Ever since Walt Disney began turning out feature-length animated films, scholars, theologians and journalists have plumbed the depths of the simple morality tales for deeper religious meanings and messages.
Was Snow White's eating of the poison apple an allusion to the Fall in the Garden of Eden? When the puppet maker Geppetto was swallowed by a whale, was that a veiled reference to Jonah in Hebrew Scriptures? Were Jiminy Cricket's initials in "Pinocchio" a hidden reference to Jesus Christ?
While we're at it, have the Disney films morphed under the corporate leadership of Michael Eisner from an early reflection of Judeo-Christian religious sensibilities during Disney's life to embrace a wider pantheon of non-Western and pagan beliefs and gods? How do the stories accommodate changing cultural perceptions about race, sexual orientation and gender roles?
There has been no end of fascination with what some have called the Gospel According to Walt, and it's little wonder. The Disney gospel is among a child's earliest tutors, offering insights into acceptable human behavior and relationships through the dilemmas, triumphs and failures of its cartoon characters.
The scrutiny has been heightened by the fact that, unlike previous generations, more children are watching the films over and over, thanks to videotapes and DVDs. How are the stories playing -- and replaying -- on young, impressionable minds?
Among the latest to ask such questions is journalist Mark I. Pinsky, religion writer for Florida's Orlando Sentinel. A father of two, Pinsky set out to decode the parables and found, as others did before him, a common thread running through Disney features from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," released in 1937, to "Brother Bear," released in 2003. His findings are in his latest book, "The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust" (Westminster John Knox Press).
"The Disney canon is fairly simple," Pinsky said in an interview. "Good is always rewarded. Evil is always punished. Faith is paramount -- faith in yourself and, equally, faith in something greater than yourself. It doesn't matter what it is that's greater than yourself." But don't look for overt references to God.
Pinsky calls his book a guidebook for parents and grandparents. Much of it is a short retelling of the Disney narratives, with a chapter devoted to most of the stories. Pinsky brings his own rendering of the story lines, seasoned with a religion writer's familiarity with belief systems, and the sensitivity that comes with being a father himself.
