Disney is one of the biggest franchises in the world and is continuing to grow every day. Every couple of years or so Disney comes up with a new movie, usually consisting of a new Disney Princess. The most recent Disney Princess is that of Anna and Elsa from the movie Frozen that was released in December of 2013. Frozen took the world by storm with all of the Elsa and Anna products they have made within the last year. What makes this movie different from the rest? I mean why does this movie have so much more popularity than other Disney movies? It's not like they're any better than the classics we used to see as kids. My theory is that they're the same type of Disney movies, but within a different society.
In the movie Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and all the old Disney movies, you see the classic story of a princess needing to be saved and the only one able to do said saving is the handsome prince. They fall in love and live happily ever after. The End. This is the type of story I grew up with. The girl being the one who needs the saving and it has to be done by her prince charming. It's a cute story that has many kids intrigued and wanting to find love. But what is this really teaching little girls? It's showing them that they are incapable of doing something themselves. However, Disney is getting better at this.
If you take a look at some more recent Disney movies such as Shrek or Frozen, you'll see some very strong female roles. In Disney's Pixar Shrek, Princess Fiona starts off as a princess who needs saving, but as the story plot progresses through the movie, she becomes very independent and doesn't need saving because she can do it herself; and in many cases, she is the one doing the saving.
In Disney's movie Frozen, Princess Anna has a frozen heart that can only be thawed by an act of true love. If you've seen other Disney movies you would think that Kristoff, Anna's love interest, would be the one to thaw her heart. **SPOILER ALERT** No, it's her sister Elsa that performs an act of unselfish love that causes Anna's heart to thaw. Not only that, but Anna also proves to be a very strong an self-dependent role in this movie when she decides to go save her sister herself. Here is an excellent example of how she wants to do things on her own without the help of a man.
It's amazing to think a big franchise such as Disney is acknowledging how hard girls work and they can do things without a guy's help. These types of movies have shaped society into thinking that it's ok to allow girls to be independent. And because of this new and improved society, Disney, along with many other franchises, are able to make similar movies with the same concept.
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