What Are We Missing?
The issue with Disney’s Huns.
Many Disney movies have been accused of being racist in the past. There is always that one lyric or that one scene that isn’t okay. This is the problem that will eventually be Disney’s downfall. They strive so hard to be correct but racism and race stereotypes are so deeply ingrained in our culture that it’s hard to escape their effects. With that said, it’s really not that hard to create a movie without those things, and Disney needs to up its game when it comes to issues of that magnitude. In recent times, Disney movies have been much better. With “Moana”, the producers and film makers took major steps to ensure that the movie was accurate and not inappropriate in its portrayal of Polynesian culture. While there are still a couple of inaccuracies, this movie was a bit of a breakthrough for Disney. However, the same cannot be said for some of Disney’s older movies. Specifically, Mulan.
One of the major issues with Mulan that isn’t so harmless is the color of the Huns’ skin. This is something I didn’t understand when I was younger. I would think to myself, “Why are they so dark? Their eyes are yellow, too. They kind of look like monsters”… And that’s exactly what Disney wants. Aside from the fact that the audience needs a villain to pin the blame on, Disney has very specific ways of getting watchers to identify the bad guy. One trademark characteristic is the color neon green. Watch for it in a Disney movie and you won’t be disappointed. Some other characteristics are elongated or exaggerated facial features or faces that seem sharper or more pointed. Maleficent from “Sleeping Beauty” is the perfect example:
Not only are Maleficent’s features pointed and sharp (her face and her horns), her skin is greenish and the dragon she turns into breathes neon green fire. We can also use Ursula from “The Little Mermaid” as an example:
Ursula’s features are extremely exaggerated and in the scene where she steal’s Ariel’s voice, everything is tinged with neon green, signifying evil.
The issue with the Huns in “Mulan” is the fact that there is no neon green. Shan Yu’s (leader of the Hun Army) eyes are a bit of a sickly yellow but that’s not what we’re looking for. The neon green that Disney employs in almost every princess movie is nowhere to be found in Mulan. The trademark characteristic here is the Huns’ dark skin.
Colorism has always been a problem for not only Asian countries but the whole world. Colorism is separate from racism in that it’s not discrimination based on race, only shade of skin. Colorism is still abundant in countries like India and Korea, where you can find countless skin-whitening creams that claim to make you more pale. Disney knew exactly what they were doing when they made the Huns’ skin color so dark. To ostracize Shan Yu in particular, they made him the most dark out of the whole army. They also gave him the stereotypical Disney villain features, but that’s not the problem. Tactics like this have been used in previous Disney movies, and that just makes this instance worse. When Disney was making “Mulan”, they knew they could play on the global insecurity of having dark(er) skin and make it easier for the audience to hate the villain. Using this strategy to define the villain only emphasizes the presence of colorism in our current culture and how it goes unnoticed in simple things like kids’ movies. Disney is a hugely influential company and the Huns are only one example of how they need to be better- for the kids that watch princess movies, but also, for the adults who think it’s okay to hate someone for having darker skin.
