On November 24th, 2010 Walt Disney Pictures will be releasing its 50th animated feature film. The latest release, Tangled, is based on the German fairy tale Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm.
Once upon a time, a king and queen found that they were expecting a child. Unfortunately, the queen grew very ill during her pregnancy, leaving the life of her unborn child and herself in the balance. Desperate, a servant ventures to steal a magical healing plant from the garden of an evil witch named Gothel who used it to frequently rejeuvenate herself in order to avoid death. This restored the queen to her former health and gives the baby princess, Rapunzel, healing powers. As revenge for having her plant stolen, and still coveting its power, Gothel kidnaps Rapunzel to retake the youth-restoring power for herself. Rapunzel grows up locked in a tower, with only the nasty Mother Gothel for company. The witch constantly puts her down and forbids her from ever leaving the tower. Every year on Rapunzel’s birthday, the kingdom has a festival of lights in remembrance of their lost princess. Rapunzel sees the lights from her window and longs to visit the kingdom. One day, a thief named Flynn Rider breaks into her tower. Rapunzel takes his satchel containing the stolen crown jewels. She promises to return it if he will help her out of the tower and take her to the light festival, and Flynn agrees. They escape along with Rapunzel’s pet chameleon Pascal, and Maximus, a horse who takes it upon himself to capture Flynn and return him to the royal guards. Together with a band of colorful brigands, Rapunzel and Flynn must avoid the guards and a vengeful Mother Gothel to reach the kingdom in time for the festival.
Every few years Disney cranks out another entertaining blockbuster animated feature that teaches a whole new generation of young girls their proper role in the patriarchy.
True, they have gotten somewhat more enlightened since a very passive Snow White sang “Someday My Prince Will Come,” but Disney heroines are always impossibly beautiful, heterosexual and virginal until they meet a man, then they fall instantly in love and are soon happily married and monogamous ever after.
That’s why they call them fairy tales.
Filed under: General, sexism and misogyny Tagged: | patriarchy, sexism, Tangled
(snort) Good post! Great illustration!
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What does the president say:
So, Obama wants you to stand up, relax while the TSA inspects your privates for ‘your security’!
LOL
This is my favorite Rapunzel retelling:
Rapunzel's Revenge
This one is my VM…it is the Fractured Fairy Tales from Bullwinkle.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x753of_fractured-fairy-tales-rapunzel_lifestyle
but I love Lilo and Stitch!
There isn’t a single fairy tale that doesn’t help ingrain the patriarchy & her role in it into little girls’ heads. The best retelling of one was Drew Barrymore’s remake of Cinderella “Ever After” but for all that her independence she still needed the prince to rescue her.
How irritating. When I was a little I liked Rapunzel much more than the other fairy tales. Rapunzel wasn’t a princess, her parents weren’t completely pure and innocent, the witch wasn’t over the top unrealistically evil but cruel and harsh in her “justice” (evil in a realistic and sophisticated way for a fairy tale), Rapunzel had her own mind and made her own choices, and she ends up rescuing the prince (who blinded, wandered into the desert alone, searching for Rapunzel) who had wooed her.
It was pretty subversive compared to the other major fairy tales. There’s some interesting subtexts in it. The witch is a stand-in for a grandmother who takes an infant away from what she sees as selfish and irresponsible parents, locking Rapunzel in the tower- protecting Rapunzel from men that would seduce her. Her actions upon discovering Rapunzel and the prince- taking revenge on the seducer and once discovering the girl loves and defends her seducer- disowning the young woman and throwing her out (what happened to many young women who had been seduced )
It has a more positive ending than what usually happened- the prince loved Rapunzel, and they are reunited in sweet romantic scene where she comes to his rescue.
So why couldn’t have Disney done a even semi faithful retelling like they have with other ones… (Although, I much prefer Disney’s happy ending to the Little Mermaid- I have to say!) One can only come to the conclusion that yes, Rapunzel is too subversive so they had to turn it into a story that supports patriarchy.
Guess I’ll check and see if there’s ever been an anime adaption of Rapunzel. Japanese animators tend to be much more faithful to the stories than Disney. For example, there’s an anime adaption of the Little Mermaid that made me break down sobbing when I saw it when I was in my early teens- it had the authentic tragic painful ending…
The original Mermaid story (as I recall my Hans Christian Anderson) has the mermaid resisting the temptation of killing a person (the bride of the prince, who helped the price after the mermaid rescued him). In return, she loses the prince, but gets the opportunity to obtain a soul.
It is sad, as he does not get the prince, but not exactly tragic — if you believe in souls, as the author and most of his original readers did. I consider the Disney version an abomination. (I know, I am alone.)
The Little Matchgirl is the one that breaks me up — and it may as well be true, since poverty still kills, even on Christmas.
djmm
“as she doe not get the prince…”
Sorry for the typo!
djmm
The version I read, she just wanted to go home because her feet hurt her constantly and the prince didn’t love her. She was supposed to murder him and let the blood fall on her feet and she’d turn back into a mermaid. Instead, she killed herself and was turned into sea foam.
I think the best retelling has to be Jane Eyre–IMHO
I disagree with your position. Many of the newer princesses IMO promote the idea that women are smart and capable. They aren’t at all like the Snow White, Sleeping Beauties, or Cinderellas I grew up with. I’ve been a big fan of Pocahontas, Mulan(how you get patriarchy out of her movie I have no idea), The Princess and the Frog, Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid(it was the first movie I bought when I purchased my VCR back before we had DVD players). All of my kids including the older ones are looking forward to seeing tangled just as they enjoyed Up and Wall E. I may not like Disney’s political affiliation but I really enjoy their movies and am happy that the Democrats showed me they are just 2% better so I can enjoy them guilt free.
I somewhat agree with you, which is why this big leap back into patriarchal messaging is so irritating- especially with a fairy tale that basically was tailor made to show a truly heroic girl, even more so than Belle in Beauty in the Beast.
I have to agree with cwaltz. My first thought was, you definitely have not seen Mulan. Disney princesses have come a long way since Snow White.
The recent crop has had self-assured, smart , strong princesses.
In addition to those already mentioned, Jasmine was no shrinking violet either, even if she needed Aladdin to rescue her in the end.
Yes, which is why what they did with Rapunzel is so wrong, it goes backward (and I’ve heard they also have her acting kind of airheaded and she shrieks in fright, hiding behind the guy, when she sees a rabbit- ugh!)
I can see one part of the subtext of the original tale that would have made Disney uncomfortable- Rapunzel essentially willingly invites her seducer into her bedroom. But that could have been easily sanitized without sacrificing Rapunzel’s innate heroic foundation.
I think I’ve figured out why they couldn’t deal with telling Rapunzel’s story even with a vague resemblance to the original- there’s the not so subtle sexual subtext, plus Rapunzel isn’t being heroic in s self-sacrificing way like Belle, Mulan or Pocahontas, or a chaste romantic crush like Ariel but thinking and acting for herself, taking control of her own destiny. no one helps her or advises her, she does it herself.
Have you seen the movie? I didn’t think it had been released yet. So, if it hasn’t been released yet, how do you know how Rapunzel is treated?
They’ve already released a kids coloring book of the Disney version of the story- the rabbit scene is in it. Made me disgusted.
I think the trailer looks great, and for the first time in a long time, I’m actually going to go see this Disney movie. It looks like fun!
Mollie Whuppie is one of the most feminist traditional fairy tales: she is the daughter of a poor woodcutter, outwits a giant and wins royal husbands for herself and two sisters — because she liked their looks. And she escapes across the bridge of a single hair — which the giant can’t cross. All he can do is shake his fist and shout: “Woe betide you, Mollie Whoppie, if I ere see you again!”
Mollie Whuppie
My personal favorite!
djmm
Meh. The purpose that fairy tales serve is to reinforce cultural values, which is why they’re uniformly so goddamn sexist. Disney ones have gotten WAY better. This one seems like backlash. Grr…
At least in the trailer, only the dude speaks in full sentences. “Blondie” is all one-syllable exclamations. Glad my kid’s grown up.
*****A
This article says that Disney will take a break from fairy tales after this movie:
http://blog.movies.yahoo.com/blog/177-disney-will-stop-making-princess-movies-because-boys-think-theyre-icky
It’s not such a good thing that girls would rather look “hot” at age 5 or 6 either.