So, per my ongoing campaign to be current, topical, cutting edge and relevant, I thought I would take a few minutes to talk about Disney. When I used to go visit my older sister, or perhaps were babysitting my nieces/nephews, I always liked to rifle through her expansive and well-preserved VHS collection. I consistently found myself tossing aside the James Bonds and the Hitchcocks and all that highfalutin business and going straight for those old nostalgic Disney flicks! After watching about a dozen over the course of a few months, I couldn’t help but notice that there was a starkly consistent motif (or a set of motifs, rather) in all those “innocuous” little fables. By the way, when I talk about “Disney films”, I mean the period of animated features between the late 80s and early 2000s. The Golden Age of Disney as far as I’m concerned. Not just because that period happens to be bracketed by my personal childhood, but because it’s OBVIOUSLY a universal understanding.
Let’s talk about the Disney Hero. Of all these films where the male is the protagonist, the characters all seemed to want the exact same thing: he wants money, he wants fame, he wants to be handsome and get with that foxy Disney princess. What does Simba want? To be KING. What does Aladdin want? To be RICH. What does Quasimoto want? To NOT look fucked up! Pretty simple. So, as much as they have a “heart of gold” or a “diamond in the rough” quality, these dudes are fucking selfish! However, I do feel like “he” is the classic example of a heterosexual male chasing the American dream: he’s wide-eyed, he’s ambitious, he’s not always ethical but is charming enough to get away with it. We’ve all seen it before. And of course when faced with great adversity, the hero overcomes with his bravery, valor blah blah blah we get it. The “everyman” always wins.
A more interesting character is the Disney princess. Again, she always wants the same thing: she seems to be stuck in some oppressive environment where her whole life has been predetermined by her society or family. The girl just wants to be FREE! Belle just wants to get out of her provincial town, Ariel just wants to wiggle her ginger tail up on to land, Jasmine just wants to escape the palace etc.. The women are always the rebels. In every way that the heroes want to induct themselves into the context of the monarchy or ruling family, the princess just wants to escape it. The impression is that she is capable of and destined for greater things than what is expected of her. Think outside the box, ladies. However, there’s always some turning point where she gets captured because she’s a “weak woman” or makes some giant compromise related to the hero that catapults her into some huge drama. It’s ONLY the love of her hero counterpart that seems to set her free. What’s that about? All she wants to do is be her own woman but Disney is telling us that heterosexual unions are the answer to this crisis of identity. This may be undergrad film courses talking, but it’s kind of reminiscent of those old Melodramas/Women’s films from the 40s. Remember “Now, Voyager” with Bette Davis? Me too. That girl was a fucking weirdo (in a charming way, obviously) who just wanted independence but it turns out the love of a good man is all you really need to feel good about yourself. We sure have come a long way with collective ideological thinking vis a vis cinema.
That leaves my personal favorite character: The Disney villain! Ok, let’s be real for a second you guys, could the villains in these movies be ANY queerer if they tried?? Think about it: Jafar, Ursula, Scar…? There was something so starkly homosexual about all those antagonists. And in all the stories, the villains just wanted what came so naturally to the heroes. Obviously the notion of a villain is that they have been marginalized for one reason or another, but there’s just this effeminate (or butch, if female) quality in all of these characters. It’s as if to spread the notion that the gays are just shifty, divisive plodders who just lust after what the heterosexuals have. Because obviously they’re too lazy to work hard for their success, they just cook up some mischievous scheme to get everything they want. And of course they temporarily do, but everything goes to shit because THAT kind of person doesn’t have the integrity and the strength to maintain an empire. And naturally the brave straights dude come in and put everyone in their place etc. Not that I support villainous behavior, I just wanted to share MY observation about the latent tropes in these stories.
Anyway, that’s all. Just something I noticed and thought I would share with y’all. Don’t get me wrong for one second, I love these films, but I also don’t think Disney is the most politically forward thinking group of creative storytellers. Just keep an eye out, eh?
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