Analysis Of Disney Films Mulan And Aladdin

In the past years, Disney/Pixar has revolutionized the premise of their movies by shifting away from princesses and portraying resilient male characters as the protagonists of their highly successful animated feature films. From 1995 to 2008, Disney/Pixar released eight films, all of which included a male lead, yet these characters are arguably unlike any other protagonist in early Disney animated films. In their essay, “Post-Princess Models of Gender: The New Man in Disney/Pixar,” Ken Gillam and Shannon R. Wooden call attention to the new manner Disney/Pixar use to depict their heroic male characters in their movies. Gillam and Wooden claim that Pixar is using their movies to promote the acceptance of a new standard of masculinity capable of embracing feminine traits, as conveyed by the male characters within the films. As a viewer, it is easy to recognize the emasculation of the male protagonists within Pixar movies, however, the authors’ claim is faulty; they fail to acknowledge that society now has room for a new sympathetic man because it is straying way from a patriarchal beliefs of the past.

Cassandra Stover explains in her Journal Damsels and Heroines: The Conundrum of the Post-Feminist Disney Princess, the dramatic shift with Disney princess at the peak of the late 1980s and early 1990s. She explains that the shift can derive from feminist movements and how the change can be directed to the third wave of feminism. She examines the original Disney princesses and decribes them to be more passively aggresive and unindependent, while the new princesses are more independent and brave. The author then explains if the shift from the old to new princesses are actually better, and not just different. Stover analysizes that Disney princesses evolve and are a part of the worlds change on feminism.

In the diverse society of today, the topic of equal rights and equal treatment of every person is a heavily focused and pronounced topic. With time and tremendous amount of effort by many advocates of civil rights, the enormous rift between races and genders have minimized to fractions of what it used to be. This change of belief from the white male supremacy to the diverse equality is a significant turning point of the world history. Not even 100 years ago, women were not able to vote and were supposed to stay at home while the husband, the man of the household, went out and worked for the family. Within the past few decades, women and men

Disney makes over $3 billion on their Disney Princess products every year and now have over 25,000 items in their princess collection (Orenstein 2). Disney has played a big role in shaping not only societal viewpoints on what young girls should like, but also what little girls believe they should enjoy as well. Gender stereotypes have been around for a long time, but now with technology advancements, such as media in western society is able to play a bigger than ever role in influencing people’s perspectives. Not only do we see gender roles and stereotypes in television shows, but also in advertisements and in children’s toys. Although many readers of Peggy Orenstein’s “What’s wrong with Cinderella” have argued that the princess culture is corrupting today’s young girls and making them more dependent on men, a closer examination shows that many girls grow out of the princess phase with no negative repercussions and choose whatever passions they want.

From Disney’s feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, through to many of its princess movies, the female protagonist is reliant on a male counterpart as either their goal or last hope. For example, Ariel in The Little Mermaid sacrifices her voice for a far off prince and Aurora in Sleeping Beauty can only be awoken by a kiss from one. However, as public opinions in society changed, Disney also shifted it focus when it came to dealing with female leads. To do this, they scripted strong and independent women, who could rely on themselves, rather than on some glorified man. Although transcendentalism does not solely focus on females when it comes to its ideals, the practice of self-reliance by these modern Disney princesses is in direct

The Disney is huge animation company and their films are an enormous part of the entertainment industry in the whole world. They influence all kinds of people, from children to adults. Also, Disney was created over 90 years ago, and till this very day its most entertaining animation company. Throughout period of time, they have played a tremendous role in how society displays gender roles. As Janet Wasko explains: “Disney provides an opportunity to analyse an entire popular cultural phenomenon from various perspectives […]” (Wasko, 2001). As modern culture goes through many changes, Disney has also been in major changes in the way they represent their characters, especially females.

Recently, over the Winter, I brought my girlfriend to watch the Broadway Musical Aladdin. It was a very spectacular Broadway musical. I have been to many Broadway plays like Matilda and Wicked, but Aladdin, in my opinion was my favorite one. The Broadway musical is based off the 1992 Disney film “Aladdin,” which was directed by John Musker and Ron Clements. Since the musical was produced in 2014, I got to see the original cast, which was pretty astounding. The music and acting was very well played by the actors during the play. Besides the singing in the musical, there was an orchestra playing their instruments underneath the stage, so all you can see is the conductor telling the orchestra what to do. The subject of the musical was to entertain the people watching and to tell the story of the Disney movie in a musical way. The purpose of the musical is to show how Princess Jasmine is being forced who to marry by her father and she wants to be the person who decides that. In the play, three characters were added which were not in the original movie, Aladdin’s friends. Their names are Babkak, Omar, and Kassim. I found it to be creative that the play creators added them. They called themselves “Four guys with one Arabian dream.” Also in the movie, the villain, Jafar has an evil sidekick which is a parrot, but in the play, Jafar’s sidekick is a human. Another change was in the movie Aladdin also a sidekick as well. Aladdin’s sidekick is a monkey named Abu and in the play

For decades now, Disney Corporation has been providing us with countless films made to delight and amuse children and adults alike. But not all Disney films seem particularly appropriate for their target audience. Many of these films portray violence, gender inequality, and skewed views of leadership roles that seem altogether inappropriate for impressionable young children. Better and more contemporary heroines need to be added to Disney’s wall of princesses in order to counteract years of sexism.

Disney princesses are fun for all ages, but their target audience is young children and “as children grow and develop, they can be easily influenced by what they see and hear”. Therefore, what they see and hear in Disney movies leaves an impression on them. The first princess, Snow White, was created in a time where each gender and race had a specific role in society. Recently, many believe that Disney has come a long way in regards to gender and race since Snow White, as several multi-cultural protagonists have been introduced subsequently, and gender roles do not appear to be as stereotypical as they once were. However, many of the apparent innocent messages about race and gender in these movies, can be exposed as otherwise. Despite

Disney directly exposes the idea that young girls should make their main goal in life to find their prince charming, fall madly in love, and live happily ever after. Making young girls’ aspiration in life revolve around finding a man of their dreams “transfix[es the] audience and divert[s] their potential utopian dreams and hopes through the false promises of the images [Disney] cast[s] upon the screen” (22). Disney tells the audience that women need a man to be happy. Disney presents the idea that women are dependent on me. Just like in The Little Mermaid, Ariel goes as far as surrendering her voice, to a witch named Ursula, and abandoning her family in order to be with her prince. Ariel also trades in her life as a mermaid, drastically changes her body, and sacrifices her greatest talent all in order to win her prince. Disney sends the message that girls need to give up their talents and lives in order to be with a man. Disney suggests that a woman’s main priority is her lover, no one or nothing else. Disney effectively portrays women in a negative way, depicting them as weak and needy. No attempt to break the stereotypical gender roles of women are evident however, these stereotypes are growing as Disney instills this image of women in the minds of viewers.

When Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released by Disney on February 4, 1938, it brought old European fairy tales back into the spotlight and paved the way for countless adaptations in the future. To this day, Disney remains one of the strongest entertainment companies in media, a status built upon a foundation of reworked European fairy tales. However, while Disney movies remain extremely popular amongst audiences, they also contribute greatly to the problematic mindsets of many children, especially young girls, who are greatly affected by the unrealistic expectations and depictions of the female characters in such modern animated films. Disney’s problematic nature stems from its source material, nineteenth-century fairy tales written and

Walt Disney once said, “First, think. Second, believe. Third, dream. And finally, dare.” These four steps to greatness seem almost painless in today’s age, but for women in the 1930’s, it was challenging to overcome “the gender barrier”. In 1937, Walt Disney created Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first animated film in English. Walt Disney portrays Snow White as a beautiful, young girl who falls into a death-like sleep that can only be broken by a true love’s kiss from the prince, but is this the only description perceived of Snow White? From the time this movie was released, this iconic film has been analyzed by several experts. Art historian, Carmenita Higginbotham, states that Snow White was the ideal figure of a woman in the 1930’s. (“Snow White”) Carmenita explains how in the movie, Snow White lives in a small cottage with seven dwarfs and was expected to cook, clean, and take care of household chores while the men were working in the mines. Snow White was not the only piece of entertainment that recognized the poor treatment of women. John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, demonstrates the significance of Curley’s wife by not even naming her throughout the book. These examples show how women were valued during those long years of bigotry. A woman living in the 1930’s had to conquer baggage such as expected roles, work force, and discrimination during that time.

Snow White is a fairy-tale known by many generations; it is a beloved Disney movie, and a princess favoured by many kids. But did you know the fairy-tale was made to teach young children, especially little girls, their duties in life? It also values beauty over knowledge, portrays women to be naive and incompetent, and assumes that women cannot understand anything other than common household chores. Throughout this criticism, I will be using the feminist lens to analyze the fairy-tale, Snow White, through the perspective of a feminist.

Little girls everywhere spend their childhoods watching the princesses portrayed in Disney movies, dreaming about the day they too will meet their prince charming. They see how Sleeping Beauty is woken up by a prince, Cinderella marries a prince, Sleeping Beauty turns a beast into a prince, and countless other instances of a girl just like them meeting their perfect man. Disney is infamous for their outdated illustration of gender roles. Mulan is one of the first Disney princess movies in which, instead of waiting for her prince, the heroine actually saves the day, or in this case, China. Mulan makes a variety of statements about gender roles that can be examined through many

For my final paper where we had to pick a topic from current popular culture, I decided to write my paper with the focus on Disney movies. More particularly with the focus on the Disney princess movies. When it comes to the Disney movies they have always been and will always be such a huge part of our society. While growing up most children grow up watching these movies and get the idea that that is what they want to be when they grow up. When you ask a young girl what she wants to be when she is older there is a good chance that she will say that she wants to be a princess when she grows up. I have always been such a huge fan of Disney movies and I have a feeling I always will be. I found it very interesting this semester when we spend the short class period talking about the Disney female and male characters. It is rather interesting and something that I can say that I really never noticed before but the fact that the majority of all the female characters all had the same face shape. Whereas the males there were none two that were the same. However for this paper I will be looking into the relationship to cultural meanings about gender and other identity markers, such as race, sexuality, and cultural norms as seen in some of the more classic well known Disney movies.