Snow White and the Seven Deadly Sins By Jeff Totey l Disney Films l Movies With Messages

According to ReligionFacts.com, “The Seven Deadly Sins in Christian belief are a list of seven rebellious tendencies that afflict fallen and sinful humanity, so classified by traditional orthodox Christianity, especially the Catholic Church. The Seven Deadly Sins have been used to summarize the condition of fallen humanity for the purposes of education and edification; in other words, they teach people about what displeases God and by avoiding them it enhances the believer's efforts to live as a Christian.”

These sins are frequently used as a toolbox for screenwriters as what better way to illustrate the sins than by using the animated characters drawn from Walt Disney Studios? Walt Disney always had a knack for creating truly vile villains and the studio’s current animation department continues this tradition.

Envy

ENVY: A jealousy in wanting to have something that someone else has.
EXAMPLES: The Evil Queen and Maleficent

You don’t need a magic mirror to explain that the Evil Queen featured in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has an issue with her step daughter. She is a beautiful woman, but sulks that she isn’t as beautiful as Snow. The mono-toned reflective wall fixture doesn’t help things any by going on and on about Snow White’s beauty and her being the fairest in the land. Blah, blah, blah.

Maleficent, the evil fairy in Sleeping Beauty and in the new live action movie named after herself, is pretty much ticked off for not being invited to the party – the christening of Princess Aurora. According to the 1959 film, she is willing to let that slide, but what really gets her goat is when she is told that she is unwanted. Is she unliked because she is green or is she green because she is envious?

Greed

GREED: A selfish and excessive desire for more of something than is needed.
EXAMPLES: Kuzco, Yzma and Prince John

Although it has the worst title of all Disney animated films, The Emperor's New Groove just might be the funniest. Kuzco is the young, spoiled brat and emperor of the Incan empire. He has everything that a teenager would want and yet, he wants more. He has no trouble announcing to a small group of villagers that they will need to uproot and leave their property as he is taking it over as a summer vacation spot. Fortunately, he learns from his selfish behavior. Yzma on the other hand, Kuzco’s royal advisor has plenty of freedom, but hungers for more. Unfortunately for her, she gets turned into a squirrel.

In Robin Hood, Prince John is “filling in” for his brother Richard the king but instead sits around and counts money that doesn’t belong to him. It is so much fun it is to tax villagers until they have nothing left.

Gluttony

GLUTTONY: Similar to greed, but is the action of taking too much of something in.
EXAMPLES: Cruella De Vil and Clayton

One Hundred and One Dalmatians’ Cruella De Vil is a miserable person who wants spots and not the polka kind. She wants the spots of Dalmatian puppies and is incredulous to the idea that Roger and Anita won’t turn over their 15 puppies to the woman. Ironically, for someone who has so much money, Cruella lives in run down family manor, appropriately named, “Hell Hall.” She would rather hire some hoodlums to capture the puppies instead. The woman obviously needs some margin in her life.

Clayton, the hunter guide of Professor Porter and his daughter Jane who are discovering the wonders of gorillas in Tarzan. Clayton becomes hell-bent on capturing as many of the gorillas as he can, dead or alive. He could be like the professor and Jane, enjoying and learning from God’s creation without destroying it, but he can’t settle for just a memory or a photograph.

Lust

LUST: The need to fulfill unspiritual desires.
EXAMPLES: Judge Claude Frollo and Jafar

In the rather dark and less child-friendly The Hunchback of Notre Dame, it is bad enough that Judge Frollo keeps the deformed Quasimodo locked up in a bell tower pretending that he cares for the lad, but it is even worse when we see him speak poorly about the gypsies while clearly burning with passion for one in particular, Esmerelda.

In the much more light-hearted Aladdin, Jafar is the Grand Vizier to the dimwitted Sultan of Agrabah. Here, he is driven by a lust for power and goes on a mission to find the magic lamp that contains the blue genie. Even after the ruthless villain has control of his very own genie, it isn’t enough. His passion is so great that he uses his third his wish up on becoming the most-powerful genie ever. He then learns that power costs more than he bargained for.

Sloth

SLOTH: Being to slow or lazy.
EXAMPLES: Lady Tremaine and Hopper

Similar to the Evil Queen in the Snow White story, but not quite as evil is Lady Tremaine of the Cinderella tale. She too was not very fond of her stepdaughter and demanded that she work night and day while she and her own daughters do anything except lift a finger to help. Being the saint that she is, Cindy somehow manages to smile through her plight and is rewarded in the end.

In the ant world of A Bug’s Life, the ants collect food to help them survive through the winter. The evil grasshopper, Hopper and his “men” gladly take the bounty of the ants and claim it as their own. Hopper is clearly the worst and laziest bully ever created.

Wrath

WRATH: Vindictive anger or angry revenge
EXAMPLES: Captain Hook and Ursula

Ever since his arm was cut off in a battle with the boy who never wanted to grow up, Peter Pan, Captain Hook has been nursing his mental wound and feeding it with a strong desire to kill Pan as an act of revenge. It has become a lifelong obsession in which he will never settle down until he feels that he reigns supreme. Silly pirate. Hasn’t he ever seen a Disney film before?

In The Little Mermaid, Ursula the Sea Witch also has it out for a young one, Ariel, the daughter of King Triton. Ursula believes that she was cheated out of becoming the ruler of the sea and wants to take advantage of Ariel’s naivety to get to her father. It works for a while.

Pride

PRIDE - Being too self-satisfied
Examples: Gaston and Mother Gothel

The Bible says pride comes before a fall and two Disney villains know that better than anyone else. The only person that Gaston loves more than himself in Beauty and the Beast is Belle, a bookworm of a girl with a heart of gold. Gaston is convinced that not only is he the best in the land, but that he deserves the best as well. His buddy Lefou helps with the deslusion by continually telling Gaston how great he is.

In Tangled, the story of Rapunzel, Mother Gothel, (the woman who Rapunzel thinks is her mother), is equally obsessed with her looks and must visit the girl with the golden locks on a regular basis to keep her herself looking young rather than to age gracefully.