Queens in Disney Movies

1038 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Comparing 2 movies

In Walt Disney’s classic films Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White. The antagonist, the evil fairy queen Maleficent magically appears in the midst of the christening princess Aurora, the daughter of King Stefan and the Queen. And the Evil Queen in Snow White hunts down her step daughter because of her beauty. The question to be asked is are characters still characters over a period of time?
There are many artistic values of The Evil Queen and Maleficent. The Queen is a fictional character in the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and in the Disney animated film based on it. The Queen was often referred to as "Queen Grim Hilde" in Disney publications of the 1930s. Her appearance was inspired by the Helen Gahagan character in the film She (1935). The Queen is extremely beautiful, but very vain. She seduced and married a widowed king, who had a daughter called Snow White with his first wife. After the king died, the Queen sent Snow White to work in her castle and forced her stepdaughter to abandon her title as Princess, similar to the situation of Cinderella.
Maleficent is the wicked dark fairy and main antagonist in Walt Disney's 1959 adaptation of Sleeping Beauty. She was animated by Marc Davis, and voiced by Eleanor Audley (who also voiced Lady Tremaine, the stepmother of Cinderella). She cursed the infant Aurora to "prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die" before the sun set on her sixteenth birthday after not being invited to the baby's christening.

Maleficent is responsible for "all misfortune that befalls King Stefan's kingdom." (King Stefan is the father of Princess Aurora.) Maleficent also possesses a range of magical powers and artifacts, such as using the crystal ball on her staff t...

... middle of paper ...

...e and utter disregard for the well-being of others, from over a period of years.
In this paper I simply stated if characters are still characters over a period of time? My position was that filmmakers have deterred away from the original versions of Classic Films by comparing the differences in how they have changed two classic movies over a period of time. The moral of the story hasn’t changed over time: good will win in the end over evil, however the character of Snow White has changed from the hapless girl to the empowered female, flowing with the times and the audience(Callow, 2013).

References
Callow, B. (2013). Fairy Tales: How They Have Changed Over Time. The Artifice. Retrieved from http://the-artifice.com/fairy-tales-how-they-have-changed-over-time/
Maleficent (2014). Disney Villains. Retrieved from http://www.disneyvillains.net/Maleficent.php

Show More
Related

  • Molly Brang's Ten Principles

    922 Words  | 2 Pages

    Because the pointed cape implies motion, Maleficent looks as if she is ready to pounce on Sleeping Beauty or grab her immediately after she touches the spindle. It shows that Maleficent is in suspense and on the edge of her feet waiting for Sleeping Beauty to touch the spindle.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Jack Heckel 'Are All Princesses Really Waiting For Princes To Come'

    1711 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the 1930s, Disney’s first full length animated movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was released. This movie set the pattern for future Disney movie plots, which continues for decades. In the 1940s, Disney released 3 animated movies: Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Bambi. However, these movies did not feature a main female character. In the 1950s, the two main movies that were released were Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. These movies picked the passive heroine trend back up and had a prince to rescue the princess from her troubles. In the 1960s, Disney brought us 101 Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone, and The Jungle Book, none of these with a female heroine. The 1970s brought about The Aristocats, Robin Hood, The Rescuers, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The only significant female character is Maid Marian from Robin Hood, who waits for Robin Hood to “sweep her off of her feet.” In the 1980s, The Fox and the Hound, The Black Cauldron, The Great Mouse Detective, Oliver and Company, and The Little Mermaid were released. With The Little Mermaid, Disney got back to the fairytale storyline. The 1990s brought us Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Tarzan, Pocahontas, and Mulan. This is where Disney movies start to evolve with new, women-favoring, storylines. In the 2000s, Disney laid off the fairytales for a while and

    Read More

  • An Analysis of “Disney’s Politically Correct Pocahontas”

    1207 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since Disney’s Snow White appeared in 1937, Disney princesses have been a present in pop culture. With the release of new movies frequent and re-release of decades old movies inevitable, a continuous stream keeps Disney princesses in the foreground of adolescent society. It is with the value of entertainment they have been created and as entertainment they should be viewed.

    Read More

  • Leslie Silko's, Yellow Woman: An Old Myth Changed into a Modern Story

    908 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...n” is a great example of an old myth or tale reconstructed and adapted for a modern audience in a new medium. It is a progression on one hand in its use of modern language, setting, and style but it is also the product of the old myths in that it is essentially the same on the thematic level. In addition, the level of self-awareness on the part of the narrator and, by extension, the author marks it out as an illustration of the very notion of evolutionary changes of myths and fairy tales. Adaptation is the solution to the fairy tale, and fairy tales have been endlessly changing themselves throughout history and, by some strange transforming or enchanting power endlessly staying the same.”

    Read More

  • The Corruption and Redemption of Edmund Pevensie in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

    987 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. New York: Vintage, 2010. Print.

    Read More

  • Comparing The Film Beauty And The Beast

    896 Words  | 2 Pages

    This film, contrarily to its predecessors, scratches the surface of the male protagonists, and introduces men who are humanly flawed and relatable, taking them down from the pedestal they used to be on, and making them equal to the female characters. No matter how much one may despise the Beast for being aggressively temperamental, Gaston for his stupidity and violence, or even Lumière for his objectification of women, these characters have a life and a role of their own, and do not remain two-dimensional like the previous Princes. For example, Belle’s father never suggests that she marries a man and only caringly mentions Gaston as a potential companion and friend for his lonely daughter. In the same manner, the Disney Corporation is more open to sexual innuendos and female sexuality in the film as it has ever been with Lumière and Plumette’s affair being explicitly showed. Finally, as Dawn Elizabeth England, Lara Descartes, and Melissa Collier-Meek further explain this in their journal "Gender Role Portrayal and the Disney Princesses:"

    Read More

  • Gender, Race and Disney Princesses

    1045 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since they are formally known as princess movies, people tend to focus more on the feminist issues and a blind-eye is directed towards the masculinity issues; nonetheless this does not confirm their absence, even in recent Disney films. In the first Disney Princess film, the men (Prince Charming and the dwarves) were always the ones to do the saving, implying the strength of men. Strength and masculinity always come hand in hand with Disney films to this date. In Mulan, there is an entire song about what it means to be a man. Allegedly, what it means to be a man is to be as “swift as a coursing river”, with the “force of a great typhoon”, and have the “strength of a raging fire”. Even in their most recent Disney princess film, Kristoff is in the business, which requires him to move the ice around a lot. Ice is a hard and heavy substance and Kristoff’s ability to move...

    Read More

  • The Little Mermaid: Hans Christian Andersen vs Walt Disney

    2433 Words  | 5 Pages

    If children or adults think of the great classical fairy tales today, be it Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or Cinderella, they will think Walt Disney. Their first and perhaps lasting impression of these tales and others will have emanated from Disney film, book, or artefacts (Zipes 72)

    Read More

  • Zipes's View on Fairytales

    1969 Words  | 4 Pages

    The simplicity of fairy tales and non-specific details renders them ideal for manipulation allowing writers to add their own comments often reflecting social convention and ideology. Theref...

    Read More

  • Disney Princesses' Influence on Young Children

    1103 Words  | 3 Pages

    England, D. E., Descartes, L., & Collier-meek, M. (2011). Proquest. “Gender role portrayal and the disney princesses”. Sex Roles, 64(7-8), 555-567.

    Read More

  • The Underlying Truth about Disney’s Princesses

    1780 Words  | 4 Pages

    Over the years, Disney has presented many movies to their audience—most having a Princess as the protagonist. These movies became a babysitter for most parents in the early stages of their child’s life. Most people found these movies as relatively harmless. The obvious assumption about the Disney Princesses is that they only desire true love since almost every movie ends in romance. Parents just viewed these movies as romantic movies on a child’s level. However, these movies were not solely intended for an audience of an age that can be counted on both hands. They were intended to speak to “an intelligent and active audience” (Sumera 40). However, there are many people who disagree with the ways of the Disney Princess movies. The disagreements lie within the portrayal of women gender roles in these movies. It is argued that Disney portrays women as a being nurturing individuals without any control over their identity. The women are unable to think for themselves, because they are uneducated, and they are quick to fall in love with the first man that pays them any attention. However, this is not completely true. The people that are against the portrayal of women in the Disney movies are failing to recognize the underlying concepts in these movies. For example, Belle, in Beauty and the Beast, was well educated, Mulan went to war despite the consequences, and Merida, in Brave, stood up to her mother in refusal to marry. The Disney Princesses desired intelligence, bravery, strength, and independence—not true love’s kiss.

    Read More

  • Little Red Riding Hood

    925 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: the Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. London: Thames and Hudson, 1976. Print.

    Read More

  • Fairy Tale Differences In The Tale Of Cinderella

    1643 Words  | 4 Pages

    This legend is based on the Brothers Grimm parable which is one of their earliest works. In the Grimm story, the Queen is the princess’s real mother. When the queen finds out from the mirror that her daughter is more beautiful than herself, she becomes jealous and grows to hate her own daughter - who is “fairest of them all” (The Origins of Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty" 2) at only seven years old. The queen sends the huntsman to kill Snow White like in the original story, however she requests the lungs and liver of her daughter, not the heart. The huntsman lets her go mostly because he thinks the wild animals will kill her anyways. During her sojourn with the dwarfs, the queen knows she is there and makes three more attempts on her life. The dwarves manage to save her the first two times, but they conclude that she is deceased the third time, when she gets a piece poison apple caught in her throat. A prince comes along one day and falls in love with the unconscious beauty. He then proceeds to take the corpse everywhere he goes, referring to her body as “his dearest possession,” (The Origins of Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty" 3). The piece of apple is dislodged waking the princess, and she falls in love with the prince. At their wedding, the queen is forced to put on red-hot iron shoes and dance until she dies. Although this tale had a happy ending, it contains a few gory details that the Disney animation did not

    Read More

  • Cinderella Character Analysis

    1002 Words  | 3 Pages

    Disney and old fairytales threaten gender politics and ideal women roles by giving certain stereotypes for domestic and personality traits. Fairytales that have turned into Disney productions have sculpted domestic roles for women that consist of cooking, cleaning and caring for the children. Disney has also created these princesses with personalities that are shy, passive, and vulnerable. The cause of these stereotypes are making individuals obliterate their own identities and becoming clones from the mold that was prepared for

    Read More

  • Use of Supernatural Elements in Literature

    3356 Words  | 7 Pages

    Zipes, Jack. Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.

    Read More

More about Queens in Disney Movies

Open Document