Disney's new princess
Disney's "Enchanted" kept a middle-aged mom, 9-year-old boy and 6-year-old girl laughing. It's a Disney Princess movie that makes fun of the Disney Princess genre.
The lady who did the voice of Ariel plays a small part. You'll remember "The Little Mermaid," of course, as the movie where a 16-year-old mermaid falls in love at first sight with the first human she ever sees, then proceeds to defy her father, make a deal with the devil, give up her voice and arrive naked on a beach, her only hope being to make the man fall in love with her in three days.
This movie seems to be an apology for all that.
Comments
now if only Disney can do something about their "retellings" of Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and all the other stories they've "lightened" up and reworked for the benefit of ruthless saturation marketing to children.
Posted by: zra... | November 27, 2007 06:41 AM
My 12 year old daughter, 10 year old son, and I whooped it up at this movie. It was a hilarious self conscious send up of all things Disney. I adored Amy Adams in the lead role. She was portrayed the ingenue ironically and sympathetically at the same time. It would have been easy to play Giselle as a caricature, but Adams went for the truth of the character and I'm sure this will be a role that will launch her career.
Oh, and Susan Sarandon as a wicked queen? Brilliant.
Posted by: ironic1 | November 27, 2007 08:10 AM
Wow, zra. I wanna party with you.
Posted by: DDD | November 27, 2007 08:16 AM
I wasn't too hot on seeing this but went anyway over the weekend with some friends--and I was quite charmed by it. Amy Adams was really a joy to watch.
Posted by: Mary | November 27, 2007 08:55 AM
What's wrong with "Little Mermaid?"
Posted by: farglebargle | November 27, 2007 12:35 PM
Now if only Lawrence Lessig could do something about Disney's re-branding of cultural heritage as copyrighted commodities under a hog-pile of lawyers. 70 years plus the life of the author, my eye.
Posted by: adam | November 27, 2007 12:38 PM
Yeah, I was shocked how Disney made the Indians in Pocahontas look noble and fearless and one with nature.
Posted by: Scribbler | November 27, 2007 01:22 PM
I too can't stand the way that Disney fluffs over the sour truths in our society! Everyone knows that toasters aren't brave!
Posted by: DDD | November 27, 2007 02:29 PM
I guess the traditional Grimm's Fairy Tale versions are more to the Disney-Hating-Curmudgeons's taste: like where the wicked stepsisters cut off chunks of their own feet to fit into the slipper; or where the stepmother of the Goose Girl gets driven through town, naked, in a horse drawn keg with nails driven through it, or when many and sundry people get mutilated, have their eyes plucked out, etcetera...
I guess I'll take the homogenized versions, after all. (But the Little Mermaid's huge eyes still scare me.)
Posted by: Girl From the North Country | November 27, 2007 03:06 PM
My mother dragged me to see Little Mermaid when it came out in theatres years ago.
We both walked out of the movie pissed that she hadn't ended up as sea foam or ocean breeze as she should have...
Posted by: Bad Cat! | November 27, 2007 03:45 PM
ooh...Disney Hating Curmudgeon. I like that. I'll have to use it.
Posted by: zra... | November 27, 2007 08:14 PM
When I invited my boyfriend (the original Disney Hating Curmudgeon) to go to a family reunion at Disneyworld, he said (direct quote): "I'd like to go, but I hate their iconography."
Posted by: Girl From the North Country | November 27, 2007 09:16 PM
okay...i don't hate disney. the kiddeaux and i are fond of watching disney flicks quite a bit. Fantasia is one of our top five but...I'm just trying my best to avoid having to buy heaps of this stuff for my kids because everyone else in their class has it.
Aladdin 5: Jasmine's Revenge? Beauty and the Beast 3? I know those don't exist, but the current formula for Disney cartoon movie success seems to be to create a great storyline in their usual style, market the hell out it in every way conceivable then to keep that stuff selling, they crank out three or four more sequels which (to me) kinda cheapens the original...
Sure it works but...
you don't wanna party with me DDD, really. I'm old, I'm cranky, and I go to bed early.
Posted by: zra... | November 27, 2007 10:30 PM
A little info that might make you a bit happier with Disney, zsa: I read recently that the new head of Disney Animation is putting a nix on the crappy direct-to-DVD cash-in sequels. So there you go.
Wait a minute. What the hell kind of name is zsa?
Posted by: DDD | November 27, 2007 10:50 PM
A little info that might make you a bit happier with Disney, zsa: I read recently that the new head of Disney Animation is putting a nix on the crappy direct-to-DVD cash-in sequels. So there you go.
Wait a minute. What the hell kind of name is zra?
Posted by: DDD | November 27, 2007 10:50 PM
it's irish.
Posted by: mayday | November 27, 2007 11:04 PM
I love Steamboat Willie.
Posted by: Barrett | November 28, 2007 12:10 AM
I love the Robert Smiegel (? Not sure if that's spelled right; anyhow he's the SNL cartoon guy and the Triumph the Insult Comic Dog puppeteer) cartoon that made fun of the endless Disney sequels like "Aladdin 5" as Zra sez.
At the end of the 'commercial' which includes the part about "Hurry, before they're back in the Disney vault!", the kids accidentally stumble into the Disney vault, which has stacks of racist "Song of the South" movies and also the defenestrated, frozen head of Walt Disney.
Good fun!
Posted by: Girl From the North Country | November 28, 2007 07:50 AM
Girl From the North Country,
"defenestrated" meaning the head was thrown from a window? Please explain.
Posted by: mayday | November 28, 2007 10:44 AM
"Decapitated" or "Removed by surgeon after death to be cryogenically frozen" would have been more precise, but I think defenstrated is funnier.
Good catch!
Posted by: Girl From the North Country | November 28, 2007 11:19 AM
Though I hadn't heard the version of the story where Cinderella's sisters chop off parts of their feet to fit into the slipper, I prefer it already.
Posted by: The Cheerleader | November 28, 2007 01:09 PM
At the end, at the Royal Wedding Banquet, crows fly in and peck out the eyes of the wicked stepmother and sisters, too!
Posted by: Girl From the North Country | November 28, 2007 01:42 PM
and did you ever notice none of the Disney princesses have living mothers? Belle, Ariel, Jasmine, Pocahantas, Cinderella, Snow White...what's up with all the dead mama's?
Posted by: laurie | November 28, 2007 09:58 PM
I don't understand the mindset of 'it has become popular so we must hate'. Me personally I loved the disney movies when I was younger and I'm not going to say they haven't been sensored for children but be fair people, they were marketed to children. I cried when Mufasa died in the Lion King, imagine the buckets there would have been if the heroine turned to sea-foam. You want that ended go watch anime (not that I'm knocking anime, I love it).
I liked enchanted both on it's own and as a joke but if happy endings aren't your thing what are you doing watching disney? It does exactly what it was designed to do. Although the sequals are rubbish. The only sequal I liked was Cinderella 3 and that's only because I'm a big fan of time-travel, time-paradox things (hence the love of Doctor Who).
Posted by: Layla | March 7, 2008 09:50 AM
I love Enchanted because of the prince and princess
Posted by: lauren | April 8, 2008 02:41 PM
um, people you gotta remember these movies were made for kids, do you honestly want them watching the truths behind stories and then having no imagination because they will be so full of reality that they won't have any room for fantasy?
Posted by: Heather | April 19, 2008 01:47 AM
I don't know why you watch Disney if all your going to do is complain. I grew up on Disney and I love it. If all your going to do is dog on it. Then just don't watch. Very very annoying. There called "fantasy" for a reason.
But very true about the no mother thing. Whats up with that??
Posted by: Liz | May 7, 2008 05:51 PM
Disney is a way for young children to escape reality and tap into the creativity they need to enjoy their young lives. There's nothing wrong with some fantasy, unrealistic ideals of love, or yes a "brave toaster".
Posted by: iheartdisney | May 8, 2008 11:59 AM
Disney isn't primarily about fostering children's creativity though--they're primarily about making a lot of money, and willing to co-opt children's fantasy lives in pursuit of that goal. "Buy x from the Princess line or..." Or what?
No thanks.
Posted by: The Big E | May 8, 2008 01:02 PM