Not a great day, but not bad, either

[cleolinda]

Two things first:

1) After a few nights of feverish procrastination copypasta coding, I finally have a Secret Life of Dolls read-through for you. You can jump in anywhere you want and, by means of hitting "next" or "previous" as you wish, read the entire saga from beginning to end or end to beginning. That's all you right there.

2) Trufax:
@

Comments

[flamingo_bandit]

How About An Animated Movie With A Female Lead Who Isn't A Princess?

[callie_girl]

But Disney has marketed Mulan as a Princess in her own right - though a B-list one. She's rarely featured along with the A-team of Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Belle. Still, according to the Disney marketing machine, she's a Princess.

[maramala]

Thanks a lot, Disney, for relegating non-Western characters to the B-list.

[callie_girl]

Interestingly, Princess Jasmine is often forgotten by Disney as well.

[julietvalcouer]

I think with Jasmine the issue is not so much her ethnicity as she's wearing a crop-top and harem pants with an 18" waist and boobs that are...bigger than that.

[melayka]

Yeah, as far as the "Disney Princess Line" in concerned, any of the girls can be included, even if they weren't royalty in their stories. (IIRC, they occasionally include girls like Alice, Megara, and Wendy, and they added Kairi from Kingdom Hearts to it for the game's purposes.) The only one I don't remember seeing much of was Esmerelda... for probably obvious reasons.

[mogumogu]

Mulan, I think, came out before the introduction of the "Disney Princess" line

[goldenusagi]

Still, according to the Disney marketing machine, she's a Princess.

Is she? I know Mulan has been sold with a fancy dress on, but has she ever been on the Princess line? I thought there were 6 official princesses, 3 old, 3 new. Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine.

[plazmah]

I thought the exact same thing.

[melayka]

Hell yes. Mulan was my favorite for the very reason that she was never a princess or a fairy - she was a tomboy HBIC, and she made the "prince" work to impress her.

Now that I think of it, all of the Pixar movies have had male leads. Their girls are usually strong, but they're only ever love interests or secondary chars. I can't see them not going that route eventually, though - Lasseter's totally in love with Miyazaki, he of all execs would understand that a tough little girl can carry a film.

[profbutters]

To be fair, though, their leads aren't exactly conventional, either. The lead character in *Ratatouille* is really Remy--and he's a rat. And the lead in *Up* is a 79-year-old guy. And I'm not sure who is the real lead in *The Incredibles.* I'm willing to give Pixar the benefit of the doubt.

[tabbyclaw]

"The Incredibles" is kind of like "Lost." Yeah, there's some folk get more screentime than others, but there isn't really a lead and you're gonna be satisfied no matter who your favorite is.

[greedyskunk]

I remember watching Shrek in the theater and one little boy was so upset at the end because she was still an ogre. "I thought she was supposed to be a princess, but she's fat and ugly!" I really hope his dad took advantage of that teaching moment.

[janetlin]

Bah, Mulan was neither born a princess nor married a prince, I don't see how Disney can include her at all. Maybe just for ethnic diversity. But then why don't Pocahontas and Jasmine get more representation?

Speaking of diversity, when is Disney going to tap into some Russian fairy tales? Baba Yaga could give Maleficent a run for her money.

[ahirutwin]

I had the same thought when I went to Disney World over Spring Break and realized that there wasn't a Russia section in Epcot. It was then that my dad pointed out that when Epcot was being built, Russia and the U.S.... Well, they weren't on good terms to say the least. So maybe it's old prejudices that fuel it? It's still completely unfair, in any case.