Diversifying

Hey now. Not enough that animation is the "most profitable" movie sector, it's also #1 in diversity. (f course, everything's relative.)

Animated films lead pack in Hollywood diversity, but it’s a slow pack

A new study on diversity in popular movies helps quantify a fact that any attentive moviegoer has likely noticed: The world as portrayed on the big screen is still overwhelmingly young, white, male, and straight. ...

But the report — the latest installment in a study that began in 2007 — found a smidgen of hope in a sometimes-overlooked corner of Hollywood: animated films. ...

“It makes sense that we should see a shift in what’s on-screen in animation,” says study co-author Stacy Smith, director of the USC program. She notes the shifting demographics in the U.S., pointing out that roughly half of children under the age of 5 are from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group. ...

Having a wide array of characters is an easier lift in Cartoonland: Most everything on screen is stylized to start with, and so less threatening.

Plus five and six-year-olds haven't had time to build up burdensome prejudices. They're young and impressionable, so if a black or brown or Asian cartoon character is a major player in an animated feature or TV show, little kids are down with that.