In Defence of Disney Princesses

[90scartoonman]

So, continuing my investigation into my fandoms, I decided now is a good time to tackle this one. When I eventually organize and number them, I'm sure Disney is going to be in the Top 5, if not Top 3, which is interesting. Therefore, for our purposes, I'm going to subdivide and talk about the Princess branch of Disney. I like Disney Princesses,

Comments

[eldarwannabe]

I suppose I should clarify that I meant Disney animated movies. We get plenty of examples of girls from their other stuff, but a quick glance through their animated movie selection is a little more disheartening. Best non-princess female role model I could think of was The Rescuers, which doesn't star actual.

We don't have so many king examples outside of Kuzco, and the upcoming King of the Elves, true. (The Sword in the Stone was just lifting from the book, so I'm not sure where to put it.) Good point.

I think the thing that bothers me the most is the fact that Pixar, the modern lead in animated movies, has had a male lead in every single movie they have done. And now that they are finally making a movie starring a girl...she's a princess. And I can't help but wonder how much that is influenced by the Disney precedent on the medium.

I'd like to again clarify that I really, really enjoy every Disney princess movie, and again, not a single one of them is bad. The values they teach tend to be really valid and good, and Tangled has been one of my favorite movies out of the entire past year. It's the trend I find bothersome, not the movies or characters themselves.

[90scartoonman]

Ah, animated movies. See, there's NO REASON to put Mulan in the Disney princess line considering she's not really a princess and would qualify as an awesome female role model! Wait, diversity, but...still. Also, as I said, the fairy godmothers in Sleeping Beauty make better role models than Aurora.

Kuzco may be a king, but he's hardly an adult.

True about Pixar, although long, female hair is hard to animate, ALTHOUGH half their characters aren't even human. Hm, Pixar needs to break the mold! At least we have the Incredibles gals.

Tangled kicks butt!