Disney Princess - criticism, marketing, favorite

[Recca Phoenix]

So I was surprised to hear that Disney Princess is about the #4 most profitable childrens' brand.
Some are highly critical of the effect of the "princess" model on little girls (i.e. feminists). I think this is a valid point but I still love Disney princesses. Besides, it's only the MARKETING that made it all pink and frilly and girly, the movies themselves are nothing like this.
Also, princesses like Belle and Jasmine and Pocahontas (the Disney Pochahontas anyway) are great strong women and good role models.

I was a little shocked to see a little girls' "princess boutique" at Disney world where the girls go in and get glittered up in their little dresses and proceed to walk around the park in sweltering heat in polyester dresses, plastic shoes, and a crapload of glitter (which is all over the ride seats by the end of the day). Whatever floats your boat I guess..... but stop making the Disney princesses into something ditzy.
As a classic disney fan, I was appalled at the Cinderella "sequels" and some of the marketing on Disney's part..... Though I would much rather see Disney channel airing Princess movies than the god-awful teenypop crap they air nowadays. WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR CARTOONS???

Another thing - Mulan has been added to the Disney princess line in some cases, I guess because they were too lazy to come up with another Asian princess. MULAN IS NOT A PRINCESS!!!! arrgh! And neither is Alice for that matter (she was a "princess" in Kingdom Hearts). Okay, NALA the LION is more of a princess than Alice or Mulan.

Oh and who is your favorite disney princess?
Mulan aside (for the above reasons) I like Belle and Aurora. Sleeping Beauty is a great movie because the characters are REAL, the prince has a name, and even though Aurora likes singing with little animals in the woods she seems like a real, normal sort of person to me. And Belle is awesome because she's like a bookish intelligent person and she sticks up for what she believes in.

And yes, you're never too old for Disney. ^_^

[monele]

I've heard there's a new game coming up in that series... Funny how the same topics tend to pop up in multiple places like that ^^.

I'll have to agree that I'd rather see a varied panel of "princesses" from cute and bubbly ones to strong ones who can fight... just because that's how the world is and little girls should not feel left out if they're not "glittery" ^^

[DaFool]

The local Disney Princess marketing machine is a bit too imposing. Maybe it's just the pink-ness of it all, but something just irks me whenever I see a dark, scrawny little girl walking with her family in a lower-middle-class mall carrying a shiny princess bag with with Belle, Snow White, or Sleeping Beauty's face on it. (Maybe if it was Mulan or Jasmine or Pocahontas the contrast might have been tempered).

MULAN IS NOT A PRINCESS!!!! arrgh! And neither is Alice for that matter

I don't like the message also that this is sending to girls everywhere..."You are a princess." Why not just convey the message "You are strong" (even without being a princess).

If one were to start a massive campaign to convey to all boys that they are kings, there will be hell to pay. There are kings, but there are also knights / warriors, there are artisans, and -- there happen to be also workers and farmer archetypes as well. It's best for the child to realize which universal archetype she most likely resembles (in my case its knights / gentry as befits someone raised in the upper middle class) -- and unfortunately there aren't really clear archetypes for women. It's a bit rude to say to someone who's family is struggling to make ends meet that they're a princess.

At least until someone or their parent becomes the next Bill Gates and she is able to attend the crystal ball.

[Mirielle]

B-but...I like Mulan. She's Asian. Like me. I don't care if she's not a freakin' princess. I still love her! She doesn't need to get dressed up in a frilly, pink dress to win the admiration and respect of everyone. If Disney wants to showcase her then I say let 'em!

We need more crossdressing females nowadays anyway.

-cough- Seriously...

I kinda hate Disney. Everything gets solved in an hour and a half. Disney Princesses annoy me. I only like Jasmine, Pocahontas and Mulan. (And Belle.)

[musical74]

I'd much rather have a Disney heroine who was couragous, smart, and did NOT have the *I'm gonna wait for someone to rescue me* mentality...

Majority of the *Disney Princesses* are lousy in my mind because it teaches the wrong things. Yes, it's nice to have someone take care of ya but the implication is *I can't do anything really without some big male lead helping." I think that's one reason I like Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast so much is because Jasmine and Belle have fighting spirit; that is, they don't seem to NEED a hero anywhere near as much as some of the others do. (Haven't seen Mulan so can't comment on it), and I enjoy watching Belle trash Gaston around (display of confident woman!)

When Disney gets away from the need to protray their heroines as *Princesses that NEED someone to assist them* and more into *a heroine that's not royality, and doesn't really NEED a hero* I think

Agree with Dafool on *there's other roles besides princess* and Mirelle on *don't need to get dressed up to win admiration and respect*. Disney needs to realize that people are wanting the heroines to actually be strong - either physically or strong in the heart. I haven't seen Cinderella 3 and based on what I've heard....won't.

[Jake]

Majority of the *Disney Princesses* are lousy in my mind because it teaches the wrong things. Yes, it's nice to have someone take care of ya but the implication is *I can't do anything really without some big male lead helping."

To be fair to Disney, though, a notable number of their successful animated movies have been based on much older stories (it's always slightly amused me that Disney, who argue louder than everyone else for copyright extension, got a lot of mileage out of recycling/reimagining out-of-copyright works) - and most of those older stories are old enough to come from a more sexist time when women were expected to wait for prince charming to come along and sort it out for them. If Cinderella were written today it would quite possibly feature her getting back at her evil stepsisters with a prolonged pranks campaign before setting up her own business and becoming a successful and independently wealthy entrepreneur before deigning to go to dinner with the prince someday, but it wasn't.

(Actually, I can't remember how that movie does end, exactly, but either way it has the underlying "woman needs help from independent man to be pulled, rather than pull self, out of poverty" theme.)

[F.I.A]

Well, in parents' view, their little daughter is their "princess", so that is pretty much the aim of the whole thing altogether - flatter the parents and spoil the daughter.

Now don't get me wrong. I like old classic Disney series as much as I like the Tom & Jerry, but when sequels heap upon sequels, it just starts to annoy me. Just like how Warner Bros decides to turn classical Bugs Bunny and cos into some hyper futuristic bunchies called Loonatics. Not pretty, not pretty.

Unfortunately, I cannot decide which I favor, since none is wearing glasses, long hair, and goes "Nyu~".

[DaFool]

http://mensnewsdaily.com/archive/r/robe ... 082405.htm

[papillon]

If Cinderella were written today it would quite possibly feature her getting back at her evil stepsisters with a prolonged pranks campaign before setting up her own business and becoming a successful and independently wealthy entrepreneur before deigning to go to dinner with the prince someday, but it wasn't.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120631/

[mokenju1]

My favourite disney female character is Meg (Megara) from the Hercules movie, she's so strong and cynic . It's a shame she can't be a princess but I supposes she is the most fortunate one of the Disney girls because she is the only one who manages to marry almost a god (I can imagine the other princess grining ). When I was younger I had a worse opinion about Disney and some of their sugar female stereotipes (and what they did with the hunchback(?) of Notre Dame, I would never forget them for that ) but now that we have people like Avril Lavigne screaming something like "I hate your girlfriend and I'm gonna be your girlfriend" to the teenagers of the world I have became more tolerant with this company and their "family" values. She is more scary for me now than when she pretended to be a punk .

[PrettySammy09]

My favorite Disney princess is probably Belle, because I love the story of Beauty and the Beast. The romance of that movie is really great, not to mention all the really fun side characters (Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, you know).

I like Belle because she's smart, fun, and still beautiful. She isn't shallow and she believes in her father. :3 She's a great role model.

[Sailor Kitty]

Yeah, I like Belle too. She lives with her father near a town like me, and Lumiere is a scream. Oh, and she was a brunette and liked singing like me.

But on the "Princess line" I don't approve of it. When I was that age, the disney princesses were introduced. But I kept my previous role-model, spider-man, when I found out "Hey! This is for complete wimps!"

I just think it would be better if little kids could choose freely what they like, instead of boys being tuff and girls being sweet.

[Recca Phoenix]

B-but...I like Mulan. She's Asian. Like me. I don't care if she's not a freakin' princess. I still love her! She doesn't need to get dressed up in a frilly, pink dress to win the admiration and respect of everyone. If Disney wants to showcase her then I say let 'em!

Yeah, totally! Mulan could have her own line of stuff. It's just that including her in the Princess line....would tend to emphasize all the wrong stuff about her :(


Speaking of outdated.....WENDY annoys the hell out of me because she is such a girly mother figure. I have never liked Disney's Peter Pan (I prefer the Mary Martin musical one). Tinkerbell is cool though, she has her own line of "fairy" stuff now and she is getting her own movie soon!

The next 2 disney movies will be princess flicks. The first, Rapunzel, looks really pretty but I don't think we can expect a good female lead. -_-;;; The images look nice though!!!
The other one, The Princess and the Frog looks pretty awesome! Jazz music (yay!) and a 1920s New Orleans setting, and the "first black disney princess," Tiana. Originally she was named Maddy and was going to be like a slave who becomes a princess (sounds like Cinderella) but they changed it because there were accusations of racism. I have high hopes for this one.

[PyTom]

I have never liked Disney's Peter Pan (I prefer the Mary Martin musical one).

My favorite is the Dave Barry/Ridley Pearson version.

[Sailor Kitty]

Mulan was my fav. disney movie before I got older and understood the romance in it.

Yuck.

And I boycott disneys peter pan. They made one of historys biggest bloopers. The swedish dubb-crew, that is.

They dubbed Wendy "Lena"
And, in Sweden, NOBODY else ever called her "Lena".