By the time children enter elementary school, they already hold a negative view of older adults — and Disney films, along with TV cartoons, may influence these negative stereotypes, according to a team of Brigham Young University researchers. 

Last year, the team analyzed depictions of older characters in cartoons from public TV and cable networks. They discovered many of the characters were angry, senile, crazy, wrinkled, ugly and/or overweight. 

Their latest study, which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Aging Studies, focuses solely on elderly characters in Disney animated feature films. It is the first study to do so. 

"The most negative older characters in the Disney animated films were the villains," said lead author Tom Robinson, an associate professor in BYU's Department of Communications. 

As examples, he mentioned Madam Mim in "The Sword in the Stone," Cinderella's wicked stepmother, the witch in "Snow White," Cruella De Vil in "101 Dalmations," and more. In these, and other, films, Disney portrayed older females in a particularly negative light, while older male characters tended to fill authority roles, such as that of clergyman, ruler and mentor. 

Robinson and his colleagues devised a system for keeping track of the number of elderly characters, their gender and race, their primary and minor roles, their personality traits and physical characteristics, and whether or not the overall portrayal was positive or negative. They used a mathematical formula to calculate which qualities were associated with which others. 

"Snow White" had the most elderly characters, with an average of 3.8 such characters in subsequent films. Eighty-three percent of Disney's elderly characters were Caucasian, 9 percent Asian, 1 percent African American, 7 percent Native American and Pacific Islander and no older Hispanic characters. 

While the health of the older characters was good 73 percent of the time, "more than a quarter of older characters were shown as toothless or missing teeth," the researchers said. Many of the elderly characters also had cracking voices, were hunched over and, if female, "were often depicted with saggy breasts." 

Aside from villains, most older characters were peripheral to the films' story and plot. 

Robert N. Butler, who was the founding director of the National Institute on Aging and is currently a professor of geriatrics and adult development at Mount Sinai Medical Center, believes negative portrayals of the elderly are due to a number of factors. 
He cites the history of mass immigration to the United States that often leaves the elderly behind; the devaluation of tradition; and "medical advances that have relegated most deaths to later life, producing a tendency to associate death with old age." 

As for the effect negative stereotypes have on younger people, Henry Giroux, holder of the global television network chair in communication studies at McMaster University in Ontario, said "these films inspire at least as much cultural authority and legitimacy...as public schools, religious institutions and the family." 

Robinson shares Giroux's concern. 

"These stereotypes, when learned at a young age, have a lasting impact," he said. "We don't want to raise a generation fearful of growing old, or have these children rise to positions of influence and power only to dismiss the older age group because of these stereotypes."