I've been sort of strong-armed into watching a few kids movies lately including things like Despicable Me 2 and Hop and I was a little surprised at the obvious not so subtle undertones of prejudice. In both movies the bad guy is just - as it would appear - a normal person but they're hiding a secret identity and evil plans. And in both cases the bad guy is quite obviously Mexican.
I found it even more irritating with the villain in Hop because he was the ONLY character in the movie with a hint of 'difference' or 'other' about him. The only character with a visible accent. If the diversity in your movie is just the villain you're basically going out of your way to say that that kind of person is evil and that someone evil must have a "different" kind of accent, etc. All these are messages that are being sent not so subtly in these 'kids' movies.
Unfortunately what may be obvious to me as an adult is not going to be so obvious to the many children watching these movies. They probably won't ever think about it. They just take in these negative stereotypes and eventually - after watching tens of movies with the same messages, they might start, sub-consciously to believe it.
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