Conventions of the Disney Princess movie

This last spring break my dear friend Heidi and I had a long phone conversation about movies (as often happens when Heidi and I have long conversations). We discussed children's animated movies, specifically; comparing the movies we hated or loved as children compared to the ones we love or hate now. We talked about how surprisingly dark some of them get, how there were a lot of super heros and villains recently, and how talking mice keep showing up in all sorts of decades. Wouldn't it be interesting to plot them all out and trace the trends. And we need to watch some of these together.

Because we are complete dorks, (and because I enjoy taking light things very seriously) we spend the next few weeks e-mailing each other lists of movies produced by all sorts of animation studios. When I got home, we started making a time line with tiny movie posters of some highlights of America's (and other countries) full length animated movies for children.

These last few weeks, leading up to the opening of Pixar's Brave in theaters, we have been watching Princess Movies. This is the oldest and most iconic sub-genre of animated movies for children. Snow White, after all, is the first in many categories besides being the first Disney princess. It is a grand tradition not so much because there are a lot of them, or because they are consistently spread throughout the history of animated children's movies. (According to my very geeky time line, there is a gap of thirty years between Sleeping Beauty and The Little Mermaid.) Princess are a grand tradition because they have usually been memorable. Whether you love them or hate them, these animated women have had an impact of our culture, especially on girls, since Snow White first sang into a wishing well.

Merrida has joined this glittering company. I have to wonder, does she fit in?

We put together a list of characteristics of the genre, after watching some of the most iconic films. Let's see how Brave measures up.

1) Talking to animals: I have yet to meet a Disney Princess who does not have a special relationship with animals. Birds, horses, crabs, rabbits, dogs and mice have been their companions, to name just a few. In the early Disney Princess movies, this seemed to be some symbol of goodness. Animals, especially small cute ones, sense the innocence or kindness of the princess and flock to her, trusting her. Later it is not so much that the animals reaction to her is a sign of her goodness, but her treatment of animals is indicative of her virtue. 

Merida has a horse as a companion (and also a special relationship with some other creatures -wink-). In this case, the horse actually seems to symbolize her spirit of adventure rather than her kindness. But they clearly have a trusting relationship as is evident when Angus (the horse) follows her down a dark and scary path which he would rather have avoided.

2) Singing: Every princess movie I have ever seen includes at least one song in the princess's voice. A few princess movies highlight the voice of a princess as one of her charms. If we were to make a list of important characteristics of female characters in Disney for the first fifty or even sixty years of the studio's existence, we could mark down a lovely singing voice as a key one. This characteristic can be grouped with lovely hair* and pretty dresses. They are the superficial packaging that makes a Disney princess marketable. Sometimes watching a princess movie, I sense that the designer gave a lot of thought to how the ball gown was going to be eye candy and distinctive and marketable to lots of little girls in Disneyland. 

Pixar plays with these conventions. Brave isn't a musical. Merida sings in a flashback with her mother, which is a sweet and touching scene, and perhaps a nod at this convention. But maybe not. Merida has her own special take on the hair and clothing convention also. Similarly, it feels like she might not be doing it on purpose.
 If Disney Princesses gave you unrealistic expectations for hair, Merida is either a proud promoter of this tradition, or a very real picture of what it would be like to have hair like a Disney Princess. Her hair is wild and tangled and impossibly bright red. It's very pretty. But it's a mess.
Merida doesn't wear men's clothing to have an adventure (like Mulan does). Nor does she get a glorious presentation moment when we see her in a pretty dress from a man's point of view (which is common in the other princess movies). Her beauty is never explicitly pointed out that way. Her mother dresses her up by covering her hair, practically tying her up to meet some standard of beauty. This fails because it sacrifices too much of who Merida is. That dress gets literally torn up. Then she spends the rest of the movie in a dress that she is comfortable adventuring in.
Merida makes no effort to fit in with her glittering, tiara wearing sisters. But she pulls it off by being herself. I really appreciate this about her.

3) House hold chores:  Heidi pointed out that along with unrealistic hair, Disney Princesses movies also often depict a routine of household chores set to music. Dancing with a broom, or, famously, getting the woodland creatures to help you tiny up the house, is a lovely idea, but it is somewhat deceiving compared to the actual experience of cleaning house (never mind getting anyone, human or otherwise, to help you). Feminists complain, with some grounds, that this propagates the patriarchal idea that a woman belongs in the house only. I don't really hold with that. I try to work on a movie by movie base. I think done properly, it can celebrate the kind of work that many women do, whether or not it is the only work they can, or should do. The fact that so many of these women are princesses gives a kind of dignity to house work, even when the princess is forced to do it by evil powers that be, such as wicked step mothers. 

Pixar even nodded to this tradition, twice. First in a montage where we see all the activities and lessons in which Merida is forced to participate against her will. They are not all house hold cleaning type chores, but they are women's work. In this case Merida finds them boring and odious. Later in the movie, however, she makes breakfast for her mother. This might have been my favorite sequence in the movie. She essentially teaches her mother how to make a meal in the wilderness, a domestic skill which her mother has somehow failed to master. Classic.

4) The romantic interest: For every princess, there is a prince. This is the rule of princess movies. Even if the lovers are not going to be together forever at the end of the movie, he is a major part of the story. 

And then there is Merida. Pixar nodded at this convention by including an arranged marriage conflict. But, unlike most other arranged marriage centered princess stories, they offer no "Mr. Right" as alternatives to the sadly lacking suitors Queen Eleanor invites to compete for Merida's hand. Merida remains happily single and the boys have some growing up to do before they can win her heart. This makes the feminist in me very happy.

So, Brave did what I hoped it would do in relation to the Princess movie tradition. Merida is a believable teen age girl. She is interesting and beautiful and fiercely her own person. She fits in, and stands out, just as she should.


We had some interesting discussions and observations about all sorts of things as we watched Princess movies. Perhaps I will find a way to write about some of it. But this will be all for now.

This week, we will start watching movies about mice.