Calie Gober

Katherine Sanders
ENGL 2010
August 8, 2014

NR: This Film Is Not Yet Rated

The majority of us can remember watching at least one Disney film. Disney has been
held in high regards for their ability to produce films that are geared towards children. A lot of
the stories themselves have been taken from other sources and made into friendlier versions of
their previous selves. If we were debating whether the Grimms Fairytale version of Cinderella,
or if Hans Christian Andersens original story of the Little Mermaid were suitable for children
we would probably be in agreement that a story that includes a mother encouraging her
daughters to mutilate their feet to fit them into a golden slipper, or a story about a girl having her
tongue cut out wouldnt be at all suitable for a young audience. Yet, when we slightly distort the
original story we have something that is suddenly okay. Most parents wouldnt think twice about
letting children watch a Disney film, however, the stories when they are examined are not as
colorful, and bright as they appear on the surface. A good portion of them are guilty of
romancing what we would see as unhealthy relationships dynamics. In this will be discussed a
woman gives up something that is uniquely her to get a guy, a girl whose saving grace comes in
the form of a man and marriage, and lastly a girl that despite the abuse sticks around.
The story of the Little Mermaid has already been touched on, but I would like to go more
into detail about it, or at least more into detail about the Disney version of the story. In the
Disney version, Ariel gives up her voice which is admittedly a lot less gruesome than her tongue
being cut out, but it leaves her as a mute. Now that Ariel has no way of really communicating,
its time for her to romance the man of her dreams. Thats right ladies, who needs a voice to get a
man to fall in love? As long as youre attractive enough a man doesnt care whats going on
upstairs, just smile and flip your hair over your shoulder. Granted, that might sound a little harsh,
but what kind of message is that sending to kids? Maybe its just me, but a voice is an important
thing to have. How else are you supposed to speak your mind, or share your thoughts? In Ariels
universe that isnt possible, but apparently thats okay since things turn out well for her despite
that. In the end she ends up marrying the prince.
Cinderella is one of the classic Disney films. Most people in America, have seen it, or at
the very least know of it and how the story unfolds. If you really look at Cinderellas situation
its really bleak. She has a stepmother and stepsisters that are less than kind to her, they have a
cat named Lucifer (Only some kind of evil people name their pet after the Devil), and her only
friends are some mice that happen to inhabiting the house. She pretty much is a maid without the
paycheck, and she isnt allowed a lot of freedoms. But fear not for dear Cinderella because she
ends up falling in love and marrying a prince. Of course, the prince forgets everything about her
and relies on her shoe to find her. This leaves a lot of unanswered questions like what was going
on with Cinderellas shoe size that she was the only one that could fit her foot in the shoe? And
why did the prince get selective amnesia about his soul mate? These questions dont get
answered, but what does get answered is that if youre in bad situation then a man might pull you
out of it. Dont try to get away from it because one day your prince will come. The
story of The Beauty and The Beast was unique at its time for Disney. Belle was well educated
and well-read much to the dislike of Gaston. As smart as she may have been Belle was still
nave. After her father is caught trespassing, Belle decides to take her fathers place and becomes
a captive of the beast. The beast is to say the least extraordinarily controlling over Belle, and a
bit abusive. Ordinarily we would hope that a girl leave the situation for good, not stay around
and think she can change him. But alas, Belle does, and the Beast does. We could blame Belles
feelings on Stockholm syndrome since lets face it that is sort of what was going on there.
These are all tropes. A lot of Disneys earlier works followed an almost formulaic
storyline. To be fair, I must mention that in recent years, they have strayed away from this a bit.
If we examine stories like Brave, or even the latest hit Frozen we can see that there are huge
differences in the stories being told. In Brave, the main character a spunky redheaded girl whole
storyline gets thrown into motion because she refuses to marry. Thats right, she flat out did not
want to get married, and bravo to her. This is a huge jump from where the lead characters main
ambition was to marry, or ultimately ends with marriage. In Frozen, we see them even take a
small jab at the movies predecessors. Elsa makes a comment to her sister that she cant marry
someone that she just met. Finally, some sound logic about marriage coming from Disney.
These movies are geared towards children, there are certain things that they wont be able
to pick up on thats a give in, but when it comes to examples of socializing, and people forming
romantic relationships there are certain models that they could internalize. Children are still
trying to develop a better sense and understanding of the world around them. Their world isnt
grounded in sound logic yet. We could just look at these movies as forms of entertainment, but
on the same note books are another form of entertainment and there has been talk that certain
books like Twilight might affect teen relationships. Any teenager should be able to differentiate
between fantasy and reality, but if there is worry our teens might expect relationships to work
like they do in a book then why isnt there worry that children while they are still learning about
the world to think that those movies show real life expectancies out of relationships. Its harder
to unlearn anything that is to learn something. I would urge parents to really pay attention to
what their kids are picking up on, and what they think is going on. I would also urge them to talk
about relationships and how movies, books, and other forms of storytelling arent always
realistic.