That comment was pretty stupid. But I think I did see what he was getting at--it's what I mentioned above. In the old cartoons, the ladies were all kind of generically pretty, without much of a range of expression. If that tradition's been around for long enough, then I can totally believe artists would struggle to figure out how to break free of it. There's unfortunately less practice and less precedent, making it new territory. So basically, Disney sabotaged itself through years of failing to explore the range of female faces/emotions.
After that, though, I was pleasantly surprised with Frozen. You ... uh ... might have noticed that I really liked it. For Disney, it breaks a lot of the molds--it focuses on sister love, with the romance off to the side, and it really does let the women take charge of their destiny. (One of them winds up with a curse that needs an act of True Love to break. Watching the progression of those kinds of curses over the course of Disney's history has been interesting. With Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, the cursed princess waits passively, and in fact senselessly, for some hero to show up and bestow upon her the Act of True Love. In the Little Mermaid, she doesn't sit around waiting--she actively goes to convince him to bestow it upon her--but she still is at his mercy. In Frozen, they start the same way--our heroine goes to straight up demand that the hero help her out. Which ... well, spoiler? I don't know if you mind those. But let me tell you, the way it turns out is AWESOME.)
And ursulav has mentioned another reason why it busts the mold: the older sister. She has been hiding her awesome magic powers all her life, and as soon as she doesn't have to hide them anymore she's like "HELL YEAH I'VE GOT FREEZY POWERS! TIME TO BUILD ICE CASTLES AND SNOW GOLEMS!" And she sings an unbelievable showstopping number about it. And while her powers cause her issues, she never wishes she didn't have them. And she gets to KEEP them, which doesn't happen with nice girls, because their power is too much to trust them with. And she gets to be an actual queen, not just a princess! And she's not even the villain! OH MAN, THIS MOVIE.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2013-12-23 10:55 pm (UTC)After that, though, I was pleasantly surprised with Frozen. You ... uh ... might have noticed that I really liked it. For Disney, it breaks a lot of the molds--it focuses on sister love, with the romance off to the side, and it really does let the women take charge of their destiny. (One of them winds up with a curse that needs an act of True Love to break. Watching the progression of those kinds of curses over the course of Disney's history has been interesting. With Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, the cursed princess waits passively, and in fact senselessly, for some hero to show up and bestow upon her the Act of True Love. In the Little Mermaid, she doesn't sit around waiting--she actively goes to convince him to bestow it upon her--but she still is at his mercy. In Frozen, they start the same way--our heroine goes to straight up demand that the hero help her out. Which ... well, spoiler? I don't know if you mind those. But let me tell you, the way it turns out is AWESOME.)
And