Fayes Essay

Submitted By Faye-Mclellan
Words: 762
Pages: 4

Meanings are always being created in audio-visual practices, some meanings tend to be favoured over others. Ideologies are fundamental beliefs and we can be exposed to them through the media, in this case - animation.
Ideologies are all about making particular social outcomes seem natural. There are different types of these ideologies one being feminist critique, this focuses on gender and sexual identity. This is evident in films such as Snow White due to most of the other if not all of the Disney princesses being perceived as a helpless victim who must be saved by a man and whose main talents seem to involve singing and doing housework. Snow White is seen as the ‘mother’ towards the dwarfs as she lives with them, they need someone to clean. She is presented a 14-year old princess with short hair as black as ebony, full lips as red as the rose, skin white as snow, and brown eyes. However Early versions of Snow White where she looked like Betty Boop have been revealed after they were scrapped by Walt Disney because he decided she was too sexy. The drawing was created 80 years ago when Disney asked the cartoon artists that designed caricature flapper girl Betty Boop to come up with a princess for his first ever feature-length animated film. Their depiction showed the main character from the Brothers Grimm fairy tale with red pouting lips and elongated eyelashes holding up her dress to show her ankles in a provocative manner. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2730798/Early-version-Snow-White-look-like-Betty-Boop.html) Her only enemy is her step-mother. Within Disney films the villain is usually an evil older women with more power and she is always destroyed. All in all Snow White basically is a happy homemaker who waits for a man to come along and bring her back to life.

Feminist critique is also evident in beauty and the beast as it focuses on gender. However, the most important problem in this movie is not the Disney company's idea of an independent woman. The problem is how Disney changed the hero, and the message of the story.
In the original story, the Beast looks terrible and frightening, but he is really kind and gentle. The message of the story is that you should not judge someone by what they look like. An ugly outside can hide a loving heart. Disney changed this, the company decided to create a Beast with a 'very serious problem'. Disney's Beast terrifies his household and frightens Belle, his prisoner. The Beast does not attack Belle, but the threat of physical violence is present. In the Disney movie, Belle changes the character of the Beast. Her beauty and her sweet nature change him from a beast into a prince, from someone who is cruel, into someone who is kind. So the movie's message is very different from