disney, why do you betray me.
Mar. 9th, 2010 05:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
samatethecookieDisney restyles 'Rapunzel' to appeal to boys
Am I misguided here? Didn't the movie generate less money because James Cameron released his movie around the same time? People wanted to see "Avatar", which is an unfortunate thing for other movies released around the same time but it doesn't mean the rest were bad movies.
If it's about Pixar's financial success, well, maybe Pixar is making more money because it takes its audience seriously. Yes, there's a lack of female leads and I do see the problems with that, but you can't tell me Disney can't learn a thing or two from that company. "Up" was successful and heart-warming because it wasn't about a fairy tale or characters bursting into song and whatnot. It was about an elderly man who wanted to live his deceased wife's dream for her, which leads him on an adventure with a boy, a huge bird and a talking dog. It was a risk because main protagonists are usually younger, but the animators behind Pixar have the passion to pull it off. Pixar hasn't come out with a fairy tale or a princess movie. There's a film about a princess in the works, but that's, what, one out how many movies they worked on? (Not to mention there's other studios that flourished without depending on tired fairy tales, such as Studio Ghibli and, as much as I feel 'meh' towards most of their films, Dreamworks.)
My point is this: the problem lies in what the audience wants, not what appeals to boys, because I don't think that's the specific problem here, and boys and men have been watching Disney films for years, and that's not counting the animators behind these films that happen to be men. (I mean, my father? He fucking loves Enchanted. It's one of his favorite movies! And that's not counting the other movies he's watched with me over the years.) Simply catering to the boys that hate Disney movies just because isn't going to help the studios survive.
I think audiences in general are sick of movies about princesses, children included. As much as I loved the movies during the Disney Renaissance, and as much as I liked "The Princess and the Frog", my feelings changed when I watched "Sailor Moon" and adopted Serena as my role model over somebody like Ariel, because I actually got to see this girl kicking ass and saving the world with her friends and boyfriend as her support.
I still love Disney. That part of me will never change. However, it's hard to love a studio that refuses to take some risks for its new audience. I wouldn't mind saying good-bye to the princess movies if something new comes out of it. Society is evolving, so the studio should evolve along with it.
In the meantime, Disney, please change the fucking title back to its original one.
"We did not want to be put in a box," said Ed Catmull, president of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, explaining the reason for the name change. "Some people might assume it's a fairy tale for girls when it's not. We make movies to be appreciated and loved by everybody."
[...]
Disney hopes the introduction of the slightly bad-boy character will help it tap the broadest possible audience for "Tangled," emulating the success of its corporate sibling, Pixar. Pixar's movies have been huge hits because they appeal to girls, boys and adults. Its most recent release, "Up," grossed more than $700 million worldwide.
"The Princess and the Frog" generated considerably less -- $222 million in global ticket sales to date.
"Based upon the response from fans and critics, we believe it would have been higher if it wasn't prejudged by its title," Catmull said.
Am I misguided here? Didn't the movie generate less money because James Cameron released his movie around the same time? People wanted to see "Avatar", which is an unfortunate thing for other movies released around the same time but it doesn't mean the rest were bad movies.
If it's about Pixar's financial success, well, maybe Pixar is making more money because it takes its audience seriously. Yes, there's a lack of female leads and I do see the problems with that, but you can't tell me Disney can't learn a thing or two from that company. "Up" was successful and heart-warming because it wasn't about a fairy tale or characters bursting into song and whatnot. It was about an elderly man who wanted to live his deceased wife's dream for her, which leads him on an adventure with a boy, a huge bird and a talking dog. It was a risk because main protagonists are usually younger, but the animators behind Pixar have the passion to pull it off. Pixar hasn't come out with a fairy tale or a princess movie. There's a film about a princess in the works, but that's, what, one out how many movies they worked on? (Not to mention there's other studios that flourished without depending on tired fairy tales, such as Studio Ghibli and, as much as I feel 'meh' towards most of their films, Dreamworks.)
My point is this: the problem lies in what the audience wants, not what appeals to boys, because I don't think that's the specific problem here, and boys and men have been watching Disney films for years, and that's not counting the animators behind these films that happen to be men. (I mean, my father? He fucking loves Enchanted. It's one of his favorite movies! And that's not counting the other movies he's watched with me over the years.) Simply catering to the boys that hate Disney movies just because isn't going to help the studios survive.
I think audiences in general are sick of movies about princesses, children included. As much as I loved the movies during the Disney Renaissance, and as much as I liked "The Princess and the Frog", my feelings changed when I watched "Sailor Moon" and adopted Serena as my role model over somebody like Ariel, because I actually got to see this girl kicking ass and saving the world with her friends and boyfriend as her support.
I still love Disney. That part of me will never change. However, it's hard to love a studio that refuses to take some risks for its new audience. I wouldn't mind saying good-bye to the princess movies if something new comes out of it. Society is evolving, so the studio should evolve along with it.
In the meantime, Disney, please change the fucking title back to its original one.
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no subject
Date: 2010-03-10 12:44 am (UTC)Honestly, what pisses me off about Disney restyling Rapunzel for the boy audience is BECAUSE they're trying to target boys with it. FUCK THEM. If they want to watch a princess movie, they can damn well watch a princess movie, and deal with the fact that it's girl oriented just like girls are forced to deal with mainly male leads because douchebags have decided that boys are incapable of empathizing with a girl lead.
I do think that the movies geared at children need to get out of the 'princess' rut when they make female leads, but I don't think Disney made a mistake with its first black princess- something that was long in coming. Are they making a mistake coming out with a new princess movie? Possibly. Are they making a mistake bending over backwards for the boys? Hell yes. But it's not because girls have lost any interest in princesses.
(Also, I should point out that Sailor Moon was a princess.)
no subject
Date: 2010-03-10 01:35 am (UTC)I don't work directly with children so I lack the experience with them that you do, and that's something I'm not aware of, so thanks for giving me the heads up and pointing this out. The little bit of experience I do have with them is through my little sister and her friends--she's fourteen now--and the Princess thing just never caught on with her or anyone else she knows at her school when they were little.
I agree that, aside from the problems Disney movies do have, they still hold something special for younger girls. It's just that, the more I think about it, it just strikes me that while there's still going to be girls that love their princess movies and they'll still love them as adults, I also think there's a lot of girls that outgrow the princess thing and they want something different. And while I don't expect Disney to stop making movies about them any time soon, the formula is not going to work forever.
I guess that's why this article in particular aggravated me so much, because they also mention in passing that the movie "The Snow Queen" was shelved because it had TOO MANY FEMALE LEADS which would scare boys away. I still don't know how to feel about that. :\
(Haha, yeah, I wasn't aware of her royalty when I started watching the show when I was...nine, I think? Still, it was kind of neat that she still got to be the soldier and a princess at the same time. That was my first exposure to seeing both sides of that.)
Honestly, what pisses me off about Disney restyling Rapunzel for the boy audience is BECAUSE they're trying to target boys with it. FUCK THEM. If they want to watch a princess movie, they can damn well watch a princess movie, and deal with the fact that it's girl oriented just like girls are forced to deal with mainly male leads because douchebags have decided that boys are incapable of empathizing with a girl lead.
Exactly. They'll change something specifically for boys but if girls expect the same thing in return, they get the usual "It wasn't made for you" argument. That argument never works on either side, and I don't understand why people still fall back on that.