I enjoyed The Princess and The Frog because it was fairly different from the previous Disney films and I'm not just referring to the princess in this film. Personally, I get a little bored of the typical hero and heroine falling in love at first sight and having a happily ever after. In this film, Tiana shows little interest in boys and would rather work to get her dream restaurant and fulfill the dream she shared with her dad. It was a nice change. Even though she does end up marrying Naveen, at least they have some proper interaction with each other before all of a sudden discovering that they love each other. They actually bond beforehand and it makes the ending of this movie more special.
On top of that, the supporting characters were more endearing than those in previous films. Louis, the alligator, and Ray, the firefly, are actually funny and not in the typical Disney way where bad things happen to them to make the audience laugh. Their personalities and jokes are actually comedic.
I know from our readings that many critics dislike the fact that Disney made the setting a location with a real place in history without incorporating the realities of that time period in the movie. For example, they believe that Disney should have allowed Tiana to face more microaggressions so that it would have been more believable that she is a Black princess and not just a princess who happens to be black. However, that would ruin the magic that Disney films hold. These children movies are classifies as fantasy for a reason, because they provide a magical world that is better for its characters than the reality we live in. That is the very reason we enjoy Disney productions so much.
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Friday, April 3, 2015
"Family, Race and Citizenship in Disney's Lilo & Stitch" by Emily Cheng
http://getitatduke.library.duke.edu/?sid=sersol&SS_jc=TC0000205289&title=Monsters%20and%20the%20Monstrous%3A%20Myths%20and%20Metaphors%20of%20Enduring%20Evil
mla citation: Scott, Niall, ed. At the Interface/Probing the Boundaries, Volume 38 : Monsters and the Monstrous : Myths and Metaphors of Enduring Evil. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2007. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 3 April 2015.
"While discussions of Disney have often focused on the relationship between the corporation and the critic, in this paper my method is to address the multiple and often contradictory meanings produced by the film by considering its receptions found in print and online reviews, production, and the text itself." (123-124)
p 125 end of first paragraph, examples of the references to other cultural sites por favor?
"While in some overt ways the film's content, production, and reception may seem to serve as media for transnational tourist industry, it also sets up a discussion of the entwinement of the tourism industry with representations of exoticized culture as well as universal family values." (126)
So from this, it sounds like Cheng believes that the Hawaiian culture portrayed in Lilo & Stitch is proof of how cultures are advertised as "exotic" in order to gather interest yet they also need to portray some "good" quality, such as universal family values, to make it familiar enough for a visitor to feel comfortable there. She goes on to suggest that the production team of this movie tried to sell a superficial idea of the Hawaiian culture by claiming they researched it thoroughly but really they just said this to increase marketability.
I found it interesting that she claims the reason the family in this film is female oriented is because Hawaii is typically described as a "'Pacific woman'", I always thought it was weird that they focused this movie on two orphaned females but I just thought they were trying to emphasize the strength of their bond. When I actually take a moment to think about it, I realized that the majority of the character are females such as Lilo, Nani, Nani's potential employers, and Lilo's "friends" (we all know they kind of suck). I wonder if Pleakley dressing up as a woman adds to this "feminine" vibe that Hawaii is supposed to give off.
I then found it really interesting how she pointed out that the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau (HVCB) signed a $1.7 million deal with the Disney company to promote Hawaiian culture at the same time that the movie was released which was coincidentally in 2002, when tourism profits were at a low because of the tragedy on September 11, 2001.
Cheng actually appears to have strong evidence that while this movie does promote the idea of family, the reason for this message is not as heart warming as one would think. The act of forcing Stitch to basically become a dog and demanding for him to become a "model citizen" symbolizes the act of becoming a naturalized citizen in order to be accepted into society and by comparing him to a dog, it makes his character more familiar and lovable than as an alien. She also believes that the usage of Elvis Presley as Stitch's role model sends a message of American culture, patriotism and again markets Hawaii as prime tourist destination.
Her final point indicates that even though Stitch was accepted into the family, the fact remains that he is an alien which is why they adopted him as a dog and even at the end when he perform more "humanly" duties like cooking and cleaning, those are similar roles to those of current immigrants in America that are referred by some as "aliens".
I think Cheng's writing could help me bring in an aspect of how family is such a fundamental part of American cultural and its idea of belonging as citizens in the form of a happy family. Cheng sounds educated in her work which is why I think I had an easier time following and understanding her argument.
mla citation: Scott, Niall, ed. At the Interface/Probing the Boundaries, Volume 38 : Monsters and the Monstrous : Myths and Metaphors of Enduring Evil. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2007. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 3 April 2015.
"While discussions of Disney have often focused on the relationship between the corporation and the critic, in this paper my method is to address the multiple and often contradictory meanings produced by the film by considering its receptions found in print and online reviews, production, and the text itself." (123-124)
p 125 end of first paragraph, examples of the references to other cultural sites por favor?
"While in some overt ways the film's content, production, and reception may seem to serve as media for transnational tourist industry, it also sets up a discussion of the entwinement of the tourism industry with representations of exoticized culture as well as universal family values." (126)
So from this, it sounds like Cheng believes that the Hawaiian culture portrayed in Lilo & Stitch is proof of how cultures are advertised as "exotic" in order to gather interest yet they also need to portray some "good" quality, such as universal family values, to make it familiar enough for a visitor to feel comfortable there. She goes on to suggest that the production team of this movie tried to sell a superficial idea of the Hawaiian culture by claiming they researched it thoroughly but really they just said this to increase marketability.
I found it interesting that she claims the reason the family in this film is female oriented is because Hawaii is typically described as a "'Pacific woman'", I always thought it was weird that they focused this movie on two orphaned females but I just thought they were trying to emphasize the strength of their bond. When I actually take a moment to think about it, I realized that the majority of the character are females such as Lilo, Nani, Nani's potential employers, and Lilo's "friends" (we all know they kind of suck). I wonder if Pleakley dressing up as a woman adds to this "feminine" vibe that Hawaii is supposed to give off.
I then found it really interesting how she pointed out that the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau (HVCB) signed a $1.7 million deal with the Disney company to promote Hawaiian culture at the same time that the movie was released which was coincidentally in 2002, when tourism profits were at a low because of the tragedy on September 11, 2001.
Cheng actually appears to have strong evidence that while this movie does promote the idea of family, the reason for this message is not as heart warming as one would think. The act of forcing Stitch to basically become a dog and demanding for him to become a "model citizen" symbolizes the act of becoming a naturalized citizen in order to be accepted into society and by comparing him to a dog, it makes his character more familiar and lovable than as an alien. She also believes that the usage of Elvis Presley as Stitch's role model sends a message of American culture, patriotism and again markets Hawaii as prime tourist destination.
Her final point indicates that even though Stitch was accepted into the family, the fact remains that he is an alien which is why they adopted him as a dog and even at the end when he perform more "humanly" duties like cooking and cleaning, those are similar roles to those of current immigrants in America that are referred by some as "aliens".
I think Cheng's writing could help me bring in an aspect of how family is such a fundamental part of American cultural and its idea of belonging as citizens in the form of a happy family. Cheng sounds educated in her work which is why I think I had an easier time following and understanding her argument.
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