Narratives you just wish Disney used/stopped using

[Marky_198]

The "falling to death" list is endless, and I feel it is the only way to go, to not portray the good characters as "murderers".

I mean, it would be silly if the mice in Cincerella killed lucifer with a fork, or the dwarfs in Snow White beat the witch to death, etc.

They always make it seem like the the villain accidentally kills himself, and there are not really many other ways in Disney films to do that.

http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_605_ ... ff_p23/#18

EDIT: Go to slide 18.

Wow, imagine that was in film, it would get a lot of critique from audiences!

[ajmrowland]

- Dead parents.

Unless it's essential to the plot, like in Bambi and The Lion King. There are just too many movies where a mother or a father is missing for no good reason. Why is Jasmine's mother dead? Where is Belle's mother? why is Ariel's mother dead? (NO prequel answers please). Pocahontas mother was mentioned so damn much. You'd think something terrible happened.These girls are in their late teens, meaning the mother probably died young. At least recent films seem to have more alive parents. Even if they don't speak.... *cough*Tangled*cough* or die off-screen anyway *cough*frog*cough*

Long story short, if you're a parent in a Disney film your life is probably miserable.

Well.. The original idea for Mermaid was to have Ariel's mother get destroyed when Ursula's experiment goes wrong. Causing her banishment I think. Since Ursula was Triton's sister.

Woah, Ursula had an experiment?

http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_605_ ... ff_p23/#18

EDIT: Go to slide 18.

Wow, imagine that was in film, it would get a lot of critique from audiences!

For some reason, thinking about the Roger Rabbit one, I cracked myself up thinking of zombie noises for Roger and Jessica after they are Dipped.

[PatrickvD]

Well.. The original idea for Mermaid was to have Ariel's mother get destroyed when Ursula's experiment goes wrong. Causing her banishment I think. Since Ursula was Triton's sister.

Woah, Ursula had an experiment?

She was the local mad scientist.

[thelittleursula]

Woah, Ursula had an experiment?

She was the local mad scientist.

So did she kidnap Triton's Wife and then killed her ? Or did Triton's Wife volunteer and Ursula was just misunderstood and then the experiment goes wrong then Triton gets furious, get fed up with Ursula's crazy behavior and then banish her away ??

[taei]

So did she kidnap Triton's Wife and then killed her ? Or did Triton's Wife volunteer and Ursula was just misunderstood and then the experiment goes wrong then Triton gets furious, get fed up with Ursula's crazy behavior and then banish her away ??

No.. I think Ursula was just flat out evil and she unleashed death on Triton's wife.. Maybe she wanted to take over Atlantica and he banished her.

[Atlantica]

...beg pardon ?! Where was this original Mermaid story idea from ?

And PatrickvD ...

[FigmentJedi]

38. Meet the Robinsons - again, I'm not familiar with the source material, but Wikipedia tells me the movie has practically zero in common with the story it's based on; absence of Lewis' parents is made to be the main plot point.

Actually, the second act of the movie with Lewis meeting the family members, searching for Grandpa's teeth, and the fight at dinner pretty much IS the source material. Also, the author William Joyce, always likes to involve himself in adaptations of his work and contributes to adaptation expansion (like Robinsons) or just turning it into a spinoff/sequel of the book (Leaf Men and Guardians) and he loves using dead/missing parents too considering pretty much every major character in the Guardians series has family issues like Santa and Mother Goose being orphans, Pitch having been tricked into going rogue out of fear for his daughter, the Tooth Fairy's parents being murdered in front of her and the Easter Bunny being the last of his race.

[Mooky]

38. Meet the Robinsons - again, I'm not familiar with the source material, but Wikipedia tells me the movie has practically zero in common with the story it's based on; absence of Lewis' parents is made to be the main plot point.

Actually, the second act of the movie with Lewis meeting the family members, searching for Grandpa's teeth, and the fight at dinner pretty much IS the source material.

Well, it's good to know .

Also, the author William Joyce, always likes to involve himself in adaptations of his work and contributes to adaptation expansion (like Robinsons) or just turning it into a spinoff/sequel of the book (Leaf Men and Guardians) and he loves using dead/missing parents too considering pretty much every major character in the Guardians series has family issues like Santa and Mother Goose being orphans, Pitch having been tricked into going rogue out of fear for his daughter, the Tooth Fairy's parents being murdered in front of her and the Easter Bunny being the last of his race.

Damn, and I thought Rise of the Guardians (the film) could not get more somber than it was. Really underrated that one -- I found it one of the best films of 2012. It's such a shame it underperformed.

Anyway, I thought of another [Disney] parental cliché that I would not like to see anytime soon: loving but bumbling and/or absent-minded fathers. And it's always a father-daughter pairing. Historically, it has always been endearing and well-done, almost to the point of it being at the heart of films in which it was featured (most notably Jane Porter and professor Porter), but it has become very tiring the more it went on, sometimes even in two films in a row. I thought we got rid of this for good when both PatF and Tangled eschewed this trope, but then came Brave to prove me wrong. So please, no more of these -- at least for the time being.

[ajmrowland]

38. Meet the Robinsons - again, I'm not familiar with the source material, but Wikipedia tells me the movie has practically zero in common with the story it's based on; absence of Lewis' parents is made to be the main plot point.

Actually, the second act of the movie with Lewis meeting the family members, searching for Grandpa's teeth, and the fight at dinner pretty much IS the source material. Also, the author William Joyce, always likes to involve himself in adaptations of his work and contributes to adaptation expansion (like Robinsons) or just turning it into a spinoff/sequel of the book (Leaf Men and Guardians) and he loves using dead/missing parents too considering pretty much every major character in the Guardians series has family issues like Santa and Mother Goose being orphans, Pitch having been tricked into going rogue out of fear for his daughter, the Tooth Fairy's parents being murdered in front of her and the Easter Bunny being the last of his race.

Wow. As much as I enjoyed that movie, I think having one or two of those stories would've helped immensely.

[BelleGirl]

- Dead parents.

Unless it's essential to the plot, like in Bambi and The Lion King. There are just too many movies where a mother or a father is missing for no good reason. Why is Jasmine's mother dead? Where is Belle's mother? why is Ariel's mother dead? (NO prequel answers please). Pocahontas mother was mentioned so damn much. You'd think something terrible happened.These girls are in their late teens, meaning the mother probably died young. At least recent films seem to have more alive parents. Even if they don't speak.... *cough*Tangled*cough* or die off-screen anyway *cough*frog*cough*

Long story short, if you're a parent in a Disney film your life is probably miserable.

As for Pocahontas: I suppose the scriptwriters of the movie found it easier to come with ' the deceased mother' cliche instead of using a historical reason why she would be absent: the real Powhatan was a polygamist and used to send a spouse away as soon as she had borne him a child. This would be hard to explain to kids and certainly would put Powhatan in an unfavorable light. By portraying him as a grieving widower, he is more likely to get our sympathy.

[unprincess]

ok Ill tell you the 1 current trend that has ruined animated movies today for me. The constant use of comedy to buffer a movie incase it gets too dark & serious for kids. I miss 80s animated films that could be dark from beginning to end. Soemething scary & tragic would happen & there was no funny sidekick or comedy sequence to come in after to lighten up the mood.

[BelleGirl]

ok Ill tell you the 1 current trend that has ruined animated movies today for me. The constant use of comedy to buffer a movie incase it gets too dark & serious for kids. I miss 80s animated films that could be dark from beginning to end. Soemething scary & tragic would happen & there was no funny sidekick or comedy sequence to come in after to lighten up the mood.

Can you illustrate this with examples? I don not especially recall animated Disney movies from the 80's that were dark from beginning to end.
The only thing I can come up with is "Watership Down" and "Plague Dogs" but these are not from Disney and no kid's movies anyway.

[unprincess]

ok I should have clarified: I meant animated films in general in the 80's. Yeah Disney hasalways used comedy to sweeten there fims. However I think its gotten worse in these last 2 decades. In movies like Fox & the Hound, Black Cauldron, Lion King, Pocahontas, Hunchabck there were long stretches were the movie would get serious/dark/mature & the comedy was held back. Now it seems there has to be comedy from beginning to end every 5 minutes in a film. Even the lead characters have to be funny wisecrackers (like Flynn.) Like theyre scared that if a movie gets too mature/dark for too long parents will worry their kids are bored/scared & want to take them out of the movie... then they will spread bad word of mouth.

[frankf3]

That reminds me of Rango. That movie had a lot of adult language and jokes, which many parents were not happy with.

[estefan]

It's not like those movies were devoid of comedy, either. To use your example of The Lion King, Simba is constantly saying humourous things as both a cub and an adult and even Zazu, Nala, Mufasa, Rafiki and Simba's mother make multiple jokes. Not to mention, there is plenty of comic relief. When it's not the hyenas, it's Timon and Pumbaa. Plus, "Hakuna Matata" and "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" are purely comedic songs and they even throw little comical bits into "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" and "Be Prepared."

Or in The Fox and the Hound, which while quite a serious story, we're still subjected to those two birds trying to catch that bug, a running gag which in no way progresses the story.

[frankf3]

This isn't just Disney, but I see this is many animated movies today- the underdeveloped romance. I feel like the writers think that whenever there is a main male and female character in the same movie, they HAVE to fall in love by the end. I'm not saying there can't be a romance, especially when it is done well (Wall-E), but some movies just force it in. Some examples of movies I felt were guilty of this are Lion King, Hunchback of Notre Dame, A Bug's Life, Ratatouille, Cars, How To Train Your Dragon, and Rango. Even this year, The Croods and Epic were guilty of this. There was no reason any of these movies should have had a romance subplot.

I just want to see more movies like Finding Nemo. Dory and Marlin spend the majority of the movie together, and end up just being good friends by the end. It is presented in a positive way that a male and female can be close friends.

[BelleGirl]

This isn't just Disney, but I see this is many animated movies today- the underdeveloped romance. I feel like the writers think that whenever there is a main male and female character in the same movie, they HAVE to fall in love by the end. I'm not saying there can't be a romance, especially when it is done well (Wall-E), but some movies just force it in. Some examples of movies I felt were guilty of this are Lion King, Hunchback of Notre Dame, A Bug's Life, Ratatouille, Cars, How To Train Your Dragon, and Rango. Even this year, The Croods and Epic were guilty of this. There was no reason any of these movies should have had a romance subplot.

I just want to see more movies like Finding Nemo. Dory and Marlin spend the majority of the movie together, and end up just being good friends by the end. It is presented in a positive way that a male and female can be close friends.

Movies don't need to have a 'reason' for having a romantic subplot, it's put in for entertainment. To me it doesn't seem forced in most of the movies you mentioned (haven't seem them all, though) But I really disagree with you about Hunchback of Notre Dame. Quasimodo's love For Esmeralda is for a great part what drives the story. The tragedy of course is that he cannot have her and this is also due to the fact she falls in love with Phoebus. I think the romance between E & P (underdeveloped or not) is essential to the character development of Quasimodo. in short, it adds to the story.

[Semaj]

This isn't just Disney, but I see this is many animated movies today- the underdeveloped romance. I feel like the writers think that whenever there is a main male and female character in the same movie, they HAVE to fall in love by the end. I'm not saying there can't be a romance, especially when it is done well (Wall-E), but some movies just force it in. Some examples of movies I felt were guilty of this are Lion King, Hunchback of Notre Dame, A Bug's Life, Ratatouille, Cars, How To Train Your Dragon, and Rango. Even this year, The Croods and Epic were guilty of this. There was no reason any of these movies should have had a romance subplot.

That was the one single nitpick I had with Ratatouille. Romance was the very, very least of Linguini's apparent expectations, awkward as he was. I guess in this case, there was supposed to be some mythological aspect of love in France, but the movie's theme was about cooking.

[unprincess]

It's not like those movies were devoid of comedy...

yeah I know. But I dunno it just seems that in today's animated fims the comedy seems more intrusive, obnoxious & calculated than in the older films.

Or maybe Im just seeing the older films with nostalgia glasses.

[thedisneyspirit]

I agree that the romance angle in certain films is out of place- most of the Pixar films are guilty of that, for example. (Ratatouille, Cars, Monsters Inc, Toy Story series...) they think they're calling out to a certain audience if it has romance.

But on Hunchback the romantic angle is needed. The main story's basically three dudes wanting to bone a chick, and the aftermath of her choosing. In there either single or with one of them works pretty good.

But yeah romance in for example Mulan or Atlantis- it just isn't needed.