Disney Movies

I think human-Beast is too pretty, especially compared to the Beast, but he fit in with the Disney ethos at the time so I try to shrug it off. I still love the movie, but human-Beast really is too perfect, as queenofdenile said.

I thought human Beast was plain fug when I was a kid, but I thought he was actually kinda handsome when I finally saw the movie again a few weeks ago. Still would've preferred that he stay in Beast form though.

My issue was that he...was weird mix of pretty boy and like...Fabio.

Whoa. So I just went google-image-searching for a picture of the beast prince guy to refresh myself on what he actually looks like, and Google gave me this. N especially SFW.

Yes, ONTD likes to bust that out a lot. It always freaks me out a bit.

Eeew, they did Peter Pan? He's like 12!

Instant Monkeys wrote:Whoa. So I just went google-image-searching for a picture of the beast prince guy to refresh myself on what he actually looks like, and Google gave me this. N especially SFW.

Eeew, they did Peter Pan? He's like 12!

Honestly, artists do shit like that with fairy tale princesses all the time (including Wendy, who is also underage) and no one bats an eyelash. See here and here. If that's is gonna be out there, I'm all for some equal opportunity objectification with the guys.

Yeah, that disturbs me too. I mean I know its out there but I always have the same LEAVE DISNEY ALONE reaction.

I don't find those jarring in quite the same way because the style is completely different. It doesn't bother me though; I just was surprised to click on the Beast Prince and be confronted with a picture of Aladdin bulging out of a pair of Calvin Kleins. Such is the internet.

They're pretty good actually. Damn, David from Lilo & Stitch. Gaston looks like he's wearing a saggy diaper though.

Also one of them had a nipple ring. I don't remember who. You don't expect a disney prince to have a nipple ring.

This, though, is actually pretty badass.

I've known about the Disney hunk pictures for awhile now, but whatever you do, be careful if you look at that artist's deviantart. He's got some live-action Disney guys done too, and some of them aren't for the faint of heart. Assless chaps are involved in one from Enchanted (I may never recover), and there's some underage action like the Peter Pan one, only with the kings of Narnia. He did a Jim Hawkins one, too, and he's only about 15-16 in the movie, I think. I like some of his work, however: he does have some great ordinary Disney sketches, and some of the hunk ones are good.

Hee. It's funny how, uh, notable? it is that Gaston is the only guy with chest hair.

Well, every last inch of him is covered in hair ...

(The images that brings to mind. Phew. *fans self*)

Yep, I love that Gaston has hair while the rest are fully manscaped. (Even he looks trimmed.) That art is...huh. But I like some of the detail: that Cuzco is skinny, that they gave John Smith some body paint, that Peter Pan is in a different kind of pose since he's actually pretty old but his body is too young to ogle. I think Shang from Mulan should have had a tattoo, and I think it was silly to give David from Lilo and Stitch a nipple ring because he's one of the only ones (maybe the only one?) we've actually seen shirtless! Now I have officially overthought that art!

The Disney princesses do Sucker Punch vid is quite cool.

This may be too deep and boring to consider here, and I do enjoy Disney movies, but do you think that the way Disney presents romance is healthy for young children to internalize? It really pushes the love-at-first-sight trope, and makes it work out fine. Beauty and the Beast could be extrapolated to mean that angry, violent men just need love to calm down forever (this is not just Disney, it's there in the original too). The Little Mermaid gives up her entire life and voice - some heavy metaphor there - for a man she doesn't know. The Prince falls in love with Snow White when she's in a coma, presumably because all he needed to know was how she looked. Sleeping Beauty, same thing. I've sometimes thought I would rather have not been exposed to this model of the world at an impressionable age through such persuasive (colorful, exciting, hypnotic in the way that film and tv are, complete with songs to memorize) means.

That is one of the good things about Tangled and The Princess and the Frog, the falling in love parts take slightly longer. Ok, only a day or two, which is still too short, but improvement right?

I think in both Snow White & Sleeping Beauty the prince actually falls in love at first hear. Each hears the princess singing, then sees how pretty she is and falls in love. Which is a tiny step above falling in love with a comatose/dead woman.

The more recent films are definitely better on this. Some don't even bother with a romance angle, at least not that stuck with me (Emperor's New Groove, Lilo & Stitch, Finding Nemo, Bolt, Ratatouille). Up has a very real feeling (and wonderful) relationship, and Enchanted is ridiculously romantic but it does take them a while to fall in love, at least. But why does there need to be romance at all in a kids' film? I'm not saying it's terribly damaging to children, but I personally wish I could have had more years of blithe ignorance.

I forgot about the singing! Disney actually made that a little better than the original story. I don't remember her singing in his earshot in Sleeping Beauty, but I haven't seen that one in ages.

edited to embolden titles

She was singing in the forest, apparently quite loudly, and her animal friends steal some of the prince's clothes so he chases after them and hears her. I think. Still odd.

Ok, only a day or two

Which is a problem of the romantic genre, even for grown-up films, not just Disney.

The Disney Princesses deal with "love at first sight" so much because that's the way most of the stories go - they live "happily ever after" after one brief meeting (at least Disney had the sleeping princesses meet their princes the first time while awake). In their non-Princess films, Disney either ignores romance completely (Pinocchio, Dumbo, The Jungle Book, The Rescuers, Oliver and Company) or deals with it in a more long-form relationship way (101 Dalmatians, Robin Hood, The Fox and the Hound) - though even then they have to truncate it for time restrictions.

Honestly, artists do shit like that with fairy tale princesses all the time (including Wendy, who is also underage) and no one bats an eyelash. See here and here. If that's is gonna be out there, I'm all for some equal opportunity objectification with the guys..

I'm totally against sexy Wendy as well!

This may be too deep and boring to consider here, and I do enjoy Disney movies, but do you think that the way Disney presents romance is healthy for young children to internalize? It really pushes the love-at-first-sight trope, and makes it work out fine. Beauty and the Beast could be extrapolated to mean that angry, violent men just need love to calm down forever (this is not just Disney, it's there in the original too). The Little Mermaid gives up her entire life and voice - some heavy metaphor there - for a man she doesn't know. The Prince falls in love with Snow White when she's in a coma, presumably because all he needed to know was how she looked. Sleeping Beauty, same thing. I've sometimes thought I would rather have not been exposed to this model of the world at an impressionable age through such persuasive (colorful, exciting, hypnotic in the way that film and tv are, complete with songs to memorize) means.

Maybe... Except I was OBSESSED with Disney, played with Barbies, loved Sweet Valley, and was fenerally super "girly" in my upbringing (okay, I played with Hot Wheels and Legos from the age of 1 too, so), but I'm still more openly critical of this stuff than any of my friends. I think ultimately it goes to exposure and being aware. And the thing is, my parents never talked to me about these issues (mostly because they would never talk about romance/dating), but they DID push me to be at the top of my class and that I could do anything I wanted. So I internalized that thinking more than anything, and I think that's what has won out. But everyone's mileage may vary. I don't know the answer, but I don't think I'm alone.

I was pretty much as the same as you. I think we are from the same cultural background though (I know we've discussed that before) so that may have played a role too. I always thought I loved romance so much as a child because it was a weird issue in my culture in that bollywood is huge with it, but its not really discussed ever in our actual lives.

I definitely think that people internalize messages they see in stories, even as adults, but sometimes I do think the hubbub about fairy tales and Disney movies is a little overdone. When I was younger, I didn't leave Beauty and the Beast thinking, "If a guy's really mean, I just need to be nice to him and give him a chance, and then he'll come around!" I walked away thinking that physical beauty doesn't matter and it's what's on the inside that counts (the intended message of the movie).

And sometimes I did take away things that were not the intended message of the movies, but I wouldn't say they influenced me in negative ways. I'm pretty sure The Little Mermaid is responsible for most of my "rescue" fantasies as a child - because I always fantasized about saving the guy's life, not him saving me. The "give up your body and life and family" aspect of the story never even penetrated my skull. Snow White never interested me at all, and with both Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, I was much more interested in the mice and fairies (respectively) to even pay attention to what was going on with the princesses.

Then again, I don't want to dismiss feminist criticism of these stories just because I didn't feel that way when I saw them, because what's true for me isn't necessarily true for everyone else. But sometimes I think this type of criticism can be a little condescending, assuming that girls can't think for themselves.

My issue with the criticism of Little Mermaid is that they always dismiss that Ariel wanted out long before Eric came around. She has a whole song about her desire to go to the upper world before she meets Eric. Hes just the straw that breaks the camels back. Also hes just as single minded as she is. He even says I'm going to find that girl and marry her.

I mean I think there are criticisms to be made but I think there's more to it then she gave up her body and family for a man.

THANK YOU.

Besides, from what I'm observed in my entirely unscientific observations, if you ask a group of adult women (who were kids when the movie came out) what they think of The Little Mermaid, are they going to say anything about body issues or dreams to be princesses? No, they're probably going to burst out singing "Part of Your World." Or more specifically, "Part of THAT World," which she sings BEFORE she meets Eric and is all about exploring and seeking adventure.