From “The Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” , all the way back in 1937 to “Zootopia” which released this year, Disney’s style has transmuted to become more opulent and palatial, effectively cornering the market by focusing on princesses and their romantically inclined exploits. With the burgeoning animation, themes and characters, Disney has discerned itself as it still manages to amuse and delight the audience through its 56 prodigious movies with evolving characters befitting the aeon.
The poster for the first Disney motion picture, SnowWhite and the Seven Dwarfs
Disney’s first stab at a full length feature was “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. If you watch the movie, it contains instantly recognizable elements like the invidious step mother, the comedic sidekicks, and the dashing prince. It also evinces sexist treatment of the title character whose ultimate fate is left in the hands of a man. The earlier movies comprehend the prosaic theme of ‘good better than evil’. A closer scrutiny of the earlier movies will show a trend stereotyping ugly ones to be malicious and beautiful ones to be kind.
The 1950’s delimited the transition from the antecedent Disney masterpieces with a greater focus on fairy tales, and the emanation of the Disney princesses, who would figure in animated musical adventures. It was the time when Disney started relentless marketing.
Nine years into the decade, Disney came up with its final movie of the Decade, Sleeping Beauty. The movie is starkly hand inked and is without a shadow of doubt, Disney’s standout movie of the decade. The film, personally supervised by Walt Disney himself, reckons a disparate look with more complex, artful drawings and compelling characters. Nothing matches the glory of the final film of the decade. It is a visually stunning piece with the best villainess ever to grace the animated screen. Belle does indeed sleep for most of the movie turning into a huge, fire-breathing, green and purple dragon, but her nemesis Maleficent is wonderfully evil with her horned headdress and pale green skin. The good fairies in the movie can get a little annoying for the adults, but with a lovely score based on Tchaikovsky’s ballet and beautifully detailed drawings, it is a gorgeous fairy-tale from the beginning to the end. The on-going process of “Disneyfication” in the ‘50s meant less darkness and violence and lot more cutesy, but there still was a cornucopia of plot lines to affright a bairn.
It is interesting to see how the antagonist is made to look ‘evil’ with a dark aura about her while the protagonist is looking angelic in the Sleeping Beauty
In 1966, after Walt Disney deceased, the Disney Company produced passable animated films for a long time. Then, in 1989, the company produced a new lucrative cartoon feature film, “The Little Mermaid”, loosely based upon the story by Hans Christian Andersen. Ariel, a fully realized female character who thinks and acts independently, even rebelliously, instead of hanging around passively while her fate decides her destiny is very different from the distraught and often weak female protagonist that prevailed in the previous Disney movies. In this movie, Disney animators have added a gallery of new supporting characters, including an octopus named Ursula who is their most satisfying villainess since the witch in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”
In the old Disney flick, the reprobates were perversely pure evil. But in recent years, they have transformed. They have become more layered and have palpably more shades to them. They have become more unfeigned when putting forth their scariest and darkest side.
However, instances of casual racism have stayed constant in these movies. A song in Aladdin (1992) goes as- “I come from a land…. where they cut off your ears if they don’t like your face. It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.” The iniquitous characters like Jafar, simulates Arabs while Aladdin resembles a fresh-faced American boy. In the 1994 film, “The Lion King”, although the events of The Lion King take place in a jungle in Africa, two white American actors are used for the voice of Simba, the hero. However, the depraved hyenas speak non-standard English and the villain, Scar, suggests homosexuality. Earlier the sub-texts or subtitles had content hitting directly on to specific race or caste bringing about reinforcement of lots of sexist norms and many nonsensical beliefs. In the Modern Disney movies, the subtitles are more progressive and radical.
Disney’s Pocahontas
Pocahontas (1995) mixes the story of a princess in love with a real story from Native American history which apparently bolsters ‘multiculturalism’. The movie actually ends up instilling a false belief of history among viewers. The movie ignores the real fate of both Pocahontas and her people ending it cheerfully with peace between the colonists and the natives while, in reality she was kidnapped, held hostage, forced to marry a colonist and taken to England to help advertise the colony of Virginia where she became ill and died even before she could return to her homeland.
In Mulan (1998), Disney coalesced the story of the legendary Chinese woman warrior Hua Mu-Lan with that of a young woman in love. Mulan, disguised as a man when vouchsafed to be a woman, is defenestrated from the army in a dishonorable manner despite having audaciously crusaded an attack from the enemies.
Mulan, one of the more evolved Disney princess
Disregarding the fact that she was discharged dishonorably, she ends up warding off an attack at the nation’s capital where after she is celebrated as a woman. Depicted as a strong independent spirit who ultimately saves China from invaders the makers of the film have, delineated women with little more substance to their characters.
The 2012 American 3-D computer animated fantasy comedy drama film, “Brave” is a quintessential example of a more transmogrified portrayal of female toughness. Merida is a spunky, athletic princess who uses her skills in archery, as well as her bravery to undo a terrible curse and save her kingdom. Once subservient and overly feminine, today’s Disney princesses are just as independent and strong within the animated landscape as they are outside it. With the recent introduction of Tiana, Disney’s first African American princess in “The Princess and the Frog”, a new chapter in the studio’s legacy has certainly been established.
Tiana, the first African princess of Disney certainly shows signs of development of Disney princesses.
To be honest, Disney movies may have used the celluloid to show sexism and racism. They have visibly twisted the facts to propagate elitism as well. But, to be fair to them, they have shown the truth of the society in a very subtle manner. They have managed to deliver some very serious messages in a very sly manner and that too using cartoons per se. Also, they have evolved vivaciously over the years, adding more depth to their characters. As gender equality and caste equality have become more prevalent, Disney has inculcated these values in its movies as well. Due to its constant zeal for invigoration, Disney has efficaciously ruled the market since 1937, developing movies and reforming itself with every alteration, embodying values and morals.
The statue of Walt Disney at the entrance of Disneyland.
The reason Walt Disney created this new version of animation for, is being well carried out by the present makers. They have done well to keep the same thread of values consolidated i.e. they have maintained their quality and have made there movies universal and timeless.