A CONCEPT OF FEMALE BEAUTY IN DISNEY’S CARTOON MOVIE
“MULAN”
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Chrisna Maharati
112010013
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
A CONCEPT OF FEMALE BEAUTY IN DISNEY’S CARTOON MOVIE “MULAN” Chrisna Maharati
112010013 Abstract
Media such as movie is not only used to entertain, but also to share several ideas and concepts. One of the popular concept being share is about a beauty standard. This issue becomes interesting to discuss because the concept makes women these days pay too much attention to their appearances rather than to improve their ability in order to be equal with men. Women are busy to maintain their appearance without support by behavioral improvement. In this paper, the writer attempts to find out the concept of female beauty by using the beauty myth through the main character of Disney’s cartoon movie “Mulan”. This paper has a purpose to examine whether the beauty myth is suitable or not with the character of Mulan. In analyzing the character and determining Mulan’s concept of beauty, the writer uses Naomi Wolf’s book, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are
Used Against Women which discuss about female beauty standard that formerly
set by the society in order to measure the women’s roles as well as female beauty which only assess from their appearances rather than the behaviors. The finding shows that based on the Chinese society standard of beauty, Mulan considered as a not beautiful woman among her society.
Keywords: the beauty myth, female beauty, appearances, behaviors, roles, Mulan
Introduction
men (Madsen 3) and valued as men's property that generally called as a wife. These circumstances are unfair because women should highly be regarded as a human being (Maltin 5).
Women which tend to see the euphoria of feminist movement break certain ancient boundaries and set them to be free, are not aware with sets of oppression that obstruct their advancement. Society used to use gender as a term to against women’ advancement growth at the previous time. Recently the society starts to use the term being beautiful as a tool to break the images of women. In here media plays significant role through advertisement that directly shaping women’s ideal self-image of beauty (Belk, Li and Min 444). Obviously, almost in each beauty product advertisements portray women whom have white complexion, slim body, and straight-long-hair as a beautiful woman. Thus, these women are categorized as good looking, attractive and beautiful as expected by the society. Hence, the idea offered by the advertisement shape women’s thought which impact to their perspective of being beautiful. Moreover, since those people who are attractive assumed to have better prospects for happy social and professional lives (Berscheid, Dion and Walster 298) has triggered women to compete one to each other in order to be beautiful (Wolf 20), looked good and physically attractive in order to be fitted in those criteria and get acceptance (Mares et al. 627).
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compared to another Disney’s cartoon movies like Cinderella that provides the concept of female beauty wrapped as a fair lady with white-beauty-complexion, slim, tall, powerless and obedience.
As the movie becomes more popular among children, especially girls and teenager, their concept of female beauty also influenced by Cinderella’s character or any other Disney princesses that share the similar concept which are having a good look, beautiful face and physically attractive. Mulan leads this paper to figure out the concept of female beauty from the main character, Fa Mulan. In order to figure out the answer, the writer tries to formulate a question: how does the beauty myth see female beauty through Fa Mulan character in Disney’s cartoon movie. The aim of conducting this research is to examine whether the beauty myths are suitable or not with Mulan’s character and also discover Mulan’s qualities within the concept of beauty that she shares. To analyze this character, the writer is going to use Naomi Wolf’s book as a guideline since the book discusses about the facts related about oppression happen because of the beauty myth. Furthermore, the character will be analyzed based on her appearences, behaviours, habits, actions and roles.
reader will get a clear picture of Mulan’s concept of beauty, which later on will serve as a new perspective of female beauty towards Disney’s cartoon movie.
Literature Review
Beauty Myth
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seems unfair and furthermore give a measure of freedom to dress up and act without fearing that their value as a women will be decreased (8).
Refer to Oxford dictionary, the word beauty (n.) means being beautiful, or a person that is beautiful. The beauty issues that are going to be discussed further will not only see female beauty from the physical aspect but also from any other supporting values that shape the beauty concept of Disney’s cartoon movie Mulan.
As Wolf wrote in her book, nowadays people use the images of female beauty as a tool against their advancement (10). Means that society, the place where people living together–share the laws, values and organizations in order to make a community (Oxford Dictionary: 2000), tries to stop women’s potentials by imposing their self-image and perception towards the image of beauty that society wants. Furthermore, since women who have individual autonomy, which are protected by guaranteed rights in economic justice and equality of opportunity influenced by the society standard (Madsen 35) women start to look into the images of beauty that share through the media in order to create their “new” identity. This is the first point that makes beauty become something matters for women.
Second aspects that make beauty matters for women is because physical and or facial attractiveness matters as a measurement to assess someone when they join in the new society for the first time (Mares et al. 628). Rumsey also added that being beautiful and get the positive feedback will help those people who classified as the beautiful person in building the relationship with another (46). This idea makes women think that looking good and physically attractive are like a golden ticket to be accepted by the society.
weapon. Wolf shares her finding related to society’s beliefs that categorized women into two big categories. The first one is beauty-without-intelligence and the second one is intelligence-without-beauty. Society belief that women cannot be put into both two categories, which are beautiful-with-intelligence (Wolf 59). Then, another myth that blooms and deep-rooting on society says, “beautiful things only happen to beautiful person”. This myth influences many women, especially children. At the early stage of their ages, children have been taught that to be beautiful was the most important thing that should be reached as they are growing older. As an impact, these children believe that one of beauty standards is having a slim body which may cause into an assumption that the lower number of the weight scale, the prettier she will be. They think that to be slim is everything and it can give them happiness. In fact, it is not as simple as like that because physical exercise is required in order to reach certain fitness level. However, slimness, after all is added to be one of the very common requirements of the society standards of beauty.
Women have been led into a different stage of women’s oppressions against their own advancement. What cause they are not realizing the oppression is because they are too busy in maintaining their physical beauty and focusing on developing their appearance only. Thus, these circumstances lead women to degrade their equal rights with men to grow and explore their potential into the second priority of human development. Therefore, the writer summarized that the beauty myth and female beauty are related to the demotion of women's value in female beauty from a gift to an obstruction towards their advancement.
Synopsis of the movie. “Mulan” which is published in 1998 is an animated musical
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Murphy, Miguel Ferrerand and BD Wong. The story itself is based on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan that sets on during the Northern Wei dynasty (386-534).
Mulan typically portrays a Chinese young lady which have a straight-long hair, proportional body shapes and usually wear hanfu. As the only hairs of Fa family, Mulan expects to bring an honor into her family by marry with a man that selected based on the matchmaker’s decision. However, at the same time when Mulan cannot find the good match to be married with, she finds that her father who injured should go to the war because it is the only way for men to bring honor to his family. Worries about her father, Mulan decides to take his father’s responsibility and enlists herself into The Imperial Army by pretending to be a man. Mulan who now transforms into a man as Fa Ping acknowledged as the strongest as well as the smartest soldier among the troops. Mulan’s clever tactics have successfully defeated the Huns that want to take over the entire empire and rule the mainland of China. However, after getting injured, her identity as “woman” is revealed and she is driven from her fellow army.
Not so long after being left by her troops, Mulan found that Shan Yu, the leader of the Huns was still alive and planned to kill The Emperor. Considering the situation, Mulan ran into her general, Shang and the rest of fellow army to inform that the Huns are coming, but no one listen to her because she is a woman who formerly does not have a voice among her society. With her friends’ help, Mulan has successfully save The Emperor and take down the Huns which at the end makes her as the one becoming Chinese warrior. As well as becoming the hero, at the same time Mulan also brings back the honor into the Fa family.
As has been mentioned previously, Mulan lived during the Northern Wei dynasty, between 386-534 century. At that moment, the Chinese society has several female beauty standards that are being set to put women into their expectation. Those standards, mostly set in the way women maintain their look, appearance and some additional values. In the movie, it shows that Chinese society demanding women who are slim with tiny waist and good hairdo, white skin complexion and black hair as a good wife. In addition, society also considered women who have good breeding and ability to do domestic sphere, obedient, calm and submissive as a worthy woman. Together, these two criteria makes Chinese women become the perfect women which is called beautiful. Thus, this standard were used by the Chinese society to measure the concept of female beauty of Chinese women on Mulan’s era.
On the other hand, the term beauty myth has been used by the society to classify if a woman is beautiful according to their expectation. Wolf in her book entitles The Beauty Myth:
How The Images of Beauty Used To Against Women has explained that this term has always
prescribed behavior and not appearance. Means, the measure of beauty is not only determined by appearance but the way women acts (14). As the main character, Mulan is described as a woman who decide to take a different role compare to other women in the movie. In here, the way Mulan expresses herself both in appearance and behavior are an illustration toward her actions to against the rules being set by society for her as a woman.
1. Appearances
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unattractive. However, since the appearance is something that can be assessed easily, society used this point in order to put women into their beauty standard.
1.1.Complexion
According to Bray, having a white complexion is considered as noble and aristocratic, especially for women in Southeast Asia (CNN.com). Previously, back to the past, women in China are formerly ground the pearl from seashells into powder and swallowed it to whiten their skin. Considering the characteristic of pearl that reflects light and beauty through their whiteness,
women in China also add some of the pearl powder and cover their face with it (Bray: 2002). This belief has deep-rooting among Chinese people, subsequently developed as one of the beauty standards among Chinese women.
Minutes 07.17-07.27, shows that Mulan is dressed up by several women whose already categorized as beautiful women because they are following the Chinese society standard of beauty. Those women are preparing Mulan to be a beautiful groom before meeting a matchmaker. Here, at the beginning, Mulan is trying to follow the society standard of beauty by putting make up to cover her face. However, while following this rule Mulan found herself uncomfortable with it, which at the end as figure 3 shows us, it makes her feel upset because she turns to be a completely different person after it was done.
The point to strengthen Mulan’s feeling is indicated in the lyrics on the song “Reflection” that sung by Mulan. While singing, Mulan said: “…who is that girl I see. Staring straight back
at me. Why is my reflection someone I don’t know… somehow I cannot hide who I am, though
I’ve tried…”. By singing this song, Mulan shows her desperation toward society standard of
beauty that wanted her to become beautiful by putting makeup in order to make her skin looks white. Although she tried to follow the standard, at the end Mulan still assigned as not the beautiful women by the society because she ruin her arrangement ceremony with the matchmaker. Based on this scene, the writer concludes that the way society classified women into two categories which are beautiful and not beautiful is unfair, because women are being directed without any choices by the society in order to follow a certain set of standard which at this point is to be beautiful by putting makeup in order to get the white complexion. The impact of this judgement makes women like Mulan feel oppressed because the society do not appreciate the effort that she gave. The song also indicates that Mulan feels upset because she has to pretend to be someone else when she following the society standard. Moreover, the writer also sees makeup as restricted tools used by society to limit women’s freedom.
1.2.Hair
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However, Mulan does the opposite as society wants her to do. At the beginning and closing part of the movie, it shows that Mulan portrays with her hair that is hanging loosely. Mulan’s action is an indication of her freedom. She does not follow the society standard of beauty that require her to tie up her hair into the bun. Mulan shows that women have their own choice, whether to follow the rule or make another version of the rules that suit themselves well.
1.3.Body Shapes
Physical appearance also related to the Chinese society standard of ideal body shape. Since being slim is what women admire (Gelles, 20:2011), women are trying to manage their body due to be fitted into the society’s expectation which at the end may bring them to be able to get in the society and being accepted. Quoting from Brooks, Devendra Singh mentions that women are considered more attractive if her waists 70% as big as her hips (www.huffingtonpost.com). The reason society expecting this from women subjectively because
of slimness will radiate women’s true beauty
.
Refer back to the movie, the society defines theidea of slimness as women with a tiny waist which is proven in some part of the song “Honor to
us all”. One of women that follow society standard of female beauty says:“… men want girls
with… good breeding and a tiny waist…”
As the result, Mulan indirectly directed to follow “the tiny waist” criteria. Figure 4 and 5 clearly show that several women are trying to dress up Mulan with formal hanfu, a traditional
costume of Chinese which is worn by people in Han’s period, so she will look good in the front of the matchmaker. In addition, to make Mulan looks slim and beautiful, society that illustrated by those “beautiful women” whose ruled under Chinese society standard are fasten the belt around Mulan’s waist. It shows the way how society directing Mulan to enter their standard of beauty.
Moreover, Mulan never questioned whether the tiny waists were the ideal body shape or not because she seem fine with any kind of body shape. Here, Mulan’s point of view is in line with Wolf. Wolf claimed that it does not matter at all whether women’s bodies are fat or slim, because women actually are welcome in any shapes (205). In conclusion, it means women shall not follow any certain society standard, including body shapes because they have their own choices. Furthermore, the point to be underlined here is Mulan in the minutes 38.28-39.24 takes a decision to shape her body based on her own will. On that scene, Mulan shapes her body by exercising in order to be able to survive and get avowal. By shaping her body (fig. 6-8), Mulan break her society standard of beauty that demands her to have a slim body. On the other hand, Mulan’s body shaping has an aim which is to get respect and look equal as men. In brief, the writer may say that Mulan refuses to submit under the society standard of beauty which expect her to be attractive and beautiful through shaping her body as slim as other women among her society.
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1.4.Clothing
Based on the movie, Chinese women usually wear hanfu while doing their activities. Hanfu, on the other hand, is represented as one of beauty attributes that should be worn by women to elevate their beauty. By wearing hanfu, society tries to put an identity to women as the one who should act delicately. Moreover, hanfu not only uses as one of Chinese society’s expectation toward women to act delicately, but it also reflects the inferiority of women because in addition to show women’s beauty, wearing hanfu also show restriction of women’s freedom. The restriction strengthen women’s position as the second class of gender who should obey under the male domination.
Mulan in hanfu looks as an inferior compared to men that characterize as the superior side of gender. While figure 9 shows Mulan in armor which gives her power to speak up her ideas, the chances to join as a member of an imperial army and shows her beauty
qualities through bravery and intelligence. Here, she tries to make a breakthrough within the society so women can be equal with man. Moreover, Mulan’s intelligence and bravery proven through minutes 50.52–56.42. During that minute, it shows that without hesitation Mulan takes a risk to save others by taking the last cannon with her and targeting it to the top of the mountain which is covered by snow so it would bear down the Huns (figures 10-12). Considering Mulan’s contribution, it makes Mulan deserve to get a credit for her effort to choose her own way.
Based on the movie, the writer interprets that clothes are used not only as the attribute that should wear by women to make themselves beautiful, but also as a tool to make women
submit under the society’s control. Furthermore, the writer concludes that clothes may indicate the gender inequality between man and woman because Mulan in hanfu probably looked as the beautiful woman who limited and not too smart, while men describes as the strongest and well-educated person.
Figure 10 Figure 11 Figure 12
1.5.Tidiness
Refers to the previous discussion, it is clear that Chinese society standard of beauty during Mulan’s era are required women to look good in the front of people, so they may fit into the society and label as beautiful women. Like the example, in the way women style their hair, they supposed to bind up their hair into bun to make it tidy and beautiful. Moreover, in the way women dress up their clothing, women also expected to dress properly.
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2. Behaviors
According to the Chinese society standards of female beauty, women categorized as the beautiful women if they are submitting under the male domination and obeying every rules and values that set by society. Chinese society expect women to behave as what the standard says. Furthermore, from the Oxford dictionary, the word behavior (v.) refers to the way someone acts or gives response in order to handle or face something. As has been mentioned before by Wolf that the beauty myth is prescribing behavior and not appearance (Wolf 14:1991), in this section, the discussion will cover several behaviors that relate to the character of Mulan in the way she shows her beauty qualities as a woman.
2.1.Submissive
As Astuti (2014) quoted from Plantilla through her writing entitle Traditional Role of
Women in China, she mentioned that Chinese women still adopt a patriarchal system which put
male as the domination actor in the ruling the system. Then, since the setting of the movie takes place during the Northern Wei dynasty that portrays a patriarchal system, women who express their though by speaking without permission after men considered as insubordinate and bring dishonor to the family. By looking at the scene from the minutes 13.47–14.57, when Chi Fu has come to the village to inform that every man of the family must serve the emperor by joining the army to defeat the Huns, Mulan, who concern about her father’s condition, along with the way society insists her father to enlist himself into the army interrupted the conversation and asked to replace his father’s position which ultimately makes her father felt upset and dishonored.
obedient. The result of her behavior causes the society’s judgement which assess Mulan as not the beautiful woman. It is strengthened through the song entitled A Girl Worth Fighting For, precisely in the minutes 46.52-47.10. Through the song Mulan once mentioned about female beauty characteristic which has brain and always speaks her mind as the woman that is worth to be fighting for, but her friend whose men that looked as the superior actor from the patriarchal point of view, think the opposite. He explains to Mulan that woman should be trilled to be submissive which implicitly shows that men want women who are willing to be devoted to whatever they say without questioning whether it is right or wrong. Despite of being characterized as submissive and devoting women, Mulan expresses herself by speaking what flows in her mind in order to do the right thing and it also reveals her real personality which are caring and affectionating toward her beloved one.
2.2.Obedient
Another society’s standard of female beauty says that women require to be obedient. As the lyric on the song Honor to us all, one of the women that following the society standard mentioned that “…Men want girls with good taste… Obedient…”. The reason of society,
especially men, wants women who are obedient simply because they are identified as second class gender and should follow the men’s rule. Here, the inferiority of women demanding them to be obedient to whatever the men say. Meanwhile, Mulan portrays as someone who always disobey to the society rules in order to do what she thinks is right.
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and cannot contribute a lot in the forum discussion. Mulan refuses this condition by taking several decisions such as going into the battlefield while she pretends to be a man, disobeying her general’s orders, even speaking up her voice in the front of men. By taking those actions, Mulan culturally breaks the society’s standard of beauty. The point to be emphasized is all of Mulan’s actions basically are for other benefits and not only for Mulan own pride.
2.3.Calm
Beautiful women are the one who can maintain her behaviors and act calmly in front of men. That statement is one of beauty standards that Chinese society’s set for women. In the movie, society labeled Mulan as a disobedient woman that broke the society standard which lead her to be assessed as not the beautiful woman. Figure 13 and 14 show that Mulan had argued with her father because of his father’s decision to serve the emperor and join the army. She claims that her father should not have to go because there are amount of capable men that can replace her father. However, her father replied Mulan by saying that she should maintain her behavior and realize her position as second class gender just like her mother. In comparing Mulan with her mother, the writer found that Mulan’s mother is the example of a flawless beauty women measured by the society. Mulan’s mother acts calmly in that particular situation, even when she actually felt contradictory inside. She maintains her behavior and put herself as the women who should obey to her husband, which actually makes her become powerless and weak in some way (figure 15).
Moreover, after analyzing Mulan’s character, the writer found that Mulan sometime does act calmly. It is proven in minutes 51.03-54.40 when the Huns are coming from the mountain and attacking Mulan and her fellow army. Mulan shows her calmness by thinking about the strategy to defeat the Huns in under pressure situation. Her successfulness happened not only because she is smart, but also because she is able to manage her calmness. Mulan just proven the study that says the ability to manage the emotion and remain calm under pressure has a direct link to the performance. Furthermore, the research also explained that 90% of top performers are skilled at managing their emotions in times of stress in order to remain calm and in control
(www.forbes.com). At the end, Mulan broke the society’s labeled toward herself, which is
claimed that she cannot act calmly as other women do. Here, the writer concludes that Mulan actually can be a calm woman, depend on which situation she faced. In the situation when she was arguing with her father, Mulan lose her calmness because she found the way society treated her father was unfair and it was not the right thing to do. Furthermore, she cannot be calm because she should obey under the patriarchal system that required her to accept every decision decided by men. While in the situation when Mulan and her fellow army were attacked by the Huns, Mulan showed her calmness because she wanted to save others and it was the right thing from her perspective. Thus, instead of following her society standard of beauty that required Mulan to be calm because of men power over women, Mulan chooses to act calmly in the form of doing the right things such as making critical decision in the right time for saving others.
2.4.Hygienic
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arrangement with the matchmaker are trying to clean Mulan’s body so she will look good and attractive. Those women are the best example of “beautiful women” in Chinese society version. Society wants every girl has the ability to look tidy and clean. However, although Mulan are not putting too much effort at maintaining her appearance in the front of men, she actually quite cares about the hygiene. During the minutes 40.23-41.00 shows that Mulan while pretend to be men is trying to take a bath in the lakeside in order to look good and avoid the smell from her body. The writer interprets that even though at beginning it is the society that are trying to manage Mulan’s appearance so she may look good and fit into the society standard, as an individual Mulan actually cares about being hygienic too (fig. 17). Mulan distinguishes herself from the men that may not even care about being hygienic. Another prove are Mulan’s statement that said: “just because I look like a man, doesn’t mean I have to smell like one”. According to this statement, at that moment, men who are going into the war probably may not too care whether they are stinky or not while Mulan thinks the opposite because she is a woman.
Figure 16 Figure 17
3. Roles: Man vs. Woman
There are several beliefs among the society that exist until today related to the differences on the gender roles between man and woman. One of that belief says “women and men are
different but equal, and each has a unique role within society” (Wienclaw 15). In other words, it
society that makes these two different. On the opposite, after analyzing the character, the writer found Mulan has no equality compared to the men in term of gender because of male domination that deeply rooted within Chinese culture.
In the movie, the different roles of women and men will lead them to bring an honor for their family. The way men bring honor to his family is by joining the Imperial Army as a soldier, while women have to marry so she can bear the child as the heirs of the family. However, because of Fa Zhou, Mulan’s father, is the head of the family as well as the only men in Fa family, he has no choice except to go. Instead of married and be the good wife, Mulan who sees the way society treat her father unfair, break society standard that restrict women to go into the battlefield. Here, Mulan takes his father’s roles and responsibility in order to bring back the honor of the Fa family. Her decision is completely opposed the society standard of beauty that wants women to do the domestic sphere, including nurturing children, maintaining the household and serving their family and husband (Madsen 2). By doing those things women will consider as the beautiful women, because for the society, “beautiful women are more reproductively successful” which mean that women who can bear the children to the family will automatically called as beautiful women because for them women’s beauty must correlate to their fertility (Wolf 12: 2002).
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rather than fulfill her job as “women”. Mulan’s actions in line with Wolf’s finding which shows that society look women as unbeautiful since her grow more powerful (Wolf 14:1991). In addition, beauty is particularly cannot be matched with power. It explained before that women may consider as the beautiful women if she has the slim body. In contrast, exercises that Mulan did in the military training helps her to shape the muscles,–men’s feature of body that indicate their power and strength, in her body. Thus, since Mulan become stronger and more powerful, society labeled her as not the beautiful women. However, even though the society assumes that being powerful is not women’s standard of beauty, Mulan shows that her abilities which are used for others benefit as the prove to the society that women actually can be as strong as men and importantly it makes Mulan no longer sees as inferior parties in her society .
Conclusion
empower other women by the way she behaves and not only about how she manage her looks well is considered as the beautiful one. Furthermore, Mulan is considered as the beautiful women because she is able to criticize the male domination over women and take action to get her freedom. Here, she divides herself on the opposite side from other women that submit under the society standard of beauty and create her own criteria of being beautiful.
Discussion shows that Mulan’s beauty is reflected in the way she speaks up her mind and it is also supported by other behavior such as acting calmly in the critical situation. In addition, the writer would say that Mulan also considers as the beautiful women since she can prove herself as the one who equal compared with men. At the end, Mulan successfully gives a new perspective of women’s role in her society at that moment, which not only limited at domestic work such as taking a good care of family and bearing the child, but women can also improve themselves in other fields as long as she knows what she wants to do. Thus, the main idea of Mulan’s female beauty is a woman that could speak her though without any doubt.
For the further research, the next researcher can analyze Disney’s cartoon movie songs by using semiotic studies. Semiotic studies which refer to the study of meaning-making, the philosophical theory of signs and symbols may help the future reader to be understood about the
meaning behind the song used in Disney’s cartoon movie. In addition, by analyzing the symbol
that inserted into the song, people can get a clear picture about the values that the movie are
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Acknowledgment
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