JCC A critical analysis of socio-cultural tropes as presented by Disney characters

Ok, I believe Jello called Jasmine "out of touch" although I can't seem to find the post now. Maybe she is out of touch, but that's hardly her fault. She was so sheltered in the palace that she had no idea how the world worked outside, and didn't even think to bring any money with her when she runs away. This is clearly her father's fault, not hers. She was never allowed to leave the palace walls, or make any friends other than her pet tiger.

I think I had more to say, but I forget now.

 

I'm not saying Jasmine was better than Belle.

 

[image=http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww38/coolsaber57/Jackson_popcorn.gif]

 

Unofficial canon has given him the name of Prince Adam. I don't know where that came from, but I've seen it on various discussion boards, youtube videos, and fanfiction.net. Yes I am a complete fangirl regarding BatB. I have been ever since I was little and wanted all of the merchandise despite never seeing the film until it was on video.

On the subject of favorite princesses, even though I dressed up as Jasmine for Halloween, Belle was/is my favorite Disney princess because "she was just like me": she loved reading. Growing up, I was the only kid I knew in my town(not counting my siblings) who enjoyed reading, and for fun at that. Off-topic, I also said Belle was similar because she had dark blonde hair and brown eyes like I did. Getting back on track, she is still my favorite for those reasons because, despite the popularity of Twilight and the Harry Potter books, at my college extracurricular reading is made out to be a "nerdy activity" if you read anything but the previously mentioned books.

I do agree that Belle is the first "strong" Disney heroine in that she does not conform to the standards of the town, go along with the popular choices(aka drool over Gaston like the Bimbettes do), and she stays true to herself by never faltering in the face of the Beast's bullying or Gaston's. In thinking this whole thing through, I've additionally realized that Belle, after her "I Wish" song("I want adventure in the great wide somewhere..."), immediately drops that whole dream/fantasy at the first sign that her father is in danger. Did Ariel do that? No. She thought only of herself even though she knew of the reputation Ursula had, plus the fact her father had banished said witch should've been a big enough warning by itself.

Now that I've shared my two cents, I have really enjoyed the entire discussion. Even though part of my major requires analyzing everything under the sun(oh the life of an English major), I'd never really given the Disney princesses much thought, so this thread has been quite fun and given me a bit to chew on.

 

IIRC correctly the Broadway show has Scar singing about how he wants to rape Simba's mom...

 

Actually, that was Nala...

 

Scar! Scar was lusting after Nala, singing "you will belong to me!" or something similar, because he wanted immortality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAfz6bEUfRA

 

Jay, I will punch you.

 

I am still waiting for a heated argument over whether the princess in Princess and the Frog is better than Jasmine, Belle, etc.

 

I've not had any occasion to see this film. I would invite one of the defenders of the new princess to make their case, though. At the very least, it shouldn't be hard to prove that she's better than Belle.

 

Well, she at least wasn't a cookie-cutter princess.

 

Having seen it, I look forward to seeing where she falls in the princess wars.

 

Well like Belle, she marries into nobility at the end.

However, I think Tiana's greatest strength is that she didn't give up her dream when she marries Naveen, she expands her dream to include Naveen in it.

(that and OMG a Disney princess has a job!)

How did Belle overcome adversity? She didn't have a set goal that she had to overcome; her goal was that she "wanted adventure in the great wide somewhere" and that she wanted so much more than what her town life held for her; being the pretty wife of Gaston. The only adversity she had was that other people thought she was odd and she lived in a town full of nothing.


Tiana had a dream and spent her whole life working toward it. She had to overcome being African American AND a woman in the 1920s. Belle had to overcome what other people thought of her.

 

"Mommy -- Is voodoo bad?"

 

Question: Would Disney have made a white princess get a job?

Also I think its worth noting that she doesn't achieve her dream under her own power. They have to bring in a talking alligator so that she can negotiate a deal to start her restaurant, saying that basically, had her prince not come into her life, she couldn't make her dreams materialise on her own.

 

Belle is a towering monument of to hypocritical, self-hating elitism. She, far from the town's most wealthy or prestigious citizen, has the nerve to derive everyone else as "little people?"

 

Surely it depends on the time period the film is set in.
I've not yet seen The Princess & The Frog since it's not out in the UK until February, but isn't it set in the 1920s or therabouts?

Back at the times of Belle, Jasmine etc, women were not able to vote never mind get proper jobs if any at all. Besides, Princesses didn't need jobs. Snow White, Aurora, Ariel and others were all nobility, they had lots of moeny and servants why would they need jobs?

I read an article a while ago stating that this is the first Disney film to be set in America. Did they overlook Pocahontas?

 

The claim was the general first Disney film to be in America? Yeah, I can think of half a dozen offhand that were already.