Pocahontas, Mulan and Aladdin all portray the cultures showcased in these films in a very basic manner. The Native Americans are in tune with nature, the Chinese value honor, the Arabs tend to be a little violent and quick-tempered. I know these are just 1 hour long movies and they can't show the full complexities of a culture (while also developing characters, telling the story and doing musical numbers), but at least it shouldn't be portrayed in such a cartoony (even unpleasant) manner.

Even the movies that showcase white cultures somewhat use stereotypes (Brave comes to mind, and Beauty and the Beast to a lesser extent). (so i guess it's not really a race issue? IDK).

Funny, though, a film that I thought LACKED any culture was Frozen. When I heard the movie was based on Norwegian/Scandinavian culture, I got totally excited, imagining the stories of Thor and such and thinking Disney might do something cool with the movie's culture...And then...The only "cultural" thing of that movie was those annoying trolls.

Of course, but you can only do so much in a short time like you said.

I agree with you completely, scarletunicorn. Although, it's not just Disney. It is incredibly difficult to find movies/books/shows that don't portray certain cultures (or pretty much any specific group of people e.g. gay people, teenage girls, athletic guys etc.) in a stereotypical and/or offensive manner. I don't think Disney is as bad with this as, say, Glee.

^Oh god, Glee, that was awful. Aside from being super stereotypical all the characters were such stupid assholes it was hard to root for them.

Perhaps a little, but not to the extent that it becomes offensive (at least to me). I would actually say the opposite is true; Disney has a tendency to whitewash other cultures.

Yes totally completely, but I personally have nothing against it. If they were deviating too much from the stereotypes, there would be issues.

This is especially true of Pocahontas imo, that line in Colors of the Wind about cutting down the sycamore always makes me cringe. The Native Americans cut down trees and hunted animals just like the settlers did. That movie totally overidealizes how Native Americans lived. But I think Disney has come a long way since then.

I think they're starting to do it a lot less, but it was certainly a problem in older films.

^ Isn't BatB specifically set in France? I'm pretty sure they namedrop it in the movie at least once.

But not necessarily in a bad way.

There's fine line between showcasing cultures and being stereotypical. Does Disney cross that line? Sometimes.

^

I've seen some really weird complaints about some- like Tiana is a stereotype because she's a waitress with a white best friend? That's a stereotype? Are you sure it's not because jobs for black people were limited in the 20s and maybe Tiana just likes people for factors other than race?

But yeah, sometimes they do. The indigenous people of Moana get a less idealized though not disrespectful depiction than Pocahontas, for example, where disney had never had major Native characters and I assume were cautious about wanting to avoid the ugly "native savage" stereotype. Although again, another movie that people get weird opinions about. Lots of fans pn tumblr seem to agree with the idealized depiction and hate all the settlers when we know not all of them turned out to be greedy and evil as Ratcliffe.

And then you have Jasmine and Esmeralda who... could be less sexualized (Poca too to a lesser degree). Speaking of her, the Romani are kind of exoticized and cunning and do feel a bit idealized too. I guess 90s Disney took it in the other direction as some cringy older depictions did.

To a less offensive degree, they even do it with European characters- Lumiere and Fifi are the the romantic horny French couple (even though every other character is French). The Scottish clans are mostly dumb jocks. These are more for comedy though.

They've been a lot better as people have said, which is another point in the revival's favor.