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Maybe we're too hard on Disney. After all, they simply remake classic stories in cartoon form. What's not to like? Well, as you'll see, it all depends on just how much thought you apply to it. Here's seven pretty terrible lessons that Disney films taught us, whether they meant to or not. #7.
The Lion King: To Be Successful, Sometimes People Got to Die
Simba always knew that he was going to succeed his father, Mufasa, as the next Lion King. But fate liked spitting in poor little Simba's face, and his dear old dad got trampled to death by wildebeests. Of course, Mufasa's death was really caused by the evil Scar, Simba's uncle. Later, all grown up, he reclaims his thrown and Scar suffers the double whammy of falling off a cliff and getting torn apart by hyenas. So after two particularly nasty and horrendous deaths, Simba finally becomes the lion king. The Supposed Message: We all have responsibilities we can't ignore. And don't trust that creepy uncle. The Actual Message: In order for you to be successful, other people will have to pay. And ultimately, that's okay, because the ends justify the means!
First you have Scar, who knew he couldn't be king of the pridelands until that dick Mufasa and his brat son were out of the way. So Scar did away with both of them, killing Mufasa and banishing Simba, and, as a result, he got to be king for a descent amount of time. Then when Simba started to grow some balls, he took back his throne... but only after Scar himself took a dirt nap. It's true that Simba didn't intentionally kill him, but you know who did? The screenwriter. After all, the movie doesn't end with Simba convincing Scar to renounce his evil ways, or putting Scar in lion jail.
No, the message was sent loud and clear: Simba could not be the true king unless Scar was dead. And they even arranged it so that Simba wouldn't have any of the pesky guilt that would have come with actually doing the deed himself. Everyone lived happily ever after. Except Scar of course, whose body was slowly pooped out by several hyenas the next day. #6.
Cinderella: Sort of Like "The Secret"
Cinderella is forced by her bitchy stepmother to clean the house from stem to stern every day. The only thing that prevents her from swallowing a bottle of pain killers is her belief that someday her dreams will come true. One day Cinderella plans to attend a ball thrown by the prince, but the fact that she has a cutthroat bitch for a stepmother completely slipped her mind. She is forbidden from going.
Luckily, it turns out Cinderella has a fairy godmother, who uses her magic to hook Cinderella up with a ride, a beautiful outfit and a pair of what would seem like grossly impractical glass heels. At the ball Cinderella uses her innate flirting skills and rocks the prince's world, to the point that the next day the prince whisks her away to be his princess. The Supposed Message: Dreams do come true! The Actual Message: If you wait around long enough, the universe will practically hand stuff to you.
No one is denying the fact that Cinderella's life was one big shit stain. But in her state of mind, she actually thought that her dreams would just sort of happen if she sat around being miserable long enough. It never occurred to her that she had the ability to just tell her stepmother to go fuck herself. Instead she kept scrubbing floors and believing that, if she continued to wish very hard and take absolutely no action, everything would fall into place. And what do you know, the bitch gets a fucking kingdom out of it. So don't worry, girls. Some kind of "Fairy Godmother" will sweep into your life at any moment, and find you a man to take care of everything. Just keep wishing! #5.
The Little Mermaid: A Little Deal with the Devil Never Hurt Nobody
A little mermaid named Ariel, who is presumably little in title only since she has one impressively big rack, dreams of living her life on shore and finding her true love. Well, a clearly evil sea-witch named Ursula offers to give the naive mermaid legs in exchange for something she probably might need in the future: her voice. When Ariel makes it to shore, she realizes the Sea-Bitch screwed her, as her legs work with the grace of a drunken paraplegic and she can't speak. So now she must somehow make Prince Eric fall in love with her while appearing to be either mute or retarded.
By some miracle, the prince takes the bait (again, note the rack) but then Ursula, who in the cartoon seems to be portrayed as a black drag queen, goes after the couple. The prince is forced to kill Ursula by stabbing her with a ship. As a result, Ariel gets both her legs and her voice. The Supposed Message: True love conquers all! The Actual Message: A little compromise with evil is okay, as long as everything works out okay in the end! Ariel loved to sing, and she sang pretty damn well. But she wanted to live on shore and find love so bad that she made a "deal" with a "devil" and "sells" her beautiful voice, or "soul" so to speak.
And guess what? It worked. Sure, the writers threw in some complications in the form of Prince Eric having to send Ursula straight to Disney Hell, but the fact of the matter remains that Ariel would never have gotten to meet Prince Eric at all had she not compromised with the evil queen in the first place. She made a figurative deal with the devil, got everything she wanted and came out completely unscathed. So keep that in mind if you have to, say, sleep with some dude to get that acting role. None of that will matter once you achieve your dreams! #4.
Beauty and the Beast: Just Because He's Abusive, Doesn't Mean He's Not a Really Good Guy
After a spoiled prince pretty much tells an old beggar woman to fuck off, he is transformed into a beast, as it turns out the beggar is an enchantress. And she makes it very clear that until he learns to love and thus is loved in return, there will be no ladies in his life and it's just going to be him and his hand for a very long time. As luck would have it, there happens to be a woman out there named Belle with a heart big enough to share with unfortunate-looking people such as the Beast, and she's not too bad to look at either. When her father is kidnapped by the Beast, Belle offers herself in exchange for his freedom.
Against all odds, they fall in love. The townspeople snap and try and kill the Beast, but because Belle admits she loves him, the Beast turns back into a man and the two live happily ever after. The Supposed Message: Treat others the way you wish to be treated! The Actual Message: Underneath the abusive exterior of your man is a loving heart he's just dying to share with you. First of all, Belle was a prisoner in the Beast's fucking castle. Nothing says "I love you" like house arrest. Secondly, he wasn't exactly whispering sweet nothings in her ear. The Beast hurled insults at Belle at every chance, and came close to pimp slapping the shit out of her on more than one occasion.
But she ignored all that unimportant trivia, because the Beast had a loving heart! Sure he gets angry sometimes, but that's just how he is. And, in the end, he turned back into a sexy, romantic prince. It's all good now. Her patience paid off, girls, and it will for you, too! If you just stick with it and don't judge your man too harshly. Or call the cops. |
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Compare Disney's version of Sleeping Beauty to the original, pre-Grimm folk tale, in which the prince rapes the sleeping beauty multiple times, gets her pregnant and has children by her all before she wakes up. And she still marries him.
you seem to have forgotten something in Beauty and the Beast. Belle did not stick through an abusive relationship. hell as soon as the beast yelled at her and threatened her, she left, her promise forgotten. then she ran into a pack of wolves who the beast saved her from and got himself badly beaten up. she only stayed then to take care of him and if he hadn't changed his attitude she would have left again
and in Sleeping Beauty Philip and Aurora had already met before hand and they had been attracted to each other so they weren't strangers
and you obviously no nothing about the Hunchback sequel because in that Quasimodo does indeed find himself a woman and a pretty one at that
To be fair about Sleeping Beauty, Prince Philip and Aurora did know each other, and there was an attraction between them before the whole "poke the spindle and go into a coma" scene. They did not know that the other was royalty, but they were not strangers.
I agree with the first six but I've not sure about the last. I thought it was pretty clear that the ending was supposed to be sad and unfair. That's actually one thing I like about the movie. It didn't have an ideal happy ending but one that was pretty realistic given the circumstances.
Have you ever watched a Disney film? Sleeping Beauty: Maleficent commands an army, carries a giant staff and ties up and sexually tortures Prince Phillip. The Little Mermaid: Ursula oozes sexuality, she dresses slutty with lots of makeup, she has a song about how to entrap men without speaking and she seeks to usurp the rightful male king and place herself on the throne. On the male side we have The Lion King: Scar is a total pansy, he never fights he simply has others do the "dirty work" for him, he is voiced with a British accent, and despite being the head of a pride of lions displays zero interest in getting lucky with any of the smoking hot lionesses. Beauty and the Beast: Gaston reeks of homosexuality. He has a peculiarly close relationship with Lefou, he's obsessed with his looks and let's not forget, he's French.
Are you shitting me? Did YOU ever watch a Disney movie? All your facts are wrong.
Sleeping Beauty: So Maleficient carries a staff and commands an army, what evil magic-user doesn't?
Little Mermaid: Ursula was based on a drag queen! And yes, she wants to usurp the throne from King Neptune, but that's called being power hungry. She's got an octopus body! Octopi aren't sexy!
Lion King: Oh yeah, he totally let everyone else do all the dirty work, except for when he dropped Mufasa into the stampede! And what do you mean he doesn't fight anyone? What about Simba? He fought him on a cliff! Also, a British accent usually is a sign of cunning and politeness.
Beauty and the Beast: Gaston's relationship with Lefou, his little assistant, is not a homosexual one. He knocks the guy over and makes him do all the work. And by the way, there's a difference between metrosexuality and narcissism. Okay, I'll give you the French thing. But they were in FRANCE!!!
Janatcracked, I hope you think a little more about what you put, because some of will rip on another's argument when it's bad.
Wo-oh double post but @ Nicodemus you're so called "knowledge" of Hamlet is laughable. Before you start cursing down something for not being an adaption or calling others illiterate, it's probs a good idea to be aware of character names (Polonius, darlin, not Promethius) and details (the equivalent of Ophelia would be the love interest). And just because Shakespeare borrowed a couple of stories from ancient history, it does not make him any less of a legitimate genius.
I've got a better one for The Little Mermaid - looks ARE everything. Without the meddling of those two eels, the Prince totally would've kissed Ariel anyway, proving that a girl doesn't need to open her mouth to win her man.
Oh what the hell I'll go ahead and say it anyway. Copper is one awesome looking dog (when he's older). Look at the picture at the very top of the article. Anyone know what kind of dog he is? I'm thinking American Foxhound. Can anyone confirm that?
How would the gypsy marry the hunchback? We don't want more people with deformities being born!. Eugenesia and eutanasia may be good tools, but it's better to ensure the right females are mounted by the rigth males. That's the hunchback lessons in a shorter more blunt way.
nice article.
i never liked the double moral disney seems te be using, like when the beast is abusive and still gets the girl, but quasimodo is such a nice guy, yet doesn't get the girl.
disney did kind of make up for 'marry the guy who saves you' when they made 'enchanted' though.
OilPaint: Maleficent...was a GOD-damn wicked fairy, not a witch. It is insinuated that she was virtuous at one point in time but turned evil.
As for everyone else who decides to pick Disney movies apart, really...we all still love 'em. They're fucked-up, but entertaining.
uh. the dan brown thing was a joke. i was implying that you should stick to an intellectual level that you can comprehend. Lion King as an adaptation of hamlet? come on.
Notice how out of the large Disney catalog 4 out of the 7 movies listed here are from the Eisner era! I've grown up liking a good majority of Disney movies but felt the company took a nose dive starting with Little Mermaid. I know many may disagree and Eisner certainly was good for profitability but the messages presented in these later films bothered me somewhat. I'll take the Rescuers or Aristocats any day.
go read some Dan Brown A$$hole!!
joeys1083, you are an idiot... Ebert is simply morbidly obese.
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19940624/REVIEWS/406240301/1023
I think Ebert has cordially invited Nicodemus to eat his dead d$ck.
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@ tohrucorinne
It's impressive that you've hated Disney since it became a company. That would make you past 80.
Nicodemus: You, sir, are f*****g retarded. It was stated on a Lion King DVD before that the movie was HEAVILY influenced by Hamlet, and I'm pretty sure the people who actually made the movie are a much better judge of what influences are present in the film than some random kid who read The Da Vinci Code.
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@rickyayshi
Oh you mean the movie that's so horrible that it makes Quantum of Solace look like Casino Royale. HoND2 is the kind of movie that any with any taste in movies at all will contemplate how much closer they are to death because of the time they pissed away on that snoozefest.
Also the lady Quasi falls for is horrendous. It could be the poor animation but really she's so ugly it makes Frollo look like a model. So in a way it's quite fitting.