Disney movies

[jiacinto]

Why aren't there any Disney movies that have snakes or crocidiles or mosquitoes as lead characters?

[anti_shrub]

1. They don't make good plush toys

Who'd want a mosquito in your Happy Meal?

[moof]

2. Peter Pan-Crock,Jungle book-kaa the snake, bugs life = all bugs

next

[Journeyman]

3. Other than Bugs Life. . .

these were not lead characters. I don't remember if Bugs Life even has a mosquito, though I could be wrong.

I think a more important question is, why can all the animals in the original Disney cartoons (Mickey, Donald, Goofy, etc) allowed to talk, but Pluto -- Mickey's dog -- must remain mute? What's with that? And in a universe of anthropomorphic animals, is keeping the mute animal as a pet a subtle form of slavery? Just what message was Walt trying to impart?

[moof]

4. Pluto can & has talked he just gave up on it.

BTW these are just cartoons , & walt at first was just trying to make a living.

There was a scene in Bugs life where one mosquito is telling his friend not to look into the light but it is to late & he flys into a bug zapper. At the bar soon afterward blood is served to a couple bugs that appear to also be mosquitos.

[Lorien]

5. OK, so I've worked on a bunch of Disney movies

and I think I can sorta, kinda, answer your question (of course, we've never used palm civets,servals, giraffes, clams,dik diks,coatimundis or about a million other life forms in lead roles either!)the protagonist always has to be someone the audience can relate to; in general, that's either a human or an anthropomorphic animal. We also usually use tried and true stories; even "the Lion King" was previously done in Japan as "Kimba, king of the jungle" (which was the working title for our version too, BTW). Many people also have phobias about snakes, gators and insects; in fact "Bug's life" only had "friendly" insects in the leading roles. Disney also doesn't usually mess with anything with previous bad PR; gators and snakes have killed people, therefore they remain in the villains roles (a departure is the upcoming "Brother bear," which probably won't do exceptional business, despite it's beautiful backgrounds and animation).

I guess the question really should be "why DIDN'T Disney use these animals..." because the feature animation department is in the process being closed down, and Pixar is still in negotiations with Disney who may or may not continue to collaborate with them.