[sytelus]

Most of us outside of entertainment business don't know this but Disney had been taking huge dissing from media as well as academics for princess movies. They have started change their ways and recent slew of movies like Moana focuses far less on being pretty and waiting for price to arrive putting female character as a confident leader. But you have to be very careful in chosing Disney content. As I said, ultimately entertainment company's goal is to hook you up with crack cocain, not your long term well being.

[riffraff]

It's not like Mulan was focused on being pretty and waiting for a prince either. Or Brave(not pre-2000, just not recent), or even Pocahontas.

I feel if anything the "pretty is everything" comes from toys, rather then the movie plots themselves.

[nkozyra]

If you view most golden age and resurgence Disney it's glaringly clear. By and large the women are shoehorned into submissive, weak characters at the mercy of a white knight.

The thing is, this really wasn't just a Disney thing, it was largely a Hollywood thing in general. Strong(er), three-dimensional women in film narrative didn't hit major motion pictures with significance until the late 60s and into the early 80s.

The late 1980s was an unfortunate time for Disneys resurgence, because somehow there was also a revival of strong man/weak, beautiful woman tropes in Hollywood. So when movies like The Little Mermaid, The Princess and the Frog, Tarzan, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast came out they very much followed this template.

The plots of these and previous movies hammer home that the young women are meant as prizes for men who come and save them. It's in the stories themselves.

[riffraff]

I completely agree on golden/silver age disney being quite bad (with some exceptions, like Alice or Bianca)

I am unconvinced about the disney renaissance characters: jasmine literally storms out of a room saying "you can't decide what's best for me" to her father, aladdin and jafar; the little mermaid saves the prince, before she saves him; Belle doesn't get saved by anyone either, and the strong handsome man is actually the bad guy.

I mean, sure, they exemplify a certain passée idea of woman/girl, but they are a far cry from cinderella and sleeping beauty.

[nkozyra]

Jasmine acquiesces and is set to marry Jafar, the little mermaid needs saving in the end.

Also note how many of these present older women as the villain.

[throwawayhhakdl]

A lot of it has evolved into including a single strong woman who demonstrates her skills, often in fighting, early on but doesn’t actually add much to the plot.

I’ve been pretty pleased with the last several years of children’s content though. A lot of it feels respectable of kids intellect and aware of where we’re trying to get culturally. Inside Out and Zootopia come to mind.

Frozen is an interesting one in that I felt it was mostly in line with previous Disney film tropes but it had a lot of plot points that allowed them to say, technically, it wasn’t.

[aaronblohowiak]

Little mermaid is amazingly bad

[rufusroflpunch]

Yes, and Disney took the criticism about Ariel in stride and made Beauty and the Beast, about a studious bookworm resistant to the charms of boys. Still firmly in the 90’s.

[mercutio2]

The princess in Beauty and the Beast exists to redeem, civilize, and forgive someone who has kidnapped her family.

This is not a narrative I find more compelling for my daughter than a mermaid trading her voice away to have the opportunity to seduce a sailor prince.

[throwawayhhakdl]

Might have been nice if her defining trait as per the title of the movie wasn’t her beauty then.

Step in the right direction, still pretty lame.

[nkozyra]

Most of these are basic mad libs.

Young, beautiful girl runs into conflict because ____. Foolishly and/or impulsively, she attempts to solve the problem herself by ___, but of course she is too weak to do so. Luckily, she is saved by the charming man, who resolves the problem by ____.

Wrap it around details of a fairy tale and bam: $300M+ profit.

[RHSeeger]

Personally, I'm a big fan of Sophia the First. She's a princess, but she's learning her way to becoming a capable ruler. Quality entertainment, just below Aquanauts.