Princesses have been a part of every American girl’s youth ever since Disney gave life to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Since then, ten more Disney princesses have enchanted audiences and inspired children with glass slippers and magic carpet rides. Two of the more popular princess franchises include The Little Mermaid, which debuted in 1989, and Beauty and the Beast, which debuted in 1991. Although the two movies might seem vastly different, their stories are closely related because both involve two different species, a “happily ever after” theme, and a main character experiencing unhappiness in life situations. Though they are so similar, one is greater than the other. Essentially, Beauty and the Beast is a poor rendition of The Little Mermaid. Disney takes viewers under the sea in The Little Mermaid. The story revolves around a young mermaid, Ariel, who is the daughter of the esteemed King Triton. From the surface, Ariel’s life in the water appears to be perfect. However, she has a deep discontentment with her life in Atlantis. She dreams of being a part of the human world, and when she saves the handsome Prince Eric from drowning in a violent storm, her mind is set on ditching her …show more content…
Like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast’s plotline is created by two different species. However, the audience does not connect with the two main characters as well as they did in the original. The description of the male main character goes only as far as to what he is referred by, “beast.” Because there is not a definite description of what a beast is, it is hard for one to develop a relationship with the character. This ruins the chemistry between Belle and the beast where the chemistry between Ariel and Eric was strengthened. People enjoyed the star-crossed lovers aspect of The Little Mermaid but are confused by the element in Beauty and the
Belle viewed the Beast as just a monster but over-time, Belle changes him for the better and falls in love with him, appearance and all (“Beauty and the Beast (1991) - Plot Summary”). Belle is the perfect modern representation White Goddess Archetype. Belle is very intelligent and is misunderstood. She is not like other girls her age who fawned over Gaston. Belle showed her intelligence reading books and always craving to learn more.
Disney's Frozen is an uplifting movie whose princesses, Elsa and Anna, have a powerful influence on young girls. When asked what phrases come to mind when hearing the word princess, Kira Cochrane says, "For me they would include: pretty, gentle, sweet, passive, tiny feet in class slippers, and a vapid prince arriving to save them and whisk them away" (22). Elsa and Anna break the common standard listed by Cochrane by pointing out the flaws of past Disney princess movies. These princesses show girls that one should not be so concerned with the idea of being perfect and falling in
Most Disney princesses act as a “damsel in distress” which portrays them to be taken care of in order to survive. This is not true in feminist eyes, being able to take care of your self but also love and cherish someone is how a Disney princess should portray a girl. Having girls watch these movies is just showing them that you need a man to take care of you always which is not true a girl can take care of herself with the help of her parents and taking care of her school and social life. One of the lessons that children learn throughout watching these movies are bad people are always fat, old, and/or ugly. During childhood, a child’s brain learns morals, language, recognizable patters, and social skills.
She searches for eternal life through good deeds and sacrificing herself. “The Shadow” is a story about a learned man who tells his shadow to go snoop on another balcony and the shadow returns years later, wealthy and powerful. The man returns home and tries to write stories about good, truth, and beauty. These stories are culturally significant because they provide universal lessons to many different cultures, especially Danish culture. “The Little Mermaid” shows the trials of the youngest mermaid of a Sea King who has six daughters.
In recent years, there has been a movement for Disney animations to reach out to previously underrepresented audiences (e.g. Moana, Pocahontas). However, the films were not always received how the producers had originally intended. The Princess and the Frog was a Disney princess animation released in 2009, based off The Frog Princess. The story is a young African American waitress living with meager funds, working towards her dreams of opening a restaurant. When Prince Naveen who has been turned into a frog kisses her, thinking her a princess, turns her also into a frog.
The movie “The Princess and the Frog” is not your typical “boy saves girl” movie. Instead, this Disney movie presents us with a strong female lead who doesn’t need a man to achieve her goals. In many previous Disney movies, it is demonstrated that a girl needs a man in order to get her happily ever after. Without a prince, she is nothing. In “The Princess and the Frog” the gender roles are presented to us as equal, even reverse at times.
The movie The Little Mermaid has some very similar scenes as the Movie Wonder Women. The scene where wonder women saved Steve when he crashed his airplane and Wonder Women dragged him on shore is one of the similar scenes. The scene that is similar is when Areal saved Eric. In the two movies, both women saved men, they did it in a similar way. Both scene where both on a shore and the two women touched the men’s face in a very similar way.
The Little Mermaid: Hegemonic Femininity The transition from a girl to a woman is created by the socially constructed ideals of femininity often depicted in commercials, books, and mainly films. One of the famous animated princess Disney films, The Little Mermaid can be easily added to yet another Disney film portraying hegemonic femininity. In the 1989 film The Little Mermaid, (Ron Clements, John Musker) a beautiful, young mermaid is willing to make a risky deal with an evil sea-witch because she yearns to walk on land and fall in love with a Prince, while secretly the sea-witch wishes for the mermaid to lose the deal. Ultimately, mermaid ends up achieving her dream of marrying the Prince, although the evil sea-witch tries to destroy the plan.
However, the later Disney films have gradually attempted to break away from this stereotype resulting in stronger female characters like Ariel, Mulan, and Elsa among others. Keeping this transition in mind, this paper uses semiotic analysis of four popular Disney films, namely, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), The Little Mermaid (1989) and Mulan (1998) to depict the influence of societies ' changing perceptions of women on the portrayal of Disney princesses. These films taking into account the earliest film and certain popular characters that have represented a shift from being the coy damsel in distress to a woman who plays an active role in determining her own destiny. The portrayal of the Disney princess has changed in accordance with the development of women in society over time (1937 to 2013) from demure and traditional to
In the movie “The Little Mermaid,” the storytellers use the hero’s dreams and determination plotline to reveal how we as humans want to follow our dreams no matter what because we believe it is the only way to find true happiness. Have you ever wanted to follow a dream that you couldn't do? In the story of the Little Mermaid, a female mermaid, falls in love with a human prince, but her father tries to stop her because he believes all humans are barbarians. At the beginning of The Little Mermaid, Ariel was simply fortunate to have a dad who was the king of the sea named King Triton, who set rules for his teenage daughters. She likes to sneak out from home, to go above sea.
Ariel yearns to be a human so she is able to walk and dance. Mme Loisel wishes for an extravagant life filled with fine jewelry and fancy parties. Both go to great extents to get what they want albeit to end up more unhappy than they were before. Ariel is so tired of being a mermaid living under the sea that she loses sight of just how special she really is. She is so fascinated with life on land that it causes to overlook all of the wonderful things right in front of her.
The Little Mermaid which was produced in 1989, was the first Disney movie to challenge the traditional gender roles, for the fact that Ariel wanted to explore, and was more independent and assertive in her desires than the earlier princesses of the 1930’s and 50s films. Also the prince in The Little Mermaid went against traditional gender roles as well, simply because he was more affectionate and loving than his prince counterparts in other Disney films. “Both the male and female roles have changed over time, but overall the male characters evinced less change then the female characters and were more androgynous throughout.” (Descartes & England, pg.566). Disney movies have been for a long time a strong media target for children, and can serve as a way to address stereotypical gender roles (Leaper, 2000).
Beauty and the Beast is a fairy tale that have many motifs similar to others. For example, in terms of plot, one, begin the story with the difficulties that the protagonist has to face. He or she has to be nice and patient. Like Beauty, she is a good girl who sacrifices herself to go to live with the Beast instead of her father; as a result, she saved her father’s life. Two, the end of story usually ends with marriage and a happy ending.
Taking into consideration the first and main version of The Little Mermaid, author Han Christian Andersen’s, Little Mermaid, written in 1837, has different characters than the 2006 interpretation of the short story, Aquamarine. From an addition of two new female characters to the subtraction of the royal titles that each character possessed, Aquamarine is based on a twenty first century setting. The plots between the two also greatly differ and even lead up to different endings. Similarly, both mermaids are searching for love and both mermaids asked to be human. Both mermaids have a due date that forces them back into the ocean if they do not find love.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the definition of the word censorship is, “The suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security” (censorship, n.d.). I believe, that there are definitely subjects that are inappropriate for children’s literature. I however, oppose the censorship of books. I will be discussing different adaptations of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, and whether any of them should or should not be censored in children’s literature, as well as my reactions and impressions to these stories.