Fall 2022 was a whirlwind of projects and papers, and despite the absence of exams, I found myself inundated with academic demands. Perhaps the most challenging, yet rewarding, was a group final project I collaborated on in Entertainment Media Analysis (EMST 3320) with Dan Castles, Susanna Teske, and Kutter Reddan.
For this project, we were tasked with creating a ten-minute video analysis — throughout the semester we’d been studying different analyses such as thematic, sociological, discourse, gender, and Marxist — over a media topic. I’d written several film analyses prior, but never created a video essay, so I was excited to work with like-minded peers and dissect the evolution of the Disney Princess. Dan, Susana, and I worked tirelessly on the script, trimming and revising it to meet the tight time limit and capture our analysis as well as depict a podcast-style discussion rather than a typical video essay; Susana also edited the entire project and designed graphics, while Kutter assisted in finding media clips and compiling sources. As a further exploration of gender dynamics, Dan and I dressed up in traditional, heteronormative business suits and set our scene in a stereotypical workplace, switching to sparkly tiaras and glittery wands to subvert workplace norms.
We received high marks and praise from our professor, and I sincerely enjoyed working on this project. I hope to continue analyzing different aspects of entertainment media, especially intersectionality, representation, and identity, in my studies and career.
Check out our video essay below! For context, I provided our supporting statement and transcript.
Supporting Statement
“Disney is a pillar of the entertainment media industry and modern culture. The company’s latest endeavor currently involves remaking its animated films, particularly the Disney Princess franchise. Our research found that these remakes featured intentional and abrupt changes motivated by contemporary civil rights movements. As a result, we investigated these differences by analyzing Disney’s depiction of gender dynamics within the narrative, visual coding, and sociocultural context of the Disney Princess live-action remakes.
To examine the princess trends, we first briefly discussed the evolution of these films per their different eras. The Classic Disney princesses subscribed fully to the notion that the ideal woman was white, thin, and subservient to her male counterparts. The Renaissance Disney Princess era followed with their first attempt at breaking away from the old status quo by racially diversifying the princesses. However, this era still participated in reinscribing traditional relationships between men and women and even sexualized princesses like Jasmine.
We then compared these animated originals to their live-action remake counterparts. In these films, gender equality is addressed and allegedly amended in the rewrite. However, despite this change between the princesses and their male protagonists, romantic and otherwise, the remakes still lack in several areas, such as racial authenticity, even with the company’s limitless resources.
Therefore, we concluded that these trends signal a plodding progression for Disney, influenced by profit and social change. Their princess films should eventually shift, as Disney contributes to the gendered power dynamics that emerge in real-life. Their princess franchises can empower and inspire generations of women as they branch away from the dominant white cis-hetero patriarchal status quo.”
Transcript
Intro
Dan: Hey, have you heard about the new Little Mermaid remake? I’m personally really excited to get a new Ariel, but I know some people are upset — I just don’t get why…
Anna: Yeah me neither, it seems like with every remake, people are complaining and the communities that are finally represented on-screen are overshadowed by these racist bigots.
Dan: It’s insane, like have they heard Halle Bailey sing? But seriously though — what is it about a Disney Princess that these little changes rock the boat so much?
Anna: She’s literally a mermaid — they don’t exist; so why does the color of her skin matter? She can be any race because it’s fictional, so why shouldn’t Disney change it?
Transition
Dan: I think people get up in arms because Disney has positioned itself as a pillar of our culture. In the same way that Disney reflects us, it also manifests reality through our consumption of their content and when we identify with their princesses. And they know that — I mean they have kinda been telling young women what the perfect girl looks like since the 1930s.
The Classic and renaissance eras
Anna: Purrr, like the classic Disney princesses, you know, Snow White, Aurora, Cinderella; so from the 1930s-1950s, these princesses were typically portrayed as fragile, weak, subservient women who succumb to patriarchal norms and reinforce heteronormativity, colorism, racism, and eurocentric beauty standards.
Dan: Yeah, but we didn’t grow up with those princesses; our Disney royalty was Ariel, Belle, Pocahontas, Jasmine, and Mulan. All from the 90s.
Anna: Ohh right, the “rebel children,” or Disney’s Renaissance Era princesses, who unlike the classic ones didn’t wait for a man to rescue them and instead were more independent, confident, and assertive —
Dan: Didn’t they all run away from home in some way or another? Peak woman power for Disney and the world at the time.
The modern and contemporary eras
Anna: Yeah, and now we’re even having movies where there’s no man at all, shout out to my girls Moana and Raya.
Dan: And to me, these movies make sense; they are a fresh start, sort of like how the Renaissance Princesses worked, but now we are also seeing a slew of live-action remakes of the older princesses. Why do you think that Disney feels the need to redo them? What motivates them besides the guarantee of financial success? Is it because they are priceless properties they can’t afford to lose to their own archaic messaging?
Anna: Honestly, I don’t think that’s too far off the mark. Movies like Peter Pan and Aladdin have been completely removed from the kids’ library on Disney+ and are only accessible through an adult profile where there’s a content warning disclaimer.
Dan: Oh wow, no wonder Aladdin was remade. I mean the voice actors for both leads were white — but what exactly made the new one better than the original? I wonder if there are any patterns in this original-to-remake pipeline. What does Disney think is progressive and ok to identify with today?
Anna: It looks like in order to remain relevant amid the shifting socio-political atmosphere, Disney princesses have evolved from reinscribing the traditional norms of femininity to inspiring young women and inciting progressive change that encourages them to discover their own identities that transgress societal barriers.
Transition
Dan: Can we get into it? I’m dying to get into each princess. Let’s do it in order of when each remake came out. That means Maleficent goes first.
Sleeping beauty (Maleficent, 2014) + Cinderella (2015)
Anna: Right, so in 2014 Disney released Maleficent where instead of focusing on Aurora, they shifted their protagonist to the titular villain, who arguably is a more complex and interesting character.
Dan: So, Disney gave us a female antihero in place of a princess.
Anna: Exactly, and maybe because of the success, Disney released Cinderella in 2015, which honestly is more or less a “true” retelling of the original story.
Dan: Boo… so she looks the same and has the same relationship with the prince?
Anna: Essentially.
Dan: In today’s world, do not follow me home if I lose my shoe at the club — you will get slapped with a restraining order.
Anna: Period.
Beauty and the beast (2016)
Dan: Moving on, Belle…
Anna: So, she’s an inventor now, instead of just reading and running away from Gaston, she is shown creating gadgets like her father did in the original and she’s given an extra song that emphasizes her maturity and initial resistance towards the Beast.
Dan: However, Belle being an inventor is not relevant past the first act and does nothing to drive the story forward.
Anna: Disney, do better.
Aladdin (2019)
Dan: Well they definitely tried with Aladdin, this remake had the clear intention of empowering the once helpless princess Jasmine, but the casting of Naomi Scott was a definite flop.
Anna: For one, she’s Indian and isn’t of any Arabian descent. She’s also half-white with very eurocentric features. And in terms of Jasmine’s character, despite being a fiery, outspoken princess, the original movie sexualized her to orientalist fantasies — I’m looking at you red Jasmine — relegating her as an accessory to Aladdin’s character arc.
Dan: In the remake, she’s given more agency, as she doesn’t want to marry for love or in general. She’s portrayed as an intelligent, ambitious character who wants to become the first female sultan of Agrabah and deliberately defies her father’s orders, and denies Jafar’s advances.
Anna: Additionally, she’s given a song titled “Speechless” that highlights her autonomy, and a new friend, whereas in the original Jasmine’s only friend is Raja, the tiger.
Dan: It’s nice to see them try to revive this rather than bury the first Disney princess of color because of offensive inaccuracies in the original.
Anna: I’m curious, why didn’t this film get much backlash if the casting decisions were so bad?
Dan: Well, a lot of it has to do with the fact that Disney’s traditional target audience of white people don’t see the difference. They see a woman of color in this role and don’t give it a second thought. Then, they see and hear — and think “Ah, good job, Disney.”
Anna: So you’re saying that Disney continued to push eurocentric beauty standards by distracting audiences with feminism?
Dan: Yes, but I point this out with no intention of vilifying the addition of their feminist plotlines. It’s just something to be aware of because this film was a half-step and bigger, more holistic progress like the recent casting of a black Ariel with locks is made possible by these smaller advances.
Mulan (2020)
Anna: Speaking of smaller advances, let’s discuss the most recent Disney princess remake, Mulan, which in my opinion is the Mouse House’s worst, because it takes a beloved film and transforms it into an action nightmare devoid of any of the original’s heart.
Dan: At the very least, it didn’t warrant a revision done by a white director, costume designer, screenwriter, composer, cinematographer, editor, and casting director.
Anna: Screaming, crying, throwing up —
The original Mulan was SO inspiring because it focused on themes of struggling to fit in, identity, and the pressure of honoring one’s family and making them proud — aspects that are very relatable for POC families — whereas I don’t know who the remake appeals to. While the original Mulan was a complex, badass heroine, the remake hardens her and strips her of layered representation, depicting her exclusively as a one-dimensional warrior.
Dan: However, in the remake — and I think this is a good thing — Shang is split into 2 characters to avoid the iffy power dynamic from the original where he is Mulan’s commanding officer. Mulan’s new love interest is a fellow soldier and her commanding officer is a mentor figure instead.
Anna: Still, the remake’s primary failure stems from the usage of the supernatural force chi in place of natural talent and personality. Chi is treated as a mystical energy that only great male warriors have, forcing Mulan to either suppress her power and conform to traditional standards of femininity or disguise herself as a man. Her courage and perseverance are now a consequence of some superpower, eroding her character arc entirely.
Dan: It’s like the filmmakers decided a badass woman who worked around the limits of her gender identity wasn’t “realistic” enough for their “realistic” remake, and giving her powers was the only way she could be powerful.
Anna: Yeah, Mulan was an amazing opportunity to depict a powerful intersectional woman, and the white crew just didn’t understand the assignment.
Conclusion
Dan: So, basically the quality of the remakes over time is important because Disney is us and we are Disney…That’s why the representation of their Princesses matters so much to the public.
Disney princesses relying on eurocentric cisheteropatriarchial narratives causes dysphoria in girls whose lives dissent from that mold.
Anna: Disney has got to say it’s ok to be who you are, but in attempting this, so far it’s mostly resulted in THIS bad representation — THAT bad representation — OR these white girls who’ve got it ALL.
Dan: But remaking these films IS Disney’s attempt at evolving past constricting gender norms and the lack of intersectionality.
Anna: The fact is though, Disney has all the time, money, and resources to not just do better but do perfectly, yet they insist on taking baby steps. They’ve been too busy reaping off of the status quo to change faster. However, given recent civil rights movements such as Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate, Disney’s had to change their narrative and is slowly progressing in the right direction in order to remain relevant and profitable.
Dan: Speaking of profitable, Disney productions cue in other studios globally on what content is going to make money. When they shift, so does the rest of the world, and it’s work like these remakes that have the power to influence the gendered power dynamics that emerge in real-life, impacting generations of women to come.
Anna: I guess we have to wait until May 2023 to find out…
Thanks for watching!