Study Summary: Gender Ratio in American Family Targeted Animation (2008-2012)

Year: 2008 - 2012
 Looking at only American, or American/Foreign Coproduced Animated Films Rated G or PG that were released in at least 500 theaters in the U.S.  

53 Movies Released

Disney and Gender

All Animated Feature Films (Dec 1937- Dec 2019)

 All theatrically released animated Disney feature films (released under Pixar Animation Studios, DisneyToon Studios, ImageMovers Digital, Skellington Productions, Walt Disney Animation, Walt Disney Television Animation), excluding films that included a lot of live action, straight to video films that had a limited theater or international premier only, shorts, Disney package films, and films not produced by Disney but distributed under the Disney label.  

Judy Hopps and Royalty

Zootopia isn’t just a family-friendly police procedural with an anthropomorphic twist. It also deals with complicated issues of intersecting privilege and systemic prejudice in a way that is accessible to children. This dovetails nicely with its treatment of primary protagonist, Judy Hopps, a female character that stands out in a figurative sea of princesses.

To really understand what makes Judy Hopps so unique, it’s important to take a look at female primary protagonists in theatrical animation, particularly the royalty. There are relatively few female primary protagonists in American animation, and a large number of them have either been royals or women whose love interests are royals.

Including all mainstream Disney animated features theatrically released in the U.S., from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) to Frozen 2 (2019), there have only been 19 films with a female primary protagonist. Comparatively there have been 64 films with a male primary protagonist, and 7 with male/female co-protagonists.