Disney Princess Criticism - What's Your Opinion?

[CielSomnus]

Some off model Snow White examples, she´s always been my favourite princess but she´s awfully drawn many times and barely looks human in many shots, looks way too much like a creepy porcelain doll, remember that the animators didnt know if the movie was going to succeed and much less that 86 years later there would be people analyzing the screencaps, they just wanted to achieve a decent result and since it was animated they wouldn´t think people would notice the mistakes, they didnt want to achieve a supreme level of perfection, they just wanted their movie done basically :/

Also the resolution movies had in the 30s obviously have nothing to do with nowadays so many mistakes where hidden in the less definition screens of that time,the movie still is pretty good for the 30s obviously, but it still had many mistakes.
https://animationscreencaps.com/snow-wh ... .jpg?ssl=1
https://animationscreencaps.com/snow-wh ... .jpg?ssl=1
https://animationscreencaps.com/snow-wh ... .jpg?ssl=1


Scenes where she´s on model:

https://animationscreencaps.com/snow-wh ... .jpg?ssl=1
https://animationscreencaps.com/snow-wh ... .jpg?ssl=1
https://animationscreencaps.com/snow-wh ... .jpg?ssl=1

[carolinakid]

Thanks again, ciel.
I understand better now what you mean by off model, but I will say I don’t think Snow White ever looks truly awful in the film, unlike certain portions of Mermaid and Beast where Ariel and Belle look quite unattractive. But that’s my opinion and what do I know?

[Vlad]

Nice analysis, ciel!

You know, I’ve seen Snow White so many times over the years and she’s in my top 3 Disney Princesses of all time, but I never really noticed her being “off model” for so much of the film . Sometimes I’m not even sure what it means because I just don’t see it. In fact, the only Princesses where I really notice when the characters look fairly different in different sequences are Ariel and Belle. I think Snow White, Cinderella and Aurora look amazingly consistent during their films.

These are the sequences where I personally think these Princesses look their best:

Snow White: the Silly Song sequence and the finale with the Prince and the Dwarfs.

Cinderella: when the stepsisters destroy her dress and the Ball sequences.

Aurora: the whole I Wonder/Once Upon A Dream sequence which I understand was the first sequence animated and when Aurora returns to the cottage to tell her “aunts” about meeting the Stranger.

Those are the sequences where I feel these 3 look the most beautiful.
I’d love to hear the thoughts of those of you who particularly love these women.

I agree with you, carolinakid. I have always thought that Snow White, Cinderella and Aurora look consistent throughout their movies. There are some minor changes here and there, but all in all, yeah, they look pretty much the same.

[Disney Duster]

But Snow White looks so pretty in every shot!

As for when Cinderella looks her best, I always thought it was when she put her ribbon in her hair in the morning, when she said to Jaq, "Don't forget to warn him about the cat!", when the Fairy Godmother says to her,"...but daring, too", and her close-ups while being with the Prince.

Aurora always looks amazing, but yeah, when she talks to her aunts in the cottage, when she's sleeping, and when she's just awakened. Good job, animators!

[PatchofBlue]

Films and Feelings released a three-part series looking at the contradictions of hating on the Disney Princess brand in the name of feminism, with the second part looking specifically at how most of the claims hurled against the characters don't actually match their behavior in the movies. They made this observation which I think is particularly relevant.

Again, the weight of this argument tends to hinge on a supposition that romance is the only thing these princesses think about, but how accurate is this assessment? Romance typically happens for the princesses, but it's assuming a lot to say that all of their dreams--or even most of their dreams--revolve around a big handsome man. To give ourselves a proper framework, let's quickly scan through the princesses--let's just say those who have been part of the line since its inception in 2000--and verify which of their goals and wants actually revolved around true love.

Snow White: starts the film singing about the one she loves finding her, check. Cinderella: this one tends to trip people up, but her interest is in the act of dreaming itself--even the possibility of her going to the ball is framed more as her getting a night out, and the movie is halfway over before she even mentions the prince, pass. Aurora: sings about someone bringing a love song to her, check. Ariel: borderline, her first stated desires are exclusively about wanting to live among the humans, but it is after she falls in love with one that she finally puts these dreams in motion. Again, borderline, but we'll be generous and say, check. Belle: sings about wanting more than this provincial life and then proceeds to reject a demeaning courtship, pass. Jasmine: again, dismisses multiple unworthy suitors and is more concerned about her autonomy as a woman in a patriarchal system, pass. Pocahontas: yet another princess who spends more time exploring than dating, pass. Mulan: her focus is on having a healthy self-image and she is in fact traumatized by her society's efforts to tailor her into an appealing bride, hard pass.



Even if we are going to accept Orenstein's claim that singing love songs equates depending on a man, the chances of your daughter's favorite princess landing one of the romantic ones is less than heads or tails. And again, this is not counting the half-dozen princesses added to the line in the time since, which would bring that ratio down even further.

Also ... There have been actual studies trying to prove that Disney Princesses are bad role models? Like, that is a thing that actually happened? Someone went to school and managed to convince to use a functioning university to allot funds specifically to try to prove that their low-carb hatred of Disney Princesses had basis in scientific fact?

Hating Disney Princesses Has Never Been Feminist
pt. 1 https://filmsandfeelings19.blogspot.com ... -been.html
pt. 2 https://filmsandfeelings19.blogspot.com ... en_21.html
pt. 3 https://filmsandfeelings19.blogspot.com ... en_92.html

[UmbrellaFish]

Thank you for sharing, I look forward to reading these when I have time.

[Disney's Divinity]

Well, it makes sense why there would be studies since the films are aimed at children and film for better or worse does play a role to some degree in a child's life. I think that's the same reason conservatives get angry about LGBT characters or whatever, that they're afraid a LGBT character might "make" their child gay or whatever? Really it would just make a child more likely to treat LGBT as just another person, you can't "make" a child into something that's largely biological.

Unfortunately, a lot of criticism (referring to criticism in the sense of looking at films with a critical lens, not simply "criticism I from random strangers on the Internet") of the characters suffers from the same condescension that surrounds animation in general. Most people don't really take them seriously as films, and so look at them and the characters in a very surface level way at best (sometimes I can tell they're just going by memory rather than actually watching the films ). Only occasionally have I found criticism that looks at the films really in-depth and in detail.

[PatchofBlue]

Well, it makes sense why there would be studies since the films are aimed at children and film for better or worse does play a role to some degree in a child's life. I think that's the same reason conservatives get angry about LGBT characters or whatever, that they're afraid a LGBT character might "make" their child gay or whatever? Really it would just make a child more likely to treat LGBT as just another person, you can't "make" a child into something that's largely biological.

Unfortunately, a lot of criticism (referring to criticism in the sense of looking at films with a critical lens, not simply "criticism I from random strangers on the Internet") of the characters suffers from the same condescension that surrounds animation in general. Most people don't really take them seriously as films, and so look at them and the characters in a very surface level way at best (sometimes I can tell they're just going by memory rather than actually watching the films ). Only occasionally have I found criticism that looks at the films really in-depth and in detail.

I definitely agree that most of the pushback against the princesses comes from many film critics (and wannabe film critics) refusing to consider viewing Disney properties as legitimate or deserving of proper analysis. And it does read like most of their conclusions are drawn by half-remembered recollections of the films they haven't actually viewed since they themselves were in second-grade.

For me, the idea of conducting actual scientific study on whether Disney Princesses are like giving young girls body image issues reads like someone funding a study to see whether, say, watching Star Trek as a teenager makes boys worse at talking to girls or something. Sure, that would be an "important information to know," but the premise of the study itself does kind of reveal a bias on its own, one that plays into and validates stigmas surrounding fans of the property. The fact that we apparently have to conduct scientific research on the matter will on its own confirm that this IS an issue, and crowds who are already convinced that "Disney adults" are poisoning themselves and their children are going to walk away with their own conclusions about that, whatever the actual clinical results of the studies reveal. (In this case, the long-term data revealed out that "Huh, maybe Snow White isn't actually going to stop your daughter from being a firefighter, a conclusion that I definitely needed the scientific method to confirm for me ...)