I'll tell you why I didn't like the movie.
And I know a lot of you did or haven't seen it or don't care, but...
I didn't like it.
I heard a lot of chatter about this movie, mostly because I am the sort of anti-princess. Or maybe anti-Disney. Not completely but the barbaric things they do to the parents, they way they pull characters apart, usually family... I'm getting ahead of myself.
This movie was typical Disney. It was no different than the ones that made me feel sad as a child.
As an adult, it didn't make me happy either. Especially sitting there with my daughter. I sort of wish I was taking her to see "Her".
Here's the thing. When I was growing up, in a broken home, someone was "taken" away from me (the fact that the bastard just left is beside the point), for a long period of my life, I felt that I had been robbed.
It was all kinda of sad and dark and there was no explanations. No reason.
Just like Disney.
In this cold ass movie, appropriately titled "Frozen", within the first 10 minutes they kill the parents.
They leave, for no known reason, without the kids, and unceremoniously die when their ship just disappears.
Let me go back (again). As a child, I had family just disappear so this thing that Disney seemingly always does has always rubbed me the wrong way. Why do they have to kill someone important in a movie? Aren't we supposed to be entertained? Do I need a life lesson at the age of 4? Is it necessary to show me how my life can instantly be ripped away? Why not show me (or the younger me, better yet, my daughter) that if you love hard and work hard, life can be really good and if you are lucky, your parents get to grow old and oh, I don't know-be grandparents?! Or maybe you don't have to get married or fall in love, although the thought of that makes me a little sad but what if we just highlight an amazing time in someone's life?
I remember thinking as a child that in these "kid" movies Disney was making, it seemed like they always took the Mothers away- or just didn't have them. I am pretty well adjusted now but as a kid, that was my biggest fear in life. She was all I had... I can't imagine my daughter watching these movies where the parents die and that thought popping into her head for the first time.
What an awful thing you will be responsible for, Disney. I might add that I think you should be ashamed of yourself. I don't know what kind of messed up childhood you had but I can't imagine walking up to an innocent child and putting the thought in her head that one day her parents might "go on a trip" and never return. Because my child actually has a pretty amazing life. She is smart and funny and her parents actually constantly work at being a good couple to insure that we are not only a family that stays together but a family that WANTS to stay together.
This girl of mine is just 4, you see. She is innocent. In her movies, I want her to laugh not cry, I want her to smile, not sigh. I need her to leave telling me funny things she saw, not wonder aloud "why 'hers' parents never came back to play with her".
She doesn't need to be thinking about not having parents, I mean OH MY GOD! How scary, right? She also doesn't need to be thinking about having a 20" waist when she's grown up, but that is for another day.
So today I will try to redirect her Q&A, as 4 year olds do... I will just try to teach her to be brave.
(I'm okay with that one.)
And I know a lot of you did or haven't seen it or don't care, but...
I didn't like it.
I heard a lot of chatter about this movie, mostly because I am the sort of anti-princess. Or maybe anti-Disney. Not completely but the barbaric things they do to the parents, they way they pull characters apart, usually family... I'm getting ahead of myself.
This movie was typical Disney. It was no different than the ones that made me feel sad as a child.
As an adult, it didn't make me happy either. Especially sitting there with my daughter. I sort of wish I was taking her to see "Her".
Here's the thing. When I was growing up, in a broken home, someone was "taken" away from me (the fact that the bastard just left is beside the point), for a long period of my life, I felt that I had been robbed.
It was all kinda of sad and dark and there was no explanations. No reason.
Just like Disney.
In this cold ass movie, appropriately titled "Frozen", within the first 10 minutes they kill the parents.
They leave, for no known reason, without the kids, and unceremoniously die when their ship just disappears.
Let me go back (again). As a child, I had family just disappear so this thing that Disney seemingly always does has always rubbed me the wrong way. Why do they have to kill someone important in a movie? Aren't we supposed to be entertained? Do I need a life lesson at the age of 4? Is it necessary to show me how my life can instantly be ripped away? Why not show me (or the younger me, better yet, my daughter) that if you love hard and work hard, life can be really good and if you are lucky, your parents get to grow old and oh, I don't know-be grandparents?! Or maybe you don't have to get married or fall in love, although the thought of that makes me a little sad but what if we just highlight an amazing time in someone's life?
I remember thinking as a child that in these "kid" movies Disney was making, it seemed like they always took the Mothers away- or just didn't have them. I am pretty well adjusted now but as a kid, that was my biggest fear in life. She was all I had... I can't imagine my daughter watching these movies where the parents die and that thought popping into her head for the first time.
What an awful thing you will be responsible for, Disney. I might add that I think you should be ashamed of yourself. I don't know what kind of messed up childhood you had but I can't imagine walking up to an innocent child and putting the thought in her head that one day her parents might "go on a trip" and never return. Because my child actually has a pretty amazing life. She is smart and funny and her parents actually constantly work at being a good couple to insure that we are not only a family that stays together but a family that WANTS to stay together.
This girl of mine is just 4, you see. She is innocent. In her movies, I want her to laugh not cry, I want her to smile, not sigh. I need her to leave telling me funny things she saw, not wonder aloud "why 'hers' parents never came back to play with her".
She doesn't need to be thinking about not having parents, I mean OH MY GOD! How scary, right? She also doesn't need to be thinking about having a 20" waist when she's grown up, but that is for another day.
So today I will try to redirect her Q&A, as 4 year olds do... I will just try to teach her to be brave.
(I'm okay with that one.)
I'm totally with you on this. It was always pretty odd when a parent would be 'missing' in Disney movies, and it would also be sad and scary if one of the parents died. I vividly remember watching The Fox and the Hound with my dad and worrying about my mom dying, as one of the main characters had lost his mom. I started really noticing Disney's tendency towards killing off parents when I was 12, though; It was the year The Lion King came out and the year that my dad died. I was much older than I was when I watched The Fox and the Hound with my dad, so, it didn't quite scare me in the same way. But it was still a heartbreaking moment when the father died. And then, my dad died. It went from being an enjoyable movie with a sad loss in it to being a heart wrenching, sucker punch in the rupture that had occurred in my life. I can't even begin to imagine how it would have impacted me had I been younger when those two events collided.
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