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The Best and Worst Messages From Disney Films
- Thread starter TheGreatDirector
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Astral Dog
Member
Hunchback is a wonderful movie beause it has all the Disney magic but wont cover up with sugar the sad reality of the world Quasimodo was on. he idealized Esmeralda the same way Frollo did but in the end he realized he just needed to be accepted and wanted Esmeralda to be happy that was the most important of all.
He paid extra attention to the only twink on camp and sang about making a man out of him
Goldenroad
Member
Best: Aladdin - Steal from the king and fuck his daughter.
Worst: Cinderella, Snow White, etc - Your prince charming is going to come save you.
Worst: Cinderella, Snow White, etc - Your prince charming is going to come save you.
TheGreatDirector
Banned
It's really fantastic how Hunchback tells its story using the parallel of Quasimodo and Frollo. Frollo sees himself as the ultimate righteous man in the world yet falls to lust and refuses to admit it in the open and instead cowardly persecutes others due to his own sin. Quasimodo on the other hand sees himself as a monster who is never right until he develops a much more innocent love for Esmeralda. When he realizes his romantic love is but one sided he doesn't regress but rather accepts the friendly love she gave him and changes into being a more confident man capable of taking matters into his own hands.
Unmasked Ferret
Member
Best: Aladdin - Lying and money are the ways to get pwople to like you
Worst: Frozen - Forcing unwanted responsibility on your sister is the best way to ensure your own happiness.
I liked the message Findng Nemo about not letting your kids touch butts before they are ready, but understanding that you have to be ready for your kids to touch butts.
Worst: Frozen - Forcing unwanted responsibility on your sister is the best way to ensure your own happiness.
I liked the message Findng Nemo about not letting your kids touch butts before they are ready, but understanding that you have to be ready for your kids to touch butts.
I know that's not their actual messages
WhiteRabbitEXE
Member
If you believe Tumblr literally every pair of close male characters are actually closet gays/bis and secretly are deeply in love with each other.
IdreamofHIME
Member
Beauty and the Beast teaches men that it doesn't matter how hideous you are, if you have a huge mansion and some sweet ass furniture...you'll get a hottie.
Ariel was born a mermaid, but never felt comfortable in her scales. She never felt like she fit into her world, and yearned to be part of another world. For years she wanted feet instead of fins, but her father, her sisters, everyone around her called her crazy and told her that she was born a mermaid, and should stay a mermaid. Eventually, knowing she'd be ostracized for it, knowing she'd give up so much for it, she went through with a body-changing operation.
Notice that she gets changed back to a mermaid, but in the end, when her father understands, he uses his ability to give her legs again. The happy ending isn't that she winds up a mermaid again, it's that she ends the movie as a human, accepted by her merfolk family.
Notice that she gets changed back to a mermaid, but in the end, when her father understands, he uses his ability to give her legs again. The happy ending isn't that she winds up a mermaid again, it's that she ends the movie as a human, accepted by her merfolk family.
Crimsonclaw111
Member
Ah and then good ol Mulan 2 shits on everything the first movie taught us.
DorkLord54
Member
Best - The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Life isn't fair, and you're not always going to get what you want, but it's better to try to get through the unfairness to see a new tomorrow and to be able to let go instead of letting your insecurities and obsessions control you and lead you down an awful path.
Worst - Beauty and the Beast. Sometimes that guy who's emotionally and mentally abusive to you might possibly be nice to you if you give him some time.
Worst - Beauty and the Beast. Sometimes that guy who's emotionally and mentally abusive to you might possibly be nice to you if you give him some time.
He opened the Pridelands to the hyenas. The subsequent society was grossly mismanaged, true, but there was also drought and Scar had no control over that.
Simba's roar bringing the rain and the herds in the end reinforces his "Mandate of Heaven". Furthermore, he exiled the hyenas once again, as well as Scar's loyalists, into what is effectively the ghetto of the Pridelands. Had they insisted on staying, I think it was clearly implied they faced execution.
It's message is clear as day. Some people belong in the light. Others belong in the shadows.
Consider, Simba was also brought back from Timun and Pumbaa's jungle where he experienced independence and individuality for the first time in his life. In the Pridelands, he was the prince and heir apparent. In the jungle, he was his own person and master of his destiny. Not only does the Lion King have an undercurrent of ethnic segregation, but it also reinforces predestination and the maintenance of the status quo. Simba's sole purpose in life is to continue ruling the Pridelands as a member of his dynasty.
And what about the "great circle of life"?
Mufasa is justifying the consumption of sentient herbivores with the Saharan equivalent of trickle down economics. The lions' position in the circle of life are, according to him, as the "grass creators". And this gives them the right to rule and consume as they choose. "Our bodies become the grass" indeed.
Most of themes in The Lion King are (understandably so, given its genesis in Hamlet) extremely conservative and pro-monarchy.
What does this even mean?
It's figure of speech as he meant turning them solders from boys into men capable of combat.
This is reflected during the song and after the song when Shang tried to convince the emperor's aid that his solders having been training for weeks and are ready for combat.
Yeah I have heard the craziness that is Tumblr.
A Link to the Past
Banned
Best: Mulan - "stay true to yourself"
Worst: Mulan II - "grrrl power"
Worst: Mulan II - "grrrl power"
Worst is probably The Little Mermaid. She sells her soul and endangers the entirety of her kingdom all for a boy, then gets off scott-free when her boyfriend drives a boat into the villain, as opposed to the book where she turns into foam and dies and has to do 300 years of community service.
Yeah Aurora and Snow White didn't do jack shit, but in this case nothing is better than actively empowering the villain of their own free will.
I like the Meet the Robinsons message of letting go of your failures and moving on.
Yeah Aurora and Snow White didn't do jack shit, but in this case nothing is better than actively empowering the villain of their own free will.
I like the Meet the Robinsons message of letting go of your failures and moving on.
Septimus Prime
Member
Toy Story 3 taught many a grown-ass man how to cry.
You cannot stop the march of time and will lose touch with your friends, no matter how close you were.
You cannot stop the march of time and will lose touch with your friends, no matter how close you were.
Unmasked Ferret
Member
It's perfectly acceptable to give your friends to other people.
I still remember leaving the movie theater with tears in my eyes. That movie was just great but damn if I can watch it without tearing up.
ElBoxyBrown
Banned
Wasn't the sequel about Mulan training daughters how to be wives?
A Link to the Past
Banned
Oh yeah
It's also about the men literally losing all of the character development they had
excelsiorlef
Member
This is such a blatant misreading of the chronology. She wantes to be human far before Eric showed. He was a catalyst but not the reason and sells her soul?!
Btw if her father had been more accepting she'd never have been sent into Ursula's arns looking for a desperate fix. Let's not forget that her abusive father destroyed her entire human collection in front of her.
That kind of thing has happened in history. For example, black people have had to accept white people after centuries of being oppressed, massacred, and enslaved by white people. Even today, black people (and non-white people in general) are still the victims of racially motivated savagery.
Edit: "even after," not just "after."
Wheeljack539
Member
wat
If anything Ariel was the favored youngest daughter that he doted on. It's just that one issue of her's finally crossed a line with him and he lost his temper. Hell, even after that he wondered if he went too far.
Mulan 2 - "I want to be like other girls who get to decide who they marry and live free happy lives... Well not really because rural Han dynasty China was fucking hellish, but the kids are too dumb to know that."
the_batman
Banned
What was The Emperor's New Groove's message?
btw the scene at the end of Mulan where
btw the scene at the end of Mulan where
she reunites with her dad and she feels bad for supposedly dishonoring the family but he tells her how proud he is of her always gets to me ;-;
Don't be a dick to your employees or they'll turn you into a llama.
Unmasked Ferret
Member
Don't throw off the Emperor's Groove.
excelsiorlef
Member
I mean I'm not sure what else you'd call setting her entire grotto full of her most precious human artifacts a blaze in front of her.
Fathers often feel remorse after striking or besting their child. It doesn't make them not abusive.
He repeatedly verbally berates her for her interest and desire to be human. He's flat out the reason she turns to Ursula instead of him for help.
Remember that she didn't even really want to be part of the big show in the beginning either. That was all for him.
Fuck gentrification.
It's about the death of rural culture in the face of urban expansion.
Somehow this doesn't justify the whole "nearly destroying the sea kingdom and getting everything that she wanted in the end as a result" ending.
Also she adopts a nearly identical persona to her father's in the sequel for a far less justifiable reason, so there's either some weird hypocrisy there or even she knows that she lucked out with that whole ordeal and was being stupid, and then doubles back on that because again, far less justifiable reasons.
excelsiorlef
Member
But again it's his fault for being a close minded asshole.
He set her property on fire. He drove her out of the house. She also has to go uo to escape because he owns the whole fucking ocean.
She had no way of knowing of Ursula's big plan.
Fact remains if Triton acts even moderately appropriately she doesn't go to Ursula. Keep in mind Triton could have bestowed humanity lpn Ariel whenever he wanted but instead opted to set her shit on fire.
And I'm not going to start mixing in the damn sequels into this.
Selling your soul to a sea witch in exchange for legs is in no way a good response to having your stuff set on fire.
I mean the process pretty much goes
likes humans and wants to be one -> dad throws fit and destroys stuff-> sells soul -> deal goes south -> boyfriend kills villain -> it's all fine
And then her daughter does nearly the same exact thing except going from land to sea.
At some point you have to realize that Ariel doesn't learn from her mistakes.
The message of "when your dad destroys your stuff, run away from home and sell your soul. It'll be fine" is not a good one.
It's been a long time, but I definitely remember Ariel being fascinated by humans and wanting to be "part of their world" well before being infatuated by prince humanguy. It doesn't seem like the message was "throw away everything for yer man" so much as a sort of muddled one about becoming what you want to become.
Edit: ah, looks like this has been covered.
Edit: ah, looks like this has been covered.
Professor Beef
Banned
That's not the message, but ok.
Not the intentional one but that's pretty much how it goes.
excelsiorlef
Member
Why do you keep saying soul?
Her voice wasn't her soul.
Her Dad learns from his. The moral of the stort is don't be an abusive bigotted prick.
Professor Beef
Banned
But what she did wasn't right and had no consequences in the end.
I can compromise but not completely, Beef. I really don't like Ariel.
TheGreatDirector
Banned
A Goofy Movie has a great message about a father and son accepting each other's differences yet loving them for who they are and how they define them. Max learning to not be embarrassed by his dad and his antics and Goofy no longer forcing his own father's parenting techniques on him and let him develop as the teen he is and not the kid he was are really profound moments to see in the movie.
A common thing that happens early on in many stories is that the lead character makes a bad decision. This bad decision might have significant consequences. As the story continues, they realize that they made a mistake, and by the end may find they can undo the consequences or otherwise achieve a happy ending. Typically this sequence of events is not viewed as justifying the early decision.
In the Lion King, Simba abandons his responsibilities and leaves the kingdom to fall to ruin. Eventually he comes back, takes his place, and everything turns out fine. Is the message here "abandon your responsibilities, if anything bad happens you can easily fix it later, no biggie"?
In Toy Story, Woody attacks Buzz in a fit of jealousy, which leads to Buzz getting separated from the other toys and lost. Eventually Woody finds Buzz and they make it back to the other toys safely, with no permanent harm done to either of them. Is the message here "attack the people you are jealous of"?
Ok, so Little Mermaid. Again I don't remember it that well. But Ariel basically makes a classic deal with the devil--she gets what she wants, humanity, but risks her soul (or whatever) in the process. And gives up her voice, to make it tougher. In the end, that deal backfires on her hard. She fails, her dad has to bail her out, and she and her lover are barely able to defeat Ursula and save her dad. So, this is a little bit muddled. She attacks Ursula instead of just walking away with the prince, but it's not entirely clear that she'd be able to just walk away. Her growth would be more clear if Ursula said "hey kids I'm the Queen you can leave now" and then she was like "no it's more important that I defeat you and save my dad's kingdom!" but it's sorta there. Wish I remembered this a bit better.
Anyway tl;dr it's ok for characters to make mistakes and still have things turn out well in the end. It doesn't mean a message is sent that the mistake they made is actually the right thing to do.
fivepersondude
Member
In this thread I feel bad about showing these movies to my 2.75 year old daughter. Though her favorite movies are Ponyo, The Good Dinosaur, Inside Out, Zootopia (her first theatre movie), Frozen, and My Neighbor Totoro. That said, her favorite movie is Ponyo. Favorite song is Let It Go, or the ABC song depending on the day.
But she doesn't really even retain the lesson learned. Her life didn't have to get completely wrecked (like it does in the book) but yeah her signs of character growth aren't really there.
Yeah you missed it big time. The message was that playing with snow indoors is dangerous. Everything could've been avoided had Anna worn protective headgear of some kind. Safety first.
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