My feelings regarding Disney movies have two distinct time frames.  Growing up and after I had children.  As a child, growing up in the 1970's through middle school, I really had no interest in Disney and Disney movies.  Movies like Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Alice in Wonderland did not enchant me like it did many of my similarly aged female cousins.  While I attended numerous birthday parties with a princess theme, I do not recall ever being impressed or of feeling that I wanted similar celebrations for my birthday.  




Fast forward to the birth of my children and nieces and nephews in the late 1999 and early 2000's.  During the early years of my children lives and those of their cousins, the Disney franchise put out some, in my opinion, great movies that, not only did the kids enjoy, I also enjoyed.  Some of the movies that we watched, while had come out much earlier, had only come into my conscious thought because of my kids.  The movies that I am referring to are: The Little Mermaid, Tarzan, Monsters, Inc., Pinocchio, Finding Nemo, Lilo and Stitch, A Bug's Life,  Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin.  A bit later there were other movies, including Frozen and Brave to name just a couple.  

To this day, I still have never seen Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland,  Sleeping Beauty, or Snow White in their entirety. I must admit, however, that of the Disney movies that I have seen and watched with my children, I have thoroughly enjoyed.  A Bug's Life and Monster's Inc., did not have any fairy tale princesses in traditional Disney fashion. We can discuss these movies at another time. However, I think it is pretty clear that my interest is typically not drawn to a 'fairy tale princess'. 

For this blog entry, I am asked if my notion of princess is challenged in the movie Frozen.  The simple answer is yes.  Both Elsa, the Queen and Anna, her sister, is  the princess.  Yes, in true Disney fashion, their bodies were perfect, they had beautiful singing voices, and Anna, in the end had met her "prince" who was not a prince.  What was different and what I found fascinating was, in the end, true love was realized between the siblings!!!

In "Unlearning the Myths that Binds Us", Christiansen asserts that we resist need critically examine the hidden and not so hidden messages that are in, dare I say,  (almost) every Disney movie.   https://disneyanalysis.weebly.com/female-stereotypes.html

https://disneyanalysis.weebly.com/male-stereotypes.html

As I continue on this journey of being made aware of unspoken messages and the insertion of material of long held stereotypes, I can help but wonder if I will ever be able to watch a Disney film (or any media production) with critical eyes on what messages of being fed to society.