The Little Mermaid (1989) is an animated, musical, fantasy based film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. It was released on November 15th, 1989.…
In "The Princess Paradox" James Poniewozik suggests that being a princess is much different now than it used to be. But many daughters will always want to be princesses, no matter how much the idea of "princess" has changed over the years. Poniewozik starts his article off by stating that people often try to keep their girls from wanting to become princesses. But in the end they always will want to. Poniewozik states that girls used to want to be a princess with a pampered life. But to him this wasn't what princesses want anymore. They don't want help when they're in trouble, some of them go looking for trouble. No need for a prince to come save them, they can do it on their own. In fact, Poniewozik says that the princesses would much rather "save Prince Charming, thank you" (324), because they feel as though they can be independent and confident in life on their own. They don't always need a prince charming, unless they chose to have one.…
“We don’t think of it as a traditional Princess Movie.”, from the producer of Frozen. In fact, Disney Animation Studio hasn’t produced traditional Princess Movie for a long time. After the rise of Pixar and DreamWorks, Disney is always finding its own differences from other animation studios, that what is its unique and simple. They understand more clear that they must “keep moving forward”, not only on the prince & princess story plot, but also on the development of the internal thesis. When politics talk about Disney Princess, they may concern a lot with the feminism, that women has taken half parts of the role on the Earth. Through reviewing different Princess Movies from different eras in the history, audience may notice the influence of…
For the past seventy-eight years, Disney has been creating disney princess movies, a phenomenon that has swept the world, with worldwide gross of up to six hundred million dollars. Little girls from the age of two watch and enjoy these chauvinist movies, spending hundreds on outfits so that they can resemble their most idealized princess. The official disney princess line-up includes Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Rapunzel, and Merida. While a single caucasian girl’s dream is blossoming, dreaming about the multiple princesses she could grow up to be, an african american girl’s is falling to pieces, with only a single idealized role model to chose from. While a child yearns for a prince to sweep…
Movies, books, costumes, and the toys on the shelves in almost every store have been consumed by the Disney Princess. For most little girls, princesses ranging from Cinderella to Elsa have become their biggest role models. Important lessons like learning to stand up for yourself, never giving up, following your heart, and finding the beauty in nature are just a few of the teachings throughout the Disney Princess movies. What parent in their right mind wouldn't want these things for their daughter? Author Stephanie Hanes explores a possible answer to this question in the article, “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect” originally published on October 3, 2011 from the Christian Science Monitor. Hanes makes her argument by persuading…
Did you know that in the Disney version movie of “Sleeping Beauty”, Princess Aurora is there for only sixteen to twenty minutes. Most of the movie was more about how prince Phillip fought a dragon in a lava pit, more than about the princess Aurora who the story was really about. Disney made it seem like Aurora slept gracefully while prince Philip was out fighting evil witches and dragons. A girl should be taught to take up arms on their own and not to wait for some guy in a white horse to save her; girls should not be portrayed as a damsel in distress, but be taught that girls are strong and can be their own hero, that they can do anything if they…
This can be seen as a push for feminism in the movie because it doesn’t focus on her being because she’s a girl. Also it changes how things are normally executed in fairytales. Some examples include Tiana rescuing Naveen, the princess also being changed into an animal, Prince Naveen being a playboy and they changing into a hard worker, and Mama Odie who says to think about your wishes and if that’s really what you want. These are probably introduced into the movie because Disney is looking to find a prompt that will make people watch and buy the movie. Viewers want to have a role model that will be a good example for small children and make them change themselves for the…
The introduction of Tiana jumpstarted a new line of Disney princesses – followed by Tangled, Brave (Pixar, but included in Disney princess line-up), and Frozen – and returned to the notion brought on by such self-saving princesses as Pocahontas and Mulan.…
I do agree that Disney does follow a lot of the Gender stereotypes. In Disney, Women have to be really skinny and white to be beautiful, which is not true they focus on outer beauty and not inner beauty. They are teaching little girls beauty is being white and skinny that is resulting in an image and standards set for girls. I totally disagree with that and think Beauty should vary and not be just be white and skinny. In "The little Mermaid" many stereotypes are involved involving Ariel and her prince. They teach the idea of changing who you are to be with someone and not following the idea of "being yourself". They teach the idea that women are submissive. I think symbolically it even goes deeper to say that women give up their voice to be…
Poniewozik begins by stating that it is a nightmare for the young girls wanting to be princesses today. Society expects every little girl wants to be a princess. Poniewozik blames Hollywood for this. It’s true in recent decades that Hollywood has produced quite a few cinderella stories and also many other fairy-tail type projects. It’s not a bad thing for them to do this because they’re making a large profit off these projects. Princess fairytale stories and movies are surprisingly popular today. Poniewozik claims that we have come a long way from the girls-kick-ass-culture of just a few years ago (Poniewozik 666).…
The princesses are all fair in nature in terms of their skin color and beauty. While they are capable of doing more, they all want to get married and be the housewife that cooks and cleans all day. These girls all live their lives, unaware of the privileges they have due to their beauty, race, and social status. While Cinderella is forced to be a maid, she still lives in a castle and receives help from her fairy godmother. Privilege is not something usually thought about, and judging from the actions (or lack thereof) by the princesses in these films, they seem to be unaware of the privileges that surround them from their fairness (McIntosh…
In fact, one of Walt Disney’s favourite tales was in fact Cinderella, with he can relate to the character with her hard-working nature in hopes that they are rewarded one day for it. Despite the criticism these characters may get, it is usually due to how they are in fact limited to roles that they are given during those times. Which means that as time moves on, the role of a Disney Princess has changed, along with the role of women in animated works in general with much more variety of roles given to them. The later Princesses are a lot more active and take much bigger chances than earlier Princesses, are actually go out and contribute a lot more to plot other than just being there to be rescued. For example, we gave Merida from Pixar’s Brave (2012). Her story is a focused a lot on her and the relationship she has with her mother, and we see how she grows as a character as well as watching her rebel against the typical treats of a Princess. She can be considered the new image of the Disney Princess, but she isn’t the only one or the first to do so. Ariel from The Little Mermaid (1990) is also a lot more curious about the world around her on land and she goes out and explores, and she even at one point makes effort to help and save the…
Disney is a very popular company. Many of us grew up watching their movies and shows. Many of us don’t see what they are doing until we have grown up and become exposed to how women are not treated equal. Disney has many movies with showed many things be seen as stated here, “the author cited numerous examples of both sexism and racism in the films, specifically noting the heroines’ extremely pale skin tones, small waists, delicate limbs, and full breast. (England 556)” They have the image of women to be light skin, skinny, and mainly be more attractive to men. Disney shows that women need be the person to get the help, not them helping themselves. In many movies you will see the ‘princess’ will be confronted with some problem that…
So, how about the grownups? If you ask a man, he may answers you that a princess is a girl and girls are fragile and need to be protected. I guess this is how they relate to Link saving Zelda or Mario saving Peach. If you ask a woman, she may tells you that she is waiting for her Prince Charming but guys she has met all told her that she has princess syndrome. Princess syndrome is an unofficial sickness for sufferers who are pampered, overindulgent and…
Little girls have high standards to live up to. We grow up watching Cinderella, a girl who with the help of her fairy godmother transforms her appearance from poor servant maid to a beautiful princess. In doing this, she is able to go off to the ball and find her prince charming whom is captivated by her beauty and they fall in love and live happily ever after. I cannot really agree with Barry when he states “men don’t even notice 97 percent of the beauty efforts you make anyway” (370) You think if Cinderella would’ve shown up to the ball in her rags Mr. Prince Charming would’ve gave her a second look? I beg to differ.…