This should have been last nights piece, but I got a bit excited about one of my posts receiving 100 hits! As ever please share, it's the only way anyone ever reads what I write xx
When I was a child the Disney Princess world did not exist. Indeed I only ever went to see Snow White at the movies and was so scared of the wicked witch I hid behind the chair, lost one of my red mittens and remember the whole experience as being slightly traumatic. To this day I have never again watched Snow White.
These days a whole generation of little girls love and adore Disney princess's, frazzled parents have to buy into the marketing machine tat that is the Disney store, and every little girl seems to own at least one princess dress. Little girls play princess all day, and discuss between themselves whether they are Belle, Ariel, Snow White, Tinkerbelle, Cinderella, Tianna or Pocahontas and now we have Anna and Elsa from Frozen.
Squeaks attempts at being a Disney princess when she was a little girl were rather funny. Although she loved the big dresses, she loved her trainers, and getting dirty more! A tiny little thing with an unruly mop of curly hair she would charge about the garden with a ballgown and trainers on, very often ending up with getting stuck in a tree with a ripped princess dress, cut knee and woeful expression on her face. She would take the scissors to her dress's in an effort to make it more practical, or even draw on them if she ran out paper! I got used to rolling my eyes at yet another dress disaster, and all in all I never really worried about the effect being a Disney princess might have on my daughter.
I know people complain loudly about the appalling way Disney treats it's princess's, suggesting Belle has Stockholm syndrome, that the real story behind Pocahontas was not that pleasant, that as long as you are basically a nice person it's fine - you will have a fairy godmother and marry a prince, and that the only ambition mermaids have is to fall in love with one! We all have to find out one way or another that in order for a girl to find her handsome prince, she has to kiss a hell of a lot of frogs first! I want to be clear here - I am not a raging feminist who bangs on about all men being tossers, neither do I burn my bra's (I seriously couldn't - the amount of reinforced scaffolding my bra's require to just hold me in place is frightening) but just recently Disney has started to really get on my tits!
I bought Squeak the "Frozen" DVD for Easter and she loves it. Plays it almost constantly, knows all the words and all the songs and is currently saving her pocket money up to by an Olaf (he's a snowman if you have not seen the film). Frozen is the latest film to emerge from Disney, has received critical acclaim and is universally adored. Hailed as revolutionary because our heroine does NOT marry a prince, she is saved by the true love of her sister. The film also goes on to debunk the "love at first sight" thing and still promotes good old fashioned family values. So why am I so bugged?
Has anyone actually seen this film? It's terrible.(WARNING!!! spoilers!!)
Basically two sisters grow up together, the elder (Elsa) has magic, the younger one (Anna) does not. Anna's actions as a little girl basically mean Elsa uses her magic and accidentally hurts her. They visit the trolls in order for Anna to be saved, and while they are there the trolls frighten Elsa in to being scared of her magic. A few years later their parents have died and Elsa has locked herself and the kingdom away for fear of her magic. However it is coronation day, and the gates are to be opened. Anna meets and falls in love instantly with someone, and when told by her sister she cannot marry someone she only just met provokes her again into using her magic. Elsa accidentally sets of an endless winter in the kingdom, runs off up a mountain singing a song (Let it go), builds an ice palace, transforms her stuffy clothes into some sexy dress thing and determines to live her life in isolation. Anna sets out to rescue her sister, leaves the love of her life in charge of the kingdom, fires off on a horse, meets another man in a shop, demands he helps her, meets a cute snowman, and finds her sister. Provoking her yet again her sister uses magic and puts ice in her heart. Her companion takes her to the trolls who say only an act of true love can help her,(another song). Her companion races her back to castle to meet her handsome prince, receive a true loves kiss and be healed. The prince has no love for her and leaves her to die, imprisons Elsa and takes over the kingdom. Yet more snow arrives, Anna and the Snowman escape, Anna's real true love (the man who helped her) is searching for her and Elsa is also stranded. Anna jumps in front of the prince to save Elsa and turns to ice. This act of selfless bravery is the act of true love, everyone is saved, Elsa no longer fears her magic and everyone lives happily ever after.
It's not the way Disney portrays women, big bambi eyes, barbie like figures, and impossible hair that I object to - or its "revolutionary" use of the love at first sight thing, I don't even mind the annoying snowman. It is just that the character portrayals are terrible. Anna comes across as self absorbed, stupid, and annoying, she never seems to learn from her mistakes and believes she is always right. The day of the coronation she is more interested in herself and meeting someone than she is in her sister, the kingdom and the reasons why Elsa shut herself away. She honestly thinks her sister won't hurt her and she can sort it all out. I think she is meant to come across as charming, naive, brave and courageous but I end up wanting to slap her and tell her to get a grip and grow up.
Elsa also annoys me, the big scene where she changes from a repressed princess frightened of her magic to a sexy lady declaring " the cold never bothered me anyway" simply meant she had swapped one life of isolation (without magic) for another with magic.
The whole you can't fall in love with someone you have only just met kind of falls flat on its face when you think that the real love of Anna's life had also only known her for about a day, and (this is the most important bit) there was NO decent villain at all whatsoever in the whole film. A decent villain drives a story like nothing else. I like villains and anti-heroes, if a film has a good enough villain in it there is a good chance I will watch the film to the end. There is no point at all being a hero or a heroine if there is no one to beat. I like Cruella De Ville, Ursula, and the Evil Queen, I loved Pitch in Rise of the Guardians, Lord Farquaad in Shrek was screamingly funny, I like Loki in Thor, and I adored Snape in Harry Potter.
This piece is not meant to be academic or snobby about a kids film, it just annoys me that this film encourages stupidity. If little girls take anything at all away from the film it will be that it is ok to be stupid, or not learn from your mistakes or think things through - you will still get your happy ending! Thinking about it, it's no wonder my kids describe me a witch sometimes.........
aahh.....I feel a whole lot better for having a rant.
P.S - I have not told Squeak I have written a piece dissing her favorite film - I think I will leave it that way!
Thanks for reading xxx
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