Have you ever wondered why Disney's villains are either "fat and old witches" or "a little girly boys"? From Ursula in The Little Mermaid to Jia Fang in Aladdin, if "bad as a bad as ever" is the only one, is the villain in the fairy tale somekind stereotype?
Disney animation, accompanied by each child's growth, in recent years, one by one remake of the real version of the film, in addition to the princess, prince selection, real villains are often the focus of attention, such as Angelina Jolie starred in "Black Wonder Woman 2", 2020 will be released "Flower Magnolia" will also be by Gong Li as a great villain witch. There are also unreleased "The Little Mermaid" Ursula, 101 Loyal Dog series prequel "Kuila."
Photo: "Flower Magnolia"
Think back to Disney's classic villains - the unscrupulous stepmother who kept the children in the attic for three meals, the queen witch who was fighting for power, hiding in the dark corners of the sea, the forest, the tree holes, ten fingers of the thin, pale or waxy pale, or wiping the big red lipstick, bright but eerie purple eye shadow, Once open mouth can reveal like a wild tooth, their desire is forever filled in the hole of discontent - draw on the young beauty, eager to take power.
Photo : Snow White
Photo : The Little Mermaid
These roles, mostly played by women, even if not women, are still portrayed as "males" with feminine traits, such as Jia Fang in Aladdin and Dr. Ho in The Frog Princess, who always have eye-scratching eyes, equally slender nails, slim shapes, emphasisons their negative temperament, behavior and tradition. Masculinity is very different.
Photo: "Frog Princess"
Why are the villains in fairy tales feminine and feminine?
In Disney movies, in addition to princesses have a formula: naive, romantic, pure and flawless, and compared to the negative, the fairy tale of heroes and princes also have a set of formulas, they have broad shoulders, square chin, strong muscles, showing the so-called "manly" should have to behave: they will archery, riding horses, Fight, fight. Although Prince and The Hero are not the main characters in Disney's princess series, Disney's animated films still have fixed templates and norms for the hero characters.
According to Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas, 55 percent of Disney's animated movies are negative for women and negative men, and 25 percent of them have a thin profile. S1
In order to highlight the dramatic tension and establish obvious good/evil opposition, Disney presents some kind of "regular" and "transgressive" character design in the design of righteous and anti-establishment characters. When heroes become conventional, so-called transgressions, they represent evil, which involves a gender-based temperament and a criticism of a woman's appearance.
Male villains are neither as masculine as the hero prince, without strong muscles, without a rough voice and behavior, as in "Aladdin" Jia Fang and "Frog Princess" Dr. Ho, "The Lion King" scar, "Little Flying Man" captain Huke. Chen Ying in "Non-Ordinary Evil: Disney's Anti-Trump and Queer Reading," from the documentary David Thorpe's Do I Sound Gay? Extending to the villainous characters in animated films, their voices are often designed to be softened and gay:
In Disney animation, evil and femininity are equated through the femininity of the villain. This evil and feminine equidistant equistivity is both a build-up, it is not true, and even a stigma - in popular culture, the sofenty image is mostly owned by the villains and is thus recognized as evil or negative; - Chen Ying-Ying is not ordinary evil: Disney's Anti-Semitic and Queer Reading
Photo : The Lion King
Photo : Aladdin
And female villains, they are usually yellow-faced, drooping, fat figure, with strange makeup, like the dark witch Mayfeser, 101 dog Kuila, the little mermaid Ursula - in the social gender role setting, they are not heterosexual attraction, even more, can not be considered female.
Photo : The Little Mermaid
Do not conform to the gender norms of them, is regarded as abnormal and momentous, so the villain sedited cruel, selfish, greedy, appearance is either old and fat, or weak can not help the wind.
When the villain is negative, the negative temperament is easily linked to negative images such as evil. Amanda Putnam mentions that Disney's films try to create villains who, if they are boys, will be mother-to-woman, pinching lotus fingers, and sharp voices, and, if they are girls, "masticculin", who crave power and ambition. When the character is shaped with gender connection, it is easy to stigmatize the gender temperament outside:
In Disney's films, villains are shaped not only by their evil desires and choices, but also by their misbehaviour. By creating a transsexual-like evil character, Disney builds an implicit assessment of transgender, clearly linked to cruelty, selfishness, barbarism, and greed.
When the animation is full of stereotypes, will Disney make a difference in the live version?
It's been 82 years since Disney released its first animated film, Snow White, in 1937, and has been portrayed as a stereotype of the "bad guys" in the past. If from the recent Disney live version, "Black Witch", "Aladdin" and even the news of the release of "Flower Magnolia", "Kuira", the hope is that the film and animation in the degree of dramatization is incomparable, so the characters show temperament, appearance and animation will be different.
Even if we can't know for sure whether Disney has ambitions to change the negatives of the villain, it's safe to say that Disney is trying to adapt the script and build more three-dimensional characters from the first perspective of the villains, such as "The Dark Woman" from the Meffield background story to the battle for desire, to understand her every decision is absolutely good and evil. The villains have the right to speak and can tell their stories in a comprehensive way. To a considerable extent, Disney is breaking the good/evil opposition in the cartoon.
When we question Disney's fairy tales, don't forget that Disney's fairy tale world has its beauty, the selflessness, courage and kindness shown in the animation, which has created a great example for countless children, including you and Me who have become adults. From the recent Disney moves, you can feel that they are constantly subverting the stereotype of fairy tales, perhaps, we can look forward to the near future, Disney can step by step to create a diverse and equal fairy tale world.