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Author
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Comment
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giggle
Unregistered User
(2/22/05 9:18 am)
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Little Mermaid Anime Version
If anyone is interested in purchasing an original copy (not a bootleg) of the anime The Little Mermaid, send me an e-mail at lvan_rooyen@hotmail.com and I will send you the details.
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darklingthrush
Registered User
(2/26/05 11:58 am)
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Re: Little Mermaid Anime Version
What a fine kettle of fish! Its easy to say that you dislike Disney in one way or another but its much harder to say compared to original stories whether or not Disney is guilty of making them victims or heroines. It is of course always a matter of interpretation depending it seems in this current discussion mainly on reader-response (therefore a lot of personal experiences come into play when examining this dilemma). My original response is to poopoo Disney as well for the most grievous crime of bad musical numbers that generally have me grinding my teeth in annoyance. Even as a child I felt these coordinated dance and song numbers did nothing to advance the plot and I would patiently wait for the story to pick up again. (This is very much my own opinion. I do realize that many people find that these musical numbers do carry along the plot at its major points.) I would certainly have enjoyed Beauty and the Beast much more if there had been no "Be Our Guest" number at the very beginning. I find Disney quite guilty of taking stories I had already loved by that point and changing story points I loved well.
As to the question of whether or not they created victims or heroines, I'm not entirely certain. What I do find distracting about most of their movies is that their is some personal development of the the main heroine and yes even less of the hero, while the comic sidekicks abound with antics. A point that Maria Tatar makes in The Grimm's Fairy Tales Annotated is that by just even naming (and of course then filling out accordingly the plot) Snow White...Snow White and the Seven Dwarves we suddenly shift the perspective from the heroine alone and independent to 'see Snow White and her comic sidekicks the 7 silly dwarves!'
I find Disney guilty of gimmicking the plot in this manner. Cinderella is kind and beautiful and shares an equal amount of screen time with the mice and birds that help her clean and sew. Ariel again is talented, beautiful and adventurous and is constantly followed by the silly crab and fish who are in many ways more fleshed out than she is. Beauty's development of character and perhaps relationship with the Beast is put on hold to showing dancing teacups and wise-cracking appliances. I find Disney guilty of wasting screen time. When they could be putting more development into the main characters, they instead use the stand-by win-wins of their team marketing to make musical numbers to sell records and wow audiences with animation flexing. They could make decisions towards a different end and perhaps could have chosen heroines from fairy tales that are traditionally less docile than the likes of Snow White. And perhaps they could have made Cinderella a bit less dependent on her mouse friends and more self-reliant.
And instead of bringing a scantily clad mermaid to the screen (discussions aside about how real mermaids would dress) they could have chosen instead to bring Anderson's
brave Gerda to the forefront.
But then again I'm leaving aside whether or not Disney makes the heroines less or more victimized than the original tales. I'm holding out for story that's more akin to Maguire's Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister as it really rang true for me the 'smart sister' versus my sister, 'the pretty one.' We both struggled with the stereotypes people placed on us based on our looks in comparison to one another. Sadly enough I am pretty in my own way but nothing as accessible to other's as my sister's glamorized blonde hair and blue eyes. My sister when not compared to me in grades and otherwise is very smart and highly creative. Instead we felt like that particular revision of a fairy tale reflected more accurately those dynamics how I felt ugly and unloveable and how she felt that only her looks mattered and not her deeper substance. When Disney starts making films of this sort I will start lauding. I suppose we hold Disney up to higher standard because they are so visible and were at least so successful. They could afford to make tougher decisions in marketing rather than taking the easy way out and shifting the limelight from central heroines to ensemble casts. But this is my own bone of contention and I suppose gets more than a bit off-topic.
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Otherworld
Registered User
(2/28/05 6:43 pm)
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Re: Maybe a non-issue?
I just wrote out heaps on this subject but it vanished when i did spell check. [anyone else get that prob?]
Anyway
The Little Mermaid
original inspiration?
HCA seems to have no physical relationships with men or woman but did develop deep affections for both. One of these was with Edvard Collin, son of one of his benefactors. Edvard returned the friendship but not the affection, he married and "The little mermaid is an existential and poetic reflection and clarification of his love for Edvard"
HRC is the mermaid and Edvard the prince, needless to say that was not a thread most people would, include Disney, want to pick up, but his letters do back it up.
as for their films portrayal of woman??? well i'll get back to that tomorrow
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Dark Siren
Unregistered User
(3/11/05 6:53 am)
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Re: Maybe a non-issue?
Don't you think everybody's getting a little more riled up than need be?
And besides,a guy's sexuality is his own business unless he decides so.And I really think a guy long dead wants this supposedly modern world and civilisation getting on at him about how he feels for people.So he was probably bi.Big deal.So was the Queen's uncle,and he was a WWII hero.Give me a break.
My point is,it doesn't matter if he was straight,gay,bi or had four fingers on one hand.He was a master writer,and we should recognise and revere his talent.That is all we need to know about the man.Not if he liked men or women or both in his bed.
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redtriskell
Registered User
(3/12/05 10:44 am)
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Re: Maybe a non-issue?
Well said, Dark Siren. I heartily agree that sometimes we spend too much time wondering about the personal lives of writers, especially long dead ones. I think what matters, and what they clearly wanted to communicate, is what they wrote down for us to read.
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Dark Siren
Unregistered User
(3/12/05 2:08 pm)
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Re: Maybe a non-issue?
Thank you.That's my point exactly.While I'll admitt their lives are interesting,and I like the petty details like what their siblings were called,how many kids they had,etc,I like to think of that as harmless.Unlike real personal details.
If a contemporary writer is airing their washing in public,let them.But someone who's dead and not here to defend themselves...well,it's almost nasty,in a way.I know if people starting calling one of my friends gay when they're not,and it's meant as an insult,and they're not there to answer back,I tell them they're being <insert word rhyming with mitch>y.
Being a writer doesn't make you public property,your private life is still your own.So please leave the poor guy alone.Let him love who he loved.It's one of the most natural,most beautiful emotions in the world - people should be left in peace to experience it,whoever it is.
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autumn
Unregistered User
(3/14/05 1:27 pm)
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body image
I have been reading through much of the decision and wanted to add that my personal request would be to change the theme of physical portrayal. From my recollection of most (possibly not all) Disney films the lead female is eerily thin. The impact of tiny wrists, arms, waists, thighs ect while hair and breasts are exempted from the downsize is negative! A friend who's four year old was running around the house with her tank top pulled down from her shoulders and up to show her belly, mom says "what are you up too?!" told her mom, "I'm playing Jasmine" (of Aladdin fame) To veer from the topic a tad, the overall media portrayal of women is disturbing. On average (in 1989; 60 to 69%)most models are 15% below their ideal body weight, the world health organization (WHO) calls this malnourished. It is bad enough that we have to look at unrealistic images of women everyday, I think that to start little girls of at such a young age looking at images of woman that are unreal (especially that skinny lead female in Hercules who looks exceptionally thin) these kids are getting set up with unrealistic notions of beauty and HEALTH!!!!! Of mental illnesses Eating disorders are the biggest cause of death! An Interesting and scary consideration is that the group of females with the highest rate of eating disorders is those aged 18 to 25!!! I theorize that this may be linked to moving out on your own and not having any parent monitoring diet (note that I don't say cause just link)
Overall my point is: We need healthy images of women, in Disney and everywhere, the time has come to have the majority of images portray realistic women (different ethnicities, sizes and ages please!). There is still room for all other types of images.....much art is controversial too but it has its home, so do pictures of eerily thin women, but I don't think that this should be the standard.
I have another rant about the sexualization of young girls in the media (think 13 year old models in high fashion, made to look like a women, with that coy, longing look)
enjoyed reading the previous postings there have been some very well thought ideas.
from Halifax, N.S.
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wrightales
Registered User
(3/16/05 8:35 am)
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Re: Maybe a non-issue?
I just finished reading a great new book on the subject at hand. SPINNING STRAW INTO GOLD What Fairy Tales Reveal About the Transformations in a Woman's Life By Joan Gould. Her basic view of Disney-fication of fairy tales is that Disney took what were clearly female transformation tales (passing through the stages of a womans maturing from child to maiden to matron to crone) and turned them into male quest stories. In Disney's Snow White the girl gets to play house with cute little dwarves. In earlier versions Snow White is learning what she must know before she can move from childhood to maidenhood. And there is nothing cute about the dwarves.
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