Disney – our whole childhood and present too. It’s hard not to love Disney movies and shows, for they completely engage us in their stories and charms. Now Disney is evolving too, let’s see how:
Disney – a word that hits nostalgia deeply. Takes you back to the time when we’d just get back from school, and plop up in front of the TV with the Disney channel on. Shows like ‘The Suite Life of Zack and Cody ‘, Wizards of the Waverly Place, Lizzie McGuire, Backyard Science, Kim Possible and movies including High School Musical and Camp Rock shaped up our childhood. As we have grown and matured, Disney has too. And in a wonderful way.
The themes in the early days of Disney animated movies were simplistic and cliché – good is better than evil, pretty people are always the nice ones, ugly people are always the mean ones and more. But lately, Disney movies have found themes that are a lot more mature, like Zootopia’s focus on a kid’s film that is explicit about casual racism.
Most of the movies earlier – from Cinderella to Snow White to Sleeping Beauty – have the title character end up totally helpless and completely dependent on a blandly handsome prince coming to save the day and being the actual hero of the story. Disney’s recently-released Moana doesn’t have any love interest, period. It’s about a young woman discovering herself and her place in the world, and a love interest would have just gotten in the way of that. An even better example might be Frozen, where the trope of the nice handsome prince is completely subverted by having him be the villain of the film (and while there is a love interest, it’s not a huge deal in the film and takes up a pretty minor amount of screen time).
Disney is now reshaping its stories. From Rapunzel to Tangled, the story lines have evolved giving Disney the new fresh boost in today’s world. The very Disney that introduced us to the princess world, challenged all princess stereotypes in the trailer of ‘Wreck it Ralph 2’. The Beauty and the Beast, though mostly based on the original tale also portrayed Belle as a powerful opinionated lady, fearless of the beast, rather than just being the damsel in distress. Disney has also donned on the creative hat now, and combining two stories. The recent Christopher Robin with Pooh starring is the perfect example for that. Pooh from the enchanted jungle, lost in the city searching for his friends, meets the family man Christopher and they embark on a journey together. Who else, other than Disney could have thought of such an idea.
Inside Out addressed the issue of mental health and emotions and in no way was just a kids’ movie. Everybody loves Baymax- who with his six friends (all from different cultures and with unique personalities) saved the world in his own way. Disney has brought out varying characters and themes all, with one good message at the end. Though we have grown up, Disney can never go out of our hearts as it has grown too along with us leaving us anticipating for all its new releases and re-watching the old ones.
Feature Image Credits: Pinterest
Gurleen Kaur
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