Introduction
I
was five when Disney released its newest movie, the Little
Mermaid. From the moment I first saw this movie I was
obsessed. I must have driven my parents crazy singing Part of
Your World and Under the Sea constantly in. I remember spending
hours in the pool practicing flipping my hair like Princess Ariel does
in the movie although I could never get it quite right. I loved this
movie and I wanted to be just like Ariel, tail and all.
Over 15 years later I am still singing the songs and
although I no longer desire to be Ariel I do still believe that she and
the other Disney Princesses have some admirable qualities. They
are beautiful, intelligent, and brave, and they usually overcome some
sort of adversary to get to their happily ever after. There is a
lot to admire in the Disney Princesses.
This project examines the origins of the Disney
Princesses and their stories, looking at how the personalities of the
Princesses were altered for Walt Disney. I am using Andrew
Lang's Blue Fairy Book for the original stories of three of the
Princesses, and Hans Christian Andersen's version of the Little
Mermaid. The
Princesses that are included are my favorite Disney stories and they
are:
Beauty
and the Beast - A young woman saves the life of her father by
agreeing to live with a terrible beast. But she
is to discover that
appearances are decieving.
Aladdin
- A young Princess through the help of magic will find her true love,
but her own foolishness will endanger her
happiness.
Cinderella - A young
girl faces cruelty in her own home, but her goodness will be rewarded
with true
love.
The Little Mermaid - A young mermaid will
suffer for her love but rewarded for a self-less deed.
And perhaps through the reading of this storybook the reader can
determine if the original Princesses could be as worthy of a little
girl's admiration as their Disney versions are.
The Beginning
Emily woke up one
Saturday morning to the giggles of her little sisters in the
other room. And while she lay in bed groaning at being awake, she
realized the one good thing about being up early.
Breakfast. She could already smell the delicious aroma of crisp
bacon. As she entered the kitchen she came to the quick
realization that this morning not even blueberry pancakes was worth
being awake for.
It was what her mom
called girls day. Her mom, her friends, and all their children
would all gather at one of their homes and settle in for a day of a lot
of food, gossip, beauty tips, and chick flicks. Emily used to
love these days, but at the age of thirteen she wanted to be considered
an adult. And to prove her maturity she had rejected anything she
deemed childish, no matter how much she loved those things.
"Emily! Do
you want to play princesses with us" asked Emily's younger sister,
Hannah. "We'll even let you have the pretty tiara if you
want."
To avoid an
argument and a lecture Emily answered, "Maybe later."
"Okay!" And
the little girls left.
"Just wait till
they grow up and discover that princesses are nothing more than
shallow, self-absorbed bimbos" said Emily to the woman in the kitchen.
"Emily, there is
nothing wrong with wishing for a happily ever after and Prince
Charming. Dreaming about those things make life fun" responded
Laura.
"Besides that, the
Princesses have a little bit more character than you give them credit
for. Belle, for instance, is a bluestocking. A feminist, in
other words. In the Disney version, she reads despite everyone
making fun of her because of it. Do you know how ahead of her
time she was for that? She is not just a bimbo," said Kate
another of her mom's friends.
"When I studied
English in college I read the original Beauty and the Beast and the
Disney version is very close to the original. And both Princesses
have some worthy characteristics."
