Walt Disney's Someday My Prince Will Come

Melody Banks Stacy Sivinski English 102 21 August 2015 Summarize a Source Romancing the Tale: Walt Disney’s Adaptation of the Grimms’ “Snow White” talks about how Walt Disney use current social and popular culture to create the first full length animated movie of his time. Despite the fact, that many filmmakers thought a full length animated movies wouldn’t be successful, Disney knew exactly what it would take to make the movie a success. He incorporated love, comedy, heroine, politics and more to created a movie that would have something for everyone in the family. He manipulated these element just right to create the perfect fairytale. In creating Snow White, he not only used these elements but he also added intriguing cinematography

Yet, Orenstein claims that they have focused largely on the princess culture and also that these princesses have advanced from being simple storybook characters to now representing a negative influence on a female’s expectations in life. She suggests this idea in her article with the notion that other women, especially mothers, would agree with her opinion. Although, what she fails to acknowledge is that Disney isn't trying to sell messages of the “nice and pretty” girl or the perpetual “happily ever after” ending to young children. Instead, they are only marketing their products to a specific, easily influenced audience. Orenstein places blame on Disney, shaming them for taking advantage of the pre-existing princesses for their own profit.

When reading Anne Sexton and the Grimm’s versions of the tale the reader may begin to be very disappointed and think there has to be more to Snow White than her “China-blue doll eyes” (Schacker et al., 386). Even her name, Snow White, is nothing more than a simple description of her appearance. The dwarves and prince in the story see her as nothing more than pretty to look at. They even refer to her as an “it” in several instances; for example, in the Grimm’s version of the tale, it says, “But the dwarfs answered, ‘We won’t give it up for all the gold in the world.’” (Schacker et al.,

While many young girls love the princesses and look up to them, others view these characters as negative role models. Disney Princesses have always appeared in movies as young women who dress in elegant gowns, have sexy bodies and perfect hair. They are always paired with a prince who lives in a castle, meaning that he has a lot of money. This description of what the Disney Princess is like; give us a big concern in the influence this image is giving to the little girls. Unfortunately, what girls learn as children carries on into adulthood.

It's known to every mermaid to never go to Ursula… but not to Ariel. She break not just one norm she breaks even more norms by going to Ursula and getting granted three day to get a kiss from the man of her dream but they price she has to pay if she can't make it in time she lose her voice and will turn back into a mermaid and become Ursula's slave. She does this without a parent to agree. Deviance seems to be the main aspect of the story. The norms broken leads her father to fear for her life.

A common character archetype can be found in the main protagonist, Snow White. Her innocence and purity constantly demonstrated throughout the progression of stories represents society's expectation of women and the need for ladies to be beautiful, rosy-cheeked housewives to proud, courageous individuals. The texts represent the role of women in society at the time of publish and by analysing each text and the time period it is set

In the article “The Trouble With Disney’s Teeny, Tiny Princesses” by Philip Cohen examines the reason why Disney princesses are so tiny compared to their male counterparts, and what impression it put on the general population who watch many disney movies. Disney has been known to show stereotypical women and men. The damsel in distress, and her knight in shining armor. Some people have called them out on this and they responded with some female empowerment movies. Like Frozen and Brave that do not focus on romance.

Rhetorical Analysis Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and many other Disney movies all have one thing in common, they feature a female lead who need a male figure to save them. However, things started to change after the release of Mulan 1988. It changed from only having those female leads who always needed to rely on someone, to females who were able to show off their more masculine side. In the article “Post-Princess Models of Gender: The New Man in Pixar/Disney,” Ken Gillam and Shannon R. Wooden explored the idea that Pixar movies were starting to show male characters who weren 't afraid to show their emotions and feminine attributes, to promote the “New Man” model.

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

Walt Disney has been making girls think that in order to be beautiful you have to be the perfect shape and size. (Shortridge). Some people believe that the Disney Princesses are great role models for children because Mulan teaches us to never give up on the strengths we have just because we are girls, Belle teaches us to never judge a book by its cover, and Pocahontas shows us real princesses are strong leaders. On the other hand, some individuals feel that Disney Princesses are bad role models because of their unrealistic body appearance, telling girls every marriage ends with a happily ever after when you get married at a young age, and saying every girl needs a man in order to be happy. Both sides have valid points but in reality everyone

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).

These songs include “Part of Your World,” “Under the Sea,” “Poor Unfortunate Souls,” and “Kiss the Girl.” “Part of Your World” is sung by Ariel to express her desire to change from a mermaid to a human, and despite the fact that “she’s got everything” her mermaid “world” and all its materialistic “treasures” is not as fulfilling as the humans’ appears to be. The song explicitly describes of a longing for female independence and proof that their degradation by the males is detrimentally affecting their happiness. “Betcha' on land, they'd understand, bet they don't reprimand their daughters, bright young women, sick of swimming ready to stand,” Ariel sings of the unfair and unjust treatment she and the other women of the sea experience and their need to stand against their suppressive dictators and “explore the shore above” to seek a better life. She sings this song in a secret cove that contains all her treasures, emphasizing the need for women to be private with the part of their lives that society deems as “unacceptable” and that does not align with their gender roles and expectations.

The Little Mermaid is all about coming of age. In other words Ariel the main character of the story believes that she is old enough to do as she pleases. Ariel loves going to the surface. On the other hand her dad didn’t want any humans to lay eyes on her, as a result of him thinking that they are barbarians. All Ariel wants is to do what she wants when she wants.

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.

Despite the fact that The Little Mermaid is an iconic story with memorable characters and is beloved by millions of people, it is still evident that the premise is problematic, especially when its target audience is young, impressionable children (primarily females) who are themselves still trying to form their own identities. Her change from mermaid to human denotes a huge shift in who she is as a character, as she is literally being changed from one being to another, and in doing so she must do away with everything that made her who she was before she met the prince: a mermaid, a princess, a daughter, a sister, a beautiful singer, and more. This may have been considered collateral damage by both Andersen and Disney, but it does not excuse the reality of the impact of the message the story promotes. In the Disney film, Ariel considers what the cost of being human would be as she negotiates with the sea witch, "If I become a human, that means I 'll never be with my father or sisters again" (Clements and Musker), to which the Sea-Witch Ursula replies, "That 's right... But--you 'll have your man.