I love watching the interactions between characters! They do such a good job.
Friday, March 31, 2017
Monday, March 27, 2017
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Princess and the Frog Response
First off, I think this is one of the most underappreciated Disney films. Maybe it’s partly because it was the last Disney 2D film and right after they started using new, exciting CGI animation(I do wish they’d do another, even though their 3-D CGI stuff gets cooler looking every time they release a movie), or maybe because it got overshadowed by Tangled and then the behemoth that is Frozen. At any rate, I think it’s a quality film. The music is fun, the storyline is cute, and there’s a lot of good, funny quotes.
Second, I think Tiana is a great princess (she also happens to be my little sister’s favorite Disney princess). She’s the only princess I can think of who actually has a career in mind and works to achieve it. She knows what she wants to do, and she goes for it. She also pushes those around her to do better and work harder (looking at you, Prince Naveen). I also really like the fact that she wanted to own a restaurant (10-year-old me wanted to grow up and open a bakery. Maybe that’ll still happen after I retire. We’ll see).
Some of the other things I like about this film, in no particular order. Naveen’s sass and one-liners make me laugh every time.
I also like his character growth, and how he goes from being a bit (a lot) of a jerk to learning how to be a nice person (and to mince).
I think it’s cool how everyone gets to fulfill their dreams, even if it's not quite how they thought it would happen (except maybe Lottie, who doesn’t marry a prince, but her life seems fine already). It’s also really cute how they tied Ray’s storyline into a few past films.
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| Ray and Evangeline at the end also kinda look like the "second star to the right" in Peter Pan |
This is just me, but I also think the use of shadows in this movie is really interesting. Like how Facilier’s shadow and his minions can trip, grab, or manipulate other people’s movements by grabbing the shadow. It’s an interesting power for the villain, since he’s the only one who is able to interact with his own shadow, and he can use this against other people. He’s actually known as the “Shadow Man.”
On to some of the more controversial stuff. The 1920’s was before the Civil Rights Movement, so segregation and racism would have been rampant, especially in a southern city like New Orleans. This is touched on slightly, in the stark contrast between Charlotte and Big Daddy’s huge mansion and the run-down houses in the neighborhood where Tiana’s family lives, and is implied in the conversation Tiana has with the realtors when they back out of selling her the sugar mill she wants for her restaurant (“A young woman of your background…"). However, the movie really doesn’t address the issue any more than that. Most of the movie centers around the protagonists as frogs interacting with other animals, so the movie gets away with avoiding that conversation in a lot of scenes. I get that it’s a pretty complex issue to discuss effectively in a kids' movie, so Disney’s in a bit of a sticky place here, but it also reads somewhat as a Disney-fication of history. I’m sure we’ll cover this more in-depth in class, and I'm interested in discussing this further.
Monday, March 20, 2017
Sunday, March 19, 2017
Aladdin Live Blog
Next up is Aladdin, and I’m watching it with my friends Elizabeth and Victoria. I like this movie, and I’ve also listened to the Broadway soundtrack quite a bit, so this should be fun.
The sketchy cave is obviously threatening. Why did this guy go in?!
I love how Aladdin and Abu match.
“Rip him open, take it back guys” is really violent if you think about it too much.
Magic Carpet foreshadowing.
“Why are his eyebrows not white, but his beard is?” -Victoria
Key question: Where are the servants, caretakers, etc., aside for Jafar in the palace?
“Why did Jasmine wear all of her jewelry?” -Elizabeth
Related question, why didn’t Jasmine bring money when she left?
Abu is so done with this conversation.
Why does Jafar outrank Jasmine? He’s not part of the royal family. It’s probably because she’s a girl. Does Jasmine only have authority once she’s married?
Raja’s such a sweetheart.
Abu can also pick locks apparently.
Creepy old guy. Let’s just follow what he says without questioning it at all.
Is Abu a diamond in the rough too? Or is Aladdin allowed to bring guests? Or do pets not count as other people?
Abu, you have one job. Don’t blow it.
Why is the lamp not forbidden, but everything else is? That seems really arbitrary.
Why doesn’t Disney make a ride based on this sequence?
“Jafar has done something terrible.” Shocked, I am shocked, I tell you.
I love that Abu took the lamp purely out of spite because Jafar wanted it. He and Aladdin think it’s worthless right now.
And cue Robin Williams!
I like how Aladdin just goes with it when Genie throws his HEAD at him.
What happened to Jasmine?
I feel like the Sultan is really downplaying the fact that Jafar supposedly KILLED someone and expecting Jasmine to get over it in like 5 minutes.
“Well, I feel sheepish.” Ba-dum-tshh!
I like the motif of freedom in this movie, and how it means different things to different characters (Jasmine wants to be outside, Aladdin wants wealth and the ability to do what he wants, the Genie wants to be his own master).
I feel like Jafar wrote this marriage “law” like five minutes ago.
“I’m such a great judge of character, this man is certainly not lying about everything he says.”-- The Sultan, probably.
You tell ‘em Jasmine! You aren’t a prize to be won.
Why was Jasmine’s first question to Ali not “how did you get in my room?”
So ready for this song. Lea Salonga is so awesome!
Epic fail Aladdin!
You sit on a throne of lies Aladdin. (Quite literally, I might add, since he would next in line for the throne if he married Jasmine).
He pulls out an Aladdin script!
“...the part of Aladdin will be played by a tall, dark, and ugly man.” Lol. But seriously, can we talk about the total difference in character design between the “bad” characters and the “good” ones? This has been mentioned before, but generally the “good guys” tend to have lighter skin and more Americanized features. Seems a bit problematic, especially when the movie is not necessarily taking place in America.
“That’s Sultan Vile Betrayer to you.”
Aladdin lucked out so many times in this movie.
Jafar makes an awful lot of puns while trying to kill people.
So it’s this easy to fix the law, why were we so concerned about the marriage deadline?
Overall, it was a very enjoyable movie to watch. The soundtrack is really good, and of course Robin Williams is hilarious as the Genie. However, looking at it more critically, I can see how a some scenes, specifically the opening, draw on some negative stereotypes, which I’m sure we’ll discuss more in class. I’m interested to learn more about the implications of this. Similarly to Pocahontas, I’m curious if they did much research to understand the culture they were attempting to convey (which I assume is loosely based on the Middle East, although that may be not 100% accurate), or if they just went with stereotypes.
Saturday, March 18, 2017
Friday, March 17, 2017
Tangled Before Ever After Live Blog
Disney Channel is starting a Tangled series! So, it’s not a sequel, but it’s still something. The series starting with an hour-long movie. We’ll see how it holds up to the original. Now, it has at least one thing going for it, which is the return of the original movie cast. On the other hand, it does have cheaper tv studio animation. The art is kinda pretty, in its way, but I’m not so sure how I feel about it.
Anyway, I thought I’d watch this thing, and live-blog it, and we’ll see how it turns out.
Standard Eugene opening, and summary of Tangled. I enjoy the running gag of "This is the story of how I died..." opening every Tangled incarnation.
So, for reference, this takes place 6 months after the end of Tangled, but before they get married (How long a time period do they intend to stretch a tv series over? It seemed like Eugene and Rapunzel got married fairly soon after Tangled).
Rapunzel has a coronation to become princess officially, apparently. Is that a thing, if one was born a princess?
Rapunzel is having issues being a princess. I think her problems are stemming from the fact that she still doesn’t wear shoes to formal events.
Her dad talks in this one! (and even sings a little). Mom talks too. That’s more lines than either got in the first movie.
The pub thugs are at a spa, planning Eugene’s proposal. That’s kinda cute.
I think they had difficulty coming up with a rhyme for Fitzherbert. (I think the lyric was "Life's gonna be like strawberry sherbet when she is Mrs. Eugene Fitzherbert).
Rapunzel painted her room in the castle! Aww!
Ominous unidentified villain in the sewer. I think her name’s Lady Cane.
So this is Cassandra. She calls Rapunzel “Raps” and dislikes Eugene, Unsure what to think of her right now.
The overprotective guards are getting annoying. They were sent by Rapunzel’s overprotective dad.
Cassandra put Eugene at the kids table. Lol.
Eugene proposed! … And Rapunzel freaked out about living trapped in the castle. Which is fair, since she spent 18 years in a tower, and only just got out.
Cassandra’s dad is captain of the guards, which apparently means she has a closet full of weapons.
Eugene feels really bad about putting Rapunzel on the spot with his proposal, but Rapunzel is gone.
Rapunzel and Cassandra are sneaking out.
Cassandra has a pet owl… It’s name is Owl. That makes it slightly less exciting,
Apparently a bunch of weird, unbreakable spikes sprouted up around where they picked the flower in the first movie.
Sleeping Beauty reference.
… And it blew up. And now Rapunzel has her hair back. Why? Can they not spend more than a 10-minute short with Rapunzel if she doesn’t have her long hair? Can’t she have adventures with the short hair? Are they going to have to cut it again at some point (since in Tangled Ever After she has short hair)? This is bugging me.
Her hair doesn’t cut this time. That makes total sense.
Pascal is excited about the new hair. Eugene… is more in shock right now.
Her dad is freaking out about the potential dangers of the world, and that apparently justifies him refusing to let Rapunzel do anything unsupervised.
Her mom has a backstory! It sounds like she was a world traveler. She wants Rapunzel to go have adventures too. That’s sweet.
Epic hair flip.
Frying pans are back.
Dad’s upset that she snuck out. He just locked her in the castle?! What the heck? We don’t need tower 2.0.
Rapunzel and Eugene patched things up and had a nice moment together. Rapunzel decided (via a musical number, of course) that she’s going to go on adventures anyway. That’s cool I guess.
Overall, it was good, but not great. Didn’t quite live up to the standard set by the movie. Maybe the series will be better. I think the plot line was really weird and left a lot of questions (starting with how did touching a rock made her hair come back?). I also think that locking Rapunzel back in the tower and making the main conflict center around her trying to learn to be a classic princess (pretty dresses, curtsies, etc) is a really lame story line. Like Disney could have made her a scientist (the original movie mentions that she was interested in astronomy, and she also works really well with animals) or focused on how artistic she is. Instead, it wasn’t until like ⅔ of the way into the movie that Rapunzel really did anything very interesting or exciting. Considering that Disney is currently trying to market the princesses as great role models for little girls, they kinda dropped the ball on what could have been a useful opportunity.
Pocahontas Live Blog
Tonight I’m watching Pocahontas, and I’m joined by my friends Emily, Grace, and Mickey (so you’ll get to hear some of their thoughts, along with mine :) ). I used to watch this movie a lot as a kid, but I haven’t seen it in awhile. We’ll see how it lives up to my memories of it.
“I’d like to point out that it took this many men to do the same thing Moana did”- Emily.
“His face kind of looks like Trump”- Grace
This is kind of terrible.
Let’s go the fun way!
Not quite as graceful.
They both look so happy about the prospect of marrying.
“Just Around the Riverbend” is my favorite song.
The beaver has more expression than Kocoum. At least the beaver smiles.
Another epic Disney grandma.
Wiggins is a quality person. Ratcliffe, not so much.
Percy is offended.
“It’s all ours.” No. Just… no.
“I blame him for scavengers in the trash cans” - Emily
“Let us hope they do not intend to stay”. *Ratcliffe plants a flag* Sigh. Ratcliffe is really annoying.
“If there are any Indians out there, I’ll find them.” You fail John Smith.
The mist is really cool looking in the waterfall scene.
Is she trying to flirt with him? Before she actually learns to speak his language?
Meeko, why didn’t you let Flit stop this now?
I’m curious how much research they did regarding Native American culture in making this movie, especially when characters are not speaking English. I know historically, they were way off, but I wonder if they tried at all to portray culture accurately.
Smith is kind of a stalker. How did he know where she lived?
I love that Grandmother Willow tries to mess with John Smith before she talks to him.
How does Meeko fit in John Smith’s handbag? That thing looks tiny.
I feel like this was super stereotyped.
I think the “Savages” song is interesting. On the one hand, calling the Europeans “savages” is a cool choice, especially since they are very much the villains in this scenario. The bigger issue, however, this that it portrays the Native Americans’ anger as equivalent to the Europeans’, which is not the case. The Native Americans are justifiably angry-- their land was invaded and at least one of their own was killed. The Europeans are in this for money. It’s pretty problematic to portray it this way.
So the biggest issue with this movie is obviously how it is incredibly historically inaccurate. The movie essentially erases a story of rape and genocide and replaces it with a classic Disney love story, which is obviously problematic. (Although I will say that Disney didn’t try to shy away from portraying the racism of the English toward the Native Americans, and they did a good job of showing how cruel the Europeans were to the native people when they came to America, especially in the character of Governor Ratcliffe). Related to this is the fact that it seems like there was little actual attempt to accurately portray Native American culture. In looking at the credits, there was one Native American cultural consultant (unless I missed anything else, but I don’t think I did). For reference, Moana assembled a team of people to consult with (called the Oceanic Story Trust, I believe). I’m not in a position to say how well native cultures were represented in either film, but I think it’s safe to say Disney tried a lot harder to achieve accurate representation in Moana than Pocahontas. Now the movie in and of itself isn’t bad, if it existed in a vacuum. It’s an enjoyable movie to watch, the music is beautiful, and the scenery looks really pretty. The problem is that it doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and what it does is misrepresent and Disney-fy a culture and history.
Monday, March 13, 2017
Sunday, March 12, 2017
Pin Trading
One of my family’s favorite things to do when we visit Disneyland (or Disney World) is pin trading. Pin trading is when you exchange Disney-themed pens with other guests or Disney cast members. At the parks, many cast members will wear lanyards or other accessories to display the pins they have to trade. You can then exchange a pin you have for one that they have that you like better. There are pins with just about every character, movie, or theme park ride or attraction, so you can collect ones that fit your interests.
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| Instructions taken from a pin trading lanyard. |
The other thing about pin trading is that it tends to come with a lot of accessories. From a Disney marketing standpoint, this is pretty brilliant (especially since we know that just about anything sold within the boundaries of a Disney park will be at least twice as much as it costs outside the “Happiest Place on Earth). And while the pins themselves aren’t terribly pricey by Disney standards (you can buy a set of 7 pins for about $25 or $30), they generally aren’t bought in isolation. For example, you can buy sets of pins based on a specific movie or franchise (Disney princesses or Mickey and Friends are pretty common), as well as fancier (and more expensive) individual pins. There are also lanyards, books, etc. that you can purchase for the purpose of wearing/displaying your pins. They also have a large enough following that they are collector’s items, so Disney can get people to come back and buy more.
That being said, pin trading is still a lot of fun for a couple of reasons. As said above, there’s enough variety to customize your collection to fit your own Disney interests. Looking for specific pins or characters that you want can also be fun since it’s a bit like a scavenger hunt. Pin trading is also a bit more interactive than your average Disney souvenir and can be a recurring activity that you pick up again on your next park visit (again, smart marketing by Disney).
Here are a couple of pin trading tips and tricks.
- Aside from being on the lookout for cast members with lanyards, there are other places you can exchange pins with cast members. Many of the hotels and gift shops have larger pin boards. Because the boards are so much bigger than lanyards, they can hold more pins, so you get a larger variety of pins to pick from.
- Another fun thing to do with pin trading is to look for Hidden Mickey pins. These pins have a small Mickey on the front. This indicates that they are part of a set, and if you look on the back, you can see how many pins are needed to complete the set. Hidden Mickey pins cannot be purchased. They are released to cast members for the purposes of trading with guests. New pins and sets are released every year, so there a quite a few of them floating around.
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| My Little Mermaid Hidden Mickey pins |
This is also a good way to find some pins with more obscure characters.
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| Aristocats Hidden Mickeys (featuring Roquefort, Scat Cat, Amelia and Abigail Gabble, and Uncle Waldo) |
- Have fun!
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