Glocal Narratives and the Negotiation of Cultural Difference in Disney’s Coming-of-Age Films

This article examines how Disney’s glocalized coming-of-age narratives negotiate cultural differences while simultaneously reproducing globally dominant moral frameworks. Drawing on a comparative analysis of recent animated films, it is argued that culture-specific traditions and values are selectively reframed into forms of moral legibility that are accessible to transnational audiences. Although these narratives foreground diversity and intercultural dialogue, they also contain differences within the familiar structures of individualism, reconciliation, and moral universality. Conceptually, this article approaches glocalization as a process of selection, mediation, and reframing through the emic–etic–emic cycle, tracing how culture-specific meanings are translated across interpretive levels. This process is particularly visible in intergenerational negotiations, where younger protagonists reinterpret inherited values through globalized narrative conventions, producing hybridized moral resolutions. By positioning intergenerational solidarity as both a narrative mechanism and an analytical lens, this article reveals how tensions between cultural specificity and global legibility are managed within Disney’s transnational storytelling. While such representations facilitate the circulation of cultural differences, they also risk flattening local meanings and reinforcing asymmetrical cultural authority relations. Ultimately, this article recasts glocalization as a site of ideological negotiation within contemporary global media.