Having been to see Frozen last night it got me thinking about Disney have really decided to change the way a Disney Princess behaves. Might have been touched on a little with Tangled and Brave but that wasn’t quite there. However Frozen changes everything! Honestly we you see it you will understand exactly what I mean.
So this blog post was inspired by Frozen and made me think about all of the other Disney Princesses and how the role of a woman has changed in the world and now Disney are eventually catching up. I mean I not saying that every second they were pinning after a man but the happily ever after ending was nailed on for each of them and quite often the men had to be the one to save them. Usually something to do with true love.
Using the above picture as an example of all the different Princesses Disney have given over the years. Which now contain a very wide variety in terms of how they appear and with the most recent three additions they are changing what they stand for and not the normal perfect girl. Which I think for young girls growing up and watching these films now shows that there is a lot more to it than just waiting for a man to come along and change your life. Let’s face to you have to get out there and find him as well, it works both ways. I mean with Brave as well they showed that you cannot always and will not always (if ever) have perfect hair. That is something I have read a lot about Disney and how the hair is always perfect. When in reality to get your hair perfect, rarely happens. I for one can vouch for that, so let’s start showing that it isn’t always going to be perfect but you can still be very happy with yourself despite that.
Although I do remember reading that Merida’s hair was a big step forward in terms of animation, so maybe it was just easier for the hair to be perfect in terms of making the films. But I think this is good for all the people out there who have curly hair, they have a Disney Princess now! I have to admit that I have not actually seen all of Brave, I did start watching it but got distracted with something else so it couldn’t have been that good at the start. Not forgetting that Tangled also features a different hairstyle and very long magical hair.
So not only is a lot of emphasis put on hair in Disney Princess world, the other main thing is obviously “true love” and how the Prince pretty much every time saves the Princess in someway. On a few occasions this involves a kiss to pretty much seal the deal. Should this really be the right message? I guess in life people will save you at all different times and in all different ways. It is wrong to think that everything will be changed because of a kiss, don’t forget the dancing as well!
The Prince’s are all pretty different as well but some of them we don’t get to know that much about. But these are the men that the Princesses throw their future happiness and happily ever after into. A lot of the time not long after meeting them (if they have actually met them first) as we have seen “true loves kiss” wake them up, I am looking at Snow White and Sleeping Beauty for this one. I think it is worth mentioning Enchanted, the live action Disney Princess who just shows what would happen if a cartoon Princess came to life and ended up in Manhattan in New York. Which let’s face it at times really was just hilarious from start to finish. It was just amusing to see how over the top everything looked and that it just wouldn’t work acting like that. True love’s song was mentioned often in that one as well! I think that was probably the start of Disney changing the way they were going to do things though as, they pretty much laughed at themselves with many of the scenes.
Another thing I personally love about Disney films has to be the very catchy and often heartfelt songs. Each film manages to have at least one amazing song, but will probably have a few more thrown in as well to make it even better. Life would be so much better if everyone randomly broke out into song and had a nice musical number to help show how exactly they are feeling (ok, maybe that is just me) but it certainly is fantastic to watch.
With a lot of talk of true love and true loves kiss. Do we even believe in true love anymore? Does it even exist? I guess this is something you have to work out for yourself. I think this links very nicely back to Frozen again when Anna throws everything at Hans having just met him and this leads to backlash from Elsa and Kristoff, who cannot believe that she plans to marry someone she just met. This therefore backfires in a quite shocking moment which I never thought I would see from Disney when Hans reveals his true intentions (I was shocked!) which I guess shows more realism and something we can probably relate to more than anything else in the film.
I have gone round in circles quite a lot in this blog post, but trying to make the points that it isn’t going to be like Disney and your Prince won’t just come to you. You have to get out there and try to find him as well, it’s not going to be all about him saving you. But I think everyone does want to try to find love, that is something we cannot get away from surely everyone wants someone to love them and be able to love back? Yes I am well aware of how corny that sounds but at least it would make you smile and happy. Surely we should all aim to be happy and if we find that one person who can make us happy, nothing wrong with that I don’t think!
