Essay on Disney's Medievalesque Sleeping Beauty

The Mickey Mouse Monopoly documentary reveals the obscure social messages behind the animated films created by the Disney Company. Although we are conditioned to believe that these movies are pure forms of entertainment, further examination has proved that there are hidden messages concerning gender, race and class that Disney is instilling in the minds of children. The speakers in the documentary argue that Disney is extremely political and hides its ideas behind innocence, magic and fun. When masked by features that are appealing to a younger audience, it is difficult to realize these ideas without taking a closer look.

Combining creativity, artistry, and storytelling, Walt Disney Studios is a technological filmmaker-driven animation studio responsible for creating some of the most beloved tales of all time. Disney’s first accomplishment debuted in 1937 with its first fully animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. They were said to have “pioneered a new form of family entertainment” (Walt). Whether it’s a Pixar film or princess movie, children are taught valuable lessons all while they go on adventures alongside the characters they look up to and trust. For example, a little girl may glide through the forest with Bambi, and in the distance hear Thumper say, “If there isn’t anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.” Furthermore, a little boy may play with Pinocchio while hearing the Blue Fairy’s voice announce, “A lie keeps growing and growing until it’s as plain as the nose on a face.” More

Walt Disney’s movie was released in 1959 but is still considered a modern version of this fairytale and is watched by many people every year.

Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty are only some that can come to mind when thinking of characters who only do good in the stories they are in. Many classic protagonists are portrayed as the embodiment of pure good. They always do the right thing and are successful in the end. The exceptions to this archetype can always produce great stories with developed characters that interest readers. It is a universal fact that no one in stories is perfect, but authors can make a bold choice when they decide to have the main character less perfect, or even villainous. When flaws are present in a protagonist, readers are drawn to the story, given a new point of view, bringing new concepts and ideas to the audience that they may not have thought of before.

For most of society, the word Disney elicits warm feelings: memories of early Saturday mornings with family watching cartoons, family trips to Disney World, or a movie that was so encapsulating it was watched over and over again. Disney achieves a high level of regard from most of society unparalleled by other companies. Penn State education professor, Henry A. Giroux, accompanied by Grace Pollock, argues in his book The Mouse That Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence that society is blinded by Disney’s façade of “childhood innocence” and that Disney’s marketing tactics are far from innocent at all.

There are plenty of hotbed issues on how the Disney corporation’s sociological and socio political ideologies are embedded into their products and how they affect children, but very few ask why Disney would place hidden ideologies in their movies/shows. What reasons would Disney have to program children with outdated morals while trying desperately to uphold a model image of innocence? What practices has the disney corporation practiced that some would consider immoral or even illegal? To answer these questions the following issues must be explored in more depth: The history and actions of Disney from its inceptions to the present,Walt’s strict “moral” code along with the legacy he left behind, the policies of Disneyland

Fairy tales make an important part of cultural prophecy, because they contain wisdom which is passed from parents to their children. They contain basic moral and ethical guidelines for children. Images and symbols used in fairy tales can help to judge about cultural, ethical, social and moral values popular in the contemporary society. Changes and similarities, which can be found in the popular fairy tale Cinderella by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, version of 1812 and the Disney version of Cinderella (2015), can help to realize the changes in cultures and historical epochs.

Disney's sleeping beauty was my favorite of the four sleeping beauty’s and Beastly being my favorite of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tales. I highly suggest the Beastly movie and also the basic Disney Sleeping Beauty movie if you have not already saw it, and if you have seen them i’d watch them over again because they are great movies. How different did the less commonly heard movies seem too you?

He described a term that he referred to as “Disneyfication”, which he defined as “an idea of taking an environment and creating a fantasy world out of it by sanitizing it and making it devoid of any sort of impurity, Disney as a corporation tries to do that, and it affects children” (Stereotypes, 2013). While their parents are off running errands, or working their children rush home from school and turn on the T.V. to their favorite Disney channel movies, and get lost in the fantasy world of Walt Disney where all things can happen, characters are shown ideally and therefore unrealistically and there is always a happy ending.

The Walt Disney Corporation over the past century has become a phenomenon of its own, transcending into the lives of families globally. Recently, a popular trend has been to reinvent their one-time classic films, Sleeping Beauty for instance. With the release of Maleficent, Disney sought to change the perception of the film and retell the story with a new spin. Evidently, a change this large caused mixed reviews in the reception of the film. However, one group that was strongly appreciative of the new rendition was that of feminism. With Maleficent’s story retold in a manner supporting a strong female lead, rather than Aurora who slept through the majority of the film, Disney set the stage of female empowerment. In the article Imagining

The Disney Company has been criticized for “behind closed doors” capitalism tactics, rarely has its movies; employment; and theme parks been publicly attacked and condemned with strict attention. Yet, it is still Yet, it is quite possible to find such attacks (Unofficial Anti-Disney Website, for example). As mentioned in the beginning of this letter, Disney uses slogans and tactics to give society a view of their company as if they were wearing rose-colored glasses.

Fairy tales have been embedded into our culture and date back before recorded times, they provide a source of entertainment and imagination for children. Despite today’s fairy tales having positive moral intentions they have been adapted from earlier versions which often can be very different and much more sinister. The fairy tale “Sun, Moon, and Talia” by Giambattista Basile formed the basis for the more commonly known Disney interpretation called the “Sleeping Beauty” however they are vastly different, Basile’s original is a very dark and twisted story compared to the Disney version.

Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty story is widely considered one of Disney’s best traditional fairytales, and modern-day Disney executives decided to translate the entire story to live action. I’m going to be comparing the Disney storybook version of Sleeping Beauty, to the modern day, live-action film, Maleficent, highlighting differences and similarities.

The past has a great influence on present culture. However ideas and themes of the past can change with time. This is true with the ideas associated with the medieval castle. These castles, which once served as a military fortress as well as a residence, are now often associated with the fantastical, popular images people can have of the middle ages. Sleeping Beauty's castle at Disneyland is a good example because it represents an idea to many people of what a medieval castle may have looked like. However the Disney castle is not an exact representation of a medieval castle. The differences in style and architecture between the Sleeping Beauty Castle and a medieval castle reflect each castle's varying

"Once upon a time in the land of nothing" said Aria "Really? That 's the name of the land?" Said North "Yup, got a problem with it?" "Not at all. Asides from the fact that I think it 's stupid" "Yeah well you know you didn 't have to come here." said Aria "Well how else would I tell you how stupid your stories are?" "Whatever" "Well keep telling me the story." "No sorry I just remembered that I have to go today remember?" "Oh. Right sorry." "I know I think it 's stupid but what ever, The king 's rules" "Right. Anyways I should probably go anyways. Bye!" "I liked North, He had lit blond hair and was really tanned, he was almost always outside, you 'd think he 'd be cursed to never come into the shade. I laughed at myself.