Are old villains creating bad vibes?
Cruella De Vil. If she doesn’t scare you, No evil thing will. What’s scarier than a mean old lady trying to skin Dalmatian puppies for profit? And what’s nastier than an old stepmother locking a sweet girl in her room to keep her from the prince who would make her a princess? A rotten villain is a great part of many beloved stories, but researchers at Brigham Young University want to know why so many cartoon villains are old people and why so many older cartoon characters are depicted negatively. Dozens of older Disney animated characters may have helped form or reinforce the negative impressions young children have of older people, according to a new BYU study published by the Journal of Ageing Studies. Nearly half of all older characters in 34 Disney animated movies are represented negatively, BYU communications professor Tom Robinson said. “The thing that astounds me the most is that if females or a minority group were portrayed this negatively, we’d be aghast,” Robinson said. “Ther
