in a strange twist of fate, this is an accurate reflection of the original tale, which was also set in a vaguely Oriental world: China.
The other issue with Aladdin is its constant use of pop culture references. Basically everything that comes out of the Genie's mouth is aimed at 1992 audiences, for reasons that are totally understandable. However, he serves as a good example that certain types of comedy are best ignored when determining the setting of a story.
Beside the vaguely Islamic architecture of the palace, which suggests a setting sometime after 900 CE, there's little in Agrabah that signifies a particular setting before, say, 1600 CE. Part of the problem is the lack of available imagery from that period. The few signs that we do have are significantly more recent: the magic carpet bears a Safavid Persian (c. 1501–1736) design, even though it's been locked in the Cave of Wonders since forever. Princess Jasmine wears a badlah (Egyptian belly dancer costume), which seems to date from 19th century, and is wholly inappropriate dress for an Islamic princess. The glimpse we get of the wider world is no better: the sphinx's nose likely broke off during the Early Middle Ages, while the Forbidden Palace wasn't built until 1420. This just goes to show what a mishmash of influences Aladdin is.

Our first definite stop is in 1193–94, the setting of Disney's Robin Hood (1973). It's the first story tied to an actual historical event, namely the return of King Richard I to England after his adventures in the Third Crusade and subsequent imprisonment in Germany. Richard has fared rather better in fiction than among historians, according to whom he was something of a mixed bag. Turns out conquering foreign lands and administering a kingdom don't always go together. Unlike his Disney equivalent, the real Richard negotiated a settlement with Prince John and made him his heir, setting the stage for the latter's disastrous rule and forced adoption of the first Magna Carta, the foundation of English constitutional law. (The Magna Carta in effect today is actually a revised Magna Carta, signed by King Henry III in 1225 and reissued by Edward I in 1297.)
The story of Robin Hood is a folk tale, its time period shifting until it gained a foothold in the 12th century thanks to Walter Scott's Ivanhoe (1819).

The Black Cauldron (1985) is based on the Chronicles of Prydain series of fantasy novels, which is inspired by Welsh mythology, particularly the Mabinogion. The history of Wales as an independent culture stretches from sub-Roman times to 1277, when King Edward I of England invaded Wales and fully annexed it into his realm, his heirs bearing the title 'Prince of Wales' to this day. I have chosen to put The Black Cauldron near the end of this period, sometime in the 13th century, for reasons discussed in the previous section. The historical origins of Welsh mythology are murky but seem to point toward an early medieval setting. However, none of that necessarily applies to this movie, which prominently features a stone castle (a post-Norman invention). Just ignore the fitted costumes of our heroes, tailoring would not be developed for another century.

The legend of the The Sword in the Stone (1963), as told by Disney, differs somewhat from its direct inspiration as well as from the Arthur mythos behind it. Given that the sword Excalibur is said to be forgotten by the people, it seems to me that several generations must have passed before Arthur became king. The death of Uther Pendragon appears to date to around 1300, based on state of armor seen in that sequence. The full explanation will be dealt with below.

On the cusp of the 1300s, we find Sleeping Beauty (1959): first the prologue and birth of Aurora, and then the main body of the film set sixteen years later. The date is mentioned by Prince Philip when he persuades his father to marry a peasant-disguised Aurora: "Now father, this is the 14th century. Nowadays—". Presumably, the movie takes place within the first few decades of the new century.
Sleeping Beauty was a landmark in its time for a its attention to visual detail, approaching the flat perspectives of the pre-Raphaelites and the medieval painters they emulated. In aesthetic terms, it's the defining Disney movie of the Middle Ages. I wish the fairies had equipped Philip with some armor before his battle with Maleficent, that seems useful and fitting, but you can't have everything.

I wish I could say the same for the depiction of Robert the Bruce in Stick-to-it-ivity, one of the songs from So Dear To My Heart (1948). This movie commits more historical errors in three minutes than some movies in their entire runtime! The legend of Robert watching a spider for inspiration is usually tied to the Battle of Methven (1305), but the movie replaces it with a siege of Stirling Castle. In fact, there was no Scottish-led siege of Stirling Castle. The English had besieged it in 1304 and held onto it for ten years, letting go of it voluntarily after Robert's decisive victory at the Battle of Bannockburn (1314).

The Middle Ages are often portrayed as miserable through and through, when oftentimes things weren't so bad. The 12th and 13th centuries saw significant economic growth in Europe thanks to a time of warm climate known as the Medieval Warm Period. During this time, forest were cleared for agriculture, swamps were drained, and people in Western Europe shed their serfdom in favor of feudal dependency. That last one was not a total win, but it was a step forward in terms of legal freedoms. The windmill and watermill saw mainstream adoption.
But everything changed in the 14th century, the most miserable century known to man. The 14th century is the only century in recorded history where the human population had dropped by the end compared to the beginning, in no small part thanks to the bubonic plague AKA the Black Death (1347–1352).
One story that accurately portrays the misery that is 14th century Europe, is Mickey and the Beanstalk, the second half of Fun and Fancy Free (1947). The 14th century was also the first in which Western fashion began to take shape, as we can see in the Willie the Giant's scandalously short tunic.
Elsewhere in the story, Donald and Goofy join in a chorus of "Funiculi, Funiculà", which was composed for the opening of the Mount Vesuvius funicular in 1880. Again, I'm ignoring this song the same way I ignored the Genie in Aladdin. Disney songs are non-diegetic (not part of the narrative proper) as a rule, and often contain many anachronisms in the way of cultural references. As such, we will be categorically ignoring songs going forward. The tune of "Funiculi, Funiculà" was eventually used by the Sherman Brothers to write "Dream Boy" (1961), a minor hit for Disney star Annette Funicello, and was performed on the made-for-TV-movie Escapade in Florence (1962). The original Vesuvius funicular was sadly destroyed by the eruption of March 1944.

It's unclear exactly when Mother Gothel from Tangled (2010) first finds the golden flower, but her dress was specifically designed to evoke an earlier period, the Renaissance in particular. Her metal belt and angel sleeves point to the second half of the 14th century, though it's hard to get more specific due the slowness of fashion this period.

More aging games are played by Maleficent of Sleeping Beauty (1959), who shows Prince Philip a cruel vision wherein he finally rescues his sleeping love after being locked in a dungeon for a hundred years. That would indicate the early 15th century, going by the previously determined dating.

Around the year 1400, we find The Sword in the Stone (1963). This may be surprising, since the Arthur mythos is usually set in the sub-Roman period, the 5th or 6th century. However, placing Arthur in an actual early medieval setting is fairly recent development. For centuries, the legends of King Arthur closely mirrored the time in which they were written, gradually coming to represent the Middle Ages as a whole.
When T. H. White sat down to write The Once and Future King, he effectively condensed four centuries of Norman rule into the lives of Uther Pendragon (c. 1066–1216) and his son Arthur (c. 1216–1485). And when Disney adapted the first novel of White's opus, they continued this trend by appealing to the visual style of the Late Middle Ages, around 1400. This decision was likely influenced by the production of Sleeping Beauty (1959) several years before, which shares some of the movie's visual aspects. An adaptation of another medieval tale, Chanticleer, was also considered around this time.
Some of the writers don't seem to have gotten the message, however, as Merlin comments that the first edition of the London Time "won't be out for at least another 1200 years", suggesting a setting of 585 CE. But then, Merlin always had trouble keeping track of time...


Given the many fairy tales that prominently feature royals and nobility, one might think they would predominate the Disney version of the Middle Ages. In reality, Disney's tendency to champion 'the little guy' makes this era more balanced. The royals are fairly represented: Princess Jasmine, Prince John, Princess Eilonwy, Princess Aurora, Robert the Bruce, and King Arthur all make an appearance. But there's also the sorcerer's apprentice, Aladdin, Robin Hood, Taran, the three peasants, and Mother Gothel. That said, there's precious little representation outside of Europe. But that's about to change. Already in the mid-1400s, Portuguese explorers are sailing down the West African coast. There's a whole new world out there, and and the first stage of globalization is just waiting to get started.

---

[That Duckfan]

This is a work in progress, so sometimes you find pieces that should have been covered earlier. Some movies are just hard to place.

The world of Kumandra is a fantasy fusion of Southeast Asian cultures, with less of an emphasis on history as it happened in the real world. Having gone over the movie Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) multiple times, I've put it down in my notes just before Mickey and the Beanstalk, somewhere in the 1300s. Many of the objects we see in the movie, from fishing boats to crossbows to Chinese lanterns, have existed in East Asia for many centuries, often in a more advanced way than in the west. The most recent invention I could uncover is Namaari's flare gun, which she uses to send help stealing the dragon gem. Both flares and hand guns were first described in the 1270s/1280s, as the Yuan dynasty took control in China. The Mongol Empire also brought gunpowder to Southeast Asia. While Namaari's gun is an accurate depiction of this kind of weapon, the same cannot be said for her crossbow, which features a trigger that would not become standard until the 18th century. But then, Fang is the most technologically advanced of the tribes.
The end of the 14th century serves as a soft lower limit. The world of Kumandra is inspired mostly by Buddhist elements, while the 13th century saw the rise of Islam in Southeast Asia through trading links. By the turn of the 15th century, the first Muslim polity had been established in the region. Since there is no evidence of Islamic-inspired elements, not even in the trading hub Talon, we can conclude the movie predates this shift.

The backstory to Raya and the Last Dragon (2021), when the dragons disappeared 500 years earlier, is set in the 9th century, before Aladdin.

The prologue to Raya and the Last Dragon (2021), when the Druun are unleashed, is set six years before the main story.

[napoleondecheese]

Are we counting Pixar? Pixar does have at least two timelines diverging from the one where humans become the dominant species on Earth. Cars has an universe where all animal life evolved following vehicular anatomies. A Good Dinosaur is closer to 'our' timeline but dinosaurs survive at least until the dawn of man.

[That Duckfan]

Apr 11, 2023 0:57:18 GMT napoleondecheese said:

Are we counting Pixar? Pixar does have at least two timelines diverging from the one where humans become the dominant species on Earth. Cars has an universe where all animal life evolved following vehicular anatomies. A Good Dinosaur is closer to 'our' timeline but dinosaurs survive at least until the dawn of man.

Just the regular Disneys. You make an interesting point though, Pixar movies are more substantially different from one another than Disney ones. The Incredibles is another example of a universe diverging from ours, with computers from the '90s being commonplace during the '60s.

[That Duckfan]

Glory, God and Gold
From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment

"Look at this stuff / Isn't it neat"

---

The face of the world was changing in the early modern period, but this change was unevenly divided. While the rich and powerful adapted to new technologies such as gunpowder and the printing press, daily life continued as usual in many of the agrarian societies in the world. European sailors and colonists connected distant parts of the world with one another, causing untold millions to cross the oceans for the first time (willingly or unwillingly). Commercial activity revolutionized the connections between people, while vicious sectarian warfare gave way to a new political contract. In England and France, technological innovations tapped steam as a new source of power, while philosophers challenged the fundamentals of human existence.

In Disney animation too, this is a tale of two worlds. One that's increasingly connected, where fundamentally different worldviews come to clash with one another, and traditionalism contends with modernity. It's Esmeralda versus Judge Claude Frollo, it's Pocahontas versus Governor Ratcliffe, it's Belle versus Gaston. But there's also a vestige of medievalism in the worlds of Snow White, the Reluctant Dragon, and Chernabog. And there are plenty of other curiosities besides.


We pick up our timeline in the winter of 1461–62, as recounted in the prologue to The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Judge Claude Frollo adopts a Romani baby with a physical deformity, whom he christens Quasimodo.

We pick up the main body of the movie twenty years later, the day before the Feast of Fools: Saturday, January 5, 1482. At least, that's the date given in the novel on which The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) is based: Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris. In reality, the holiday was usually celebrated in the week between Christmas and New Year's. The Feast of Fools was outlawed in Paris as early as 1444. It's unclear how much time the movie ultimately covers, as Frollo's witch hunt for Esmeralda may have taken him weeks or even months.
In terms of historical accuracy, the movie gets the general tenor right. The period following the Black Death saw a great rise in corruption among the Catholic clergy, one of the key causes of the Reformation. Frollo's hatred of the Romani is a personal quirk of character; while there was a great deal of banal discrimination against religious minorities, actual persecution was usually limited to periods of intense religious fervor such as the Reformation or the Crusades. The role of church leaders wasn't always that of persecutor. Sometimes, they were the ones protecting minorities against the violent mob. But their record is certainly mixed.

Speaking of mixed records, the song "Stick-to-it-ivity" from So Dear To My Heart (1948) presents Christopher Columbus sailing the ocean blue in 1492. It follows the bad history version of the tale, which presents Christopher Columbus as wanting to prove that the world is round. In fact, the shape and rough size of Earth had been determined by Hellenistic mathematicians in the 3rd century BCE. The reason that few explorers considered the westward approach to the East Indies was because they knew exactly how large the planet was, and there was no way any ship of its time could make the journey. The reason for Columbus' dissent is unclear: some sources claim that he reckoned the world was a lot smaller than mainstream science made it out to be, while other say he reckoned that Asia was a lot larger than it is and stretched much further east. Either way, his convoy would likely have perished had it not been for the discovery of the Caribbean. Columbus rationalized that he had reached the East Indies (present-day Indonesia). It would take another explorer, the Florentine-born Amerigo Vespucci (after whom America is named), before the significance of the voyage began to dawn on people.

While we're in the Americas, let's have a look at The Emperor's New Groove (2000). There is obviously nothing remotely historical about the movie, but the basic setting behind the movie is that of Tawatinsuyu, AKA the Inca Empire. Where the Theme Song Guy proclaims Kuzco's descent from "a thousand years of aristocracy", the actual Inca Empire existed for less than a century (1438–1533). Even its predecessor, the Kingdom of Cusco, traced its royal line back only as far as the early 1200s. As in many cultures, the people of Cusco revered a legendary founder, who according to one legend descended from the solar deity Inti. His name was Manco Cápac, the son of the sun.
The Inca Empire was relatively stable. Its first and last civil war broke out on the eve of the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores, spelling the end of the empire. Still, history records a couple of incidents. As a boy king, Wayna Capac (r. 1493–1524) had to contend with an ambitious tutor, whose plans to usurp the throne were foiled by Wayna's uncle Waman Achachi. Sounds familiar?

The Emperor's New Groove also shows Kuzco as a baby. This takes place some 17 years before the main events of The Emperor's New Groove, since Kuzco is said to be 18 years.

The most specific reference to history given in official sources concerning Mulan (1998) is that it takes place in "dynastic China". This places the movie somewhere between the Bronze Age and 1912, which doesn't exactly narrow it down. The legend of Hua Mulan was compiled in the sixth century and referred to events that took place some two centuries prior, but the movie seems to be at least a bit more contemporary. The aesthetics of the movie are generically Chinese, possibly medieval, but there were few concrete sources that I could find on the subject either way.
What is certain is that the royal palace plays a key role in the movie's finale. It is based on the Forbidden Palace, which was finished in 1420. We also see parts of the Great Wall of China, resembling modern extensions done under the Ming dynasty. The lack of firearms used by the guards suggests a tentative date of c. 1475–1520. There were some incursions from northern tribes during this period, but none to seriously threaten Beijing until the overthrow of the Ming dynasty by the Manchu in the 1640s, whom the Huns in Mulan certainly do not resemble. The Huns were long gone by this point. Fireworks also play a part in the finale, putting more credence in a post-1100s setting. There is also no Emperor of China that matches the Emperor in the movie. Most Chinese Emperors didn't have the good luck to live so long, due to the peculiar stresses that come with the office...

There's a long tradition of setting Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) in the mid-16th century, though I'm not sure where this idea originated. Elements of Snow White's dress can be traced back to this era, but the Queen's dress is modeled on the Naumburg sculpture of Uta von Ballenstedt, which was created in the 13th century. Elsewhere, I've argued that the movie's setting could be as late as the early 19th century, based on the items that are shown in the movie. Either way, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is possibly the most fantastical of the Disney fairy tales and could easily be set in any of the periods mentioned.

Another medieval-looking story is The Reluctant Dragon, a sequence from the eponymous movie The Reluctant Dragon (1941). It opens with a shepherd boy reading a book, suggesting that some degree of printing is likely already going on. The best look we get at the period is when Sir Giles dresses himself after his bath, sporting padded hose. These were in fashion during the mid-1500s. Combined with his plumed hat, this fashion suggests a date around 1575. Yes, Sir Giles is a real man à la mode!

Our next story kicks off on December 20, 1606, when the Virginia Company of London sets sail for east coast of North America. Arriving at the Chesapeake Bay in 1607, John Smith is captured by the local Powhatan people in December of that year, and leaves for England in October 1609. The tales of his exploits have been adapted in Disney's Pocahontas (1995). The dubious historicity of this movie has served for a great deal of criticism laced at the film, beginning with Pocahontas' real age. Suffice to say, very little we see in the movie has any basis in historical fact.

The Night on Bald Mountain and Ave Maria sequences of Fantasia (1940) portray a quaint European town that could be set anywhere from the Late Middle Ages to the industrial period. One interesting detail however is the depiction of a graveyard filled with tombstones, which became common from the mid-1600s onwards. The tombstones we see in Fantasia are much too elaborate for this period however, and weren't common until the 19th or even 20th century. They were likely drawn from contemporary reference material. The sequence also shows a very stylized gothic bridge.

After nearly a century in which no Disney movies take place, we return to the age of sail in Treasure Planet (2002), an adaptation of the 1883 adventure novel Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Although Treasure Planet is set in space, it still maintains much of the historical aesthetic of its precursor. Although an exact year is never mentioned, it can be inferred that Treasure Island takes place in 1757 or shortly thereafter.

Treasure Planet begins with a prologue set some twelve years earlier, which depicts a scene set a hundred years prior to the main story. This would translate to the years 1745 and 1657, respectively, although the movie sticks to a generically 18th century aesthetic for all these scenes. This timeline matches the Golden Age of Piracy, which was roughly between 1650 and 1730. It's worth noting that in the book, Captain Flint made his great capture in 1750, a generation after the famous pirate scene.

We also see some space whales in Treasure Planet. These creatures first took to the skies in Pines of Rome sequence from Fantasia 2000 (1999). Since there is no historical evidence of sea mammals shooting off into outer space, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy suggests this procedure is usually taken before the destruction of the planet, there is some sense in placing this sequence in an apocalyptic future. However, the appearance of icebergs in the sequence may suggest otherwise. Speaking of which, the climatological period between 1500 and 1800 is known as the Little Ice Age, a period of relatively cold weather that caused many crop failures. These preceded many great crises and uprisings, such as the French Revolution, where we'll draw the curtain for this chapter.

We close this era with Beauty and the Beast (1991). Its provincial setting doesn't particularly lend itself to any specific period, but the general look of the things seems to indicate the 1760s. Of note is Maurice's steam-powered woodchopper, which isn't too far from other inventions of the period, such as Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot's fardier à vapeur of 1770. The period also fits the general silhouette of Belle's dress, although Belle's bare shoulders are a nod to more contemporary fashion. Beauty and the Beast is a somewhat poor depiction of the beliefs of provincial France in the late 18th century. Not only is there is distinct lack of wigs worn by the upper classes, the idea that women did not read is contradicted by the famous Enlightenment salons of the day. Perhaps if Belle read some more philosophy and less fantasy, she would gain some standing.

And finally, Beauty and the Beast also has a prologue, set ten years prior to the events of the movie, which would be during the 1750s.


This period sees an uptick in literary adaptations like Treasure Planet and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, adding another filter through which we view the world in these movies. This makes it harder to see which creative choices are being made by the original author and which are made by Disney. Sometimes only the basic aesthetic is appropriated, while other times there is more of an attempt to go into depth. Then there are the movies that look medieval, but showcase ideas that are more modern than we usually think. This will be a recurring feature going forward, as we dive into the 19th century.

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[That Duckfan]

Make The Clock Reverse
Revolution and Revelation - 1776 to 1848

"Well, there's one thing. They can't order me to stop dreaming."

The American and French Revolutions shook the foundations of the Western world. When the radical ideas of the Enlightenment were put in practice by republican governments on both sides of the Atlantic, the flames spread quickly. But whereas the American Revolution stabilized, the French Revolution kept turning until it had traveled 360 degrees, and France was stuck with another King Louis in charge. The European monarchs had witnessed the heat of revolution and were determined to put the genie back into the bottle... with one or two adaptations. Europe would be plagued by violent unrest for another century, most notably in 1848. America would have its own bloody self-reckoning later down the line.
At the same time, the Industrial Revolution began to upend the old social order in its own way. This system, too, was exported to the rest of the world, preferably by clipper and musket.

Many of the classic tales Disney is known for trace their origins back to the 19th century one way or another. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, based on the fairy tale first published by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in 1812, is dripping with Romanticism. These people are not so remote from us; we have their photograph. But it's not just European history that Disney draws on. Many Disney movies mythologize American history. And the 19th century features the most famous American myth of all: the Wild West.

(This chapter was split into two parts for length reasons. The second part, covering 1848 to 1895, will be published at the end of the month.)

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One early American author of some notoriety was Washington Irving. Keenly aware of the demands placed on 19th century artists, Irving devoted some time to an establishing an American mythology, and used fictional narrators as a device in order to give his stories a sense of documentary truth. One example of this is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, published in 1820 in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. The story follows a superstitious schoolmaster who gets haunted by the Headless Horseman, the ghost of a Hessian mercenary whose head was blown off during the Revolutionary War. It reflects the ghostly presence of the Revolutionary generation felt by many Americans a generation on.
Disney's adapted Sleepy Hollow in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949). It's a fairly true to the original, but omits the origins of the Headless Horseman. Irving sets his story in the fall of 1790, but Disney goes one step further and identifies the Van Tassel party as a Halloween get-together. Together, they give us a date of Sunday, October 31, 1790. This makes the Legend of Sleepy Hollow the earliest story set in the United States of America.

Another American legend is John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, whose life story was animated in Melody Time (1948). It's very much a hagiographical account, a myth intended to promote Christian values and nation-building. The few facts it gives about Johnny's life are unsubstantiated at best, such as the fact that he supposedly began his trek starting near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, around 1806. The fictional Johnny is portrayed as considerably more youthful than the real-life John, who was already in his 30s by then. The image of the lonesome pioneer, living with nature rather than society, is an exaggerated portrayal that already gained traction during his lifetime.

The timeline of the Frozen series is fairly well documented and can be easily reconstructed. Although no exactly year can be made out from the text, most popular theories boil down to the same idea, which will be discussed below. In this chronology, the earliest event depicted in the series, the wall of mist arising following the treaty between King Runeard of Arendelle and the Northuldra people, took place in June 1812. This is shown in Frozen II (2018).
In real life, Norway was a part of the Danish realm during this period, a state that is now referred to as Denmark-Norway. During the War of the Sixth Coalition, with the country fighting on the French side, Denmark was defeated and was forced to cede the Kingdom of Norway in 1814. Despite attempts to gain sovereignty, Norway was invaded and incorporated as a personal union under Sweden, which would last until 1905.

It is around this time that Tangled's Mother Gothel, now over 400 years old, kidnaps a young Princess Rapunzel, and locks her up in a tower until she escapes on her 18th birthday.

Tangled (2010) is one of those movies that intentionally doesn't style itself after a specific historical time period. While the creators have reportedly claimed that the movie is set in the 1780s, but there's nothing in the movie to suggest this. Early concept art suggests that it was planned to be set in the early 1830s, but these plans were abandoned. None of the royal or civilian fashions seen in the movie match either period, and follow the usual fantasy/medieval outfits seen in other Disney movies. The military uniforms worn by the royal guards are however reminiscent of 18th century Redcoats and 19th century cuirassiers, with their distinctive brass helmets. Their mustaches and sideburns suggest the 1830s, but King Frederic's beard and Flynn's goatee are out of place. Not to mention that Queen Arianna wears her hair down, which was not done in the early 19th century. Rapunzel also wears her hair down for most of the movie, but she gets a pass.
Further context clues come from the Snuggly Duckling thugs, such as Hook Hand's dream of becoming a concert pianist and performing Mozart. The first piano concertos were written in the 1770s, by which time Mozart had begun composing, reaching the height of his fame in the following decades. The map seen during the kingdom dance sequence reflects a knowledge of the world from the 1600s, with much of Australia still unknown. Frying pans (skillets) were invented in the late 19th century, after the development of the modern kitchen stove.
In conclusion, Tangled reflects a vaguely post-Napoleonic period, ignoring all the things that typify that time period.

In the second half of 1830, when Elsa is seven and Anna is five, their parents tell the story of the Northuldra, as seen in Frozen II (2018).

Later that year, Elsa and Anna sneak out for some midnight snow fun. After Elsa accidentally Anna with her ice powers, she begins withdrawing herself from society. We also see a young Kristoff and Sven, in the opening scenes of Frozen (2013). Among Anna and Elsa's toys is a bicycle with anachronistic pedals. The first bicycle, called a walking machine, was invented by Karl Freiherr von Dreis in 1817. It was a brief fad among the London upper set in the summer of 1819, gaining derisive nicknames such as dandy horse or hobby horse before being retired into obscurity. The bicycle fad would return numerous times in the following decades, most notably after the invention of the safety bicycle in the early 1890s. Anna's bicycle has pedals on the wheels, which would not be invented until 1853.

Another scene of Johnny Appleseed from Melody Time (1948) shows him checking in on an apple festival. The gigot sleeves and bonnets worn by the women in this segment is an unmistakable reflection of the early 1830s. I'm not sure the pioneers were ever quite so friendly with the Native Americans, but they deserve a place in the story of America, and this is sadly their only 19th century appearance.

A nine-year old Anna tries to connect to an increasingly withdrawn twelve-year old Elsa in Frozen (2013), in early 1835.

1837 sees the first publication of H.C. Andersen's story about a little mermaid, adapted by Disney as The Little Mermaid (1989). Although the Disney version is still ostensibly set in Denmark, neither the natural environment nor the architecture looks particularly Danish. Although the dresses of the nobility appear to be picked from a wide variety of historical periods, the peasant women place this movie firmly in the billowing gowns era of the mid-19th century. Grimsby appears to have held onto the previous century's fashion, which was adopted by some royal servants during this period, and can still be seen today. Vanessa wears a white wedding dress. White became a popular color for the upper classes to get married in after the wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1840, although it would take another century for it to become the standard in Western culture. Chef Louis's kitchen is a little advanced for the time period, but not by much. A more glaring omission is the lack of kitchen staff. Ariel's gigot sleeves, if anywhere, point toward the early 1830s. Whether this fashion choice is intentional, is however doubtful.

The following year, Andersen published The Steadfast Tin Soldier, which was turned into one of Disney's first computer-animated segments in Fantasia 2000 (1999). This version seems to stay fairly true to the original.

A map dated 1840 is used for King Agnarr and Queen Iduna's sea journey in Frozen (2013), which sees them both perish in a storm. Although not watertight, this map serves as the basis for most Frozen chronologies. Behind-the-scenes information has revealed Anna and Elsa's ages at various points in their life (15 and 18 years old in this scene, respectively), as well as their birthdays. From this, we can reconstruct their birthdays: Elsa was born on December 21, 1822, while Anna was born on June 21, 1825. Yes, they were born on the winter and summer solstice, respectively.

The bulk of Frozen (2013) takes place in July, three years after the deaths of the King and Queen of Arendelle. This takes us to July 1843, when Anna is 18 years old and Elsa is 21. Unlike some other princess movies in this era, Frozen takes a lot of inspiration from its setting, leading to a reasonably verisimilar reproduction of 1840s Norway. However, Elsa's ice dress is complete nonsense, as are some of the other ways in which the royals behave, but these things are typical in a Disney princess movie.

The final scene of Johnny Appleseed from Melody Time (1948) tells the story of Johnny passing from this world to the great orchard in the sky. The historical date for this event is March 18, 1845.

Olaf gets his own reckoning with life and death three years on from Frozen, in Frozen II (2019). This event is said to take place in November, taking us to November 1846. Anna is now 21 years old, and Elsa is 23. The pace of technology is shown at the end of the movie, when General Matthias becomes the earliest Disney character to have his photograph taken. Portrait photography had been introduced in 1839, only seven years earlier, and was at this point only practiced by a handful of enthusiasts. James K. Polk, the American president at this time (1845–1849), is the earliest president photographed in office whose portrait survives.

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Taken together, the period from 1790 to 1850 covers only a handful of movies, of which some like Tangled and The Little Mermaid only find themselves here with the greatest reluctance. There's a trade-off that movies like Tangled and Beauty and the Beast are all too aware of: set your movie too recently, and you lose the magic. But go back too far, and the aesthetic becomes alien to modern eyes. Older Disney movies are more comfortable with showing the funny clothes of their great-grandparents' day, but the lack of detail and historical awareness means that they have their own downsides. By 1850, there's only two official Disney princesses we haven't covered: Cinderella and Tiana.

As for the story of America, Disney doesn't have the greatest track record so far. Many of the segments we've seen so far were created in the 1940s, with the exception of Pocahontas. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is probably the most truthful portrayal of American history thus far. America will come to dominate the future chapters, so there'll be more to uncover then. In the second half of this chapter, we'll go out West and down South.

[That Duckfan]

Zip-Ah-Dee-Doo-Dah Days
Dreamscapes and Frontier Legends - 1848 to 1891

"The Queen?!" *RULE BRITANNIA PLAYS*

After 1848, the Victorian Era as we know it begins to take shape. Europe is marked growing industrialization and new ideologies, while the Americas take in German and Irish immigrants. In India, Indochina, and the Far East, Western powers gain an increased stronghold, suppressing the freedoms of millions. However, they also begin to abolish slavery. In a final act of imperial hubris, Western powers will carve up Africa at the conference table.
However, this is also a period of innovation. Railroad tracks and telegraph wires connect the world. Charles Darwin publishes his theory of evolution. Epidemiology and sanitation makes strides in the fight against disease. Education and labor laws are passed. Artists and philosophers discover new ways of seeing the world.

What does Disney make of all this? Well, the bulk of the movies in this period are set in the United States, and that should come as no surprise. This was the era of the Wild West, and some of the stories are set in that particular locale. Disney's take on the Wild West is very tongue-in-cheek, more a parody of the Western than a genuine attempt to do the genre. In fact, there's arguably only one story that tries to paint a true picture of its setting, and it falls flat on its face. Perhaps this is a hard era to do justice with the old Disney tropes.

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Our latest princess is the young Cinderella (1950), who gains Lady Tremaine as a stepmother in the late 1850s. Drizella and Anastasia's dresses, with their tiered flounces, are typical of the period. They were indeed worn by girls as well as women, at a time when children's fashion was usually quite distinct.

Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, published in 1865, follows the story of a young girl through a topsy-turvy fantasy land. The genesis of this story lies in a mellow summer boat ride on July 4, 1862, while textual evidence suggests the book is set on Sunday, May 4 of that same year. It was adapted as Disney's Alice in Wonderland (1951), and fairly closely at that. However, a line in the song "All in the Golden Afternoon" suggests that the Disney version is set in June (presumably, because it rhymes with afternoon). If so, that would give Alice in Wonderland the most trivially changed setting relative to the original. Other than that, many of the movie's sequences closely mirror the chapters in the book.

1863 saw the beginnings of the Hatfield-McCoy feud along the West Virginia-Kentucky border, which would last until the Hatfields were put on trial in 1889. This legendary feud served as the basis for The Martins and the Coys, the opening segment of Make Mine Music (1946) that is often censored for its comedic depiction of gun violence. The Martins and the Coys shows an especially dim portrayal of the families, portraying them as lazy, devious, and quick to violence. The Hatfield-McCoy feud finds its origins in the American Civil War, which in 1863 saw the breakaway of West Virginia from the rest of Virginia to join the Union.

Out West in Texas, we have the childhood of Pecos Bill from Melody Time (1948).

Once Upon A Wintertime, the opening segment of Melody Time (1948), shows a young couple ice skating on a snowy winter's day. Heavily inspired by the picturesque prints published by Currier and Ives that were popular in the late 19th century and well-remembered in the 1940s, the short appears to take place in the mid-to-late 1860s. The girl's heavy crinoline, her dress slightly raised and dyed in bold colors, is typical of the fashion of this time. The boy's stiff collar was also popular during this decade.

The next step after the crinoline was the crinolette, which moved the main emphasis of the dress to the back. The new silhouette that resulted from this took shape at the tail end of the 1860s and into the early 1870s. Drizella and Anastasia's dresses, as seen in Cinderella (1950), proudly show off the excesses of this silhouette. But the men in Cinderella are also very much of their time. The King's walrus mustache was also sported by Otto von Bismarck, the Prussian chancellor (1867–1871, 1871–1890) whose political plays to unify Germany during this period made him the preeminent statesman of his time. The Grand Duke, meanwhile, sports a combination of mustache and sideburns that has become associated with Franz Joseph, emperor of the dual monarchy Austria-Hungary (1848–1916) who was wedded to Elisabeth in Bavaria, the famous Sissi (1854–1898).
Due to the French origins Cinderella's story, many sources report that the movie is set in France. A simple glance at French political history disproves this; Cinderella is set in a fantasy kingdom just like all the others. France was organized as the Second French Empire between 1852 and 1870, under the rule of Napoleon III, a nephew of the famous general who had come to power as President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte in a democratic election in 1848, and proclaimed himself emperor at the end of his term. After France's humiliating defeat at the hands of the German states at the Battle of Sedan, Napoleon III was deposed and the Third French Republic (1870–1940) was instated.

The first book featuring the tales of Brer Rabbit, Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings, was written by Joel Chandler Harris in 1881. It was popular enough to warrant a Disney adaptation in the form of Song of the South (1946), a movie with a live-action framework. The movie is famous for the criticism it received for its portrayal of race relations, which go back as far as the movie's production. A common misconception is that the movie takes place during slavery. Disney has always claimed that Song of the South takes place during Reconstruction. I have been somewhat skeptical of this claim, but it turns out to be true. The fashions seen in the movie resemble those of the period 1872–1875.
Song of the South is an interesting movie in how it shows the limits of the Disney method. Walt's view of childhood was famously nostalgic and romanticized, and the movie follows suit by portraying the South in this way as well. While there were some relatively friendly relationships between southern blacks and whites at this time, these feelings were pretty much restricted to communities where free blacks were already living before the Civil War. There was no love lost between rural blacks and whites after the war, and to pretend otherwise is disingenuous. Although the former slaves at the plantations were legally free, economic constraints forced many to return to their old jobs and under their old masters under pitiful circumstances. In this light, Disney's decision to resurrect the romance of the old plantation for this setting simply yields to old white supremacist tropes.

There's an addition reference to events that happened outside of Song of the South's timeframe. "It was a long time ago," reminisces Uncle Remus, "and in them days, everything was mighty satisfaction. De critters, dey was closer to de folks, and de folks, dey was closer to de critter. And if you'll 'scuse me for saying so, 'twas better all 'round." Now, if you ascribe to the theory that the tales of Brer Rabbit were based on African folk tales, you could imagine that this mythical time represents Africa. But they are American, and indeed the animated sequences reflect the geography of the American South. This puts Uncle Remus' loving nostalgia in a very dubious position. It doesn't take a genius to figure out where 'a long time ago' from Reconstruction is heading... and the implications are quite disturbing.
The song "Zip-Ah-Dee-Doo-Dah" is one element of the movie that has survived the longest. It likely took some inspiration from the popular song "Zip C00n" (replace the 00s with oos), an 1834 hit song that kicked off America's love affair with minstrel shows. While the words to "Zip C00n" have since faded from popular memory, its melody was adapted to another American standard that is still with us today: "Turkey in the Straw". This song has been quoted everywhere, most notably in Steamboat Willie (1928).

The opening scene of Tarzan (1999) portrays an infant Tarzan, shipwrecked along the African shore around 1881. When his parents are killed by Sabor the leopard, gorilla mother Kala adopts Tarzan as her son. The Disney version differs slightly from Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel Tarzan of the Apes (1912) by having Tarzan be born before his parents are marooned. Furthermore, in the book Tarzan's parents are revealed to be John and Alice Clayton, Viscount and Lady Greystoke. Tarzan's cousin, William Clayton, plays a large part in the book as well. The story was altered in adaptation, and the name Clayton ended up being used for another character. The books follow a slighty different timeline, with records Tarzan's birth as 1889.

The final segment in Melody Time (1948), Pecos Bill, swings all the way to the legendary end of the pendulum. Legend says that Pecos Bill filled the Gulf of Mexico and dug the Rio Grande, that he painted the Painted Desert and seeded the gold in them thar hills. These geological feats would make Bill an order of magnitude older than mankind itself. More relevant to dating is Slue Foot Sue, who wears a bustle. The bustle had its day in the sun after the crinolette, peaking in size in the years around 1885. This is a fairly late depiction of Pecos Bill, who is usually depicted as being born around 1830 or 1845. By 1885, Texas wasn't as wild as it had once been. In fact, it had been a state of the Union for four decades. Pecos Bill was first introduced to the public in 1917, while the Wild West was still in living memory. In fact, he postdates the first Western movie, The Great Train Robbery (1903), by 14 years!

Checking back in with Tarzan (1999) several years after the shipwreck, child Tarzan has made friends with Terk the gorilla and Tantor the elephant.

The last time Disney paid tribute to the Wild West was in Home on the Range (2004). There's some confusion over when exactly this movie takes place. Many sources say 1889, based on a freeze-frame shot of the deed to the Little Patch of Heaven, which states the date of sale as May 4, 1889. However, the method of 'newspaper dating' is unreliable, as these papers are often Easter eggs filled with a lot of nonsense. In addition, Sheriff Brown mentions the date of the auction as Thursday, September 24. There was no such date in 1889, and in fact the nearest such date would fall in 1891 and 1896. Also, May 4, 1889 was a Sunday, and it's unlikely that a 19th century land auction would've taken place on a Sunday! The setting of the movie in the so-called "Southwestern Territory" is completely fictional, but the environment heavily resembles Monument Valley, Utah, which was admitted as a state of the Union in January 1896. This and other circumstantial evidence suggests that Home on the Range takes place from Monday, September 21 to Thursday, September 24, 1891.
In terms of content, the movie follows the classic cattle rustling plot. Cattle rustling wasn't as frequent as is portrayed in Westerns, but it was taken very seriously. Convicted cattle rustlers were often sentenced to death. The practice decreased as farmers switched from open-range grazing to fencing. Slim's dealings from Mr. Wesley is also significant, as the railroads used to transport cattle were powerful monopolies that held a tight grip over the Western states. Attitudes were changing at the time the movie is set, and the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 became the first federal law to regulate industry. More anti-trust laws would follow in the coming decades.
Farmers such as Pearl were generally quite poor during this period, with the few profits they made going to the bank to pay off their mortgage. Following the Panic of 1893 and the subsequent recession, many farmers organized against the gold standard and advocated for bimetallism or "Free Silver". This movement launched the career of three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, but the gold standard continued to reign supreme until it was abolished by President Nixon in 1971. Meanwhile, the transition to mechanical farming implements in the early 1900s substantially improved the profitability of American agriculture, and today the USA is the top agricultural exporter in the world.

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As with many era, we can distinguish three types of stories here. First there's the stories that are set in the 19th century because they're adaptations of a story from that time. These do pretty well with historical accuracy, since pretty much everything is already given. Next, there are the stories that are not based off a definite original, take a great deal of inspiration from material from the era. Examples include the legends of Pecos Bill, Tarzan, and Uncle Remus. These stories wildly differ in their depictions based on the literary tradition and the time in which they were written. Finally, there are the completely new and original stories about the 19th century. There's arguably only one or two here, and are very much filtered through the lens of later periods. That doesn't mean that they're historically wrong, just that they present their surroundings in a certain light. If animated movies were made to be historically accurate, they wouldn't be worth watching.

Next chapter, we're heading to the third half of the 19th century and the first part of the twentieth, in what is likely another two-parter. Calling for Main Street, U.S.A.!

[That Duckfan]

As Her Sixty-Year Reign Comes To An End
Fin de Siècle - 1891 to 1901

"But we are peaceful explorers, men of science." "And yet you bring weapons."

As we reach the 1890s, we see a definite shift in Disney's portrayal of history. For the first time, we find stories that are framed within living memory. We find narrators looking back on their childhood with nostalgia. The 1890s is the first era that was within living memory of Disney's older employees, as well as society at large. Popular culture as we know it was more or less established at this time, with the availability of the first commercial phonographs and motion picture screenings later in the decade. For the first time, a decade seemed to have a specific cultural flavor. The 1890s would find itself the object of nostalgia during the 1930s and '40s, a process in which Walt Disney played a not insignificant role. Incidentally, the period from 1895 to 1914 is where we find the highest density of Disney stories.

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One of the earliest stories to be framed as a memory is The Flying Gauchito, from The Three Caballeros (1944). An interesting detail about The Three Caballeros is that it features narrators that were made up for purely narrative purposes, such as "Professor Holloway" in The Cold-Blooded Penguin. The narrator of The Flying Gauchito, played by Fred Shields, is an old gaucho from the pampas of Uruguay. He tells a story about himself as a child and his flying donkey. Although no concrete dates are given, I imagine this event happened some 50–55 years earlier, putting us in the early 1890s. In a final twist of logic, the narrator ends the story by saying that the gauchito (he himself!) was never seen or heard from again!

1894 sees the publication of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, which was adapted by Disney as The Jungle Book (1967). This is one of two stories from the so-called second wave of colonialism that comprises the 19th and early 20th centuries. The book places the action in the Seoni area of Madhya Pradesh, under the British Raj (established in 1857). The movie leaves fewer clues, but a deleted song called "Song of the Seonee" (colonial spelling) suggests that Disney had the same location in mind.
The timeframe is a bit more complicated. The character of Mowgli was based on reports of feral children that periodically reached the news, and still do. The original story in which he appeared, "In the Rukh" (1893), shows Mowgli growing up into a young man, suggesting that his childhood was a number of years before the story was published. However, there are some differences between the Mowgli of "In the Rukh" and The Jungle Book, so it's not entirely clear what relation the two stories have with one another. At any rate, the setting of the Disney version can only be determined as being some time before indoor plumbing reached Seoni, as there's little else we see of the Man-Village.

By the mid-1890s, baseball was fast becoming one of America's favorite popular pastimes. This era is recreated with a wink in Casey at the Bat, the fifth segment in Make Mine Music (1946). It was adapted from Ernest Thayer's 1888 poem of the same name. A peculiar feature of this sequence is the use of an exaggerated Irish accent by narrator Jerry Colonna. In fact, Casey himself, with his name and his red hair, is a typical Irish stereotype of the day. Irish people began to migrate en masse to the United States in the 1850s, escaping from discrimination, poverty, and famine in their native Ireland. Being the first ethnicity with a majority Catholic background to arrive in the United States, the Irish still faced substantial discrimination in America. Even as late as the 1940s, the idea of the "funny Irish" evidently remained in the public eye. As a result, Irish-Americans have remained fiercely proud of their heritage. Even today, Americans from mixed backgrounds still often wear their Irish heritage as a badge of honor, President Biden being among them.

The classic image of the late Victorian era is brought to life in The Great Mouse Detective (1986). This movie sets its events around Queen Victoria's (or rather, her mouse equivalent's) diamond jubilee on Sunday, June 20, 1897. The movie portrays a fairly accurate portrayal of London in the year 1897, especially its seedier districts. Though as far as June days go, this is a particularly foggy one, even for London.
One interesting use of technology is the gramophone employed by Professor Ratigan in his trap to kill Basil and Dawson. This is the earliest instance of such a device in a Disney movie. The Gramophone was a disc record invented by Emile Berliner, and a competitor to Thomas Edison's cylinder Phonograph record system. Although the phonograph had some early commercial successes, the gramophone method eventually won out and replaced the phonograph by the 1910s. While both were originally brand names, but have since merged in general use as a broad term for old-timey recording devices.
There is some confusion over the exact timeframe of the movie. Ratigan introduces his plan to kidnap the Mouse Queen on the day before, but the events of the movie all seem to take place on the same night. The dates are confirmed in the Illustrated London Mouse edition of Monday, June 21, 1897, seen at the end of the movie, but it remains unclear which of the events took place on Saturday and which took place on Sunday. Although the actual Queen Victoria's jubilee was on Sunday the 20th, the actual festivities weren't held until Tuesday the 22nd. It was common in 19th century political circles to start the week on Tuesday, so that nobody would be required to travel on the Sabbath. Advances in transportation made this largely obsolete in the 20th century, but in some cases the tradition persists.

Tarzan (1999), Disney's other colonial story, is a little shaky in its historical foundation. This is demonstrated when Jane imagines Tarzan coming with her to Great Britain and meeting high society: Charles Darwin, Rudyard Kipling, and Queen Victoria. These three weren't contemporaries. Kipling's career spanned from the 1880s to the 1930s. He had made a name for himself by the 1890s, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. Darwin's work stretched from the 1830s to his death in 1882, just as Kipling was publishing his first stories in local newspapers in British India. Why would Jane get excited about meeting a nobody, or a dead man?
Other clues about the movie's setting don't enlighten much either. Jane Porter enters the scene wearing a bustle, which puts us in the 1880s, but the gramophone in the camp and other instruments suggest the 1890s. The slide show Tarzan watches during the song "Strangers Like Me" features a number of modern objects: Schloss Neuschwanstein (opened 1886), a zoetrope (1868) with a penny-farthing bicycle (1870s–80s), a phaeton-style automobile (c. 1898), the Eiffel Tower (1889), an electrical omnibus (1890s), boxing (popular at the turn of the century), the Statue of Liberty (completed 1886), a flyer (pre-1903), the Mona Lisa (popularized after theft in 1911), a proposal (fashion c. 1889). From this, a date in the late 1880s or in the years 1898–1901 seems the most likely.
The spin-off TV series The Legend of Tarzan (2001–2003) follows the events a few years after the movie, following the event of a trading post in 1912. This date is taken from Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes (1912), which is the original source material for the movie. In the book however, Tarzan and Jane meet two years prior, and the plot continues after their initial meeting. The divergence between the TV series and the film is one of the reasons why sequels are not considered 'canon' for this timeline.
So, what of the movie? It takes place during the Scramble for Africa (1885–1914), when European states set up colonial administrations all over Africa in order to stake a claim to its resources. There was a curious kind of racism in the air at the time, where white people had been to Africa were seen as tainted in their association with the continent. In Tarzan of the Apes, we see this in Tarzan's eventual refusal to claim his birthright as a British peer. This part of the story was removed for the movie. Similar ideas about atavism (reverse evolution) and primitivism can be found in music, most famously in "The Rite of Spring" (1913) by Igor Stravinsky, which has been covered elsewhere, stripped of its original meaning. See also the feral child Mowgli in The Jungle Book (1894).
Unlike the book, where Tarzan eventually travels to the "civilized" world, in the movie Jane and her father stay in Africa to live with Tarzan and his ape family. While this avoids some of the negative ideas about Africa that informed the original book, it does open up a whole new question about white settler colonialism. The book and the TV series portray Africans living in the area, while the movie avoids this question by presenting the area as unpopulated, and thus falling into another colonial trope.

We close out the 19th century with a couple of flashbacks from Encanto (2022), starting with Alma meeting Pedro Madrigal on the Day of the Little Candles (día de la velitas): Thursday, December 7, 1899. They quickly fall in love and get married in January 1900. Their children, Julieta, Pepa, and Bruno are born on Wednesday, October 17, 1900. That very night, the family and other villagers are forced to flee their homes after soldiers set the town on fire. Pedro dies in the defense his family, but from his sacrifice an enchanted miracle is created, the Encanto.
Although the movie's timeline is officially left vague, much of this information has been pieced together by fans of the movie, thanks to writer Jared Bush sharing the symbolically significant birthdays of the Madrigal family on Twitter. The Thousand Days' War (1899–1902) was the real-life conflict that served as the inspiration behind Encanto.

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As we cross into the 20th century, we find still find many artefacts of history. Colonial regions, cowboys, monarchies. But we also see the lining of modernity, or at least materially. This period also serves as a reminder that attitudes may not last forever. The world of Casey at the Bat was only 50 years old at the time the story was developed, which is now well over 75 years ago. The history in the movies is dissolving into the history of the movies.

Our next period will take us through the first quarter of the 20th century. A great many things happened during that time, including the first powered flight and the first world war. It will prove to be eventful century, indeed.