Recently my local cinema ran a Disney Princess film festival. The festival showed some of the Disney Princess classics: The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Brave, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and my personal childhood favourite, Sleeping Beauty. At eight dollars a pop,tickets were cheap and the audience members, predominantly young girls, were…
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When it comes to love, Walt Disney’s films carved a legacy that has become universal; one that often preaches the merits of “true love’s kiss”. But is Walt’s message of kindness and love doing more harm than good? Does it impose gender stereotypes on children, leaving the most vulnerable to soak up this gendered ideology?…
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Sometimes, for us to really comprehend the ridiculousness of something we’ve been spoon-fed our whole lives, it needs to be picked apart, repackaged and then handed back to us. That’s what artist and cartoonist David Trumble has done with his “Disney Princessified” representations of past and present inspirational women and girls. He’s taken great ladies,…
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Pocahontas costumes appropriate racial stereotypes. Humour is a tool of oppression. Often, the only fat people on screen are villains. And Lizzie Maguire is still really fun to watch. Mari Rogers has been running her Feminist Disney blog since 2011, and covers these topics and much more. Through the lens of intersectional feminism, she examines…
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Disney has announced a new Princess: Merida from Pixar’s Brave. They’ve given her a makeover to celebrate the promotion, and many of her fans believe the company has robbed the character of her very being. Their anger has led to a petition with more than 93,000 signatories. When Pixar and Disney released Brave in…
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Disney shaped billions of childhoods around the world. Remember when you were little, and all you wanted to do was dress up in a big pink puff pastry dress and pretend a fairy godmother was coming by to whisk you away in a pumpkin? This, along with sitting around waiting for Prince Charming and “true…
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In the mood for a Disney teen rom-com? We have some copies of Geek Charming to give away on DVD! From the executive producers of The Muppets, the film stars Modern Family’s Sarah Hyland as Dylan – a spoilt, popular, 16 year old, high school student. Her goal in life is to be named the…
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We, the living, are warned incessantly of the trappings of aesthetics. Hounded from infancy by parents, folklore, teachers and anything vaguely resembling authority, our spawn soon learn to forsake a glamorous exterior in search of an elusive inner core. These warnings whilst omnipresent are neither threat nor intimidation. Found somewhere in the lower end of…
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Julia Runci reviews Disney’s animated film Tangled – available on DVD.
