Disney Princess Hell

I’ve been a fan of Disney probably since before I could talk, let’s face it, Disney is forced down children’s throats from an early age and I don’t think there’s a single person on earth that doesn’t know who Mickey Mouse is.

It’s been several years since Disney made their last ever hand drawn animated feature, The Princess and The Frog featuring Tiana, a strong willed independent ‘princess’ and it’s made me wonder about the future of our Disney princesses and what message they are now trying to convey to the younger generation as opposed to the one they used to.

I grew up on Disney princesses such as Ariel, Belle, Jasmine and Pocahontas from the late eighties up to the late nineties, each with their own wondrous tale of old regaling their love stories with their chosen prince/suitor. I have extremely fond memories of their romances, it took me away from the mundanity of real life into a make believe world where true love existed and it gave me a rosy tinted idea of the world.

Recently, since Disney has moved to computer generated art, I’ve noticed a drastic change in your modern heroine. Disney is trying to push free spirited and strong willed way too hard. Of course I’m not against the fact that girls should be strong independent women and take matters into their own hands but at the same time let’s not make men out to be the bad guys and emasculate them.

One particular part in the movie ‘Tangled’ the story of Rapunzel and her long glowing magic hair, that really irritated me was the fact that at the end of the movie when they go in for the obligatory kiss scene, Rapunzel a skinny little blonde wisp of a thing with twig arms takes Flynn and dips his broad muscly body down and kisses him instead. I don’t know if this is intended as a joke or to be taken seriously but I thought it just ruined the whole thing. Who wants to see a girl desperately clutching at a man trying to suck his face off, come on Rapunzel you did pretty well up to this point (apart from being a plastic indecisive lispy stereotypical blonde – sorry if you’re blonde, she didn’t do you any favours).

In the Disney store there’s Princess Sophie, a young go getting brunette princess with her head screwed on pretty tight and she’s got some important messages to convey. I can’t really remember what they are unless I take a trip to the Disney store but one in particular is something like ‘I can do anything that a prince can’, okay that’s fair enough but you’ve pretty much just made a feminist remark there by having to tell everyone that you can. There is no shame in being a beautiful princess that’s well looked after and gets to marry comfortably one day, isn’t that what we all wanted? After all, all of the Disney princesses got their castles in the end; even Rapunzel that married a lowly peasant still got her castle.

The most recent Disney movie to come out is ‘Frozen’, it’s basically the story of the snow queen re-envisioned to have Elsa, the snow queen, be sisters with Anna and the two of them are saved by the power of love but not love with a man, the sisterly kind of love i.e. sisters before misters. I personally loved Frozen, I thought that the character development was a little weak apart from Olaf but other than that it was visually stunning and heart-warming. The thing that did annoy me though was the fact that they’ve introduced and very adult theme into this movie and I don’t really think it was suitable. Men are conniving liars to get what they want.

So good looking Prince Hans of the Southern Isles plays the love game with Elsa’s sister Anna just so that he can get a shot at the throne, nice. I actually spotted very early on that Anna and Hans didn’t fit together very well and that something was definitely awry but I never thought that Disney would be teaching young girls that the good looking guy that comes to wisk you off your feet is always going to be a bad guy out for his own means. I agree with what Elsa says in this movie, ‘You can’t marry a man you just met’, she very much the first voice of reason that Disney has ever had and I relate to her the most but when I watch a Disney movie I don’t want reality, I want the fantasy.

Frozen addresses the issue of putting your family first, which is very important but children shouldn’t need to be told that. Every teenage girl needs to go through the stage of life when she wants to go out and see a boy more than spending some time with her family, it helps her parents to enforce ground rules and exercise control. If you’re going to spend your younger years being mollycoddled by your family and siblings then you’re going to end up socially inept when it comes to finding a partner and you might even find yourself alone.

There’s a couple of Disney films that I would like to bring up to support my cause that love doesn’t have to be the end of your journey and that’s all you’re going to end up with. My first film will be Pocahontas, this film is very close to my heart, and it addresses quite a few issues very dear to me such as anti-capitalisation and open mindedness.

Most people are aware of the story of Pocahontas; if you’re not then you’ve been living under a rock – just kidding. Pocahontas is the story of the daughter of the chief of an American Indian tribe in America who meets a man called John Smith who has come with crew to make a mark on the ‘New World’ and obviously it’s about their love affair. Pocahontas shows the beauty of communication as well as understanding, two things that are very lacking in this superficial world, whilst trying to open the minds of two very different worlds to each other’s way of life. The love story is pretty much the pivotal thing that is trying to bring everyone together in this movie and I believe it’s one of Disney’s greatest triumphs and taught the children of that era to be more understood and patient. In the end Pocahontas and John Smith don’t end up together, they both separate despite being desperately in love, so that they can spread the word of peace. At the same time keeping her strong will and femininity, Pocahontas represents wisdom which although hard some children to have so young gives them something to aspire to.

My second choice of films is Mulan, the story of a Chinese maiden that takes her injured fathers place in the army disguised as a man so that he can be spared. Love really isn’t a main theme (apart from love for family obviously) here but there is a love story between Mulan and the Captain of the Chinese army, Shang. It’s a story of honour and putting others needs before your own. Mulan isn’t a princess but I’d say she’s a very good role model for young girls, she sets aside settling down with a match because let’s face it she’s a bit of a tomboy and a misfit and she’s just happy being young but she desperately wants to uphold the family’s honour and make her father proud. Her relationship with Captain Shang is unusual, there isn’t the typical development of falling in love, in fact they don’t really seem interested at all in each other until the very end when he comes to seek her out after she’s saved China and awkwardly ‘stays for dinner’. Mulan doesn’t need a man but she ends up with one and they become Yin and Yang together, it’s nice to see Disney trying to show that women can have the strength to fight when needed and that they’re not restricted by the boundaries of sex.

Lastly, there’s Belle from Beauty and The Beast. I liked Belle when I was a little girl, she seemed to be the most like myself, she was intelligent, kind and was always dreaming of something more to her happen in her life i.e. ‘I want so much more than they’ve got planned’. Belle’s nature was supported by her father and I imagine he was very encouraging of her being different but at the same time a little oblivious at to just how much of an outcast she was in the town. The townsfolk, just like society nowadays, shunned anything different to breaking the mould of everyday ‘normal’ life, which was as I imagine having children and settling down. Gaston, the main antagonist in this movie is brilliant, a perfect Disney villain, showing all the horrible characteristics of the chauvinistic male or the ‘carpet carriers’ as I like to call them; there was nothing hidden to Gaston, you won’t supposed to like him at the start, I liked it when Disney made its villains obvious unlike the newer films where you just can’t tell. Belle’s relationship with the Beast, or Prince Adam, is brilliant and very natural, two people that come together through hardship and grow to love each other through patience and opening each other’s eyes, Belle changes him, opens up his eyes and softens his heart and it finally sets him free. Beauty and The Beast is the best example of how a woman can naturally help people with the benefits of her sex, being the virtues or honesty, intelligence, love and understanding. Belle wasn’t a hyperactive giggling, stupid wreck that happened to get lucky in love as it so seems happens to most of the ‘princesses’ these days.

I’ve gone a bit off topic with this but the point is that there was nothing wrong with the old style of Disney Princesses; these films were famous for their romances and fairy tales. Disney need to continue making intelligent free spirited women with common sense but at the same time lets please keep some fantasy and keep real life issues to a minimum, no one wants to see Disney Princess bridled with the woes of wondering if her true love really is true.

Disney, keep your fairy tales and step away from reality!