Marvel has professor Xavier in a wheelchair.
In Stephen King’s Tower series, the main action hero is a woman in a wheelchair.
Professor Ludwig Von Drake wears glasses.
If we define “disabled” the way most of us do (ie, not Donald Duck), then I’d suggest that a big factor is that a disabled character is limited in their movement, making it difficult to stage action scenes. Carl in Up was elderly and used a walker, and as a result there was very little in the way of action, until the end when the writers just kinda forgot that he needs a walker and had him climbing ladders with a >90 degree incline ( :rolleyes: ).
Notice that Professor X usually just sits around the school, as the heroic version of a Big Boss, and when he doesn’t it’s usually because some convenient plot device has temporarily removed his paralysis.
Of course almost none of the named characters (Eeyore, Cpt. Hook, Quasimodo, Tiny Tim, Marvel/Star Wars characters) were created by Disney. I know the Snow White story predates Disney but I have no clue if the dwarfs had the sleepy, dopey, etc characteristics.
Nemo seems the best fit and, even then, most of the story was more about Marlin than it was about Nemo.
To be fair, most Disney characters weren’t created by Disney.
I’m well aware which was my point: the disabled characters named were already known before Disney cribbed the story. It’s not as though Disney was taking any risks by having the Hunchback of Notre Dame be a hunchback.
One of the minor recurring characters in Kim Possible is Felix Renton, who is confined to a wheelchair (albeit one tricked out like a James Bond car). In the first episode where he appears, Kim is a bit uncomfortable and over-helpful, much to his amusement.
I’d argue that “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” was actually a fairly risky property for a Disney film, Quasimoto being only one of the reasons why.
Not to mention the boys who were slowly transformed into donkeys. One of the earlier victims tried to warn Pinnochio, which showed that they would remember having been boys, and presumably continue to miss their families.
On Disney’s ZORRO, [del]Alfred[/del] Bernardo was mute (and pretended he was also deaf, the better to innocuously spy on people for [del]Bruce Wayne[/del] Don Diego de la Vega).
Disney movies always have a happy ending, but I think you’ve forgotten just how rough they can be in getting there. Bambi’s mom, Simba’s dad, the first ten minutes of Up… and that’s just the real deaths, and doesn’t include fake-out deaths like Beauty and the Beast or Snow White, that are also pretty major tear-jerkers, particularly if (like most young children) you don’t know the formula.
How about Johnny Tremain, the Revolutionary-War-era silversmith’s apprentice who lost the use of his hand?
Seems like a sociopath, too. At best, serious anger-management issues.
Isn’t there a mermaid that uses sign language?
Aha: Gabriella, from the tv series.
Disney isn’t the only one: disabled characters were rare in just about every medium until recently.
There were occasional blind or mute characters, but they were usually part of plot (e.g., Wait Until Dark, Longstreet), not just there are regular human beings. And, of course, Lionel Barrymore did some of his best work in a wheelchair and on crutches (he broke his hip and it didn’t heal well). Marlee Matlin won an Oscar, too, and a lot of Oscar winners played disabled characters of one form or another.
But in general, movies didn’t portray characters with physical problems.
In “Up” I think Carl’s disability was more mental than physical. That is once he lost purpose he started acting like an old man. The kid reintroduced purpose to his life thus “rejuvenating” him.
That was still the early, old-school fairy tale Disney. And it wasn’t a ‘disability’ at all in the modern sense. It was a magical spell or curse which was just as easily (and magically) reversed completely.
And come on. I don’t care if they legally own them Marvel does NOT count when we’re talking about ‘Disney’ in this manner…
Mickey Mouse’s nemesis Peg-Leg Pete had a peg leg. I’m not seeing him in that Disney Wiki link from post 3 though. Is he completely forgotten?
Also, Wilby Daniels occasionally turned into a sheepdog. That’s a hard thing to live with.
Why did you ask “Why aren’t there any disabled Disney characters” instead of “Why aren’t there any disabled characters in fairy tales”? Disney based a lot of their movies on centuries-old folklore. Maybe story tellers throughout the ages didn’t feel the need. Travel back in time and ask them.
Plus, the way you titled this thread seems to assume Disney decided beforehand they wouldn’t feature disabled characters. Why did you single out Disney, for that matter? Why didn’t you ask the same about Hannah-Barbera, Sid & Marty Kroft, Bullwinkle Studios, 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, MGM, Nickelodeon, Paramount, Rankin-Bass, or any of the Japanese animation studios?
There are many disabled characters in fairy tales. Grimm’s Tales, for example, feature dozens of disabled characters.