In a move that should have progressive minded parents across the country and the world cheering, Disney last week said that they would no longer be producing fairy tale movies, and folks that means no more princess movies.
No more big pink dresses, no more tiaras, no more waking up from long sleeps to find the man of your dreams standing there ready to sweep you off your feet.
Hooray, yeah. I hear all the parents sighing in relief of their daughters being set free from princessdom.
But there is one catch to this move.
It probably means that we will see very few if any films about girls coming from Disney and Pixar which are both under the same umbrella.
Now Pixar isn’t known for it’s girlcentric movies. Here’s what the website looks like. Do you see any girls?
Pixar actually has its first girl centric film — Brave — slated for June 2012. But that film is already steeped in controversy over the firing of the first and only female Pixar director, Brenda Chapman.
The Disney chiefs believe they need to think beyond fairy tales to be competitive in the future. I totally agree. I for one would be psyched to never see another princess movie again. But, these guys have a shitty track record of making films about women. Lots of this conversation about princess movies flopping began after the release of, The Princess and the Frog (with Disney’s first black princess.) According to “Hollywood” the film underperformed having made $104 million domestically and $162 million overseas for a total of $267 million on a budget of $105 million (not counting print and advertising.) That doesn’t sound like a flop to me.
And now we have Tangled, which opens tomorrow being gender neutralized so that boys will feel comfortable going to see it rather than just all those little girls. And to top it off the marketing is focused on the male co-star:
In the age of mega-franchises when movies need to appeal to a broad audience to justify a sizable investment, Disney discovered too late that “Princess and the Frog” appealed to too narrow an audience: little girls. This prompted the studio to change the name of its Rapunzel movie to the gender-neutral “Tangled” and shift the lens of its marketing to the film’s swashbuckling male costar, Flynn Rider.
It’s like they are saying shhh don’t tell anyone this movie is about a girl.
The part that pisses me off the most is that Disney of all places, is totally playing into this perverse cultural construct that boys won’t go see movies about girls and girls will go to movies about boys. If boys won’t be encouraged and challenged (even though I have no idea why it is such a challenge) to see a movie about a girl how the hell do we have any hope for the future of women in film. It should be all of our jobs — including the filmmakers — to show that this is not true, because really, guys, is this the world you want your daughters and sons growing up in?
Disney Animation is closing the book on fairy tales (LA Times)
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
I think Pixar movies has some fantastic female characters. Maybe they are not the “mains”, but female characters are hugely important in many of the company’s movies. Dory in Nemo, Eve in Wall-E (she’s so awesome), Sally the blue Porsche in Cars, Jessie in Toy Story 2, Boo in Monsters Inc., Colette in Ratatouille… All these characters are female, are not just pretty faces, have strong personalities and are driving forces in the storylines. They do not wear revealing outfits, and are smart, and memorable. Of course I think female main characters would be another step up, but I do think Pixar has some real quality females in their movies.
Considering Disney has made their fortune on films about female protagonists, it is beyond stupid for them to be suddenly buying into this “girl” films won’t do as well because of the gender of the main character notion just because their last few haven’t done quite as well as expected. I’m happy to see the princess theme shelved for other themes PROVIDED they will continue to make a large percentage of films with female protagonists–such as Mulan or Lilo and Stitch (the latter I didn’t care for all that much, but liked that they tried to inject a slightly more realistic subplot in with the older sister as caretaker and the threat of losing custody and Social Services always checking in). Pixar’s always been boy-centric, Disney more girl-centric….if Disney goes Pixar’s way, even if I have a lot of issues with Disney’s gender portrayals in many of their films, then little girls are without any major Hollywood animated studio featuring female protagonists for them. And as Geena Davis’ institute has shown, the situation is already dire enough in the percentage of animated films featuring female protagonists.
‘Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind’ is the only princess story worth watching, imo. Although, it’s hardly a Disney type princess tale.
And yes to the news! Long time coming!
Thank-God!
Finally we can let go of the Disney Princess stories that focus so much on looking pretty and attracting the perfect macho guy to go with a false feminine “demure” stereotype.
I’m SOOO happy about that!
Although, I think it will be a very, very long time till we see the marketing of these now “older” disney movies die out. Nor do I think we are very close to seeing the last of Disney princess toys, hair barrettes, lunch bags, backpacks, etc, etc. Sadly, it will take much longer to get the princess paraphanalia out of our cultural “system”.
‘Princess and the Frog’ didn’t do well because it only appealed to little girls? Really? The reason it didn’t do well in my family and friends is that none of us even knew it was out until it was gone from theaters.
And while I want to cheer for princesses being gone, the fact is that it probably means that female cartoon leads are going to be gone in general. Ugh.
I like princess movies, and I am sad to see them go. It’s make believe. It’s little girls being little girls. It makes me so mad that everything is supposed to be gender neutral. IM A GIRL. I have boobs and I have a uterus and I am a nurturer and I don’t want to be gender neutral. I want to be a traditional woman who raises her children and has dinner for her family. I want my lite girl to pretend she is a princess and be all frilly and girlie. Know why? Because she enjoys it. She thinks it’s fun to wear a sparkly tiara and play with her barbie dolls. I won’t take that away from her and I resent that you people want to. Ic you don’t like the whole princess thing then do something else, but it is really bitchy to take it away from the rest of us.
Happy freakin’ Thanksgiving. We’re taking away your childhood for your own good.
For how much praise John Lasseter of Pixar gives Hayao Miyazaki for his films, he might want to take some tips from him on how to do strong female leads. (Rumor mill: After “Ariettey: the Borrowers I heard that Miyazaki/Takahata might go back to the franchise that they started on by making an Anne of Green Gables film…)
Beauty and the Beast is the only animated film to be nominated for best picture.
It was a film about a girl who loved to read and wanted more than just to get married and be like all the other people in her village (granted she did end up getting married to a prince and livng happily ever after – but atleast it wasnt with Gaston! who was a critique of hyper-masculinity)
I know just as many boys that watched that movie as girls. So obviously everything doesnt has to be split into boy movies and girl movies.
The princess movies are far from perfect but I think there were some great things being done in the late 80′s/mid 90′s in terms of animated films – perhaps I’m biased because I grew up on those films but I always wanted to be like those girls, a little bit rebellious and different but still a girl at heart. All of the later generation princesses wanted to make their own decisions and not just be told what they were supposed to do.
Maybe I’m in the minority but I will always have a special place in my heart for fairy tales and the disney princess films for putting that little bit of magic in my life.
Also – It makes me sad that the Mom in The Incredibles doesnt get more credit as a strong female pixar character, because I thought she was wonderful. I wish they’d do an Incredibles sequel before Cars 2 (vom.)
“but it is really bitchy to take it away from the rest of us. ”
Um…Jen, it was dudes at Walt Disney that took away not women. Therefore, it would be the “not bitches” taking it away.
I do know it’s a common theme in Disney princess pictures that there is a woman, often the “not princess” type, who is at the root of all evil plots against those with boobs and uteruses, but in this case, in the real world, it’s a dude decision.
Being a “traditional woman,” you should know that it’s the Men at the head of corporations that make these decisions, not the women, silly!
Jen, Disney saying they aren’t going to be producing fairy tale films is hardly the equivalent of saying they will only be making gender neutral films from now on. This is Disney we’re talking about. Disney has made 16 theatrical films with female leads. Of those, 7 are fairy tales, and another 9 are period pieces….which means that only one film with a female lead is set in modern day, so you can rest assured that you are probably going to continue getting the frilly and/or “girly” clothing and more traditional gender roles even if it’s through a period piece and not in a fairy tale format.
When my son was younger he liked here’s and adventure, gender didn’t matter as much as story. Still doesn’t –
he loved SALT as much as he loved Bourne
hero’s not here’s
What I’ve always been really confused and even a little offended by is the idea that The Princess and The Frog, which stayed fairly true to the Princess formula, was funny and visually stunning, was considered unsuccessful because it didn’t make a bunch of money. Really? The money wasn’t the damn problem. Financially, it wasn’t a flop. But socially, it was. Aside from a lack of aggressive marketing, it saw a whole buttload of controversy.
Tiana went through a name change and several dress changes. And the prince drama was a hot button topic, unlike the drama with the people who were against Pocahontas because of Disney’s portrayal of her as an exotic foreigner falling head over heels for a blonde, blue eyed stud. Prince Naveen… Lord. A lot of people were up in arms about the creators decision to go with a racially ambigious prince and how Disney squandered a perfect opportunity to create the first black Prince. Cause let’s be for real, are we going to see a black Prince hooking up with white princesses at the same rate we’ve seen white princes/racially ambigious princes hooking up with the few princesses of color? Plus, the portrayal of Lousiana residents (the heroes and the villians!) as backwater hicks was frowned upon.
So what does Disney do in their very next Disney princess film? Go back to their tried and true skinny, blonde princess lead in a tried and true white-washed environment. And with virtually no massive cultural issues in sight – and tada! We’re back to our usual $400 million revenue. Proving that it’s much easier to only be revolutionary every five years and furthering the idea that TPATF simply wasn’t a very good movie. Please. Tangled was just as formulaic as any other Princess film ever released. It was funny, yeah, but really simple plot-wise. Atleast TPATF had a plot twist with the main characters missing their midnight deadline. If Tangled ends up being heralded as a better film, I guess I can not only expect fewer female-led princess movies in my future – but I can also say goodbye in a greater extent to any major animated films starring more women of color.
I think Pixar/Disney’s real mistake is not realizing some of their other films could have had female leads and still been the same movie.
Nemo could have been a girl (maybe a different name). Up could have been about an old woman and a girl scout. Ratatouille could have been a girl rat and a girl chef.
The Incredibles did have good, strong female characters. And Mulan is one of my all time favorite female characters. Yes, she had to pretend to be a boy, but she did prove that she could do everything the males could do. And yes in the end she “married the prince”, but that doesn’t mean she stopped being a strong female.
The lack of female characters is displayed in my school’s gym. Our (male, 70 year old) gym teachers makes large “inspirational” posters with popular characters. He has Pochahontas (not a good female role model), the Animaniacs (2 boys, 1 girl), and maybe Minnie Mouse. And about 25 male characters. When he retires I will let him know they would welcome him at Disney.
I’ve said that least 3012964 times. The problem this like that is they are just too compilcated for the average bird, if you know what I mean
You had some nice points here. I done a research on the topic and got most peoples will agree with you
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