The gospel according to Disney

From the Guardian. Telling you what every parent knows about Disney - that it's a more effective morality vehicle for children than church, temple or synagogue. "What are the tenets of the Church of Walt? Are there a set of values to comprise a 'Disney gospel'?"

Definitely. Good is invariably rewarded and evil punished. Faith in yourself and, more, faith in some higher power is essential. That is, faith in faith. Optimism and the Calvinist paradigm that hard work is rewarded with upward mobility complete the Disney canon. All of this is presented in a context vaguely implying western Christianity. But curiously, this is a largely secular gospel almost without God or Jesus. Salvation is attained through faith and works, not by grace. There is little explicit Judeo-Christian symbolism or substance in 70 years of Disney's animation. This despite the almost pervasive use of a theological vocabulary: words such as miracle, sacrifice, and divine. It seems a contradiction, portraying Judeo-Christian values without sectarian, or even a godly context - the fruits without the roots.

Is this why manga and anime startles us Westerners so - because we're illiterate about its Confucian/Buddhist cartoon theology? (I'm thinking explicitly of the cartoon that mesmerised me and the girls last year, Spirited Away.)