Disney’s Fantasia : ”Night on Bald Mountain” sequence (1940)
New themed portrait finally! This time of Ariel. I figured since I did my favorite villain, I should do my favorite princess. Out of the princess I grew up with in the 90s, anyways- the new princesses like Tiana and Rapunzel and Merida don’t count (because if they did, I wouldn’t have a single favorite princess- I’d have four favorites!)
With that said, to be completely honest, Ariel might just be my favorite princess because she’s a mermaid. I actually wasn’t terribly fond of the princess movies when I was growing up, I was more in the genre of Don Bluth animations. I find myself liking the Disney Princesses more now as an adult than I ever did as a kid. But even so, I always did like Ariel because I loved fantasy creatures, and well, Ariel’s a mermaid.Ariel does have qualities as a heroine I do like and identify with (and did when I was little too)… and yet so many that I don’t. But I won’t start a whole feminist/anti-feminist debate about it because it doesn’t really matter. She’s still a lovely character with a great design, and I’ll forever admire her for that at the least. Plus I love Glen Keanes drawings so I’m a little biased there, teehee.
God I love dagged sleeves. Almost as much as I love slashed ones. I just want to dag and slash everything I can get my hands on.
I’ve wanted Maleficent to be the first villain in the series for a while now, ever since I made the mental leap between Maleficent’s horns and 15th century horned hennins. The time period works out pretty well, actually, since I wanted her to look a little more dated than Aurora’s 1480’s getup- both houppelandes and horned hennins were all the rage during the early- to mid-1400’s, and they make for pretty good analogues to her official costuming. Sexy stuff.
This proves more than any of the previous pieces that these are adaptations, not improvements. I mean, look at the original Maleficent design- how does one improve on PERFECTION
-C
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“And the second reason was — during the years that I spent running Walt Disney Studios — I learned about how hard it was to find a fairy tale with a good strong male protagonist. You’ve got your Sleeping Beauties, your Cinderellas and your Alices. But with the origin story of the Wizard of Oz, here was a fairy tale story with a natural male protagonist. Which is why I knew that this was an idea for a movie that was genuinely worth pursuing.”
#this is especially gross to me because it is taking a world/story that hinges on female power and ruining that #like the whole point of the wizard of oz is that women have the power; dorothy has the power #nothing changes without her - the scarecrow the tinman the lion need her because they are powerless to change themselves but she isnt #and supplementing that you have glinda and the wicked witch; active characters; gamechanging characters #who influence and affect dorothy far more than the wizard ever does - all the wizard truly is is a motivator for dorothy’s journey #and like it is heavily implied that the entire story is a dream of dorothy’s - she has created the whole world #and it makes sense that in her world the men are the ones who need saving and the women are the ones who wield power #so like taking the world of oz and that signifance and going OH TOO MANY *GIRLS* WE WANT A BOY LEAD #is some nasty ass shit #like lmao jokes on you jerkface MOST FAIRYTALES ARE ABOIT GIRLS AND THEIR EXPERIENCES #and that is why they are so important and valuable to our culture #like even stories you think are about dudes? are about girls #peter pan wendy’s manic pixie dream boy #scheherazade playing the long con #rumplestiltskin’s fatal flaw: underestimating a woman #like have as many male leads a you want - it will never change the fact that #the wizard of oz is a story about a girl looking for a man to help her #and then figuring out that she didnt need it - she could help herself
wow. poor guy. apparently action films weren’t enough for him he had to ruin the wizard of oz.
It’s just fascinating that Roth couldn’t find male protagonists when during his tenure at Walt Disney Studios, the following animated features were released: The Lion King, Pocahantas, Mulan, Hercules, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Fantasia, Tarzan, The Emperor’s New Groove, and you can count Atlantis since it was approved during his time. For those counting, that’s TWO with female protagonists & SEVEN with male protagonists.
Then of course there’s the fact that anyone with an ounce of brains can tell you that the majority of strong female protagonists only come out of Disney movies. Most of the actual fairy tales are cautionary tales filled with rape, incest, beastiality, cannibalism, torture (both physical & psychological), issues of control, not to mention the usual gamut of the seven deadly sins.
Women (in a damn lot of fairytales) don’t get to be the heroes of the story. They aren’t the protagonist, they’re the plot device, the motivation for the hero and just because Disney has changed that up a few times doesn’t change the general plight of fairy tale-based females.
So no, Roth, I don’t think we needed you to change the plot and take away Dorothy’s agency by “finally” writing a male protagonist.
(Source: animated-disney-gifs)
