Is Disney Sexist?

Disney is the animation studio loved by children all around the world. It seems it would be right that as such a widespread media, they should set the example to their young audience. It's surprising, though, that Disney is actually pretty sexist.

It seems Emma would be pretty mad

The female characters in many of the Disney movies are pretty generalized.

They are dependent upon the lead male characters. Most of the time this is when the girls are princesses or royalty waiting for their "Prince Charming". Here are some examples:

BASICALLY ALL THE OLD PRINCESSES

1. Snow White: Snow White waits until her Prince Charming saves her from the poisoned apple. The only thing that saves her in the end is basically her good looks. 

2. Aurora(a.k.a Sleeping Beauty) is cursed because another woman despises her and again, has to wait for her "true love's kiss". 

3. Cinderella is another "girly" character, waiting for her life to become better, waiting for the Prince to fall in love with her and save her from her miserable life. The Prince doesn't fall for her because of her hard working-ness or her kind nature, hell no. She's just pretty.

Yet her dream comes true because...fairytales.

4. Ariel : TBH, Ariel is the worst of the lot. She risks her life and changes her physical appearance just to get the attention of a man SHE JUST SAW FOR A FEW SECONDS. How stupid can she get? The original story is even worse; she changes her appearance, and then when the guy doesn't love her back, she just decides to die. Stupid, much?

5. Belle : Belle is somewhat better off than the rest of the lot, but not much. She saves the guy, but still, the only reason the Beast like her is because she's pretty. Also, Gaston, the antagonist of the story only wants to marry Belle because "she's the prettiest girl in town". (Though in this vhis little girl shows the sexist Gaston a piece of her mind. KUDOS!)

Come on, Disney, all your stories are pretty stupid. Why don't you have a princess fall in love with an orphan guy? Oh wait, that's Aladdin. Ok, let's talk about that movie.

6. Jasmine(Aladdine) : The first attempt that Disney ever made to make the female royalty and the guy not a prince. Jasmine, seems headstrong and not your normal "Disney Princess", right? Well, no. Jasmine is REQUIRED to marry someone of "her royal status" because of her family rules, even if she doesn't like them. Then, of course Aladdin turns up as the hero and saves her at the end.

Ok, so this isn't entirely Disney's fault. The stories are usually not original, and the original stories were written when it was still acceptable to make the women dependent of their men, when the women's place was in the kitchen. So we can't blame Disney for trying to go along with the story. In fact, they actually made some attempts to get rid of the issue.

For example, in Frozen, the sisters show that princesses don't need a prince to solve their problems. (Although I can't give Anna credit for falling in love with "someone she just met")

Yeh....No.

So... Is Disney sexist? Yes and no. Yes, the movies show it but it's because that's how fairytales are. And as they are showing effort to fix the problem, we'll forgive them, yes? (We still love you Disney)

Facts About “Monster’s Inc.” That You Didn’t Know

“Monster’s Inc”(2001) is technically not a Disney movie, in case some of you Disney geeks ask. It was animated by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. Recently releasing the sequel “Monster’s University” in 2013, the movie is a well known family movie still loved worldwide. Here are some secrets you may have not known about the film

1.      Boo was originally designed to be a 6 year old girl.

Boo, the little girl and one of the main characters of the film, is a toddler in the actual film. She can only say basic words and childish blabber. The only actual words she say are “Boo!”(Which is why Sulley calls her that), “Kitty” and “Mike Wazowski”. Of course she also has this adorable humming of the tune “Beauty and the Beast”

"Sand-fly, Sandy cake, Sailing in cake..."

But the truth is that Boo wasn’t originally supposed to be a toddler. The character was supposed to be a 6 year old girl totally capable of talking, but the directors changed their mind, deciding that setting her as a toddler would increase her dependency on Sulley.

Also, Boo’s real name is Mary.(I bet you didn’t know that.)

2.      The ideas for 4 different Pixar movies were made on the same day.

During a lunch meeting in 1994, ideas were made for 4 different movies. These included “Monster’s Inc”, “Finding Nemo”, “A Bug’s Life”, and “Wall-E”. It is pretty surprising that while some of these were produced early, others like Wall-E were produced much later, in 2008.

 

3.      Mike Wazowski was not an original character.

Sorry to break it to you this way Mike

In the original script, Mike was not included. In addition, Sulley was a janitor working at Monster’s Inc, and not a scarer. The producers actually seemed to stick to this original idea and elaborated in the sequel “Monster’s University” where both Mike and Sulley start out as janitors and work their way up.

4.      Sulley has more than 2.3 million hairs on his body.

The exact number is 2,320,413. Ever single strand of hair had to be animated and thus it took a LOT of time to animate the character of Sulley. It apparently took more than 12 hours to animate a single frame of Sulley. WOW. You can check out this video for the original “basic” animation of Sulley. The difference of with and without hair is actually huge. S/O to the producers for their effort.

Hi Sulley!

 5.      Lastly…

HEY IT'S REX!

Monster’s Inc was the last Pixar Movie to include a blooper “behind the scenes” during end credits. This is one of the sad facts. I really liked the bloopers personally. For example, Toy Story would stop in the middle of the end credits to show a “hidden scene” of the “actors” of the movies. It would show another side of the animation and would always be fun to check out. I still haven’t gave up and wait until the end credits of Disney-Pixar movies, hoping for the bloopers. Never showed up again yet, though.

P.S for all you Disney geeks out there:

Frozen Fever(the short sequel of Frozen) was released today!! It's included exclusively in the beginning of the new Cinderella movie. Being the Disney geek I am, I wanted to go see the movie today on its release date but failed to. I'm a failure :(:(:(

I FAIL IN FANGIRLING

 You should go see it too when you get the chance! The trailer was totally awesome, Elsa was still amazingly pretty, Anna amazingly cute, Olaf still with his personal flurry, and Christoff was still the absolute darling he is:) (Although if I had it my way I would have Hans in it. Admit it, he IS a bad guy, but he's waaaaayyyyyy HOT) AND THERE'S A NEW SOUNDTRACK!!! ANYONE EXCITED?

YEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS

Tarzan-Beauty and the Beast Theory

All the movies I've reviewed up till now are all relatively recent movies, Frozen being from 2013, Tangled 2011 and Up from 2009. This time I want to talk about two older movies, Tarzan from 1999, and Beauty and the Beast, which is even older, from 1991. Despite being made more than 15 years ago, both movies are still well known for its great animation techniques and amazing soundtracks. Today I will talk about a theory that most people do no know about these two movies.

The theory is that Belle from Beauty and the Beast and Jane from Tarzan are related.

*stares in shock*

Not cousin or sister related though, they have a few era differences. Apparently fans believe that Jane and her father are descended from the bloodline of Belle.

Although it has not been confirmed, there is a lot of evidence to back it up. First of all, there is the Mrs. Potts and Chip(the teapot and the tea cup) Easter Egg in Tarzan.



Disney likes to sneak in hidden objects or characters from other movies (also called Easter Eggs). The GIF above is clearly the un-alive version of the teapot and teacup from Beauty and the Beast.

Awww How sweet

The theory is that Jane is one of Belle's descendants and happened to inherit her china set. A flaw in the theory is that Mrs. Potts and Chip turned back into human after the enchantment was undone at the end of "The Beauty and the Beast". 

The second part of support for this theory that Jane and Belle's appearances are pretty similar. They both have brown hair, up done in a loose bun, and wear yellow dresses. Also, Jane and Belle are both addicted to literature. It is mentioned throughout the whole movie that Belle is in love with books(she is perfectly happy with being kidnapped by a beast, as long as she is in a library full of books. Yeah. It's totally fine.) Jane also goes around with her nose stuck in a book, probably by the influence of her highly intelligent inventor father. 

Yeah, pretty similar, huh?

Mentioning fathers, both of their fathers are also pretty similar too. Eccentric inventors with grey hair and a merry personality, (not to mention being a little...crazy... at times) it could be a characteristic that runs in the family. Their love for their daughters is also very well depicted in the movies.

Lastly, Jane and Belle both share a love for wild, untamed men.

Belle falls in love with the Beast (or Prince Adam), even with his ugly appearance and untamed manners. She tries to teach him the right ways and does not judge him for his nature. Jane, similarly falls in love with Tarzan. 

Personally I think both would have been quite hard to get close to. Tarzan, although having the form of a human, is basically an animal, a monkey. He doesn't know how to talk, he doesn't know how to walk on two feet, and at first he doesnt even know that Jane is the same species as himself. On the other hand, the Beast can communicate with Belle fine, but his personality traits (being antisocial and shutting himself up in his room) and his ugly features make it hard for one to approach him. 

But oh well, they all turned out well in the end *wink wink*

Awwww Yassss

Well there aren't really shown any pictures of Tarzan dressed up as a normal human but I guess its safe to say he would look a lot like his father (that mustache tho)

Overall, both movies are pretty great. I loved Beauty and the Beast when I was little, the songs were stuck in my head for a long long time(which reminds me, let me go listen to the soundtrack.)

But even besides what Disney gave us, its always fun to make something more up ourselves, use our imagination, right? And looking at all the proof above, it seems to be a pretty solid story. The theory may not be true but if it is, then well done Disney!