In a
flurry of gold sparks and bright lights the two frogs, now married, miraculously
transform back into their human forms through the powers of a kiss. The moment,
shown in Figure 1, is beautiful, magical, entrancing… and totally made-up. The Princess and the Frog, like
countless other Disney movies, centers its plot around love and inevitably, kissing.
In this case, the curse that has transformed the handsome prince into a frog
can only be broken by a kiss from a princess. For ninety-seven minutes the two
protagonists, Tiana and Prince Naveen, hop around New Orleans in search of a
princess to kiss, before finally realizing their undying love for each other,
marrying (making Tiana a princess), and kissing. It is all perfect, except for
one thing: none of this ever happened. That is, in the original fairy tale by
the Brothers Grimm, there is no adventure, no romance, and no kissing. In the
Grimm tale, the frog is turned into a prince only when the bratty princess
angrily “thr[ows] him with all her strength against the wall, saying, ‘Now ,
will you be quiet, you ugly Frog!’”
Disney, or I should say the Disney
Company, changed the fairy tale. So what? Besides “violating” the fairy tale as
Jack Zipes would say, why else would it matter if Disney transformed the fairy
tale so as to enhance the aspect of love in them? In her thesis essay “Once
Upon a Fairy Tale Romance,” Brianne Richardson explains that Disney’s movies “contain
romantic notions that perpetuate unrealistic romantic expectations” (6) to the
children who watch them. She analyzes several Disney movies and their ideals of
“love at first sight,” “happily ever after,” “true love’s kiss,” and “marrying
up” and concludes that the animations give young girls “harmful unrealistic
expectations that conflict with reality” (30).
In the original tales, the frog gets
thrown against the wall, Snow White wakes up when the apple is dislodged from
her throat by a bump in the road, and the Prince leaves the little mermaid to
marry another woman. The tales may not be as pleasant as Disney’s “happily ever
afters” but they represent love in a more reasonable way and do not shelter
children in a false reality.
Richardson, Brianne Jayla, "Once Upon a Fairytale Romance" (2012).
https://digital.library.txstate.edu/handle/10877/4176
Oceane, this is an interesting topic and an all too real truth that many children will unwillingly witness. Disney makes its money by enhancing the love lives of characters to have happy endings. I mean, who doesn't love a good fairy tale and a happy ending?
ReplyDeleteYour piece is very well written and I could not find any grammatical mistakes. You incorporate the picture effectively and use it to support you argument. The picture is good because it shows and enchanted kiss that leaves children with a false reality. The one minor issue I found was that you say "figure 1" without labeling the actual figure. It is quite obvious that you were referring to the only picture on the screen but I just wanted to warn you in case you copy this into your paper. Besides this minor detail, there were no other faults I picked up on.
Lastly, I liked the way you smoothly incorporated your research into your journal. The quotations that were included did not seem choppy at all and they just flowed into your piece. I feel like you have a good, interesting topic to work with and your research paper should turn out good. Good job on this journal and just be careful when you insert this into your paper if you choose to do so.
Oceane, your picture will perfectly support your argument. Your first paragraph was great. Obviously, when you write your final paper, you will have to smooth the way you explain your image, to make it fit seamlessly into your paper as a whole. You will avoid expressions like, "or should I say..." and "as Jack Zipes would say..." The tone of your final paper will be more scholarly.
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