Disney Triumphs on Black Friday

While many people were desperately trying to get their hands on the latest electronics at knock down prices on Black Friday, it seems like Disney were actually the real winners in terms of toys. In this article that I read, Elsa dolls dethroned Barbie dolls for the first times in a staggering 11 years. Not only were Elsa costumes the most popular for Halloween, they are now the most popular gift on Santa's list this Christmas. Yet another triumph it seems for the Disney empire and the Frozen franchise....http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/11/27/good-news-for-girls-disneys-frozen-ices-out-barbie-to-become-top-toy/

Frozen 2!!!

Considering that Frozen is arguably one of Disney's most successful films to date, it's not surprising that a sequel is already in the pipeline. Disney have not released a date yet but Idina Menzel confirmed that Frozen 2 will be on our screens in the not too distant future. Check out this article for more info...http://hollywoodlife.com/2014/11/29/frozen-2-sequel-disney-idina-menzel-interview/

Breaux's take on The Princess and the Frog

In his article, “After 75 Years of Magic: Disney Answers Its Critics, Rewrites African American History, and Cashes In on Its Racist Past”, Richard M. Breaux explores how Disney released The Princess and The Frog in response to the overwhelming criticism that it has received for racist portrayals of African Americans in its previous movies. He focuses his argument around three main points; how the movie attempted to counteract criticism, how African-American mothers are portrayed negatively in films and how Disney’s sole objective for this movie was commercial greed. Breaux argues that Tiana is the antithesis to previous Disney princess as she encapsulates the main characteristics that are usually lacking in Disney’s stereotypical princesses. However, he suggests that she is ultimately a “synthesis” of the three most important characteristics that recent Disney heroines embody. She becomes a princess through marriage, she is extremely loyal to her father’s dream of opening a restaurant, she is independent and hardworking and she triumphs over the menacing villain, Dr. Facilier. He remarks how Disney consciously tried to avoid the film being perceived as racist by consulting Oprah Winfrey and members of the NAACP and by incorporating many “Africanisms” into the movie such as the bottle trees and Mama Odie’s portrayal as Voudou princess.

Breaux also criticizes Disney for blatantly avoiding and omitting important historical background about New Orleans that would have helped audiences to understand more about the issues facing African Americans during the 1910s in Louisiana. While there are references to potentially controversial issues, Breaux believes that very few viewers would have had the sufficient background knowledge to notice them or understand their relevance. Personally, I did not pick up on some of these issues but perhaps natives of Louisiana may have been offended by the reference to them in the movie. I thought that it was interesting that Disney had originally planned to name Tiana, “Maddie” and cast her as a maid rather than a waitress. Breaux remarked Disney ultimately changed its mind due to the strong resemblance of “Maddie” to Mammy, which could potentially have garnered racial criticism.

Breaux also highlights one of Disney’s underlying reasons for making this movie, commercial greed. Personally, I agree with Breaux that making a movie with a black princess definitely would have had great commercial appeal to Disney. He suggests that Disney intentionally leaked information about the film, the actors being cast and the script in order to generate free publicity and spark audience’ interest almost two years in advance of the movie being released. In my opinion, this is very plausible theory. However, it is perhaps merely just speculation and I would highly doubt that Disney would ever confirm any claims that they were he source of the leaks.

Blackness, Bayous and Gumbo in The Princess and The Frog

In her article "Blackness, Bayous and Gumbo: Encoding and Decoding race in a colorblind world", Sarah Turner argues that Disney negated any potential backlash from The Princess and the Frog being portrayed as racist by adopting a colorblind approach. Contrary to many Disney critics, she believes that it is much too simplistic to view the movie as simply another racist Disney creation, driven by Disney’s desire for even more commercial wealth. While Turner does not necessarily agree with Disney’s decision to adopt the colorblind approach, she does acknowledge that Disney’s hands were practically tied if they wanted to appeal to both an African-American and white audiences while still maintaining political correctness. She describes the movie as being a “can’t win situation” from a Disney standpoint. I agree with her, as no matter how hard Disney tried, some critics would view Tiana as being too black and some would view her as being too white, with each perspective being viewed as ultimately racist. Therefore, she suggests that Disney attempts to “sublimate” race in the movie, while it was impossible for them to ignore race, they tried to minimize its influence in the movie. Disney somewhat achieved this by transforming both Tiana and Prince Naveen into frogs from quite early on in the movie. Turner points out that Tiana only actually appears as a woman for twenty nine minutes of the film, making it much easier for Disney to convey their message that race is irrelevant in a colorblind world. Throughout her article, Turner explores the concept of colorblindness primarily through the portrayal of Tiana, Disney’s first black princess. Turner gives her opinion on the highly controversial question of whether Tiana is a princess who just happens to be black or whether she is a black princess. Turner chooses to view Tiana from a colorblind approach and views her as simply a princess who is also black, her race does not define her. She praises Disney for not only creating its first black princess but also its first princess that is independent, confident and hardworking, something that Disney fans from all cultural backgrounds have been waiting for, for a long time.

From watching the film, it is quite obvious that Disney consciously tried to counteract and make up for some of the criticism that it has garnered over the past few decades. I liked the point that Turner made about Lottie’s room as being a homage to Disney princesses from the past like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and how Disney essentially poked fun as themselves by portraying Lottie as a stereotypical rich, spoilt and of course, white princess. I found the point Turner made about the illustrations in the fairytale book and the depiction of the married couple on Dr. Facilier’s tarot cards to be particularly interesting and very valid. She remarks how the characters illustrated in the book that Eudora reads to the children are white, as are the couple on Dr. Facilier’s tarot cards that he shows Prince Naveen. She suggests that these illustrations, while subtle, are Disney’s way of showing how their version of events is more progressive and more importantly, less racist than the originals and its previous work. However, in her closing paragraphs, she draws our attention to Disney's hypocrisy during the Academy Awards at which The Princess and The Frog was nominated for an Oscar. She points out how all of the other movies were represented by the actors who voiced the main character in the movie, which in this case should have been Tiana. In actuality, it seems that Disney's attempts to depict a colorblind world did not stop after the film was released, with Disney choosing the white actors that voiced Prince Naveen and the Louis the alligator, instead of Tiana. In Turner's opinion, this was to avoid any associations between the movie and race and reinforces the complexity for disney of creating its first black princess movie.

IF DISNEY CHARACTERS WERE DOGS

A DIFFERENT TAKE ON A DISNEY FAVORITE

Toy Story Hotel

If the news that Disney are working on Toy story 4 aren't exciting enough, Disney fans in Asia and around the world will be excited to hear about Disney's plans to open a Toy Story Hotel in Shanghai. No date has been released yet but this is yet another reason to plan a vacation at Disneyland Shanghai in the future. Read more about the preliminary plans at http://www.slashfilm.com/toy-story-hotel/

All in a day at Disney

Two men, Shane Lindsay and Ted Tamburo rode ALL 46 rides at ALL four parks at Disney World on November 7th in a crazy 17 hour time span that required the two men in their 40s to run a total of 22 miles, just for the fun of it!! 

Read the full article here...http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/men-46-rides-disney-world-day-article-1.2013869

Ursula's recreation of Kim Kardashian's photo

Gael Sweeney’s Dilemma, Are Timon and Pumbaa gay?

In her article, "What Do You Want Me to Do? Dress in Drag and Do the Hula?": Timon and Pumbaa's Alternative Lifestyle Dilemma in The Lion King, Gael Sweeney proposes four very provocative yet not very convincing dilemmas present in the Lion King. Her argument is laid out very clearly and concisely, however, I feel that many of her claims lack sufficient evidence to back them up and her claim that Timon and Pumbaa are a gay couple is based on a very biased interpretation of the film.

In her opinion, the main dilemma is that “Timon and Pumbaa subvert the realistic” in this movie as they are not like all the other animals in Pride Rock and are therefore gay partners. While I agree that Timon and Pumbaa are definitely different from the other animals due to their flamboyant personalities and unconventional lifestyles, I don’t think they are any more unrealistic than any of the lions or hyenas. Talking animals are an integral part of many Disney movies and are certainly not a realistic portrayal of real life wild animals. Sweeney claims that Timon and Pumbaa only wear the disguise of a meerkat and Warthog and that they have nothing to do with Africa. However, Africa is in fact the natural habitat for these animals in real life and both their diets predominantly consist of insects, fruit and berries just like Timon and Pumbaa’s in the movie.

 In my opinion, Timon and Pumbaa’s role in the film was primarily to add some comedic relief to the movie especially after the poignant death of Mufasa, as the intended audience for the film was mainly children. People watch movies to be entertained and to laugh and that is exactly what Timon and Pumbaa succeed in doing. Personally, I think that Sweeney is reading too deep into the part of the film where Timon dresses in drag; it was meant to be funny rather than be an indication that Timon was gay. She evens argues that they are “obviously a same sex couple” based on the fact that they sing, live together, raise Simba together and work together.  Personally, none of these factors convince me that they are a gay couple. Most college students live in a dorm with a roommate of the same sex, many of us sing together in our car with our same sex friends on a daily basis, people of the same sex work together all the time and yet do not identify or are not viewed by society as being gay. While I acknowledge that they raise Simba together like a foster family, I feel that the way they care for Simba is driven out of protective animal instincts rather than their desire to be homosexual parents and have a family. We are not given any indication in the film that they longed to have a child, they simply woke up one morning and Simba was lying on the sand beside them, they did not plan or discuss it but cared for him as if he was their own. Sweeney also suggests that it is obvious that Timon and Pumbaa are outcasts of their respective societies because they are gay. They could be outcasts from their societies for a number of plausible reasons, not exclusively because they are gay and I feel that this claim is very presumptuous with very little concrete evidence to support it. It appears to me that Timon and Pumbaa’s supposed dislike of Nala and Simba’s relationship is born out of fear rather than out of distaste for heterosexual love as they feel threatened by her presence and are afraid that they will lose their new friendship with Simba.

Overall, I don’t think that Disney intended to portray Timon and Pumbaa as gay characters but perhaps the personalities of the voice actors played a significant role in any supposed “gay” characteristics or mannerisms that Timon and Pumbaa convey. Lane and Sabella, the voice actors for these two characters, were given the freedom to ad lib many of their lines, unlike many other voice actors in Disney animations. Lane openly acknowledged that he based his portrayal of Timon on himself and being a gay actor, likely contributed heavily to any homosexual tendencies of Timon in the movie.

To Infinity and Beyond

The good news is that Pixar/Disney are making another Toy Story movie, the bad news is that it's not going to be released until 2017. Toy Story 3 seemed to be the end of the line for Woody and Buzz and all the other toys as Andy began a new chapter of his life as he went off to college. Maybe Andy will pass his toys onto his children in Toy Story 4?? Whatever the plot, I'm excited that Pixar are making another Toy Story movie, as it is my favorite Pixar creation. It's also scary to think that the first movie came out the year I was born and more than twenty years later Buzz, Jessie and Woody will be saving the day once again... Read more about Pixar's plans for Toy Story 4 on Buzzfeed        http://www.buzzfeed.com/adambvary/toy-story-4-is-coming-to-theaters-in-2017

October was Breast cancer awareness month. Many people do interesting things to help educate and spread awareness about this terrible yet treatable disease that affects so many women annually. I came across a striking article on Yahoo portraying Disney princesses as breast cancer survivors. These illustrations are very original yet highly effective and are utilising the worldwide appeal of Disney princesses for a very worthwhile cause, rather than just for the usual reasons of pure commercial gain.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jeffrubin/drunk-guys-who-have-never-seen-pixars-up-experience-that-ope?sub=3500066_4171567

Drunk Guys' reactions to Up's Scene

A video that I found on Buzzfeed of different drunk guys watching the opening scenes of Up for the first time.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jeffrubin/drunk-guys-who-have-never-seen-pixars-up-experience-that-ope?sub=3500066_4171567

The Lion King

Growing up, I was a Disney kid but never a big fan of Disney princesses. The sparkly pink dresses, tiaras and helpless damsels in distress were just not for me and needless to say Snow White and Beauty and the Beast were not high on my favorite movies list. That said,The Lion King is perhaps one of my favorite Disney movies from my childhood. In my opinion, Simba truly encapsulates everything that most young kids are, myself included; curious, daring, lively, all driven by an overwhelming desire for adventure.

While I watched Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp and The AristoCats so often that those dreaded black and white fuzzy lines or snow used to appear across the TV screen whenever I played the videos, (thank god for DVDs nowadays!!), I have now forgotten most of the quotes and minor details that I used to know inside out, back to front. However, as I watched The Lion King in preparation for class, I was shocked by how many quotes and song lyrics that I actually remembered, and I began mouthing certain chunks of quotes almost subconsciously. Perhaps the fact that our teachers in elementary school used to let us watch The Lion King during recess if it was raining outside on cold wintery afternoons played a role in my ability to recall much of the film or maybe I just could relate more to the character of Simba more than helpless Sleeping Beauty.

Although the vast landscape of the Pridelands and all the majestic animals re-ignited my desire to visit South Africa and go on safari one day, I was struck by how many of the most important and particularly sinister aspects of the film that simply sailed over my head as a young child.  I remember being petrified of Scar and having a strong dislike for the hyenas, but I never remember the significant differences in their accents let alone even considering that they potentially represented some of the minority groups in society and that Scar’s darker fur could be seen as racist. Personally, I think that this begs the question as to whether Disney movies are as child orientated, as they seem. Should my elementary school teachers have sat down and explained the historical inaccuracy and the elements of social class and racism present in the movie? Honestly, I think that the answer is no. As a child, animals are animals and kids don’t dissect films in order to derive some hidden meaning, let alone consider that their favorite fluffy characters perhaps represent something much much deeper than being funny, cute or brave.