‘Tangled’ and the challenge for Disney heroines

(Press screening – see note below*)

This is going to be a week of Disney posts, as I’m in Orlando, being hosted by Disney for the christening of its new cruise ship the Disney Dream. More about that in upcoming posts.

For now I want to write about the latest Disney film Tangled. We were invited to a screening in London, but actually the kids had seen the film a couple of weeks earlier in our hotel in Santa Fe over Christmas – where they watched it three times.

Disney animated films, under the helm of John Lasseter who also oversees all the brilliant Pixar films, has been going back to its roots and focusing on the quality of hand-drawn animation. You can’t fault the look of the movie.

We saw it in both 2D and 3D and it looks fantastic, with beautiful “sets”, great action and exciting set pieces. The songs by the baddie Mother Gothel were the highlight of the movie for me. But is the Disney-style heroine still endure?

I know when my daughter was 4, 5 and even 6 she loved Disney. She had all the costumes for playing dress-up and debates could be heard with her friends on who was the best princess from the machine that Disney Princesses have become. But at age 7, my daughter is over these little cuties.

Her favourite character in the film isn’t Rapunzel but Pascal (pictured), the little chameleon sidekick. She loves his cheeky humour and his cute size. Now she’s debating the merits of Pascal versus the film’s funny, opinionated horse character with her brother.

The problem is the Disney heroines. They are all spunky and they’ve become more self-sufficient in recent times (Rapunzel has taught herself a kind of hair-incorporating martial arts reminiscent of the drum scene from House of Flying Daggers), but mostly these ladies all seem about the same. Spunky. self-sufficient but still tantalised mainly by love. Pretty in a very certain way – small noses, tiny frames, huge eyes. (They all also still hover in age around 18 years, which is amusing – still the perfect age to get married according to the studio, I guess.)

Of course, lots of Disney classics are based on longstanding fairy tales. I realise also that this type of story is, in a sense, the Disney trademark. But I think this one-track story template – however well-executed and entertaining and high quality – gives Disney films a built-in obsolescence with kids.

My 12-year-old enjoyed watching it while chilling out in a hotel room between family outings but wasn’t interested in seeing it again, even on the big screen in a glamorous Disney screening room. My daughter loved the event but was “eh” about the Rapunzel Barbie doll that came in our goody bag. She’s keeping the book they gave us because it has a spread on Pascal.

Compare that with the main characters of recent animated films that we love to watch over and over: a chubby Panda, Woody the cowboy and friends, Bolt the superdog. Lasseter has said he doesn’t want to turn Disney animated films into Pixar replicas and he’s right. Classic Disney fairy tales are a thread that runs from our childhood into our kids’ and Lasseter is reviving the art of hand-drawn animation.

But I’m ready for an update on the classic stories, a bit like Jane Austen’s got in film with movies like Clueless. I believe my daughter is ready for that too. Otherwise I think that she’ll quickly be moving on from these Disney movies to teen-oriented soaps.

We really liked Rapunzel with her acrobatics and her emotional journey. It’s just that we liked the chameleon, the horse and the baddie a little bit more.

What do you think of Disney heroines? Who’s your favourite or least favourite?

More Tangled reviews from bloggers:

A Modern Mother: What we thought of #Tangled

Mummy from the Heart: 3D cinema and Tangled

Living With Kids: What we thought

ParentDish: It’s not just a sweet girly movie

* We attended a press screening organised by Disney and received a goody bag containing promotional items.