Disney Villanesses go on extreme diet?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/emma-gray/disney-villains-little-mermaid-u...
It seems that Ursula, Ariel's nemesis in "The Little Mermaid," has lost her curves. The once full-figured character has been transformed into a much smaller version of herself for a new Disney Villains Designer Collection of figurines and beauty products.
According to the Disney Blog: "Designed and carefully crafted to capture the essence of evil at its best dressed, the Villains Designer Collection re-imagines the stylish wickedness of classic Disney Villains." Apparently part of this "re-imagination" involves making Ursula lose two-thirds of her body weight. But was putting the evil sea witch on a cartoon diet really necessary?
She's not the first character to undergo a transformation. Strawberry Shortcake went from looking like Raggedy Ann to having long, flowing locks and a lither figure. The same goes for Rainbow Brite, and even My Little Pony was forced to slim down. Companies seem to think that thinner means more commercial value.
Disney is clearly trying to make their traditional evil women into hip ladies that younger women want to aspire to be like -- or at least look like. I wonder why that vision couldn't include some body diversity.
Jezebel's Dodai Stewart put it best: "... was Ursula forced to go on a crash diet so she could model for beauty products? Because that's bullsh*t." Amen.
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So even cartoons need to be a size 0 now?
Got to agree there. I loved Pinky and Perky and adored Florence in Magic roundabout :O)
Talking back, all smart and disrespectfully, to grown ups is now considered far more acceptable than it was back when I was a kid. Years back had I to refer to my grannies and mom as "old one" and "crazy cow" I'd have been beaten well and good, unlike my nephews and nieces who actually have the grown ups themselves laughing at their nicknames as though it's the funniest joke in the world.
And calling someone auntie and uncle seems to be the practice of the ancient!
And oh! the expletives some of these kids sprout off..makes me wanna seriously wash their mouths with soap and water!
Am I the only one growing weary of seeing "precocious" (rude and disrespectful) kids talking at adults like equals?
We had Thomas the Tank Engine and Winnie the Pooh (and not the awful Disney version) when I was growing up. How times have changed.
of Ben10,Sponge Bob,Shrek etc I'd say kids today are just not into all these ethereal and unbelievably good(read boring)characters and prefer the more exciting and comparatively naughtier caricatures. Gone were the days of weeping one's lil eyes out at how cruel em hunters were for killing Umm Bambi!
Lol!
Do you think that maybe if the wicked Queen had eaten a few apples herself, rather than poisoning them and laying them as bait for Snow White, she mightn't have been such a grumpy, nasty woman?
The images of Snow White from that movie, by today's standards, are deathly boring. So pure and chaste and plain. Not the kind of character that Disney could sell by today's standards.
Do kids these days still find the idea of Bambi cute and caring, or just dull?
Maybe Disney and other cartoonists of that era were indeed hinting that their villainous characters had shades of promiscuity as well.
Today being thin is certainly something most if not all young girls aspire to be. And perhaps it maybe some kinda anti anorexia movement then to portray the evil ladies to be the skinny ones. We all know after all how moody we can get when on starvation diets, maybe even downright nasty!
The Queen of Hearts was all woman. So perhaps it is only now , in the PC era that Disney is trying to be cautious about how it portrays the villians..
Come to think of it, Cruella de Vil was pretty cool. And that car!!
But if you think about it, the first animated Disney movie is from 1937 - Snow White, and the Evil Queen back then (75 years ago) was pretty slim and sexy.
Maybe back then, being thin was considered evil, or was looked down upon, because it gave hints that a woman was sexually liberal, shall we say. Nowadays most young girls want to be rake thin.
By Disney?? Who tried to ban Gay Days at their park? Not their M.O. Brit. I would say they were trying to villainize homosexuality not glorify it.
A bit FH. I did prefer Simba though.
lol. But didn't scar have the whole dark and handsome look going for him?
Remember Jaffar from Aladin.. :o(
Not wishing to side track the discussion, but is it because there are more gays in the media and this is a way of slowly introducing chahracters with effiminate traits to ensure gradual acceptance and likeability of gays ?
What to do Brit yanni....but to express my "cannibalistic" character through words (lol)
LOL. That's the first time I've heard someone call the Disney Villains attractive and cool! There are huge essays online about how Disney makes all of its Villains gay!
Just think of Scar from Lion King & Jaffar from Aladdin. Very effeminate.
The good the bad and the ugly! What I have always found slightly unnerving is the need to make villainous characters seem all eerily attractive and cool. They generally have the better dialogs as opposed to the holier than thou ways of the goodies, and most of the time their background scores are made to sound better. And many times they look good too!
Wouldn't that make kids wanna copy them instead of the heroines? I know I did.As a child I far preferred the Misfits to Jem, and always aspired to be more like them than the sickly sweet holograms!
I must disagree with your signature regarding "eating" fellow humans :O(
Oh no! Now Ursula looks like Yzma :o
thats 2/3 of cost in dolls and figurines, thats just business. just like clothes not. everything seems to shrink after the first wash!
Maybe they are trying to divert attention away from the inspiration for Ursula's character
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_(actor)
Maybe they were short of material to make Ursula so decided to improvise. The things these big organizations do to gain publicity...
Perhaps it would have been better to make some heavier heroines?
No!
Skinny people can be both good and evil ..
So skinny people are evil?
Perhap[s the reason is that they don't want kids to associate big with evil. This way, they can show that both good and evil come in similar packaging :O)