Princesses and fairytales

Veronica takes her brood to watch Disney princesses skate into Prince Charming's arms.

Recently watched "Shrek" and "Monsters Inc" with the SO. My DVD collection consists of 1) sci-fi or martial arts action (jet li, star wars, dune, etc), 2) women of color breaking boundaries (Bend it like Beckham, Kama Sutra, Frida), 3) movie musicals (sound of music, west side story) and 4) cartoon movies (finding nemo, samurai jack).

I really enjoyed "Shrek" and "Monsters Inc." They are so different from the Disney stories available when I was growing up. Now, everyone is in the act of making kid's films. A friend of mine asks her daughter whether she wants to watch the Chocolate or Vanilla Cinderella.

Pixar's films that it's done for Disney have not really been about finding love. But more about conquering fears in order to save/help the ones you love: Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc. And that love is usually a friendship/buddy love as opposed to the romantic prince on a white steed love which often sent the message of marry cute and marry money. oh hell, just marry. As I got older and learned some Fil-Am history, I wondered if Snow White was kind of like a metaphor for Filipino communities in the 1920s-1930s. Lots of short men, one white woman, and some evil spector trying to kill them all.

Shrek, since is came out just as one of the key Disney folks went and created Dreamworks, is just an all out sarcastic jab a the Disney-esque world of perfection. It also has a hero that's not all that pretty on the outside and a princess who doesn't have to be the Barbie beauty to get the guy.

I still enjoy Disney movies. They are classics in one sense. And I did have fun going to Disneyland on family trips as a kid. But taking a step back and looking at the marketing giant Disney telling us they are the "happiest place on earth," I never stopped to ask what exactly that happiness means. In one sense, it's this euphoric place where every gets along, and the the grass is trim, and the streets are neat. But for young girls in particular, there's the image of being a princess and getting the man who is going to save us from well, I guess, ourselves and our dire predicaments because we are cursed and don't have real mothers. It's like the story of Eve all over again.

It takes a lot to protect these stories too. Disney was one of the corporations who pushed the US government to extend copyright law for corporations so they could keep Mickey Mouse pristine for another generation before copycats are allowed to "dilute" Mickey's image. Who cares that extending copyright to something like 95 years also hinders other fields to create innovations on other people's ideas? Something that we have used as a country to spur and sustain growth.

But today's girls have a lot more options, there are more folks in the game of making stories and films for kids, though Disney does distribute many of these, like Miyazaki's Spirited Away, about a spoiled 10 year old that must do what she can to rescue her parents in the spirit world. Or Kiki's Delivery Service, about a young girl witch who must fly off on her own in order to explore her true gifts.

Then there's the PowerPuff Girls that even have a following amongst adult women. There's just a wider range of girl roles and characters finding love and sometimes not. Because life is not always about Prince Charming and finding true love.