Disney and Virtue Ethics: Understanding Disney Film through Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to develop an analytical framework based in Aristotle’s
 Nicomachean Ethics and to apply this framework to Disney films in order to broaden the
 current discussion and analysis of Disney films. The first portion of this thesis was an
 overview of the most common critiques of Disney film, which includes a discussion of
 Disney’s portrayal of race, class, and gender. Next, the analytical framework was
 outlined to include the four main elements of Aristotelian virtue ethics: telos, moral
 agent, cultivation of virtue, and friendship. Then, the framework was applied to three
 Disney animated films: Pinocchio (1940), Hercules (1997), and Brave (2012). The results
 demonstrated that Pinocchio and Brave did not fully comply with the framework, while
 Hercules was perfectly described by the framework. However, this analysis revealed that
 Disney films present relevant modern moral dilemmas in spite of their problematic
 stereotypical representations of people of color, of lower classes, and of the female
 gender. It was concluded that Disney films included morally objectionable material,
 however, some Disney films were worthy of moral consideration due to their inclusion of
 moral narratives.