Are Disney Films Sexist?

Are Disney Films Sexist?

 

Disney has released many timeless films over the years, classics that we’ll still be watching in a hundred years’ time. They usually have the hero’s prevail and give a good message but one issue has always been lingering over these films, that argument of sexism. While some people would just say that it’s just a kids film and it shouldn’t be taken so seriously many, myself included would argue that kids look to role models and good examples should be prevalent to a growing child. Not only that but media already indulges stereotypes too much, surely it’d be a good thing for adults also to have characters they can relate too. Today I’m going to look into this issue.

 

Firstly what films do things wrong? Sleeping Beauty stands out in my head as the typical Princess. She gets rescued by a prince and has no real personality, she’s just there because she has to be. Not exactly an interesting character to put things likely. Many early princess stories from Disney get hit with similar criticism, Snow White and Cinderella are often said to be poor role models. I however am not so sure.

 

Snow White while does end with the falling in love happily ever after thing does have some very admirable qualities. She acts as a motherly figure to the dwarves, she takes care of them and is often working as a Mother. Is this really a sexist character, a kind person who is always working away to take care of her loved ones? Cinderella is similar, she’s working non-stop while on screen and treated awfully but after working hard is rewarded with her own happily ever after. Then again I would assume it’s the falling in love with the prince that’s the sexist bit. However I think that saying this is a poor role model to children is not looking at the full picture. Firstly these stories were written a long time ago when this sort of thing was more acceptable, more importantly however I would argue it’s understandable that someone in the position of one of these characters would want something like that.

 

Walt Dinsey’s favourite fairy tale was Cinderella because she works hard for a long time and then is rewarded with everything she ever wanted. I think that’s a good message to have, working hard brings good outcomes. Is it also worth noting that the princess falling in love in a few glances is an argument that goes both ways, it happens to the prince too. I’ve never really saw this as a sexist event in a film, rather an exaggeration of what real people really want. What is the purpose of a fairy tale? To tell a story to make us feel good and let us enter the world of the story in our imaginations? Is it sexist to say that going to a place in our imagination where you are loved and rewarded is a bad thing? A child imagination is an incredible thing, these don’t make them think a man will do everything for them, rather it helps them imagine and believe in good.

 

These are old films, newer films have really made an effort to make the female characters more real and interesting. The Princess and the Frog is a fine example, the male and female leads in that films are portrayed as equals in ability despite their different classes and upbringings and they work better together than apart. Neither were bland stereotypes, both were interesting characters with flaws and goals. I never found Belle that interesting because she was a little too prefect but I didn’t have that problem with the Princess and the Frog. Frozen goes one step further by having Anna and Elsa’s relationship having such focus as well as making the typical prince the villain and forming a romantic relationship over time. Both these films are trying to have good role models for kids without sacrificing character to do so and while I like the Princess and the Frog a lot more than Frozen both have good intentions in their morals and messages.

 

One film I do take issue with in this discussion is the little mermaid. Ariel in that films spends loads of time whining and expecting to get everything she wants and unlike Cinderella or Snow White she never has to work. She never grows as a character either, Ariel wants the prince so Ariel gets him and forget consequences for all her selfish actions. This I think is a lot more sexist than many of the films people take issue with.

 

I could mention more examples but I think all this boils down to what you consider sexist in what are designed to be family films. The happily ever after ending is used to make people feel good and pleased for the characters, not to degrade women. The important thing I think is what people take away from the experience, not necessarily everything that happened. People recall that Cinderella married the Prince, not worked hard to get to that point in the first place. What’s important to remember is how many people enjoy these films and characters for being interesting and fun. A lot of these female characters have their flaws or obstacle to overcome in situations we will never be in but they’re more interesting for this. Giving your female character flaws doesn’t make you sexist, it makes the character more interesting and relatable to people.

 

If you’re sat there thinking I’m just one of those ignorant males then you know what, maybe you’re right, I don’t know what other people are offended by but personally I don’t see much issue with sexism in Disney. Take that for what it is but I would like to hear the other side of the argument if you disagree. Thanks for reading and don’t forget to like the Facebook page linked below.

 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Thecoolstuffblog12/1807956062763462?ref=bookmarks

The Dark Origins of Everyone's Favourite Fairy Tales

The Dark Origins of Everyone’s Favourite Fairy Tales

Doesn’t everyone love Disney? Those classic fairy tale stories bought to life in beautiful animation with a level of charm and overall pleasantness about them. However many of these stories have origins that wouldn’t be quite as charming to us all. I’m going to take a look at some today and afterwards you won’t quite be able to look at your favourite Disney Princesses in the same way again.

 

Cinderella.

We all know this classic story. Cinderella is deprived of any freedom by her Step Mother and Step Sisters and treated as a slave. With the help of her fairy Godmother she goes to a ball where a prince falls in love with her. As the clock strikes midnight she is forced to leave and losses her glass slipper. The Prince searches the Kingdom for the girl who can fit the slipper and they all live happily ever after. The original version is similar for the most part, it doesn’t change until the Prince arrives with the Slipper at the house with Cinderella and her step sisters.

 

The step sisters are obsessed with getting their foot into the slipper. The first one tried but cannot get her big toe into the slipper. The step mother handed the women a knife and told her to cut off her big toe as once she was a princess she would no longer need to walk. Yep isn’t that lovely? What’s better is it works. The prince goes away with the step sister but soon noticed a trail of blood coming from her foot. He brings her back and the second sister has a go. Her heel however cannot fit so the step mother hands her the knife and says the same thing. She is also noticed to be leaving a trail of blood and he comes back and Cinderella puts on the shoe. So yeah chopping off parts of a foot and you know what, this is by far the least strange story I’m going to talk about.

 

The Pied Piper

This story is pretty disturbing already and I imagine a few of you already know it but it’s definitely worth a mention. When the town is invested with rats the people offer lots of money for the Pied Piper to lead all the rats away, when he does however the town folk refuse to pay up so the Pied Piper leads all the towns’ children away.

 

Where are the children taken exactly? More modern renditions say the children were taken to a cave  and the townsfolk agree to pay to have the children back which is already pretty creepy. Older versions however state that the Pied Piper took all the children to a river. I’m sure you can see where this is going, the Pied Piper drowned an entire town’s population of children. All except for one, a lane boy who couldn’t keep up with the rest of the children. Someone needs to explain to me who thought telling this as a children’s story was ever a good idea.

 

Sleeping Beauty.

Sleeping Beauty is a really boring story, let’s be honest. It’s the most generic prince rescues princess and they fall in love story you’ll ever find. Well originally it had what we’ll call a unique twist. The story begins in the same way, Sleeping Beauty pricks her finger on a spinning wheel on her fifteenth birthday and is sent to sleep by the evil Maleficent. The Prince eventually comes across her sleeping body but doesn’t kiss her to wake her up like what you know. Here things become completely bizarre.

 

The Prince for some reason still falls in love with this sleeping princess, however he doesn’t wake her up by kissing her, he’s not even the one who wakes her up. He becomes so in love with this sleeping body he decides to … have his way with it. You read that right, the prince undertakes in what is basically necrophilia. Sleeping Beauty becomes pregnant and nine months later gives birth to twins still without waking up. When the twins are attempting to breast feed one of them not knowing what it needs to do with the mother still asleep suckles on her finger dislodging the splinter from the spinning wheel waking Sleeping Beauty. Glad that didn’t happen in the Disney version?

 

Beauty and the Beast.

This one is really weird as the parts cut off the original story seem so out of place. Belle used to have 2 older sisters and her Father was a merchant. One day her Father was going away and asked what they would like to have bought back from his trip. The sisters asked for expensive gifts of a necklace and earrings while Belle said nothing. However she was eventually convinced by her Father to ask for something she says she wants 3 roses on a single stem. He finds the first two gifts with ease but struggles to find the roses until he stumbles across them in a garden. He takes them but runs into the monstrous beast who agrees to let him go if he gives up his daughter to be his wife in a few months’ time.

 

Belle is sent to the tower to be the Beast’s bride to be. The Beast and Belle do not talk a whole much however they do share a bed. They start off side by side but the Beast leads her with a kiss until it gets to a point where she cannot sleep without him. When she sees him in the courtyard and thinks he’s dead she weeps over his dead body he returns to his normal self. The Beast’s Father had a sorceress transform him into a beast when he would not marry someone he did not love and the spell could only be broken when he was loved as a hideous beast.

 

It’s a little weird imagining the Beast and Belle sleeping together but this wasn’t exactly strange, especially compared to the other stories. The weird thing however is the story does not end there. Belle brings her Sisters and Father to live with her after she marries the now prince. The two sisters however are insanely jealous of Belle and they drown her in a bathtub. Yep Belle is drowned by her sisters because she was happy. The story does not end there however. The sorceress that turned the prince into a beast brings Belle back to life and tells her the only way to punish the sister sufficiently is to turn the sisters into stone columns. The only way to break this curse and change them back is if a man can fall in love with them as stone columns. I thought I was pretty weird but there’s no way in hell I could make that up.

 

I don’t think I can quite look at some of those Disney films in the same way again. In the meantime however thanks for reading. Please leave a like on the Facebook page and tell me if there’s any dark fairy tales I didn’t mention.

 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Thecoolstuffblog12/1807956062763462

The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Film Review

The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Film Review

What do you think of when you think of a Disney film? Personally I imagine a fairy tale with a likeable main protagonist lots of magic and wonder and a pleasant tale of good triumphing over evil. Something like that. I haven’t read Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame but if I’m not mistaken it’s a dark and twisted story about the corruption of Church and it involves huge amounts of death, attempted rape and most the main characters dead. Not quite the same really so this does seem like a strange film for Disney to make. Furthermore this film came out after Pocahontas where Disney was starting to lose some of its popularity. This film had the making of a disaster so I sat down last week feeling extremely ill looking forward to ripping it apart. About ninety minutes later I had a film that made me wish I had written my top 5 animated films list after seeing this rather than before.

 

Does this film have problems? Yes it does. Is it perfect? Absolutely not? But the good in this film is so good I couldn’t not talk about it. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is about a hunchback named Quasimodo who lives in the bell tower of Notre Dame. He cannot leave and only interactions come with Judge Claude Frollo, a highly religious man who teaches Quasimodo to see himself as an abomination. The film is primarily about Quasimodo’s quest for acceptance and happiness as he eventually leaves the tower for the Festival of Fools and meets the Gypsy girl Esmeralda.

 

Let’s start with the story. While not the films strongest point it’s by no means bad. It’s pacing is a little off at times and it does occasionally feel slightly clunky but the film is in its characters, not plot. The film seemed to struggle whether to do what it wanted or be as faithful as possible to the novel, which as a Disney film we know won’t happen. It also confused me why the crowd randomly turned on Quasimodo and how abruptly Esmeralda and Phoebus fall in love. However it was enjoyable and the progression in the characters was clear, so I can’t complain.

 

Quasimodo is a very likeable character. It doesn’t take long for us to really get behind him and feel sorry for him, he has been so unfortunate in his life. While not the most subtle metaphor, him looking so ugly does make a point as he is such a kind individual with the purest of intentions. It’s impossible not to like this guy as he’s so endearing and good natured. However he’s not so perfect that he’s not realistic. He makes mistakes and uniquely for a Disney film he doesn’t get the girl but I can’t help but feel happy for him when he finds his acceptance and moves on with his life.

 

The love interest of the film (Quite a busy one with three guys after her) is a Gypsy named Esmeralda. She’s okay I guess but nothing special. She’s just your typical nice but independent female lead. Maybe the fact that she’s a Gypsy but acts kindly towards Quasimodo is supposed to be interesting but I didn’t really get that if it was the case. There’s nothing wrong with her, she’s just not particularly engaging. The same applies to Phoebus and their romance. Phoebus is the new captain of the guard and again there’s nothing really wrong with him. He had good intentions, he helps people etc he is kind of like the typical Disney Prince cliché, just a little bland. The romance between then is pretty dull too, they just throw one liners at each other and then fall in love. It does make more sense plot wise for them to be together it just doesn’t grasp my interest.

 

The main thing I wanted to talk about is the villain Frollo. This is a superb villain. His actions and intentions are as diabolical as any villain I can think of but he sees himself as a soldier for God and free of sin. He gets away with his awful deeds by convincing everyone, including himself that he’s doing it as an act of God. It makes not just a great villain, but a great character in general. He is very developed and interesting and is the best part of the film. His motivations are very controversial for a Disney film, he is essentially abusing his power as he lusts over Esmeralda. It’s twisted and almost shocking but at the same time it was interesting to see from a Disney film. It’s awful the way he makes Quasimodo inadequate is horrific and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing when I saw the old man smelling the young woman’s hair. Frollo was without doubt a fantastic villain.

 

Speaking of shocking, some of the imagery in this film was certainly unconventional from Disney, as was the constant talk of God and religion. I enjoyed the music in this film, not because it was catchy but because it was powerful and told the story. The opening song and Hellfire song in particular were great and I particularly enjoyed the choir which was powerful and impactful. The Hellfire song was very risqué for Disney with the imagery of a seductive woman, the begging to banish Esmeralda to Hell and Hell’s fire. This song was great because it gave us insight into Frollo and how he believes he isn’t to blame despite his many sins. It does exactly what a song should do in a musical and describe how the character is feeling and what is behind his or her motivations.

 

There were some problems however. The Gipsies and their culture in the film I thought were confusing, especially for a younger audience. It portrays them as thieves and uncivilised creatures at times, but at other times you’re supposed to be sympathetic at how they’re misunderstood. Then you see their fortress and it’s full of all their stolen stuff, but then Esmeralda, the one they all seem to look up to is kind and caring. Frollo wants to kill them all but Phoebus who is a high class civilian pity’s them. Even the Festival of Fools is conflicting in its messages. They come across at first as fun loving at first but they turn on Quasimodo quickly and practically bully and insult him to a point where he is extremely upset. Only Esmeralda is kind to him out of the entire Gypsy crowd. There song was odd too, not that it was bad, it was fairly entertaining but maybe it was just me but I found something about it quite uncomfortable and almost slightly off, like it was implying they were quite nefarious. Not the most important aspect of the film but certainly worth mentioning.

 

I’m never really a fan of the comic relief in these kind of films and here was no exception. They weren’t the worst comic relief I’ve ever seen, but in a darker film such as this they did feel more out of place. I never find these characters funny and while they weren’t so obnoxious that they spoilt the movie I did still find them irritating. I did enjoy them more when they appeared to be imaginary, it made sense for Quasimodo’s character to make imaginary friends but you see them in the final battle at the end fighting the guards and you realise they just come to life. They could be worse but they are a weaker aspect of the film.

 

The film is however grand in scale. The animation particularly Notre Dame itself was fantastic and the film just appeared huge. On top of this the Choir suits the film brilliantly as it gets across the feeling and tone of the film as well as simply sounding great. It was one of Disney’s more controversial and risky films but at the same time it’s one I think they did an excellent job with and one that I can see why they wanted to make this instead of just another fairy tale. As I said earlier it’s not perfect, it’s not that faithful to the novel. It is however and incredibly interesting adaptation, a deep and intriguing main character and villain with in depth motivation and personality and it is definitely worth a watch. If you haven’t seen it then I really advise you do, it really is worth your time.