From Snow White to Ebony Black: the Evolution of a Disney Princess

What makes a Disney princess? Is it the gorgeous hair? Is it the tiny waist? Is is the cute little animals she always seems to befriend? Is it the stunning singing voice? Is it the kind, good-hearted nature? Is it the weakness for handsome princes and other masculine yet noble men? Is it the mysterious ability to attract evil forces to distress her life? Is it the fool-proof guarantee for happy endings?

More or less, it is about all of these. Maybe more about the good heart and less about the tiny waist. Or the other way around, I don't know. Anyway, the concept of a 'Disney Princess' means something, at least for me, and it should for generations of little girls before and after me. While boys had superheroes and ninja turtles and jedi knights, we had Disney princesses to look up to and model ourselves after. (I wish I could say that I was one of those cool, modern girls you pretended to be Donatello in their little make-believe games, but sadly, no.)

When it comes to Disney heroines, some things never change. You can find a few good examples of such qualities above. But some things have changed, parallelling the changing of the world. There's no way there could have been a Mulan or an Esmeralda starring the first Disney feature films, and on the other hand, in this day and age they would not raise a character like Snow White as a protagonist anymore.

I guess I ended up having a bit more feminist point of view to this post than I was originally supposed to, but never mind. Also, it slowly grew to be monstrously lengthy.

Warning: There is a chance your childhood idol gets bashed a little. But don't worry, most of MY childhood idols are quite safe!

Every revolution begins with a spark

And every wait for a Hunger Games movie begins with an incredibly cool motion poster. I remember seeing the similar poster for the first film, and the shivers were huge, because that was the first piece of the movie Hunger Games that we ever got. Now, I think I just grinned and looked stupid. Another cool logo. Tick tock, it's a clock. See the poster here.
 

The premier of Catching Fire is still a year away, so the hype should be kept to the minimum. But I can hardly wait to see the first pictures of Finnick and Johanna and all the other new characters! And the arena, with the pink sky and all! Ok, no more hype.

"This is no place for a girl on fire."

A year. A friggin' year...

Nostalgia

In the past couple of days (that can mean two days or two weeks or more, however you want to see it) I've had way too much free time (meaning I have hardly any lectures but SHOULD be doing IMMENSE amounts of independent study), so I've found myself making some dips in the nostalgic pool of my past passions and addictions. There's been the usual, more recent stuff like The Hunger Games and Klaine, but I also enjoyed some Chaplin comedy again the other day, and really feel like I need a fix of River Phoenix, too. And all this Episode VII talk makes me want to put on another 6-movie marathon, because it's been way too long.

Today I made the fateful mistake and was silly enough to read one of my posts from the early summer of 2010. That time was important in my fangirling life in the sense that Lost ended in May, and I was left nursing a hole bigger and more aching than no other fictional work has ever left in me (except for the Harry Potter books, maybe). This means that I wrote a lot about Lost. And now I read one of those post. And you know, if I give Lost my little finger, it'll soon have my whole hand. Both hands. And feet, and all my other limbs, too. I'm lucky I don't have the DVD's at my flat right now. Still, another Complete Lost Marahtron is an inevitability waiting to happen.

"Dear diary. Still on the bloody island. Today I swallowed a bug."

Good times!

In other news, I am currently occupying myself in catching up on my New Year Resolutions (I'm trying to tackle August at the moment, so there's still some way to go), being addicted to Breaking Bad (pun kind of intended) and feeling sorry for myself for being so broke that I'm not free to go to movies anytime I feel like it. Then again, I'm silly and easily persuaded, so the other day I agreed to go to see Paranormal Activity 4 with some friends. I've only seen the first one (and I'm pretty sure I was drunk at the time), and I haven't seen a horror movie in cinema since The Ring 2, which is for a reason. So, at the theatre I noticed that the new Bond was playing at the same time, and I started a passionate persuading process to convince my friends to go see that instead. We couldn't make up our minds, so at the ticket booth one round of rock-paper-scissors made the decision. I lost, and slept with the lights on the following night. And it wasn't even a particularly scary movie! I don't know how I slept after The Ring 2. Maybe I didn't.

Now I'm just waiting for The Hobbit, while hoping no one will say a word to me about Breaking Dawn Part 2, because I know I'd just say what the hell and throw that money to the wind.

I mentioned Breaking Bad; I should really write a post about it, it's a pretty cool show. Apparently I'm also writing my Bachelor's Thesis on it. Humanities, you know...

Also, I have a massive, Disney-related post on the way, which I've been working on for a year or something. It's the bomb! Although it has nothing to do with Breaking Bad. That Jesse Pinkman slang is just contagious.

EDIT// It's soon 1am and I've been sitting here for hours watching and listening to Disney videos on YouTube. This is going to be a long night...