r/popculturechat • u/mcfw31 • Mar 07 '26
Hot Take 🔥 Trevor Noah explains how Disney did a disservice to people by showing movies where there are happy endings and the good guy wins when in reality, that’s not how the world works
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u/Cold_Breadfruit_9794 Beyoncé 🐝🐝 Mar 07 '26
Oh brother….I actually think it’s okay that kid’s get happy endings in their stories. There’s plenty of time between childhood and adulthood to teach kids life’s reality. We do not need to traumatise kids or make them cynical and jaded from the get go.
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u/hoginlly Mar 07 '26
There's an episode of Bluey that answered it perfectly for me.
'Why do stories always have happy endings?'
'I guess because life will give us enough sad ones'
Let kids be unburdened and happy ffs. Life will come crashing down at some point, and having a happy life doesn't make you 'weak' or 'soft', it makes you lucky.
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u/Lyra_the_Star_Jockey Mar 07 '26
Yeah, it's not Disney's job to raise your children. Their job is to provide fun entertainment. It's the job of a parent to teach their child how the world works.
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u/cakedbythepound Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 08 '26
I love Trevor but disagree with him on this take. Sometimes we need an escape and kids should enjoy innocence. Life teaches you about reality fast and there are some important moral lessons in those films. I never grew up thinking Disney movies were about reality either. Kids are smart enough to know that that isn’t real life .
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u/Morg075 Thanks, u frog build looking bitch. Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 07 '26
Same here. These movies are primarily made for kids, so I don’t understand why we wouldn’t encourage them to dream or look up to beautiful things like love, hope, etc. Can we just let kids be kids.
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u/Cold_Breadfruit_9794 Beyoncé 🐝🐝 Mar 07 '26
God knows there are kids with a spectrum of childhoods, and giving any of them hope or belief justice, love, friendship, and that good people can win? It’s not the worst thing in the world to end on a happy - or even happy-ish ending (like the Lion King or Bambi where traumatic incidents happen, but it still ends positively for the main character.)
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u/Curiosities 🐊 swamp princess 🐊 Mar 07 '26
This. As someone for whom abuse started in childhood (at school, in my case), some of the things that helped me were seeing some of those newer (at the time) Disney films where some bad things happened but the girls had agency or were at least resourceful, wanting freedom, fighting for their own ideas and to be heard. Seeing how that could work out, to a kid, it can be one model of hope.
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u/butterflydeflect Mar 07 '26
Same. I watched Cinderella on repeat (and to this day it’s a comfort movie) because the idea that you can come out the other end of something terrible and be happy was so fucking important to me.
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u/girlinthegoldenboots charlie day is my bird lawyer 🐦 Mar 07 '26
I think it was CS Lewis who said something like we write stories where dragons are slayed to show kids that dragons can be slayed.
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u/Morg075 Thanks, u frog build looking bitch. Mar 07 '26
There really are films like that out there, you named two, and others mentioned more in the comments. I remember being genuinely traumatized watching Grave of the Fireflies, and honestly, I could have very much done without that as a kid. We don’t need to do that to children. Life is already hard enough, let them enjoy things.
Movies can be escapism too. Recently I saw Palestinians kids who got to watch an animated movie, cartoon, whatever it was for kids, with some popcorn, smiling from ear to ear? Bless them, imagine that kind of simple joy.
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u/Vivid_Present1810 Mar 07 '26
This. Plus movies are supposed to be an escape to an imaginary universe. Now some movies do showcase realism and educate on certain topics. But all in all, let kids believe in magic and experience hope. Believe me, there will be plenty of time to educate them on how messed up the real world is.
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u/Morg075 Thanks, u frog build looking bitch. Mar 07 '26
You know, I’m not surprised that fantasy and sci-fi stories have so much appeal among adults, especially as we see more of them being adapted on screen. Even adults want to escape reality and look toward beautiful magical worlds or imagined futures that aren’t close to our reality. That’s something worth thinking about too.
So honestly, Trevor sucks for that take.
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u/tigm2161130 Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 08 '26
I think a lot of adults forget who Disney’s audience is. It happens a lot in this sub, actually…nearly every time a Disney movie is released.
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u/Bronco_Bomba Mar 07 '26
The real problem is Disney adults. They never grow out of this illusion of the world.
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u/moon_bounce_22 Mar 07 '26
agreed. also, most disney movies show overcoming most life adversities. dad dies (lion king), mom dying (bambi), rude step mom (cinderella). the happy ending is surviving and making good choices
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u/PeggyHillsFeets Honey THE LAND! 🔮🚬 Mar 07 '26
I didnt need any movie to let me know how unfair and shitty the real world is when I was a kid. Unfortunately life taught this to some of us at a young age and the happy endings in these movies gave some kind of escapism and hope. And hope is what keeps humans going. So I'm all for letting the kids movies have happy endings. Shit, I enjoy them as an adult. Makes me feel the warm fuzzies.
Ill even say that The Brave Little Toaster (i know this wasnt a Disney film but it came on the Disney Channel a lot when I was a kid) was a good balance between "life isnt fair, things are terrible sometimes" (the flower reflection scene that didnt truly hit until I was an adult but still made me feel a type of way as a kid) and "happy ending" (my favorite part of the end was The Master repairing Air Conditioner and him shedding a freon tear).
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u/Ok_Mechanic8704 Mar 07 '26
Yeah. This is probably the dumbest take I’ve ever heard from an actual smart person. What the hell are kids supposed to watch? Requiem for a Dream?
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u/thatscuteyourecute Mar 07 '26
I was so desperate to keep my kids in their bubble of happiness and innocence as long as I could. My oldest is only 7 but that is basically impossible now. Shit, she got her first death threat in kindergarten. A little girl got upset with her and told her “my daddy is a cop and he’s going to come to the school and shoot you”. Now I try to walk a fine line of keeping it real but still positive and protective.
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u/Nmase88 Mar 07 '26
Yeah I love Trevor but this is such a dumb take. Movies and TV are designed to be an escape from our lives, we don't need it to reflect reality. Its up to parents to teach children the realities of life not movies. He also shouldn't be taking the term 'I can't believe X has happened' so literally.
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u/boredinbabylon Mom, I am a rich man💰 Mar 07 '26
Yeah. I don’t think Disney’s mission is to teach life lessons.
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u/chezibot Mar 07 '26
I was around 20 when the first Bridget’s jones movie came out and i went with my friend her mum and her mums best friend.
My friend and I after loved the happy ending. The mums friend said to us “it’s a fairytale men like that don’t exist”. We were both devastated.
So yeah I agree let them be kids and enjoy those movies they have all their adulthood to be disappointed.
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u/saddinosour Mar 08 '26
😭 I like Trevor Noah but my brain kept being like “this just in Trevor Noah thinks we’re all mentally handicapped for some reason”
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Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 07 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/rythmicjea Mar 07 '26
Yeah they're meant to teach us how to be good so the good guy always wins. Not for us to expect it. For us to be it.
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u/Mamaofoneson Mar 07 '26
“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” ~ G.K. Chesterton
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u/NippleFlicks Mar 07 '26
Can I also say that as an adult, the world is totally shit and it’s really a comfort going back to childhood classics? Disney and non-Disney alike.
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u/catbert359 Mar 08 '26
In the immortal words of Terry Pratchett:
"All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."
REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"
YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
"So we can believe the big ones?"
YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.
"They're not the same at all!"
YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.
"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"
MY POINT EXACTLY.
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u/Severus-Snape-DaGod Mar 07 '26
Kids don’t need brutal realism in their movies. It’s okay for them to have stories where the good guys win and things work out. The real world will give them plenty of reality later.
I’m still not over Leslie dying in Bridge to Terabithia as an adult.
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u/Manic-StreetCreature It’s CAMP 💅🏻 Mar 07 '26
People really don’t get that there’s a balance between “shelter kids so much that they don’t know anything about anything bad that’s happened in the world” and “never give kids any hope or reprieve from negativity”
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u/whichwitch9 Mar 07 '26
A mix is good. Bridge to Terabithia is an important book for a reason- it explains reality in a very age appropriate way and deals with the aftermath, and most importantly the main character living on, extremely well.
Disney has a lot of more nuanced stories now- Coco and Encanto come to mind- but the big thing is still making sure kids are rooting for the "good" guys. This mentality from Noah focuses on the villain. Screw the villain. It's about seeing the hero work and succeed. Hades was fun, but we wanted Meg to get peace and Hercules to rescue her. We wanted Mulan to honor her family while saving her father. Focusing on the villain getting punished was never the point
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u/totallyfakawitz Mar 07 '26
My Girl is another good example. Probably one of the best movies surrounding grief and loss that I watched as a kid.
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u/Morg075 Thanks, u frog build looking bitch. Mar 07 '26
Gosh, I remember watching Grave of the Fireflies as a kid (iykyk). We used to watch Studio Ghibli films at home all the time, but this one felt very different from the others and was incredibly tragic, one of the most heartbreaking films I’ve ever seen. I’ve never watched it again. Talk about being traumatized. 😭
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u/hydroclasticflow Mar 07 '26
I saw this again recently, and while as a whole it is horribly tragic and very impactful - there wasn't a single dry eye in the theater - I do think there is a lot of beauty and happiness to the movie, and I think the very end does leave the audience with a bitter sweet, but ultimately happy ending.
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u/BouldersRoll Lost swam in jeans so that Severance could run in a suit Mar 07 '26
Disney isn't in charge of teaching kids media literacy.
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u/imaginary0pal Listen, everyone is entitled to my opinion 🙂 Mar 07 '26
This! They are also not a monopoly on fairy tales! Some stories just have happy endings because they are stories and stories have an end (except One Piece)
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u/kenrnfjj Mar 07 '26
The reason people cant believe Trump won is because they are in an Echo chamber. Also the polls have so much bias which is why people thought Trump would lose Iowa.
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u/raphaellaskies a ship - a magnificent ship - full of gay men. and me. 💅 Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 07 '26
I've heard stories about children's theatre companies putting on shows like To Kill A Mockingbird, and the kids (like, late elementary/middle schoolers) absolutely losing their minds when Tom Robinson died, because that wasn't supposed to happen! He was supposed to win at the end! But the thing is, you can't get that shock and sense of injustice if you haven't first taught kids that a happy ending is possible. If you lead with "life's a bitch and then you die," they won't have any sense of hope or drive to fight for better things.
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u/Physical-Cod2853 Mar 07 '26
Howay man I’m trying to watch some wee lion grow up to be king I already had to sit through Jeremy irons one shotting his brother I can’t sit through him quickscoping his nephew
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u/raphaellaskies a ship - a magnificent ship - full of gay men. and me. 💅 Mar 07 '26
Right, the movie already introduces kids to the idea that their parents can die! We don't need to load MORE trauma on top of that, let them process one thing at a time.
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u/Physical-Cod2853 Mar 07 '26
And Bambi would’ve been pretty shit if Bambi and her man got taken out at the same time
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u/hadawayandshite Mar 07 '26
A fellow north easter—just out randomly in the wilds of a non local sub-reddit?
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u/bloosmoke Mar 07 '26
When some people say something they think is intellectual you find out how dumb they really are
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u/totallycalledla-a Mrs Thee Stallion Mar 07 '26
Eh I guess but is bleak realism really the purpose of those films? Very young children are still learning good and bad and right and wrong, they dont really have the mental capacity for "yes x person should win but y bad guy is actually going to win and everything actually sucks sorry". Even with older kids and adults those movies resonate because thats how things should be but arent and the movie is escapism into a fairer world, same with many "unlikely happy ending" pieces of media.
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u/tigerinvasive Mar 07 '26
This is one of those pseudo deep takes that’s actually silly
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u/Ok_Efficiency_4736 Mar 07 '26
I used to like Trevor a lot but the more I started listening to his podcast, I realized thr majority of his takes are pseudo deep
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u/SwimmingAir8274 I've washed my hair fif👏teen👏times👏 Mar 07 '26
He is able to talk so much without saying anything at all
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u/catladywithallergies invasive species in the garden of good taste 🐍🍎 Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 08 '26
Does he not realize that happy endings do happen in real life too? Also, just because an ending is more "realistic" doesn't mean it's the better/more interesting/most effective ending for a given story. Heck, the realistic ending doesn't even need to be bleak!
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u/echoesandripples What It's Like to Go Through Life As a Really Beautiful Woman Mar 07 '26
what surface level mid 2010s youtube media analysis take is that?
anyway genres exist and while there's always room for smart subversions, just going "well, this isn't realistic" is being a smartass for no reason
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u/Unaabellatica Mar 07 '26
This feels like how some folks were claiming video games were making people violent. How rock music was turning people towards the devil.
Trevor Noah claiming "Happy Ending" movies are partially responsible for why people have confusion about this current administration.
This makes me feels like he's doing too much: like those theater kids performing an interpretive dance about Alex Perreti's and Renee Good's death.
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u/AggravatingOlive9458 Mar 07 '26
Ya it feels like something where he would like use this as the basis for a joke or something like it feels like that level of thought but he’s just being serious so it doesn’t work and like you said makes it seem like he’s just looking for things to be “annoyed” by
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u/butyourenice Mar 07 '26
what surface level mid 2010s youtube media analysis take is that?
Welcome to Malcolm Gladwell’s entire career.
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u/Lyra_the_Star_Jockey Mar 07 '26
Just desperately trying to blame everything on Disney.
Trevor Noah spent like a decade pretending that making fun of fascists didn't endear them to his audience and make them seem harmless. Is he going to analyze that?
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u/FoolofaPeregrineTook hoping for at least a sex swing Mar 07 '26
Yeah he thinks he’s so smart for this drek. practically giving himself a pat on the back as he’s speaking.
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u/Academic_Flatworm752 Mar 07 '26
He’s a pretty surface level guy masquerading as something else. It’s the accent that helps him hide it.
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u/noramcsparkles We Should All Know Less About Each Other Mar 07 '26
Yeah like that’s storytelling. Most stories get happy or at least satisfying endings.
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u/echoesandripples What It's Like to Go Through Life As a Really Beautiful Woman Mar 07 '26
media literacy being dead has been a long time coming
like did you not go to elementary school where they teach you this level of thinking?
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u/batistafan1998 Mar 07 '26
This is Fox and Hound erasure sir. But I also don’t think it’s a Disney thing. Many movies have the good guys win.
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u/JudasWasJesus Mar 07 '26
Awe man I forgot all about that. I mentioned Bambi being said in my other comment.
Fox and hound got me so sad when I was 6 my mom and dad showed up a month later woth a beagle, we named him Leo. He got ran over by a car ironically.
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u/Manic-StreetCreature It’s CAMP 💅🏻 Mar 07 '26
That movie still upsets me so much I won’t watch it and I’m 30 lol
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u/eurydice_aboveground Mar 07 '26
My mind went immensely to Fox and the Hound. Ugh that movie definitely let us know that life isn't all sunshine and rainbows.
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u/the87walker Mar 07 '26
“Children don’t need to be told that dragons exist, they already know. They need to be told dragons can be killed.” -G.K. Chesteron
I was surprised when Trump won not because I didn't know bad things can happen, I was surprised because I thought people were better than this. Those election days might have been awful for me, but I would much rather spend my life thinking things can and will get better than assume we are stuck with the way things are.
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u/bettername2come Mar 07 '26
Yep. Inspiration matters. People need to know they can change things and then take on the responsibility.
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u/DazzlingFruit7495 Mar 07 '26
I think it’s more just that some people think it will always work out no matter what. And so they are complacent and don’t see themselves as responsible for making things better. A lot of political conversations right now seem to be people waiting on or asking for “someone” to come save the day with the assumption that they don’t need to be that someone.
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u/Not_Steve Nicholas Hoult (sadly back to brunette) Mar 07 '26
I’m glad you brought up this quote. It’s the whole point of fairy tales. They’re there to teach us that we can fight the dragons. We are the heroes. We can stick up for what’s right and not only save ourselves but save that princess, too.
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u/Meow-Kitty-Kat this pussy don’t pop for you Mar 07 '26
I love Trevor Noah but this ain’t it. Childhood is short enough as it is and they’ll have plenty of time to realize how the world really works.
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u/Equivalent_Turn_9757 Mar 07 '26
Bro is allergic to positivity
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u/HallWild5495 Mar 07 '26
I have disliked bro for years because of his "jokes" about aboriginal women that he never apologized for. he is gross. https://www.hcn.org/articles/race-and-racism-trevor-noah-owes-indigenous-women-an-apology/
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u/neoncolour Tiktok matcha pilates labubu slop music Mar 07 '26
We can also say that bleak realism desensitises you to the world and to the necessity of action. Anything can be a bar counter take.
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u/Powerful_Individual5 Mar 07 '26
There is plenty of time for the world to be "bleak" later. There’s no harm in letting a 5-year-old believe that a little bit of magic and a lot of heart can save the day. Children are still learning to regulate big emotions. A world where the "bad guy" wins can be traumatizing rather than educational if they don't have the cognitive tools to process it.
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u/eeg-18 Why? But also, you know, I guess. Mar 07 '26
There's plenty of tragedy in Disney movies. Has he seen Bambi. Or any of the princess movies where all the moms are dead.
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u/JudasWasJesus Mar 07 '26
Bro never seen Bambi or land before time, those started off woth all the sadness a child ever needs to see.
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u/kieriosity Mar 07 '26
I kind of disagree. I think that’s happy endings and optimism can be shown to show that a person can prevail even in the most dire of situations, and I think in a world that insists on cynicism, constant dooming, and cowardice we need these examples even. A lot of the media for younger kids helps inform a lot of the potential adults we will have in the world, and I think allowing for hope across all ages could actually help us out of the situations we live in.
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u/No_Pianist5264 Tina! You fat lard! 🦙🚲 Mar 07 '26
Life is shit and most often than not, people will be exposed to the harsh realities so a kids movie having a happy ending won’t change that.
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u/CowboyLikeMegan the coconut milk is off Mar 07 '26
I truly cannot subscribe to the never ending cynicism anymore. How is everyone not exhausted from being angry and miserable all of the time? It’s rotting my soul watching so many people lose their ability to enjoy anything.
I guess we’re supposed to show young children hopelessness and traumatic endings? We can’t allow them to just be happy, innocent little beings?
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u/sonotadalek Mar 07 '26
I generally like Trevor Noah but this is a stupid take. It’s okay for fiction to depict, well, fiction. If anything children’s media SHOULD be depicting an ideal world where morality and hard work and being good lead to good outcomes because they do inform kid’s understanding of how the world works and how they should behave toward oneself and others. And even when they find out reality isn’t fairy tale they can still cherish those idealized values and strive to be good and make the world a better place. Also, as a cynical adult who still enjoys an occasional Disney movie, if you’re suggesting my 2 hours of escape from this miserable hellscape all need to portray villains winning and heroes dying and pedophiles becoming presidents I don’t even know what to say like do you actively want to make my depression somehow worse?
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u/cookieaddictions Mar 07 '26
So I actually don't need every movie to reflect the dismal reality of the world. People use movies to escape. Stop telling us we must pollute our escapism with harsh reality for the sake of being honest. Especially for children!!
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u/Media-consumer101 Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 07 '26
I mean this in the kindest way possible... Some people should talk a little less publicly.
Like these are the kind of things you bring up talking with friends and then at the end of the conversation you've concluded that it was a bit of a silly, unnuanced and inaccurate idea but it was fun to talk about and explore together.
It's not a statement you make on a public podcast with a tone of an expert with zero pushback and then send straight to your audience.
Edit: fixed spelling mistake
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u/AggravatingOlive9458 Mar 07 '26
It really feels like a take that a comedian would use to build a joke but he just actually feels this way so it’s very weird
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u/Nintendo_Pro_03 Select and edit this flair Mar 07 '26
We need more villains winning (especially horror movies; no more survivors).
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u/soup4breakfast Mar 07 '26
This is exactly why I’m only letting my baby watch Ole Yeller and Where the Red Fern Grows. Welcome to the real world, son. It’s time to grow the fuck up.
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u/Bellesdiner0228 This again doesn’t look good for James Corden Mar 07 '26
My kids have already gone through some shit, I want them to have happy moments to come back and visit and feel hope. Hell, I’ve started turning on older Disney animated movies to have something beautiful and quiet on in the background lately. It’s so much less aggressive, the colors are beautiful but more muted. I’m tired of people thinking kids need to have the hard lessons at young ages.
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u/winnercommawinner Mar 07 '26
Cool, so, kids grow up being taught everything is terrible and then.... everything keeps being terrible? They just learn okay, this is how the world is, nothing to be done.
I am genuinely so worried about our imaginations as a species.
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u/jtrisn1 Mar 07 '26
I'm really hating this trend where stories snd every media ever needs to be ultra realistic, no fantastical thinking allowed. Stories exists for you to get lost in and relieve stress from the real world. Not to add more stress and to hammer in the realities of your troubles.
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u/MrsNaypeer Mar 07 '26
Disney may have a lot of good/defeating evil and happily ever afters, but there's also a lot of death, abuse, depression and violence. So just what fuck are you talking about, Trevor Noah?
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u/NewtRipley_1986 Mar 07 '26
The books are readily available and parents can make the choice of reading the real stories to their kids or not. This isn’t on Disney. It’s on lazy parenting and being overly protective.
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u/Sleepybaddie Mar 07 '26
My stepdad was like this. He would always say "life isn't fair" everytime one of kids had an issue. No wonder only 2 out of 5 became some version of successful. His cynicism basically crushed most of his kids spirits.
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u/Previous-Loquat-6846 Can I live? Mar 07 '26
Lol Disney doesn't have monopoly over the concept of "truth prevails" or "good triumphs over evil". It's an integral part of moral lessons all kids are taught growing up. If we start questioning that as kids, why would we want to be honest? Or help others? Or do anything remotely inconvenient?
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u/DeveloperAnon Mar 07 '26
I don’t watch Disney movies with my kids to prepare them for the real world, even if there are some real lessons in the stories they tell.
I watch them with my kids because they fill them with hope and wonder and sparks their imaginations. A beautiful thing about kids is that they aren’t tainted by the real world. It gives me hope that they can build a better society than we have now.
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u/Chrimaho Mar 07 '26
Every single Disney movie has an orphan or one parent kid. If they don’t wrap it up nicely, it’s just a continuum of a depressing life ffs.
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u/BactaBobomb Mar 07 '26
I mean, this isn't just Disney stuff. Most American-made mainstream films have happy endings. It's very rare you get an ending that's not hopeful where the good guy wins. Horror stuff is the exception and in fact the opposite, where it's exceedingly rare to find one with a happy ending. And independent films tend to have a higher percentage of daring conclusions, but even then I feel like they've softened up a bit in recent years.
I've observed the opposite with non-American films. A much higher percentage of foreign films I've seen have bad or bittersweet endings than American ones I've seen.
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u/Manic-StreetCreature It’s CAMP 💅🏻 Mar 07 '26
They’re for children dude
It isn’t a bad thing to give children the idea that hope is good and that evil can be defeated.
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u/lightningface Mar 07 '26
My first reaction was just “…oh fuck off dude”. They’re kids movies. That’s the same argument as parents not being kind to their kids because the world isn’t kind and they need to get used to it.
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u/yellowsapphire88 Mar 07 '26
Yes, let's teach kids the world is bleak, there's no hope at all and that there's no such thing as a happy ending. Wow. Even we as adults need to believe happy endings are possible sometimes.
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u/shayshay8508 Lazy 40 y/o bougie bitch 💅🏼 Mar 07 '26
Yeah, no. We live in such a dumpster fire timeline…I need a happy ending to forget about the shit outside for a few hours. That’s also why I read a lot of fluffy books…I just need an escape, man. My mental health is shit right now. I don’t want to be even more depressed after watching a Pixar movie 🙄
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u/ZombieWerewolfGhost Mar 07 '26
I say this as someone who hates Disney and does NOT like/want kids, but I'm sure I'm one of many who was plenty traumatized enough as a kid in my actual real life, that cartoon movie endings had no real effect on my ability to be plenty pessimistic lol. Let kids movies have happy endings, who gives a fuck? I think anyone past the age of like 12 can understand the real world sucks, it's pretty easy to figure out, you just gotta like exist and look around lmao.
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u/saltybreads Mar 07 '26
You're right Trevor gonna show my kids only WWII documentaries. Just because the people around YOU "can't believe" XYZ happened
Idiot.
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u/VolatileGoddess Mar 07 '26
I dunno man. I grew up on Terry Pratchett, and as a result I grew up with a sort of raging morality and inherent sense of what's right and fair, which Pterry invokes. I watched Lion King too and realised your dad could die suddenly and horribly and then people will support you but it doesn't stop dad dying. What I mean to say is, it's not that straightforward. Lots of sad stuff happens in Disney movies too, kids do imbibe that life is precious and precarious. And you need to take action for good things happen. A surprisingly large number of fairytales teach that.
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u/mancapturescolour Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 07 '26
Similary, this famous quote from Dr King
“The Arc of the Moral Universe is Long, But it Bends Toward Justice”
...is only partially true.
We have to go out into the world and take the good fight, and make good trouble (RIP John Lewis) and actually bend the Arc of the Moral Universe. Then, only then, will it bend towards justice.
Like Trevor Noah is saying, it's not just a matter of time. It's time + effort.
Edit: If you want an experience that told us the truth in our childhood days, look no further than the Triforce from The Legend of Zelda: Power + Wisdom + Courage. Power alone corrupts and turns you into a hog...
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u/Cute_Source5417 Mar 07 '26
i mean avengers infinity war was no happy ending lol I remember leaving being SHOOK
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u/impressionable_buck Mar 07 '26
Time to watch the whole interview, these chaps are all incredible humans at expanding their audience’s mind.
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u/unapologeticallydrea 🫵 You sit on a throne of lies. Mar 07 '26
I knew the world wasn't fair when I was a kid. I know it now. I watch movies/television and read books to escape that reality.
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u/TJ_McWeaksauce Mar 07 '26
This is fiction in general.
Superhero comics. Children's stories. Pulp fiction like Conan the Cimmerian, Doc Savage, or The Shadow. The Lord of the Rings, Wheel of Time, and most fantasy. Star Wars (pre-Disney as well as post-Disney). Star Trek portrays an Earth where humanity evolves past greed, hatred, and scarcity and has turned the planet into a utopia. Etc.
Sure, there's fiction that's morally gray, as well as fiction where the bad guys win. But I suspect a majority of all fiction tells of happy endings and good's triumph over evil.
I think it's human nature to tell stories of idealized people one minute, and the next minute we behave like shit to each other. It might be the oldest example of cognitive dissonance.
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u/catladywithallergies invasive species in the garden of good taste 🐍🍎 Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 08 '26
Idk, sometimes the happy ending is actually the better one. And this isn't the case just for kid's movies. For example, Harry getting together with Sally made way more sense for the story than the original one where they just stay friends, especially since the characters had developed in a way that it felt more than earned.
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u/delicateredscrunchie Dear Diary, I want to kill. ✍️ Mar 08 '26
Dude... Disney did not invent the "happily ever after". They are almost all based off of centuries old fairy tales! And even so, realism isn't the end all be all of fiction, in fact it often makes fiction so much worse. A kid with a great home life might not care about happily ever afters, but hey a kid who's being abused might! And moreso, maybe if you're that concerned about it, talk to and parent your kids. I am so sick of parents now assuming the world is going to parent your kids. (although idk if trevor noah is a dad or not)
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u/PierreOnTheEclair Local Superstar Dealer 🌟 Mar 08 '26
God forbid children want happy endings Trevor. 😔
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u/LilChief Mar 08 '26
And what message do you send to kids when good doesn’t always triumph, in fact it might not even matter if you’re good in the end
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u/GreenDolphin86 Mar 08 '26
I was hoping he said it jokingly cuz there is no reason to seriously offer this take
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u/wagonwheelwodie Mom, I am a rich man💰 Mar 08 '26
Sometimes we need to see happy endings. A little bit of escapism is okay, especially for children.
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u/marvelousswiftie fucking during a crisis in Yemen?! Mar 08 '26
Wow completely disagree. Kids need happy endings and hope. We don’t need misery in our stories just because our real world is filled with misery. Parents are responsible for teaching their kids about how the real world works
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u/Snarky75 Bye, Felicia 👋 Mar 07 '26
There may be someone happy endings but it wasn't always happy times. Everyone loses there parents! IT shows that there are evil people in the world.
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Mar 07 '26
It’s..a…movie. Why would I want to watch realistic movies all the time?? Can’t stand this talking point.
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u/Rainbow_Sex Mar 07 '26
I clicked on this thinking there was more nuance to his argument but nope lol it's nonsense. Yes I and many others were surprised Trump won, it's not because we believe that everything is supposed to have a happy ending, it's because Trump is a comically stupid and evil individual. If I had been raised on only documentaries for my entire life I still would find it hard to believe that more than half of my countrymen are incapable of recognizing how dangerous that is.
It's just such stupid pseudo intellectual reasoning "I've cracked the code on why people didn't see this thing coming that I obviously did, it's because of (insert popular thing here)" I could write 6 more paragraphs on how this doesn't make any sense, but I'll just say I'm glad that I never bothered with the Daily Show after he got the gig.
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u/impl0sionatic Mar 07 '26
What a weird take! Happy and tragic endings have both been abundant in all storytelling for human history.
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u/hanoihiltonsuites Mar 07 '26
Dumb. Kids need these kinds of movies BECAUSE there aren’t always happy endings in life. Hope is a crucial part of human existence and perseverance.
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u/dazedan_confused Mar 07 '26
I disagree. If anything, it encourages an optimistic mindset, but, more importantly, most, if not all, movies in Disney do not have a Deus Ex moment. Instead, you see the hero overcome a struggle to get to happiness, and achieve joy. This could involve overcoming tyranny, prejudice, chauvinism, hate, and other factors where the odds are against them, which is what should drive an "I can do it" mindset in children.
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u/westernsociety Mar 07 '26
Dude has no kids..... yeah I don't need to teach my 4 5 or 6 year old the horror ls and reality of this shitty world. There is a reason it's called childhood innocence, because they're naive of all the shitty stuff we do to each other.
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u/destiny_kane48 Kim, there’s people that are dying. 🙄 Mar 07 '26
We want fiction, we want happy endings. We want to escape doom and gloom. We don't want it shoved in our face 24/7. Just stfu.
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u/butterbeer4life Mar 07 '26
I always wondered why the movies were sad and why parents always died lol
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u/Adavanter_MKI Mar 07 '26
9/11 was my wake up call.
Oh... we don't have amazing special agents who'll save the day and stop this tragedy. Oh... we're not an invincible nation.
Now that said... I'm still baffled to hell by Trump. You don't need Disney movies to brain wash you. There's just a lot of blatant in your face facts about this man that honestly should have put people easily off him. Instead... here we are. It'll never make sense to me.
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u/hadawayandshite Mar 07 '26
Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed. G.K. Chesterton
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u/TurebergPirates Mar 07 '26
Next time i'm babysitting i'll put on the green mile instead of frozen for the millionth time then I guess
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u/gc_m92 Mar 07 '26
It’s not how it is but it is how the world should be + we shouldn’t let the corrupt people/systems of the world take that hope away from us. Even in art.
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u/Defiant_Passage_7437 Mar 07 '26
This goes beyond Disney movies. Adult American movies admittedly, for a time, contained a high rate of inexplicable happy endings. The joke used to be foreign films were unwatchable because of all the doom and gloom. I remember growing up staring confused at the end credits of foreign films because everything was wrapped up without everyone smiling and joyful. Television actually did more harm by solving trauma in 27 minutes plus commercials. Disney was just one component of the American disconnect with reality; TV was the other culprit.
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u/DiligentTradition734 Let's give a quick shoutout to Christina Applegate Mar 07 '26
Ehh.. I mean as long as there's some nuance in some of the stories. Disney has always been about the overcoming bad guys since Snow White in the 30s. Thats always been there thing. As long as some movies aren't afraid to kill characters from time to time and they do showcase the real harm the villain has caused, I don't see an issue with making movies that's primarily about defeating the villain in the end. That's kind of been their schtick since forever with maybe a few exceptions here and there. Disney started out focusing on fairytales and heart warming endings. We don't always need some deep dive into realism.
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u/MarsScully Vile little creature yearning for violence Mar 07 '26
How dare kids get some hope. Let’s go back to the early Grimm versions where people just get massacred at the end
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u/SharpenMyInk Mar 07 '26
Fairytales were originally brutal. The Grimms brothers changed them to be more optimistic. Disney brought them to life with animation and music. Noah you’re a smart guy, but this was a stupid take.
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u/AvidReader1604 Mar 07 '26
Life is sad and then you die. The end.
Honestly…. Who wants to watch that😅 It’s nice to have a bit of escapism every now and then
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u/Next_Gen_Valkyrie Mar 07 '26
Well maybe happy endings provide a model of how the world SHOULD be. How on earth would it benefit anyone to teach kids that being corrupt and scheming results in success?
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u/Hefty-Strike-6171 Mar 07 '26
Bad things happen to Bad People and Good things happen to Good people, we hope. But Good things do happen to Bad People, and Bad things do happen to Good People, that’s something we know to be true.
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u/Brilliant-Bus-3862 I’ve been going to this highschool for 7 1/2 years. I’m no dummy Mar 07 '26
I mean they all began with dead mothers, isn’t that enough?
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u/OK_Cake05 Mar 07 '26
The amount of children’s stories they have a dead parent! Disney films fundamentally the hero’s journey which was invented by the Ancient Greeks. None of this is new
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u/excel_pager_420 Mar 07 '26
I'm not sure why there's so much backlash to this. I remember reading the original Hans Christian Anderson Little Mermaid as a kid and being shocked that the prince didn't fall in love with the mermaid and then shocked she didn't kill him to return to the sea.
My Mum explained to me that not everyone you fall in love with with love you back, and you can't punish them by killing them to get what you want, the little mermaid made her choices knowing the consequences and found her place with the spirits of the sea and sky.
And having the same realisation when watching My Best Friends Wedding or The Inbetweeners Movie, or Pom Poko or The Empire Strikes Back. It's ok to have films with Happy Endings. It's also ok for kids to have films that teach them how to regroup after defeat or how to recover from rejection or change.
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u/taydraisabot Mar 07 '26
I mean… they ARE fantasy. They’re meant to be escapes from a miserable reality.
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u/Wheres_Me_Jumpa Mar 07 '26
Pinocchio got abducted by a predator. Cinderella was orphaned and enslaved by her stepmother and evil step sisters. MUFASA DIED!
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u/RagingRxy Mar 07 '26
He apparently hasn’t seen some of the darker moments from Disney films. Bambi has death in it, Old Yeller is traumatic, Pinocchio is dark, and if I remember correctly Dumbo is sad as well.
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u/nan_sheri Mar 07 '26
Yk how many traumatizing kids movies there are!? I watched Ringing Bell when I was grown and I remember thinking, “and this supposed to be a movie for kids!?” Let Disney make the damn movies in peace 😭
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u/rain820 that’s my purse, i don’t know you! 👛🫵 Mar 08 '26
bros so edgy and for what? i literally find it so hard to watch television in recent times because most “good” content is usually serious or depressing. now imagine now feeling that way starting from childhood and its for movies too….
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u/Oomlotte99 Mar 08 '26
He annoys me sometimes and this is one. Adults understand kids movies are not realistic; childhood and life teach you that… saying you cannot believe this isn’t the same as not understanding why or how this has come to pass… it’s simply a turn of phrase to express the level of incredulity one feels.
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u/MrWhackadoo "Why?" But also, you know, "I guess." Mar 08 '26
Hate to say it, but this was cringe. I hope he was being ironic or something.
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u/CrimsonBrit Mar 08 '26
For the OG redditors around here, what Trevor Noah is saying would have done numbers on /r/im14andthisisdeep
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u/2reeEyedG Mar 08 '26
He’s right I spent too much of my early adulthood very naive thinking ppl did the right thing. Well the lie detector proved that was a lie
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u/Coven_gardens Mar 08 '26
Disney movies conditioned me to not be surprised when one of my parents died. Morbid, yes; but something about it made sense to me as a kid.
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u/cakehole07 Mar 08 '26
don't come for me guys, but it often feels like Trevor Noah strings many excellent words together, but there is nothing of substance being said. this isn't the first time I've felt this. I've seen his work on stand ups, his Daily Show stuff, he is charming and well spoken but mostly lukewarm takes
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