Posted on 09/07/2016 11:24:48 AM PDT by EveningStar
ping
No, I don't.
After Sleeping beauty virtually every female Disney protoganist has the exact same personality. The headstrong spunky independent girl with little to no character flaws or in fact any other personality traits aside from maybe being a little too naive in her headstrongyness who wants MOOOOORRREEE. Even and especially if she’s already royalty. In recent years most also mysteriously know kungfu and great pains are taken to show that they don’t need no man.
Seems like every Disney movie features a child character who disrespects their parents and disobeys them.
Huh.
The least of my concerns.....and none of this is new
Gee, I think of anti-father propaganda and perversion.
Remember, that all drama is based on conflict. That is why parent against child, child against parent is so powerful in theater and film. Nothing unusual in that. And why “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” is still considered America’s greatest contribution to theater.
Many classic films of Disney were very powerful and had very dark imagery - Dumbo’s mother, Bambi’s mother, Pollyanna turning against the town after her injury...all great stuff of drama. And all happily healed by the end.
^^THIS
At around age 13-14 or so, teens NEED to separate from their parents. Themes of the wicked stepmother, the hidden royal birth, the sudden access to magical powers all speak to this innate need. Teens, especially females, it seems, are drawn to reams of this sort of material, as evidenced by the YA fantasy novels that always incorporate the same memes. Males seek out stories of heroism, romantic sacrifice that wins the desirable female,successful quests and universe-changing invention, but they are responding to similar needs to separate from their parents, escape the emasculating feminine and reclaim masculine domination from their aging fathers.
By 18+, into the 30s or even later, the meme is the perfect mate. Enter the romance novel or the chick flick. A mash-up with the earlier themes gives birth to the erotic fantasy genre. There are sub-genres: werewolves (-bears, -cats, -dragons) and, of course, the fantastically popular vampires. Boys graduate to adventure stories, military themes of conquest and domination.
Blame human psychology. Disney and the successful authors/publishers are responding to a perennial niche market. The original Brothers Grimm compilations of ancient folklore were devoted to the same themes, culturally appropriate for their time.
The basic story is: fear, pain (and more fear and pain), then triumphant catharsis. We humans crave these stories, so someone will always provide them.
That video didn’t touch on the parts of Disney movies that concern me: sodomite family and reference to beastiality in Frozen, reincarnation and animism in Brother Bear, etc.
Greek mythology and Greek drama (Oedipus/Antigone) enjoy these themes as well and are generally better written than zombie novels on the same theme! But try to get a teen to read them.
Been true of many movies for the last four decades, not just Disney. And especially true of broadcast television shows. Lots of anti-father propaganda belittling the father figure and discounting his worth. No praise at all for a man taking care of his family, and few role models for boys. Little wonder that Han Solo's son went bad, due to how father's are cast in movies.
“Pinocchio” scared the daylights out of me when I was a kid.
bump
This is also seen in the “heroic mythos” cycle, or whetever they’re calling it these days, Star Wars, and Harry Potter.
Nobody’s going to read or go to see “The Adventures of Pajama Boy and the ObamaCare Holiday Discussion”
Although it might make a great parody movie. :P
All the superhero comics are based on the myths. What’s culturally acceptable in one era needs to be updated for each successive generation. Cultural norms persevered for longer in the past. With technological improvements in communication and meme dissemination things evolve faster today.
There’s also cross-cultural fertilization as manga and anime, for example, are integrated with Western mythos.
The teens are reading the same stories made relevant to their own experience. They no more relate to formal poetics than they do to formal fashions from the past (altho there are remnants of vintage elements in manifestations like cosplay). Without that cultural resonance, they would simply create their own forms....which may actually be what happens, now that I think about it. For example, the plethora of fan fic/fan comics, etc. Sort of an innate will towards mythic expression.
The scene of Dumbo saying good bye to his mother still makes me cry.
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