Anyone else dislike how Disney glorifies "Pirates"?

[DisneyConvert]

Face it folks, pirates were the 17th Century equivalent of terrorists. Stealing, killing, raping, etc. It wasn't all Errol Flynn and "Captain Blood."
.
Anyone see the movie "Captain Phillips"? Somalian pirates were a big problem from approx. 2005~2010 until organized Navies brought out the big guns. Yes, they killed innocent crews on both commercial and pleasure craft.

Maybe they were colorful and followed a "code," but I am pretty sure ISIS terrorists do as well.

 

[Elle23]

Nope. Never bothered me.

Pretty sure my kids dressed up as pirates for Halloween when they were little and I never had an existential crisis about it.

 

[mevelandry]

That is a valid point of view.

My guess is they have that theme because Pirates of the Caribbean is part of their movies, otherwise they wouldn't talk about it.

 

[MamaBelle4]

Face it folks, pirates were the 17th Century equivalent of terrorists. Stealing, killing, raping, etc. It wasn't all Errol Flynn and "Captain Blood."
.
Anyone see the movie "Captain Phillips"? Somalian pirates were a big problem from approx. 2005~2010 until organized Navies brought out the big guns. Yes, they killed innocent crews on both commercial and pleasure craft.

Maybe they were colorful and followed a "code," but I am pretty sure ISIS terrorists do as well.

Pretty sure pirates are romanticized by more than just Disney. Same as knights, gunslingers and explorers.

Let's not lose sight of the fact that pirates were often employed by countries to attack other countries nor should we lose fact that we tend to pick and choose which parts of history to celebrate. Collectively, society has chosen to celebrate the free spirited, adventurous nature of pirates, choosing to ignore the less than pleasant things you mentioned.

It is not limited to pirates. How many western movies and films are out there? What about knights? Same thing.

Disney movies are fairy tales. It is akin to being upset that "Disney" glorified the crusades in Robin Hood.

 

[MikeGS]

I always remember an episode of Jake and the neverland pirates where someone says "a real pirate never steals!"

Anyway, personally, while I'm aware of the connotations and history, I don't have a problem. In the same way my son went to world book day dressed as Calcifer, the fire demon, from Howls Moving Castle. It's light hearted fun to me.

Also the pirates deck party is the best party I've ever been to... ever. So I forgive a lot for that.

 

[NS8VN]

Why aren't you getting upset about Star Wars? The rebels commit terrorist acts against a legitimate government and we glorify them. You can say that it is fantasy but the romanticized version of pirates on a Disney ship are no more real than them.

 

[Cackyschmackers]

Yep, I'm with you. One of my daughters actually said, But pirates don't exist anymore, right? So I did give her a brief and age-appropriate overview that, Yes, unfortunately, they do exist, but not like you're thinking and it's not likely we'd ever run into any.

 

[squirk]

If you want to peel back the true historical layers like that, you can also focus on how our founding fathers in the Hall of Presidents were also slave owners. You can talk about the gross and insulting caricatures of Africans in Jungle Cruise. You can talk about about how the U.S. railroads and mining companies employed slave labor and indentured servitude. You can talk about how aspects of settling the Wild West involved the killing and dislocation of Native American people. You can talk about how real princesses were sold off like chattel or traded for the sake of their dowry or to strengthen family land holdings. You can talk about how circuses have traditionally abused and mistreated animals such as elephants. You can talk about how turn-of-the-century Main Street USA probably engaged in segregationist policies where African Americans wouldn't be served at the Main Street Bakery and couldn't use the bathrooms that white people used outside City Hall.

I'm not saying you don't have a good point, but, I mean, we can go on and on until we get to a place where 75% of MK should be torn down due to negative parts of its' attractions' actual history.

 

[MUN]

Face it folks, pirates were the 17th Century equivalent of terrorists. Stealing, killing, raping, etc. It wasn't all Errol Flynn and "Captain Blood."
.
Anyone see the movie "Captain Phillips"? Somalian pirates were a big problem from approx. 2005~2010 until organized Navies brought out the big guns. Yes, they killed innocent crews on both commercial and pleasure craft.

Maybe they were colorful and followed a "code," but I am pretty sure ISIS terrorists do as well.

I agree with you and have been tempted to dress as a Somalia pirate, but I don't think that would be go over very well.

MUN

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Woody in Toy Story glorifies the stealing of lands from Native peoples.

And let's not even get into the total whitewashing of Pocahontas, k?

 

[MikeGS]

While we're at it we could also explore the "Noble savages" myth in Pocahontas? Or the samurai from Mulan. Or the real circle of life from the lion king, (or what happened to Bambi's mum)

They'll learn all that stuff later.

 

[MamaBelle4]

Why aren't you getting upset about Star Wars? The rebels commit terrorist acts against a legitimate government and we glorify them.

mean, we can go on and on until we get to a point where 75% of MK should be torn down due to negative parts of its history.

Woody in Toy Story glorifies the stealing of lands from Native peoples.

And let's not even get into the total whitewashing of Pocahontas, k?

Yep, yep & yep.

And all of these were far more recent than the heyday of pirates.

 

[Cackyschmackers]

If you want to peel back the true historical layers like that, you can also focus on how our founding fathers in the Hall of Presidents were also slave owners. You can talk about the gross and insulting caricatures of Africans in Jungle Cruise. You can talk about about how the U.S. railroads and mining companies employed slave labor and indentured servitude. You can talk about how aspects of settling the Wild West involved the killing and dislocation of Native American people. You can talk about how real princess were sold off like chattel or traded for the sake of their dowry or to strengthen family land holdings. You can talk about how circuses have traditionally abused and mistreated animals such elephants. You can talk about how turn-of-the-century Main Street USA probably engaged in segregationist policies where African Americans wouldn't be served at the Main Street Bakery and couldn't use the bathrooms that white people used outside City Hall.

I mean, we can go on and on until we get to a point where 75% of MK should be torn down due to negative parts of its history.

Hopefully we all ARE discussing the ugly truth of our collective history with our kids and are learning from it! Heck, my kids knew when they were 8 how Walt purchased basically what are protected wetlands to build WDW!

 

[MamaBelle4]

Fairy tales glorify less than savory parts of world history. I'll bet you could name just about any Disney film and someone on here could tell you the evil parts that are glazed over or romanticized.

 

[SuperDry]

What about the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in the parks? Women are chased, bought, and sold. A town is burned down, and they finish off with getting drunk and playing with guns at the same time.

 

[bumbershoot]

It's like you guys are living in my poor little conflicted head.

If you even knew how many conversations my family had had where I explain that Norrington and Beckett are on the side of law and order and good and right, while the ones the movies are about are criminals...

I always remember an episode of Jake and the neverland pirates where someone says "a real pirate never steals!"

Ha!

Also the pirates deck party is the best party I've ever been to... ever.

Really? Ds liked the dancing but dh (who likes a good party) and I despised it.

Heck, my kids knew when they were 8 how Walt purchased basically what are protected wetlands to build WDW!

I think I love you.

Though I think it was actually farmland at the time. He sure was sneaky and filled with lies about it no matter the status of the land!

 

[LSUfan4444]

Aladdin was a thief. Peter Pan was a liar. Ariel was a runaway. Rapunzel made a deal with a known criminal who was the prime suspect in a countryside manhunt. Simba ran away from home. Mulan lied to the government. Redemption is part of the fabric that is Disney. Lets just pretend that all pirates become redeemed and live happily ever after.

 

[anricat]

This semester in school (my daughter goes to an alternative private school) her teacher sent an email at the beginning of the semester saying that the kids wanted to learn about pirates. She wanted to check in with the parents and make sure that this was okay since the kids seemed to have this romanticized view of them and if she was going to teach them about pirates, she was actually going to teach them about what they were really like. All the parents were all for it so now my daughter (age 8 in a classroom of 3-5 graders - like I said, strange school) is learning all about real pirates. It's been really good, I think. But we also dressed up like pirates last week on the Magic and had a great time. I think one can have a good time with both. The pirate museum in Nassau has some great history and is quite enjoyable, but it does paint a fairly gruesome picture at times.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

...and what about that part in Peter Pan? You know that part. What made the red man red? Ahem.

SMALLPOX BROUGHT BY SETTLERS.

 

[LSUfan4444]

What about the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in the parks? Women are chased, bought, and sold. A town is burned down, and they finish off with getting drunk and playing with guns at the same time.

Song of the South is so racially driven that it cant even be bought in the US now without jumping through a few hoops and every time I go down that last drop on Splash Mountain, I smile like no other. My black friends understand.