Validation, Not Always a Good Feeling
Just ran across this article relating to Disney's new movie, Tangled, and frankly I'm a tad pissed, not surprised, and still cocking my head sideways at the going ons over at those studios.
Most of my annoyances about Disney's latest fare seem to have panned out. And it seems that the male gender is to blame. To cater to the 8 to 14 boy demographic, Disney has seen fit to change their movie and marketing style, up to and including changing the title to something less girly. Because boys don't want to watch anything with girls or princesses at the main fare, so they're going to bend over backwards to appeal to the little snots.
It's not just with Tangled either, apparently it's a wide cast Disney decree. After Tangled, Disney will not have any plans to make any new movie with any Princess specifically, or anything girly in general. This male wave also appears to be the main drive behind last year's purchase of Marvel Comics, and all associated branches, in a bid to grasp more of this demographic.
The blame seems to be riding on The Princess and the Frog, whose mid-to-good reviews and box office were also harbringers of doom to the bigwigs. Because TPatF didn't blow everything out of the water like back in the Reniassance days, that meant that the Princess trend was dead. This also lead to retooling of the Rapunzel movie in the works.
I now remember that years ago, when you went to Wikipedia, when you visited a Disney page and clicked the box at the bottom for Disney Animated Films, they usually have a couple movies that are going to come out in a few years. Rapunzel was one of them. I just now remembered that, because I had been wondering how Tangled snuck up on me. They changed the name so it wasn't so obviously a Girl. And Flynn (I still hate him) apparently got a story boost so as to carry more, if not more than, the lead female. Because, you know, guys don't want a female leading. And the action was ramped up, with some added chase scenes and more Flynn (I already suspect that she doesn't hit him enough with that frying pan).
This all seems very strange really. Disney's biggest movies, their Reniassance period, is dominated by female leads. Little Mermaid, Jasmine (not the overall lead, but still), Belle. Yeah, when you break it down the Princess line may not have the overall best messages to tell little girls, and males figured just as much as them, but they never catered to those with outside genitialia. They told good stories (within reason), and usually evened out who carried the story.
Ironically in all this, Pixar is starting to (well, they have but it's picking up steam) get called out on their lack of female leads in their movies. Not until their thriteenth film, The Bear and the Bow oh I'm sorry, Brave, will a female lead a Pixar ship.
Disney films have never been what you could consider high art. Beautiful they may be, but they're still simplified versions of much darker material, sometimes overfilled with pop culture references, and more and more playing to who they think bring in the biggest draw. But this just smacks in the face of lack of respect, towards girls and boys alike.
Basing decisions on any one film is usually stupid, especially one from Disney. So TPatF wasn't a critical darling or financial record breaker; it's a 2D, oldschool feel Disney movie, something that hasn't been made in years, of course it's not going to compare to when you were in your prime. It's a direction, a good direction I feel, that you have to slowly move back into.
But the decision has been a long time coming it seems, TPatF just gave them the excuse they wanted to say goodbye to "girly" movies. I think that, even if it had done well, not much would have changed for Tangled. There's a new reign in Disney, and they believe that boys are the key to success. So, at a time when most everything on the Disney channel, on the animated side anyway it seems, is already catering to action and male testosterone, the feature films, where girls had the advantage, are too turning to boys to carry them forward.
Forward and backward.
Most of my annoyances about Disney's latest fare seem to have panned out. And it seems that the male gender is to blame. To cater to the 8 to 14 boy demographic, Disney has seen fit to change their movie and marketing style, up to and including changing the title to something less girly. Because boys don't want to watch anything with girls or princesses at the main fare, so they're going to bend over backwards to appeal to the little snots.
It's not just with Tangled either, apparently it's a wide cast Disney decree. After Tangled, Disney will not have any plans to make any new movie with any Princess specifically, or anything girly in general. This male wave also appears to be the main drive behind last year's purchase of Marvel Comics, and all associated branches, in a bid to grasp more of this demographic.
The blame seems to be riding on The Princess and the Frog, whose mid-to-good reviews and box office were also harbringers of doom to the bigwigs. Because TPatF didn't blow everything out of the water like back in the Reniassance days, that meant that the Princess trend was dead. This also lead to retooling of the Rapunzel movie in the works.
I now remember that years ago, when you went to Wikipedia, when you visited a Disney page and clicked the box at the bottom for Disney Animated Films, they usually have a couple movies that are going to come out in a few years. Rapunzel was one of them. I just now remembered that, because I had been wondering how Tangled snuck up on me. They changed the name so it wasn't so obviously a Girl. And Flynn (I still hate him) apparently got a story boost so as to carry more, if not more than, the lead female. Because, you know, guys don't want a female leading. And the action was ramped up, with some added chase scenes and more Flynn (I already suspect that she doesn't hit him enough with that frying pan).
This all seems very strange really. Disney's biggest movies, their Reniassance period, is dominated by female leads. Little Mermaid, Jasmine (not the overall lead, but still), Belle. Yeah, when you break it down the Princess line may not have the overall best messages to tell little girls, and males figured just as much as them, but they never catered to those with outside genitialia. They told good stories (within reason), and usually evened out who carried the story.
Ironically in all this, Pixar is starting to (well, they have but it's picking up steam) get called out on their lack of female leads in their movies. Not until their thriteenth film, The Bear and the Bow oh I'm sorry, Brave, will a female lead a Pixar ship.
Disney films have never been what you could consider high art. Beautiful they may be, but they're still simplified versions of much darker material, sometimes overfilled with pop culture references, and more and more playing to who they think bring in the biggest draw. But this just smacks in the face of lack of respect, towards girls and boys alike.
Basing decisions on any one film is usually stupid, especially one from Disney. So TPatF wasn't a critical darling or financial record breaker; it's a 2D, oldschool feel Disney movie, something that hasn't been made in years, of course it's not going to compare to when you were in your prime. It's a direction, a good direction I feel, that you have to slowly move back into.
But the decision has been a long time coming it seems, TPatF just gave them the excuse they wanted to say goodbye to "girly" movies. I think that, even if it had done well, not much would have changed for Tangled. There's a new reign in Disney, and they believe that boys are the key to success. So, at a time when most everything on the Disney channel, on the animated side anyway it seems, is already catering to action and male testosterone, the feature films, where girls had the advantage, are too turning to boys to carry them forward.
Forward and backward.