Slide 1: Disney title and Title of Presentation
- Disney was founded on the 16th October 1937, by the brothers Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney.
- The first Disney princess to appear on our screens was Snow White in 1937, this was the first full length feature that Disney had created. Based on the traditional fairy tale that was written in 1823.
- Disney's Snow White set up, the fairytale genre Disney is now continuing to produce from 1923 to the modern day.
- Disney's films are not the only the only thing branded by Disney. The brand has increased to a worldwide company, through its opening of numerous theme parks, shops and a huge range of merchandise.
- The main three films I will focus on during this presentation are: Sleeping Beauty (Item 1), Pocahontas (Item 2), Frozen (Item 3) and Mona (Item 4), these films are from the classical, middle and newest era, and show the change of the how Disney portrays women has strong and independent.
- The presentation will explore how the image of Disney princesses has changed over time, from being dependent of being rescued by a Handsome Prince to being independent.
Slide 2: Visual of Sleeping Beauty being awoken by the Prince (Item 5)
Play Clip of Sleeping Beauty being awoken. (Item 6)
- Sleeping Beauty was released in cinemas on 29th January 1959, it was the 16th animated Disney film to be released. It was one of the first American animated musical to be released by a worldwide company.
- Sleeping Beauty is the main motion picture that sparked the main stereotype amongst princesses. The stereotypical princess who does housework, but who meets a handsome prince and falls in love with him.
- This representation of the princess, lives up to the stereotype of women needing a man in her life as a necessity.
- Within the first 3 Disney films, each princess has been shown and subject to a mass amount of house work, Sleeping Beauty was the last Disney film to show the representation of women.
- Sleeping Beauty was one of the films that began the frenzy of young girls being attracted to Disney films. This was because Sleeping Beauty became an idol for young girls.
Slide 3: Visual of Sleeping Beauty doll. (Item 7)
- Since it's release the Sleeping Beauty doll has contributed to the $5.5 billion made from the sale of Disney's princess dolls over the years.
- However, the Sleeping Beauty doll may have some negative impact on young girls, as the princess are supposed to be the perfect role model for young girls.
- This creates a negative effect as young girls may think that they need the blonde hair, blue eyes and skinny waist to become a perfect girl or a princess.
Pocahontas (Item 2)
Slide 4: Visual of Pocahontas and animals (Item 8)
Play Clip of Pocahontas and John Smith Kiss (Item 9)
- Pocahontas was released on 23rd June 1995. It was the 33rd Disney film that was released, Pocahontas was the first coloured princess to appear in the world of Disney films, and in a animated musical.
- The film was the first, where the Princess had two love interests, up until the film Frozen in 2013 was released.
- The musical/film contains songs which carry many important messages that wanted to be conveyed to the audience, songs such as: Colours of the Wind, Just around the Riverbend and Steady as a Beating Drum.
- The film is set in 17th century America, where the conflict between English colonialists and Native Americans is in full force. This gives the back ground story to why the love between Pocahontas and John Smith is so frowned upon.
- The princess of Pocahontas opened up a new world of Disney, a whole new set of audiences and merchandise opportunities.
- Opening up the world of coloured Princesses to audiences, gave younger audiences a wider view on society, it gave the message that anyone no matter who they are can be a Disney Princess.
- Pocahontas breaks every stereotypical princess ideology formed by Disney, other than falling in love with a handsome prince. She becomes the heroine of the film, breaking the ideologies that the princess is always the victim.
- This film also breaks many of the happy endings that are stereotypical to Disney films, as the ending of this film is not happily ever after, or a marriage between Pocahontas and John Smith.
Frozen (Item 3)
Slide 6: Visual of Elsa and Anna (Item 11)
Play clip of First Time in Forever Reprise (Item 12)
- In Frozen we see the unbreakable bond between the two sisters of Elsa and Anna.
- In the film we see the challenge of stereotypes towards women, and how this has changed over the past 90 years of Disney films.
- Elsa and Anna have an independent presence within the film. This differs from many of the past Disney films, as within many of the past films women have always relied one a man in order to be able to survive.
- However, in Frozen it is shown that Elsa and Anna do not need men to survive, they just need each other and their independence.
Play clip, Anna turns into ice. (Item 13)
- From this scene we see how Disney has adapted the damsel in distress from being a female to being an entire kingdom.
- In this film, Disney has created the heroine as being a female instead of being the stereotypical male hero.
- This scene also shows the unbreakable bond between sisters and family, that isn't always shown within Disney films.
- This draws away from the typical Disney ideologies on how females/princesses are portrayed in the films, as Anna is portrayed as the hero and saves the kingdom. Also, within this film there is now handsome prince which comes to the rescue, it is the handsome prince which turns out to be he villain, differing from other films where there is usually as wicked witch.
Moana (Item 4)
Slide 7: Visual of Moana film poster. (Item 14)
Play clip of How far will I Go. (Item 15)
- From this we see the complete change Disney has experienced, we see that we now have a Princess of colour.
- This Disney film, has also adapted its focus to show the main female character to be the hero, along with the the special power to control the water, which in past Disney films the only character who would have a special power would be a a witch.
- This Disney film is one of the first to be set in Hawaii, however the second to show tribal life behind Pocahontas.
- This film is one of the first Disney films, to have a coming of age story as it's base story. This film shows the story of Moana from when she was essentially a baby, up until she is a teenager.
Play clip of Moana International Trailer. (Item 16)
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