Princess Who?

[lolavavoom]

I'm really looking forward to seeing Waking Sleeping Beauty. Not just because I learned to love animation during Disney's second golden age of animation. But I'm REALLY curious to see how, if at all, they approach The Black Cauldron

Comments

[unwilly]

The reasons Eil is not a Disney princess.

1)Not adapted from a well know fable or myth. I love the Lloyd Alexander books, but Disney totally failed at adapting the Welsh myths, by starting with the rather grisly Black Cauldron instead of the first book. The narrative is not familiar to the American public and they did not allow the movie to begin naturally and progress through the books.

2)Eil and Taran's love story takes several books to naturally develope, and this book is not where it blossoms, so there is, as you point out, no TRUE LOVE.

3)I can't even recall now, but I think it was not a musical. All the best Disney Princess movies are musicals to a great extent.

4)The animation itself is not good, and feels clunky.

5)The movie was poorly reviewed and made little money, so it gets lost in the shuffle.

[lolavavoom]

Excellent point about the musical element - I totally omitted that. No matter how the film did overall, Eilonwy is STILL a Disney property, and they are not known for their shy and retiring nature when it comes to things they own. If there's a chance for them to recoup money, Why NOT include Eilonwy and Kida in the stable?

[ellie]

Oddly enough, my favorite Disney animated film is Milo and Stitch, which is decidedly not romantic or princess driven. It's about a cute little girl with problems who, with the help of an alien with his own, comes to terms with who she is and her situation.

[lolavavoom]

I think you mean Lilo and Stitch, and I agree - it's a great contemporary animated Disney film that broke the "princess" mold.

I think one of my favorite features of that movie, besides the whiz-bang job that Daveigh Chase did providing Lilo's voice, is that the women had hips! Then again, that seems to be the bias of one of its creators - Chris Sanders

It's not romantic - though there's a big of romantic element with Nani and David, but you're right the film is about finding where you belong, warts and all.

But Lilo's not part of the princess stable - and likes it that way, I suspect. I started this series of rants because I had a whole bunch of mixed feelings about The Princess and The Frog that I needed to pin down. Turns out it opened up a whole bunch more than I ever originally intended.