Into the Woods

As more trailers and previews are released, the hype over Disney's newest movies Frozen and Maleficent grows. Although I also find myself getting excited over these new films, the majority of my excitement is devoted to Disney's film version of my favorite musical, Into the Woods, starring the fabulous Meryl Streep.

Though the movie is still in early stages of production, a few photos have been released. Revel with me.

(My personal favorite.)

Thoughts of the Butler

Check out Josh Butler's theory: 30 Disney Movies that Share a World.

Some find it compelling, some find it creepy...

I think Josh Butler has a little too much time on his hands.

Either way, it is amusing. 

The Diamond vs. The Rough Part II

"Americanization" is at it again.

The Diamond vs. The Rough

It wasn’t until I was watching Aladdin for the millionth time this past month that I actually saw Aladdin. Aladdin the man, that is. In comparison to all of the other people of Agrabah, he stands out; simply put, he seems ‘Americanized.’ Although Agrabah is a fictional setting, we can assume it is a part of the Arab world due to the opening number “Arabian Nights”—Aladdin, however, doesn’t follow this suit. In Saving Other Women from Other Men in Aladdin, Erin Addison notes that he is ”the only clean-shaven man in the movie,” “his skin is light, and he flashes a big, boyish smile. He and Jasmine are the only human beings with American accents and without conspicuously aquiline noses” (9). The other characters all have darker complexions, more facial hair, and other features associated with Arab countries. Why not Aladdin?

In fact, when examining other Disney movies—especially those that include a Disney princess—the main characters have American accents despite the culturally dynamic worlds in which they live. Think of Ariel, Belle, and Mulan; their accents are clearly American. Only the most recent Disney princess, Brave’s Merida, maintains her Scottish accent. This begs the question: must all Disney heroes and heroines be Americans?

Apparently, yes.

In Agrabah, besides looking more Arabian, the background characters and regular citizens all appear…extravagant. They swallow fire, juggle knives, and act rather barbaric. Aladdin, in comparison, is a clever dreamer, a “diamond in the rough.” Did Disney mean to go further with this statement to say that Americans are the “diamonds” of the world, while others, particularly those in Arab nations, are “the rough?” This conclusion is just a little too easy to draw. Of course, Disney would never want a prince, a role model for children, to come from this “rough,” and therefore the only logical conclusion is to Americanize the hero. Right?

This final validation comes when Aladdin finally secures his princess.

“I choose you, Aladdin,” Jasmine says lovingly, to which he replies, “Call me Al.”

Alas, he is now fully and completely American. 

And yet, we still wonder why a large portion of the world thinks of America as a place full of greedy, egotistic, pompous, and imperious people. Maybe this "false" sense of superiority Americans feel is actually quite real and prevalent. Maybe we have just become blind to it.

Disney's spell strikes again.

A People Trap Set by a Mouse

Disney is everywhere. It has become a juggernaut of media and commercial culture not only in the United States, but around the world. Kevin Shortsleeve’s essay “The Wonderful World of the Depression: Disney, Despotism, and the 1930s. Or, Why Disney Scares Us” describes the Disney Company as a force to be reckoned with, often referred to as “the evil empire.” Shortsleeve goes as far to say, “Many critics appear frightened of Disney on some level” (1).

“Achieving and maintaining great commercial success via an Orwellian-style management, while selling utopian dreams of agrarian, monarchical kingdoms in its films, has impressed, entertained, and subliminally frightened audiences for nearly seventy years. In an attempt to divert attention away from its totalitarian tendencies, Disney has overcompensated with maudlin and insincere “freedom” and “democracy” attractions. It is this “fractured experience” that specifically haunts us. Orwell and Jefferson do not dance well together” (Shortsleeve 5).

Looking at it this way, it becomes frightening how many people are in love with Disney. It may be that Walt wanted to create a perfect utopia of happiness and fun, a dream come true. However, it also could be that he was a maniacal genius who understood that a company engrained in someone’s childhood memories would invest itself in that person forever and ever….

Frightening, but genius.

And even with this knowledge, I still love Disney with all my heart.

Don’t you?

As White as Snow

When I was in first grade, I decided to go as Snow White for Halloween. Then in second grade, I once again put on that yellow and blue dress and black wig. In third grade I decided to ditch the scratchy wig, but was once again found in Snow White’s princess costume. For whatever reason, I was infatuated. The few times I visited Disney World in my childhood years, the only person I cared to meet was Snow White. It could have been for the color of her dress, as yellow was my favorite color, or for her magical ability to talk to animals, although there were certainly other princesses with the same ability. Ultimately, I cannot figure out why it was not Ariel or Jasmine or Cinderella who caught my attention. Why Snow White?

Now, when I watch the film, the feminist part inside of me wishes I could have loved a stronger, more independent female lead as a child rather than the one resembling any typical 1930s housewife. Although I respect and acknowledge the time period in which the film was made, times have changed, and in no Disney movie nowadays would an audience ever allow a princess to have no aspirations other than to do the cooking and cleaning and marry her prince. 

I wonder if in loving a more rebellious and outspoken princess I would have become so as a child, or if rather the shy, angelic piece of me led to my idolization of a more peaceful character.

Either way, it is interesting for me to now look upon one of my greatest childhood role models with a critical eye.

In Tracey Mollet’s“With a Smile and a Song…”: Walt Disney and the Birth of the American Fairy Tale, Mollet discusses how Snow White was also the role model of a separate age, the age of the Depression. This gives me a new perspective on the character of Snow White, whose ability to dream possibly inspired another generation of people to keep the American Dream alive in their minds. She is “kind, good, and placid and awaits the coming of her prince with patience and virtue” (Mollet 114).  However, I also see a downside to that as it gives the impression that if you wait long enough, your wishes will be granted. I definitely believe that dreams are achieved through hard work and perseverance, and “as noted by a psychiatrist in Studs Terkel’s oral history of the Depression, there was a sense that people accepted the situation and remained quiet (80)” (Mollet 114). By her example, people waited.

I guess Snow White has always been a bit of a controversial topic, even though it is one of the simplest stories. There is always something to critique, something to complain about.

When will Disney catch a break?