The Disney Movie I Want to be in

I took this buzzed quiz to see which movie I would want to be in.  By picking the singer that would sing the theme song, the country I want to visit, picking a Pixar movie, where would my villain reside, picking a Disney ride, the characteristic my side-kick would have, and who would voice my love interest, I got Frozen, which is interesting because I do not think at all that it fits me. The quiz link is posted below, so you should check it out.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/samstryker/which-disney-movie-should-you-star-in#.inDpq54B85

Response to Richard Breaux

I think Beaux makes some very good points on how Disney has been progressing from its stereotypes and how it is shown in The Princess and the Frog.  One of the most interesting points that Beaux makes in his argument is comparing Charlotte La Bouff and Tiana. Charlotte represents Disney's original princess who is sexualized, has a single parent, and wants to marry a prince.  Comparing Charlotte to Tiana, Tiana is the exact opposite. In the scene where Eudora reads the story of The Princess and the Frog, Charlotte would kiss a hundred frogs in order to get her prince while Tiana would never do anything of such a sort.  Another scene to compare Tiana and Charlotte is during the masquerade ball.  Charlotte is a desperate adult to get her prince so she sexualizes herself with make-up, beauty mark and emphasizing her cleavage.  Disney reminds us of the past princesses who are sexualized individuals with their tiny waists and cleavages, yet she is not the main character of this story.  However, Tiana's story is very different.  We see Tiana with an intact family at the beginning before her father goes off to war and is killed.  However, both of them supported her dreams and goals of owning a restaurant and cooking for everyone in town.  Tiana is ambitious, hard-working, and oriented towards a goal, which we really have not seen any other princess do before.  Tina also has very little interest in waiting for her prince to come.  Tina works two jobs to earn enough money to pay for the mill than going out and having fun.  Also, when Prince Naveen asks her as a frog to kiss him, he lies to Tiana and tells her that he is wealthy.  Tina only kissed him so that Prince Naveen will give her a payment in money for getting him out of this state.  Tiana is only focused on her long-term goal, owning a restaurant, and she will use any means possible, even if it does mean kissing a frog prince, to reach her goal.

Disney tries to make up for the fact that it has not created an African American princess until now and makes very explicit references to their culture, and the things that they believe in.  For example, the Bottle trees is part of African American communities from 1600-1800s to protect these individuals from evil spirits.  Mama Odie is a Voodoo priestess, and Vodou came to Louisiana from enslaved Africans when Louisiana was a French colony. Voodoo was repopularize in the nineteenth century as a means to attract tourists to their state.  However, in this film, Disney was trying to overemphasize that these individuals were African American and could not make a normal princess film like they have in the past, but just with an African American princess.  Disney tried to do so many things to capture the lifestyle of an African American princess, but it ended up being too much and too emphasized that this movie involved black individuals.  This point of Breaux I also agree with because there were just too many variable that overemphasized the African American princess when it really should not have.   Overall, I agree with Richard Breaux, and the points he made with The Princess and the Frog.

23 Things You Don't Need to Do In Your Early Twenties

This article uses Disney pictures and gifs to explain what everyone in their twenties feels like that they have to do.  Some of my personal favorite ones of the gifs that they used is number 2 where Peter Pan asks "What's a kiss?"and the the gif that is when Simba is presented to the animal kingdom even though I don't know how it represents traveling the world.  It's a good article for college students to read to realize that these stereotypes of what people in theirs 20s don't have to be accomplished
http://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/peter-panic

Disney Questions that we all have

Disney leaves so many holes in its movies and has left the audiences questions that we really want to know.  For example, why didn't Ariel write down in a letter on how she felt for Eric, or why didn't Cinderella's glass slipper also change back to normal when it reached midnight.  Buzzed compiled a list of questions that Disney should answer because they are important to the movie


http://www.buzzfeed.com/samstryker/why-disney-why#.aggvkLJG1L

Response to The Princess and the Frog

I had never seen The Princess and the Frog before this, and for the life of me I do not know why. I really enjoyed the movie, and especially the music in this movie. The music was unlike any Disney movies because it was very jazzy and upbeat which really fit the setting of the movie, New Orleans. I also really enjoyed the plot of the movie. Tiana's hard-work and dedication to achieve her dream of owning a restaurant ended up achieving more than she bargained for.  She ended up finding love in the most unexpected of places, with a prince.

The way that the Princess and the Frog story played out, I never expected this plot story.  I thought that the movie would end with Tiana kissing the prince who was a Frog at the end, but that was wrong.  When Tiana kissed Prince Naveen when he was a frog, she ended up turning into a frog as well and had to go on a journey with him to try and figure out how to turn back to normal. It ended up being after they had missed their chance of turning back to normal because "Princess Charlotte LaBouf" didn't kiss them on time, it ended up being a kiss of true love that ended up turning them back to normal. Also this movie was atypical because it did not end in the prince and the princess returning to the castle. Instead, Tiana got to achieve the dream that she finally wanted with Prince Naveen by her side and helping her out. Disney actually is showing a progressive side in their company by illustrating that women's dreams are as important as men's dream, and they should achieve those dreams.  Despite the fact that Tiana's dream was opening a restaurant so that she could cook for everyone, a traditional dream that is stereotypical for women.

However, Disney heavily stereotypes African Americans, especially with the accents.  The accents were so heavy on certain African American characters that Disney was trying to overemphasize that the company was trying to be the diverse and include different races as the stars of the movie. I also wonder why Disney didn't do a lot of advertising for this movie.  Since the movie came out in 2009, I must have been 12-13 around the time it came out. I don't remember seeing commercials for the movie or even seeing any merchandise after the movie came out. Disney kept this movie on the down low which is such a shame because it really is an excellent movie.  Because this movie does not follow the traditional princess route, that is not an excuse for not putting effort into advertising the product.

Response To Up

I had never actually seen the full movie of Up before until now.  I knew the general logistics about what happened in the movie, but I never realized how much depth is behind the movie.  I really enjoyed Up because it is much different than any of the other Disney movies that I have seen before.   Up is a heartfelt movie because within the first five minutes of the movie so much tragedy happens and I felt for Carl for losing his true love because unlike the other romances in Disney movies, this love was more equal in contribution from each individual.  That's why for the audience it was heart-breaking to see Ellie die.

Carl loves Ellie so much that he is filled with so much guilt that he never fulfilled Ellie's dream of going to Paradise Lands and living their days out there. He loves her so much that he takes this adventure upon himself in order to live the adventure that Ellie always dreamed of living since her childhood.  Carl has always kept to himself throughout the course of his life, he is quiet, soft-spoken and really does not go against anything. However, in pursuing Ellie's dream, he lets himself open up to others and let himself be the person he truly is and the person that Ellie always saw.  He will not let anyone define who he is and what he does, he become adventurous and takes risks when they are necessary, and he ends up becoming a parental figure and forming a family of his own.  One of the most important messages in this movie is family, and Pixar adapts to modern definition of it.  Your family is the individuals that you love in your life, not necessarily your biological family.  Carl forms his own family with Russell and Dug and recovers from his guilt and depression of losing Ellie.  There will be always individuals in your life who will love you and want to be there for you and losing someone is not the end of the world. Also another important message that Pixar portrays through this movie is when Carl finally looks through Ellie's adventure book in the end and sees that she put pictures of them growing up and growing old together as what she accomplished in her life.  Ellie realized that Carl would feel guilty for not fulfilling their childhood dream and going to Paradise Islands, but she actually fulfilled her new dream. She got to spend her life with the individual that she loves and that was more important than any childhood fantasy that she had.  Pixar portrays an important message here in saying that people should not let their careers and goals take away what is most important to them. Always have the individuals that you love in your life and don't let anything take that away from you

Up is one of the most fantastic movies that Pixar has created with some meaningful themes that relate to society today. Pixar company illustrates that it is keeping up with the ideals of society and knows the questions that challenge individuals today.  Overall, Up is a great movie which I cannot wait to watch again

Response to John Morton

By reading through Morton's response to Robert Gooding Williams' article, Morton really despises everything that William.  His hatred of Williams shines through his argument which makes it hard for his audience to really focus on his argument and see the arguments that he is making.  If one puts aside his hatred of Williams, he actually makes some really interesting arguments about The Lion King.  One of the arguments that I found really interesting.  Morton argues against Williams' idea that  "this picturing of Disney's Africa as a place without history, to which Scar's revolution is a counter-trend".  Instead Morton argues that "the circle of life", the whole theme of this movie is the history behind Africa.  The history is that individuals want to maintain the standard ideology that has been intact for centuries in this land.  Mostly everyone is happy with the hierarchy of the land and understands the importance that society has a circle of life, they go through their struggles and eventually life will be alright again.  This circle of history is what defines Africa so I side with Morton on this argument that there is a history behind Africa. Morton also brings in an excellent point that the hyenas are not the only ones who represent the low order class in the movie. Timon and Pumba are two individuals who have been essentially exiled from the mainland.  However, these individuals are happy with their status in the circle of life.  They have one of the lowest status and Williams fails to mention anything about them.  Timon and Pumba are a prime example in illustrating that not everyone has the viewpoint that the hyenas have in the fact that they must overthrow the whole regiment to get what they want. Timon and Pumba lived their life normally and ended up moving up the social ladder by sticking by the rules of the circle of life.

Another really interesting point that Morton makes is about the different ruling styles of Simba and Scar. Morton says that Scar's revolution "based exclusively on a politics of resentment" while Simba's revolution is "both democratic and productive".  Scar has resented his brother all his life because he ended up ruling over the whole kingdom and he did not.  His ruling was based purely on his hatred for the standards of society and ended up doing so much harm to society that there was famine spreading everywhere, there was no really equality among the individuals, and everything was being destroyed.  Scar's resentment towards the hierarchy of society caused him to end up destroying the thing he wanted to fix.  Williams nowhere in his article mentions about why Scar's reign failed and the reason behind the failure.  Williams avoided everything that would make his point contradicted, which excluded so much information about The Lion King. Williams was stretching what little information he had to make his argument, which Morton was able to tear apart easily.  If Morton hid his disdain for Williams, his argument would certainly have been stronger and still have his credibility as a critic.

Would you Rather Part 2

Buzzed posted a new video about "Would you Rather" in the Disney world and some of them had really interesting responses to them.  For one, individuals had to decide whether they would want to be the evil stepmother from Snow White when she was the hag or have Ed's wits.  The interesting response was that individuals would rather be dumb (76%) than be ugly. Some other interesting would you rather's happened on this video as well, so people should check it out.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanbergara/disney-would-you-rather-more-difficult-questions#.edYzJWj1KW

One Dedicated Fan

http://moviepilot.com/posts/2015/02/27/one-fan-watched-every-disney-movie-and-then-the-real-magic-started-2734403?lt_source=external,manual

One dedicated Disney fan watched all 52 original Disney films in chronological order (meaning not the sequels), and drew and illustration for each film. I wish had the time and dedication to do that. To see all of his pictures, check out his blog, which link will be posted below.

http://disneyanimatedfeatures.blogspot.de/2013_04_01_archive.html

Response to The Lion King

The Lion King has been one of my favorite all time movies of all time, and watching it again when I am older hasn't really changed my viewpoint of the movie. Singing along to all the songs in this movie because they are so catchy like "Hakuna Matata", the movie is honestly one of the best films I think Disney has produced. Disney introduces us with a whole family for once, and the family stays intact for almost half of the entire movie. This movie was unique in this way we actually see family dynamics in this movie and see how Disney illustrates that family values are important. The movie also illustrates the whole "Circle of Life" within this movie. Starting with Simba's birth, we see how he goes through life initially with everything content, then a tragedy occurs, and Simba must learn how to grieve and get past this tragedy. Simba also learns that he must take responsibility for his own actions and finds love. "The Circle of Life" song is a representation of the whole movie from infancy to adulthood, learning how to mature and getting through all the bad things, and eventually everything will work out in the end. This movie directly impacts children because it illustrates their lives essentially that there will be bad times, but eventually there will be good times as well. This movie also has a lot of adult scenes as well. Usually in Disney, we never see any of the parents die on screen, but this time we saw Mufasa die on screen, which really stepped up the adult content in these movies.

Disney still also portrays the normal stereotypes that they do in every movie. Females are portrayed as subordinate individuals, stuck within a patriarchal society, and what really defines a woman is beauty, ability to have kids, and falling in love in this movie. The same stereotypes of men that we find in other movies is also found here. Men have to be dominant individuals, having no fear, protecting what is theirs, and illustrate the hyper-masculinity that Disney believes all males should have. Again Disney reinforces the stereotypes of society and does not move away from them. The only characters that could provide redemption are Zazu and Rafiki, because both individuals pride on their intelligence rather than their strength to solve problems. However, both of those characters do not play much of a presence in the movie, so this ideal is not really enforced. Overall, The Lion King is still one of my all-time favorite Disney movie.

Which Princess Represents your Style?

http://www.buzzfeed.com/leonoraepstein/which-disney-princess-is-your-style-icon#.ay0yl3p5K3

I took this buzzed quiz today that popped on my Facebook and I got that Jasmine represents my style because I am sexy and regal and that I like to rock a Jewel tone. I take on trends, but I find ways to make it my own. I feel like some parts of this description was accurate and some of it wasn't, but it was interesting to see what I got.

Response to Amanda Putnam

Amanda Putnam's article on Mean Ladies:transgendered Villains in Disney Films adopts a stereotypical stance that certain qualities are masculine and certain one are feminine; however, given the stereotypes, Putnam makes a very valid argument that the villains in Disney films are transgendered and given qualities of the opposite sex. I never really thought of female characters portraying male characteristics and vice versa until I read Amanda Putnam's Mean Ladies:transgendered Villains in Disney Films. One point that I do not agree with Amanda's article is the fact there a division between what qualities is masculine and what qualities are feminine. There are girls who are tom boys, play sports, athletic, and do not look like a typical female, which does not mean that they are any less of a female. Defining certain qualities of a female is impossible to do because each female is unique in their own way. Same argument with males applies. Men can take jobs within domestic work and be happy, like interacting with animals, and finish school. I find in general the whole principal of Putnam's argument to based on false ground and adhering to the stereotypes that we find in society. However, if we discuss this issue within the stereotypes, Putnam makes an excellent argument that the villains in the Disney exhibit qualities of the other gender. Disney portrays these villains as such to illustrate a stark difference what Disney defines to be the stereotypical male and the stereotypical female. One such example that Putnam uses to illustrate how the villains exhibit transgendered qualities is with Ursula from The Little Mermaid. Ursula, the female villain in the movie, is the typical transgendered villain in Disney because "Ursula's overweight body and tentacles, her deep voice, and the excessive sexualized shimmies are reminiscent of a drag queen on stage, overly made up and singing deeply, appearing both female and male simultaneously" (Putnam 155). Ursula depicts the typical drag queen, where males dress up as females, make up, clothes, and everything, and perform for an audience. Putnam illustrates here that Disney purposefully makes the villains as transgendered to depict to their audiences that these individuals are not the typical males nor females that the audiences should aspire to be. Because they are the villains in this case and exhibit these transgendered qualities, Disney illustrates that one should not cross boundaries in what qualities should be defined as male and female. Even with the males, these transgendered qualities are apparent.

However, Putnam does make stretches in her argument to try and prove that all Disney villains exhibit transgendered qualities. For example, she uses Jafar from Aladdin to try and prove that not having a romantic interest in someone proves her point that all Disney villain are transgendered. Putnam argues that "wish is not motivated by lust, but rather by his obsession for more power. Jafar's only incentive to pursue a heterosexual relationship is to humiliate Jasmine and anger Aladdin" (157). Putnam tries to argue that not wanting to be in a heterosexual relationship indicates a transgendered quality; however, Jafar's quest for power and dominance over the kingdom illustrates a strong male quality that he has. He wants to take over the Sultan position by any means possible and because he has no romantic interest in Jasmine does not indicate that is a transgendered individual. Maybe his thirst for power consumes everything inside of Jafar that he has no room for anything else for him to consider, especially love and relationships. Just because villains do not have spouses or fall in love does not indicate that they are transgendered, it just indicates that the greed and lust for power consumes all villains, so they do not have time for anything else.

Response to Roberta Trites

A lot of Roberta Trites's arguments I found very skeptical and very misguided. Fo example, Roberta sexualizes almost every scene in The Little Mermaid. Yes, certain scenes can imply sexual meanings, but not every single scene has some sexual connotations. For example, the idea that in Andersen's version of The Little Mermaid when she dances, it feels like she is walking on knives that her blood would flow represents the hymen breaking, was completely stretching the argument. You could argue that this fact represents how someone should not try to change who they are for other people, but you cannot stretch the argument just to make it sexual. Also the whole sexualizing Ursula to illustrate her personality was way too much of stretch that was completely ridiculous and made me think what is this author trying to prove. There are so many other arguments that one can make about The Little Mermaid, that there is not really a need to oversexualize everything about the movie. Especially, the author talking about the final scene, about Ursula taking power from Triton and her eventual downfall was all a scene about sex was completely absurd and made her lose her credibility with me. I was honestly done reading that whole section about her argument and done reading with her paper because she was fishing at things to argue about.

However, initially, I really did like her arguments because I felt that there was evidence to back these arguments up. I especially really like the argument that was the connection between Satan and Ursula and the whole argument about the scene from Paradise Lost giving the forbidden fruit to Adam and Eve is the basis for the whole movie. A lot of points add up to this fact, like going to shore is forbidden and seeing humans is forbidden which equates to the forbidden fruit, Ursula is Satan because she tempts the unsuspecting Eve, which is Ariel in this case to taste the forbidden fruit, which is going to land. If Trites had focused on that argument, instead of all the sexuality in her paper, her paper would be so much stronger instead of losing credibility with her ridiculous arguments. Another argument I really liked was the dependence of Ariel. All we see happen in the movie is Ariel's dependence on her father get transferred to her husband Eric. The stereotypical standard of women from the 1500s where women are dependent on their fathers and husbands. That idea still gets reinforced into all these Disney movies that women are dependent on a man in order to have their lives.  Disney still portrays old fashion ideas in their movies, which has been a continuing thing since the 1930s, and The Little Mermaid came out in 1989. My opinion about Trites's argument was overshadowed by all the sexual argument Trites's tried and failed to make, so I believe her article to be ineffective and made her lose her credibility in my eyes.

Historically Accurate Princesses

http://www.buzzfeed.com/eugeneyang/if-disney-princesses-were-historically-accurate#.xfMQwkWvYk

Buzzfeed also came out with this video about what Disney princesses would look like if the movies were historically accurate in following the time period. Some of these looks may surprise people

Would You Rather

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanbergara/disney-would-you-rather#.pm7d1b6e9b

Buzzfeed came out with this video about Disney on things you would rather have or do and some of these choice are really tough. My favorite was choosing between having ice powers like Elsa or having super human strength, which obviously duh choose the ice powers

More on the Measles at Disneyland

http://news.yahoo.com/more-measles-cases-tied-disneyland-illinois-day-care-203956488.html

More outbreaks are happening of the measles with individuals who had gone to Disneyland during Christmas time. This article explains more about what is happening with the situation.

Review of The Little Mermaid

Watching The Little Mermaid again was very entertaining for me. Despite being several years since I have watched the movie, this movie and its songs are classic and reminded me why I loved Disney so much. Ariel represents the curious nature in all of us that want to travel and see what the world has to offer. She represents the normal rebellious teenager who wants to live her own life by her own rules. My roommate definitely was giving me weird looks as I was watching the movie because I was humming/singing along to the songs, especially "Part of Your World". Compared to Snow White, Ariel is a thousand times better of a princess. Ariel, first of all, is a Mermaid, and who doesn't want to be a Mermaid; she is also once of the first princesses to see with a loving family. In typical Disney movies, the family is somehow broken, and I feel like Ariel's family is the least broken out of all the Disney families.  We never see Ariel's mother, but Ariel has 6 other sisters and her father Triton, who clearly love her.

Most of the movie was the same way that I remembered it, but there were certain parts that I didn't remember at all. One example was the beginning of the movie when Sebastian was throwing the whole concert for the mermen and mermaids, and Ariel was supposed to be the star singer of this concert. I clearly did not remember this scene happening and didn't even remember that Ariel had missed it because she was discovering new human treasure. I also completely forgot that Eric had a dog, what kind of detail am I forgetting!!! The dog was absolutely adorable and I don't know why i forgot Max. I also forgot the whole scene on what happens to Ursula, I had known that she had used Ariel's voice and turned into a human to lure away Eric to get Ariel tied to her for eternity, but I had forgotten the rest of the scene. I had forgotten the necklace around Ursula's neck had contained Ariel's voice, forgotten that Eric was too late to kiss Ariel because the sun had set on that day, and that Ursula had kidnapped her. I also had forgotten that Triton had switched places with Ariel and had given up his trident for her. That shows family love and commitment to one family. I also had forgotten that it was Eric that stabbed Ursula to save everyone. Basically, I had forgotten how the movie ends other than the fact Ariel gets legs and marries Eric.

I will now be in a Little Mermaid music craze and be listening to "Part of Your World" and "Kiss the Girl" on repeat because I had forgotten how good the music is in this movie. Sure, Ariel is a little ditzy, dumb, naive, and innocent, but we all have our faults, and The Little Mermaid will still be one of my favorite Disney movies of all time. Seeing this movie again when I am more mature has not changed my stance on the movie at all. Ariel is still one of my favorite princesses.

Response to Snow White

It has been a long time since I watched the full version of Snow White, and it is quite different than how I remember it. Sure, I remembered the basics that Snow White was supposed to be killed by the huntsman, he could not do it, so he told her to hide in the forest, she comes upon the dwarves' house and cleans it.  She then meets the dwarves and tells her story, and she promises to cook and clean for them; then the evil queen finds out that Snow White is alive and puts herself in disguise to give the poison apple to Snow White. She eats it, Snow White falls into a slumber, the evil queen is killed, and the prince comes and restores Snow White with a kiss. I knew the basics of the story, but a lot of the songs and scenes I really didn't remember.  For example the opening scene Snow White was a maid cleaning the castle and she sings the song about making a wish, and then the prince comes in.  I never remembered that the prince was in the beginning of the story at all. Or that they had a love song in the beginning. I also did not remember that all the animals had helped her find the dwarves' house. I thought of the animals always on the sidelines helping her clean and cook. I also did not remember that they were the ones who got the dwarves to come back because the evil queen was trying to convince Snow White to eat the poisoned apple.  By watching this movie again, my view of Snow White has changed again.  Before I knew about the misogynistic viewpoints of Snow White and how the movie was trying to portray a patriarchal society.  However, just seeing the movie illustrates how much this opinion influences the movie.  Snow White is 14 years old in the movie and she is singing about finding true love. She is very young and illustrates the misconception of the time that in order for a woman to be worthy she has to be domestically talented and marry a successful man. The dwarves also let her stay with them in her house because she is domestically talented as well.  This perception that women are only good for cooking and cleaning, is an idea I saw more clearly and more defining with every scene that happened in the movie.  Snow White absolutely does nothing of importance in this movie, neither do really any of the other characters.  None of the characters have defining personalities or characteristics that makes them even remotely similar to any of the audience.  The only possible argument to make to that is the seven dwarves, but even then, their personalities are just one characteristic that defines any normal human being. Sleepy, Happy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Bashful, and Dopey are all version of what we feel or a characteristic we could have at one point of our lives. Doc, the dwarf that has a different type of name, is the voice of reason of the movie and illustrates what a child should do, listen to their mother.  This film is very simplistic and ideal and trying to portray the characteristics of an ideal American family.

Now I realize why after my childhood I never watched Snow White again.  It is a very bad Disney movie for any individual to watch who is not a child. There are just so many things wrong with the film, with the ideas they portray and just with the animation.  Even though for when it was created, the animation was beyond its time, to the current generation, it seems very lame and very simple animation. Honestly, I would never watch this film again because even after two minutes of rewetting Snow White, I was so very bored, and the movie just seemed dull. Snow White's high pitched voice also seemed very annoying during the film and is not what like anyone I know sounds like. Although it was good to watch Snow White again when I am old enough to understand what all the subtext is in the movie, I would honestly never watch this movie again

Reading Response to Jack Zipes

Pipes generally had a very well thought out argument, and is my favorite writer that we have read so far. He had the most evidence the support his argument, even though I may have not agreed with all the points he made. I felt that to support his argument it was very helpful to present the origin of fairytales and how they have changed right before Disney made his modifications to these stories.  His argument, however, is very contradicting to all the facts he presents. He tells us right before he starts criticizing Disney for changing the stories that all these authors and individuals before Disney had their own modifications to these fairytales.  Zipes argument is weakened because he doesn't acknowledge that fairytales have been progressing and evolving over time, and Disney is another individual who played a part in changing these fairytales. Zipes lets his hatred of Disney come into his arguments, especially in this quote "Disney's film is also an attack on the literary tradition of the fairy tale. He robs the literary tale of its voice and changes its form and meaning" (32).  Because the adapting of fairytales has been a common occurrence, Disney is the same as every other individual who came before him and adapted the fairytales to how he saw as fit. However, Zipes's argument about the way Disney changed the film to have a more sexist viewpoint is something I agree with.  Especially when Zipes says "women cannot chart their own lives without male manipulation and intervention", I feel that Disney tries to reinforce that stereotype women are weak and susceptible without a strong, successful man (36).  Even though this patriarchal notion was common in the 19th century, Disney seems to reinforce it by changing the parts of the prince in Snow White. The prince plays a bigger role in the movie, showing up initially in the movie and win Snow White's heart and then at the end he bestows a kiss to wake her up.  By changing these parts of the tale, Disney still retains the key ideological idea of patriarchy in society, by hiding in the context of the story, so it is not as upfront as it was in the Grimm fairytale version. Disney is trying to influence the subconscious of the younger generations to stick with these stereotypes when he created this film.  Zipes illustrates very well what are the problems of allowing this patriarchal stereotype to keep existing in society.  Overall, Zipes had a very good argument against Disney, but sometimes he let his hate of Disney get away from the true argument and problem that he has about Disney.

Summary of Disney for the Week

Disney is crating its first Latina princess, which is something new and exciting for the company.  Her name is Elena, is 16 years old, and comes from the Kingdom of Avalor.  According to Disney, this character was inspired by "diverse Latin cultures and folklore".  I think it is definitely great that Disney is creating its Latina princess because it is about time that the company had created one.  Disney is finally portraying the image that anyone can be princess, and it does not matter what ethnicity one is, any young girl can dream of being a princess within her own culture.  I also took the Ultimate Disney poll on BuzzFeed this week to see which overall are the all time favorite princesses, princes, villains, and favorite all time Disney movie. The all-time favorite princess is Belle, all time favorite prince is Flynn Rider, all time favorite villain is Maleficent, and all time favorite Disney movie is Beauty and the Beast.  This poll also asked what was the all time favorite song by a princess and favorite song by a non-princess.  The poll showed that "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid was the favorite song by a princess and the favorite song by a non-princess was "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan.  Many of these favorite songs and individuals illustrate either the individuals who are some of the most diverse characters that Disney has created or songs that are more relatable to the current generations.  This poll illustrates that we like characters and songs that we can relate to the most and embody characteristics that we like.

Response to Robert W. Brockway

Overall, Brockway did a very good job explaining Mickey Mouse's history and progression through time. However, I feel that Brockway does not understand the significant impact Mickey Mouse has on all generations. Brockway claims that "Mickey Mouse Generation is the Depression Generation" (33). He is arguing that Mickey Mouse will go out of style because only the older generations can relate to the character because Mickey Mouse was an important symbol during the Great Depression and the World Wards. However, I still think even individuals in my generation and younger than us see a great value in Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse is the symbol for Disney, and as children we would beg our parents to go to Disneyland or Disneyworld, and we would get the iconic Disney Mickey ears hats and take pictures next to Mickey and Minnie.  Young individuals see Mickey Mouse everywhere really in our daily lives, so I believe that Mickey Mouse will be around for a long time despite what Brockway has to say. One of my favorite parts of this article was when he talked about the qualities of Mickey's character. Mickey is so relatable to anyone because all of his characteristics are human attributes, and because he tries to overcome his difficulties and challenges in his life. We can relate so much to Mickey because each one of us has hardships and challenges that we need to overcome, and Mickey is a proponent that illustrates that we can overcome anything that life throws at us and succeed. I felt like that part of the article was a really good summarization of how Mickey can still impact everyone's lives today. Another part of article which I found fascinating was the quote "act out impulses which as adults we suppress" (Brockway 28). As an adult, there are many expectations on maturity and how you are suppose to act in society. We have to suppress our childlike qualities and impulses we wish was still acceptable at our age. Cartoons like Mickey Mouse, lets us relive our childhood that we so cherished and for awhile be able to act out those childlike impulses. I feel that despite any age, Mickey Mouse is a relatable character and such a huge impact on everyone's lives and will probably be around for the rest of time.

Disney Dinner

So today, Marketplace held a themed dinner about Disney. Before going in, I was definitely curious to see how they would incorporate Disney into the food they were making. All of their other themed dinners, Thanksgiving dinner, Midnight Breakfast, etc., it was very easy to know what was expected of the dinner, but today I had no idea. After going, I felt that food was very delicious, especially the crab legs, and there were  individuals who dressed up as Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Micky, and Minnie. Marketplace using a Disney theme to motivate students to try illustrates the popular appeal of Disney to many individuals. So many students were taking pictures with the individuals who had dressed up and the marketplace staff gave us stickers from Finding Nemo. There were also several cardboard cutouts of different Disney princesses like Jasmine and Cinderella. However, other than these decoration aspects the Disney theme was really not felt. I was kind of disappointed that they did not make the typical food you would find only in a Disneyland park such as churros. I felt other than trying to make food to certain characters, if the brought the food ideas from the theme parks, I felt the whole Disney theme would really be unified.

Other than the Disney dinner today, I definitely saw a lot of Buzzed quizzes about Disney. I am pretty sure I took one quiz per day. One of them being what Frozen song defines you, which was of course "Let it Go". I also saw some news articles about Disney. Elizabeth Kaltman, the former PR at Walt Disney had passed away. I have a Yahoo email so I occasionally brush through the news to see if anything interesting had happened, and this article was the very first one that popped up at Yahoo. Because so many individuals adore Disney and many individuals rather hear news about Entertainment rather than what is happening around the world, sites like Yahoo try to make these types of articles the first ones individuals see when entering their website. Disney has taken a huge presence in everyone's lives, that Disney items, news, and information are found everywhere on websites and in stores. To not have some form of Disney, even if it is a small part, involved in your store, then it would probably cause more harm than good.

Until now I have never realized how integrated Disney is into our lives. On Facebook, we see buzzed quizzes about Disney all the time, stores always have Disney items in them, websites somehow have a mention of something relating to Disney in them. Disney has invaded into everyone's lives that we cannot really live a part from it. Disney has become the norm in the culture and to take it away, is taking away a part of our identity.

Wasko's Disney Argument

Janet Wasko, in her article Challenging Disney Myths, presented some interesting findings and theories, some that I never knew about before, and some that seem very outrageous and far-fetched. The myths that I felt Wasko was spot on in challenging are that “Walt Disney was a creative genius who was responsible for the company’s success” and that “Disney’s products are harmless, safe, and unbiased” (Wasko 1).  We really do not hear a lot about Walt Disney’s life growing up; we as children rather focus on all the magical things that Disney has to offer and really forget that someone actually created this extensive company from scratch. To the public he was known as Uncle Walt, the kind-hearted man who was full-heartedly for family values. Walt Disney was really an elusive man who changed his life story to appeal to the American public in proving that the American Dream exists and can be attained. Many facts that Wasko presented in her article about Walt Disney’s life I never knew before, then again I really never gave a thought about the life that Walt Disney led. I also agree with Wasko in the fact that all of Walt Disney’s initial creations were mainly attributed to Disney himself. I have always heard that Walt Disney was responsible in creating Mickey Mouse and creating some of the major early characters in Disney movies. However, as a public we forget how much effort goes into making an animation. You have the animators, filmmakers, the actors, managers, artists, and technical crew all working together to put together these Disney movies, and yet it seems like initially that these talented people never got the credit that they deserve. Some other interesting facts about Walt that I never knew before that many individuals saw Walt Disney as authoritative, moody, and demanding, a far contrast in what the public really knows about Walt Disney’s life.

One of the major points that she makes about Walt Disney’s life which also ties into the point that “Disney’s products are harmless, safe, and unbiased” is about Walt Disney’s conservative ideology made its way into the Disney films. Many of these films have the similar set of values, which portray women as helpless individuals who need a “prince” or a man to protect them and save them from harm. Disney’s earlier films embrace the idea of the ideal American family where the mother stays at home to raise the children and take of the house and the father goes out to work and raise the money. Wasko brings up very great points with these two arguments.

However, the rest of her arguments tend to be far-fetched and quite outlandish that no one would think of these ideas as arguments. One of the ideas that Wasko argues against is the fact that “Disney is universally adored” (1). No one would argue with her that she was wrong because no one likes something universally. There are always some individuals who hate on something just to hate it, and Disney is no exception to the fact. I feel that Wasko has the workings of ideas that she wants to argue but does not fully explain why she is bringing up this point or why is it necessary. Take for example the argument that Walt Disney based his ideas for the Disney films and ideas based on a couple years of his life in a small town. Wasko brings this fact up in her argument but never explains why it is essential to her argument that Walt Disney was not a creative genius. There are also some outlandish ideas and arguments brought into this argument such as Disney’s body being laid on ice and will be resurrected one day. I feel that Wasko is trying to grasp at straws in her argument against Disney and does not focus on her real credible arguments enough to illustrate the ill-effects of Disney.

Intro to Disney

My magical childhood was composed of watching Disney movies all the time, pretending with my sister that we would Disney princesses living in our magical castles, getting as much Disney paraphernalia that my parents would allow, and of course countless trips to Disneyland to get my pictures with all the Disney princesses and ride the attractions. Every time I watched any Disney movie, I would know all the lyrics to all the songs in the movies and sing along. Also growing up I would say, I want to be just like Belle, Mulan, Ariel, or Cinderella, but the conception that I do not remotely resemble any of the Disney princesses was a fact that occurred to me when I was a child. I was disappointed that I would never grow up to look like any of these princesses who got their happy ending and found their true love. As I grew older, I realized how much gender, race, and culture bias there is in the Disney films. Even though I love these stories, they are not as perfect as I remember them when I watched them as a child.

One of the main reasons I took Decoding Disney is to discuss and learn about these biases about gender, race, and culture because many young girls such as myself have their hopes and dreams crushed because we do not resemble Disney princesses. In the later years, recent films have been made to diversify the characteristics and races of Disney princesses. Disney has had a huge impact on so many young children's lives and enraptures these susceptible minds to ideas of fantasy and magic. But these children by watching these movies define many characteristics and what they should value by Disney's standards. For example to be beautiful for a child may mean having blonde hair, blues eyes, and is white because so many of the earlier princesses had blonde hair, blue eyes, and was white. I really am excited to analyze this Disney world, which I still love despite its flaws, in a new light.