By Caroline Lagorio
Movies and media shape children’s upbringing worldwide, influencing both their entertainment preferences and also their understanding of culture, morality, and the world around them, says Martina Mattei, a Comparative Literature Ph.D. student at UC Santa Barbara.
The effect is particularly impacted by the “Disneyfication” of literature, when an original story’s cultural richness and moral complexity is stripped away to create a more appealing and entertaining version for children, Mattei told a recent IHC Research Focus Group session.
Focusing on Disney’s reimagining of Pinocchio and The Little Mermaid, Mattei said adaptations of classic children's literature can both enrich and oversimplify the original texts but there is a delicate balance in staying true to the original stories while making them accessible to younger audiences.
Martina Mattei, UCSB Comparative Literature Ph.D. student, researches how children’s literature is adapted across different cultures and media, examining whether these techniques are harmful to young minds and dilute cultural authenticity.
“Translating for children involves a careful balancing act,” Mattei said. “Translators must preserve the artistic and cultural integrity of the source text when adapting to suit the needs and abilities of the young target audience.”
Adaptations are often motivated by assumptions about the audience's cognitive abilities, the story’s commercial appeal, and often require censorship of elements that were in the original, in order to align with specific cultures of the target audience.
A key example Mattei discussed was the Disney adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s 1883 novel Pinocchio. In the original novel, the story's themes are portrayed with a dark and grim tone, as when Pinocchio’s disobedience and lies lead him to be severely punished.
“The pictures are very dark and disturbing,” Mattei noted, referring to the original illustrations that accompanied the novel, which were much darker than what we see in Disney’s 1940 film adaptation.
Disney’s iconic film adaptation simplifies Collodi's original themes and omits much of the novel’s violent imagery. Instead, the film focuses on Pinocchio’s redemption, offering a more uplifting and relatable moral lesson. But she said this shift raises an important question: Does the simplification take away from the original story's depth?
The answer isn’t a straightforward ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ Mattei said. While simplifying things may be necessary for younger audiences, it also involves what she called “domestication,” a strategy that aims to make the story more relatable by altering or removing unfamiliar cultural elements in order to align with the target culture and its moral values. This helps ensure the story is engaging but can also diminish the cultural context of the original.
“Domestication can be sometimes necessary to retain a child's attention,” said Mattei. “While this might dilute the original cultural context it also prevents young readers from engaging with unfamiliar styles and norms.” It can be hard for those translating from book to screen to know how much to domesticate the text. “While it's crucial to nurture the children's natural curiosity and eagerness to encounter new cultures,” she said, “cultural adjustments may be necessary.”
Walt Disney’s beloved adaptation of Pinocchio, side-by-side with Carlo Collodi’s original 1883 novel, shows a striking differences in storytelling and style, says UCSB Comparative Literature Ph.D. candidate Martina Mattei. Dark, complex themes in the original were simplified to a child-friendly approach in the 1940 Disney film.
Mattei also explored Disney's 2023 live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. This adaptation, starring Halle Bailey as Ariel, sparked intense backlash from some viewers who felt that casting a Black actress was a betrayal of the character’s portrayal in the previous 1989 Disney adaptation, an animated film with the lead character portrayed as a white mermaid.
“It’s such a complex thing,” Mattei explained. “In Disney's case the fact that it's so predominant kind of risks erasing other images.” Disney’s dominance in children’s film, fueled by its widespread popularity, gives it significant power to shape narratives and control representation in both Western and nonwestern countries, she said.
This controversy over Disney’s “faithfulness,” to its original animation is largely fueled by social media, and shows the powerful influence Disney has on shaping societal perceptions.
“They have in their mind that the Little Mermaid is white with red hair because they saw the Disney adaptation when they were young,” Mattei said, of audience goers who criticized the new version.
Mattei said The Little Mermaid has been reimagined many times throughout history, but the recent backlash stems from a sense of ownership over the “classic” Disney interpretation, evidence of Disney’s ability to shape cultural narratives.
Whether Disney's adaptations are “harmful” or “helpful” is a matter of perspective, but they undoubtedly play a significant role in how future generations will understand, engage with, and reimagine these stories, she said.
Caroline Lagorio is a third-year communications major. She wrote this piece for her Digital Journalism course.