Investigating Colorism in Children’s Animated Films Through a Robust Quantitative Analysis

Background: Colorism is a troubling product of racism that systematically discriminates against individuals of darker skin tones within ethnic groups, perpetuating the misconception that lighter-skinned people are more beautiful, intelligent, and virtuous. Even as films move toward racial and ethnic inclusivity on-screen, characters of darker skin tones within minority groups are generally excluded or portrayed with undesirable characteristics. Depictions of skin color in films are linked to young children’s feelings of self-worth and belonging. Vilification of darker-skinned characters thus presents a serious problem for the early development of children, especially in children with darker skin who may develop feelings of low self-esteem and exclusion. For young children, who may learn about societal standards through media like Disney movies, portrayals of colorism in this content may negatively affect early development. This study is the first to provide a comprehensive, quantitative, and replicable analysis of colorism in animated Disney-owned films.

Methods: This study developed an unbiased protocol to examine every animated children’s film available on the US Disney+ streaming platform, excluding sequels. For each film, the primary protagonist(s) and antagonist(s) were identified using movie databases. The first five appearances of each character in the film were captured. In each frame, the skin color of an unshadowed area of the face was quantified as an RGB value using Apple’s Digital Color Meter. The RGB values for each of the five samples were then converted to grayscale using a standard weighted formula. These values were then averaged to produce the character’s overall grayscale value, which measures relative darkness on a single scale.

Results: A total of 91 Disney movies were analyzed for the study. The calculated average median grayscale value was 106.7 for antagonists and 134.9 for protagonists (Figure 1). A paired t-test was conducted to examine the difference between the weighted grayscale of protagonists and antagonists in each movie, with a null hypothesis of the two values being similar. There was a statistically significant difference between the two values (p <.001), with the antagonists significantly darker than the protagonists. Although the skin tones of both categories have become darker in recent years, the difference between protagonists and antagonists has remained relatively constant over time (Figure 2).

Conclusion: Our results show that antagonists have significantly darker skin tones than protagonists, indicating an alarming presence of colorism in popular children’s media. The relatively constant difference between the skin tones of protagonists and antagonists may signal that darker characters are inherently more evil. Children of all skin tones deserve to feel valued and form positive racial identities, as each of them can become heroes worthy of admiration and respect.