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!

My TOP 10 favourite Disney songs

Disney wouldn't be Disney without the songs. They are used to set up a story, to introduce a character, to make people fall in love with each other, to learn what is going on in a character's head, or simply because there's nothing like a merry little song to spice up a scene. I've wondered and pondered over this list for a while now, and it's as complete as it can be. I didn't make a top five as usually, because five simply wouldn't have been enough. Hell, ten isn't enough! I had to exclude many songs that I like, even love. I picked only one song from each film, to get some versatility. There's one exception though, sorry. Voila, dig in. (Making this list was so much fun! I don't now if it was the topic or what but I really enjoyed myself. Should've made it a top 20...)

10. I'll make a man out of you from Mulan (1998)

 In this training montage scene Captain Shang struggles to turn a bunch of sissys (and Mulan) into fearless badass warriors.

Mulan has otherwise pretty forgettable songs, but this one's catchy. I've been working out to this song for a couple of times now, and it really is motivating! Fetching that arrow is one of the coolest things a Disney princess has ever done. Kick ass, girl! (See, I call them all princesses, even if they technically weren't. They are all royal to me.)

You're the saddest bunch
I ever met
But you can bet
Before we're through
Mister, I'll make a man
out of you

9. Be prepared from The Lion King (1994)

Scar kindly suggests his hyena army to be prepared for his upcoming reign.

Boy did I have a hard time choosing only one song from The Lion King. Finally, I chose this over wonderful songs like Can you feel the love tonight, Hakuna Matata and Circle of Life, mostly because of Scar's awesome charisma and the visual awesomeness of the scene. This is the finnish version, because I think it's even better than the original. Jukka-Pekka Palo's voice is just wonderfully raspy and creepy! What a great baddie.

So prepare for a chance of a lifetime
Be prepared for sensational news
A shining new era
Is tiptoeing nearer

8. A dream is a wish your heart makes from Cinderella (1950)

Cinderella wakes up to another morning, singing her worries away and, as usual, never ceasing to dream.

Most of the songs on this list are from more recent films, but of course I had to include this wonderful song from an age-old favourite. I love the optimism of the song, it really summarizes the essence of Cinderella.

No matter how your heart is grieving
If you keep on believing
the dream that you wish will come true

7. I won't say I'm in love from Hercules (1997)

Meg tries to fight the feelings he has towards Hercules and remind herself that it's just not worth it, she's seen it all before. Yeah, yeah, talk to the hand, girl.

Of all the groovy songs of Hercules, I had to choose this one. It's always been my favourite. The little Amor statue, the flower and muses singing the backs... A really nice scene. Meg is cool. Although she has those crazy hips, swinging from side to side all the time.

If there's a prize for rotten judgment
I guess I've already won that
No man is worth the aggravation
That's ancient history - been there, done that! 

6. Just around the riverbend from Pocahontas (1995)

Not sure what path she should choose, Pocahontas takes a canoe ride on the wild, playful, unsteady river. The fierce torrent is so much more fun than a steady little stream, and she knows it!

An awesome song about taking chances, and how it might not be better to be safe than sorry, if safe means marrying a dude, who has forgotten how to smile. Ah, where's the nearest river, I want to go canoeing! (I easily could've filled the list with songs from Pocahontas, but decided I'd be happy as long as this one was on it... And the other one. I had to make an exception. Keep reading...)

Can I ignore that sound of distant drumming
For a handsome sturdy husband
Who builds handsome sturdy walls
And never dreams that something might be coming?

5. Once upon a dream from Sleeping Beauty (1959)

Walking in the woods, the princess, who doesn't know she's a princess, sings and dances with her animal friends (because that's what princesses do, duh) and attracts the attention of a handsome prince, who just happens to be in da hood, what do you know. (That's what princes do, especially the Charming ones.) She's sneaky and finds a loophole in her strict no-talking-to-strangers promise.

It's simple, but so pretty. I could dance to this song at my wedding. (Or to that other Disney walz, from a more recent film, not that animated and way more embarrasing, so let's leave that story to another time...)

I know you
I walked with you once upon a dream
I know you
The gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam

4. Belle from Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Belle walks through her home town one morning, and we see how tough the life of a soon-to-be princess can be: you can't go anywhere without people starting to sing a song about you!

Introducing the best Disney princess ever, Belle is as great a song as Belle is a character. And don't forget the reprise! (Ok. The biggest sacrifice I made was leaving Tale as old as time out of the list. Ouch, it still hurts. Be our guest kind of stinged, too.)

And for once it might be grand
To have someone understand
I want so much more than they've got planned

3. The bells of Notre Dame from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

In the prologue of the film, we see how Quasimodo came to grow up in the bell tower of Notre Dame.

You just can't deny the goosebumbs.

Now here is a riddle to guess if you can
Sing the bells of Notre Dame
Who is the monster and who is the man?

2. A whole new world from Aladdin (1992)

Aladdin takes Yasmine on a ride of a lifetime, introducing her to the wonders of the world beyond Agrabah and a whole new world... of love?

The only non-childhood-favourite film that managed to fit a song on my list. Actually, I wanted to include One step ahead and maybe Arabian nights, too, but ten is only ten, so I couldn't. Oh well. Aladdin is a recent discovery, I don't why I didn't like it more as a kid, but it's awesome. And this song, ah! Just amazing. Forget the canoe, get me a magic carpet, will you?

I can open your eyes
Take you wonder by wonder
Over, sideways and under
On a magic carpet ride

1. Colors of the wind from Pocahontas (1995)

Pocahontas teaches John Smith the famous proveb: when in the pre-colonilized America, do as the aborginal people do. Because they just know better than you idiots, you savages, you oh-so-civilized Europeans.

What can I say? This song is not THE ABSOLUTE favourite of mine, but I made it number one, because... Well. It's one heck of a song, isn't it? The melody, the lyrics, the visuals of the scene, the context, the message... Everything about it is just fantastic. (On top of it, this summer - at a kids' camp I worked in - some lovely lovely girls sang this song to us. We were all holding back our tears, it was wonderful.)

You think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You'll learn things you never knew you never knew

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

To conclude... The best Disney songs were written in the 90s. Actually, the best Disney films were made in the 90s. And I'm not biased, alright? I just happened to grow up in the 90s...

Now. That will be enough Disney for a... while. (That wasn't a promise, I'm afraid.)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) - a story sung by the bells of Our Lady

directed by Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise / voices by Tom Hulce, Demi Moore, Tony Jay

My top 5 Paris movies, #4

Quasimodo's mother dies when he's a baby and the evil judge Frollo is forced to become his guardian. Frollo makes him a bellringer in Notre Dame and manipulates him to stay away from the public. Only when the 20-year-old Quasimodo befriends a beautiful Gypsy dancing girl Esmeralda, he begins to question his master. 

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is maybe the most underrated Disney film. At the time of its release I watched it again and again and again and still today it remains one of my favourites.

In many ways Hunchback is different from the avarage Disney classic. Its tone is considerably darker, some parts are surprisingly scary and difficult for a child to comprehend and process (like the prologue, where we witness the death of Quasi's mother, and musical scene, where Frollo is tormented by the attraction he feels towards Esmeralda). It's also unusually realistic - no talking animals or fairy godmothers (the gargoyles talk and move, alright, but I interpret this as Quasi's imagination). And the central character isn't a gorgeous prince, who automatically gets the beautiful princess.

Quasimodo is so sweet and it's impossible not to like him. Esmeralda has to be the most seductively beautiful and sexy Disney princess (okay, not a princess, but anyway... Hercules' Meg falls under the same category as well). She intentionally uses her looks in her provocative dance, but of course there's the more Disney side of her, too. Frollo is evil, so evil, and a very very good baddie. I know I was scared of him as a kid. Reminds me a bit of The Lion King's Scar.

The music in Hunchback is amazing. There are the traditional Disney-ish songs: the wistful love-oh-love song, the oh-how-I-wish-things-were-otherwise-and-so-help-me-god-some-day-they-will-be song early on in the film and so on. Bells of Notre Dame is no doubt my favourite - it's flamboyant and grand and dramatic, almost like opera, and it gives me goosebumbs every time. Even that YouTube video did it! God Help the Outcast is also beautiful. Notre Dame itself plays a very important part in the songs and the film, offering an atmospheric and beautiful setting for the story.

The movie is loosely based on a classic novel. I say loosely, because the movie has been thoroughly Disney-fied. I haven't read the novel myself, but apparently it's very dark and even depressive. The charactes are all corrupted and feeble, no true heroes or heroines. (A cynic might say, more realistic.) Sex plays a major role (and not always in very nice contexts) and almost everyone dies a horrible death. Somehow I think the Disney version is enough for me.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame was one of the last true Disney classics (there were good films like Hercules, Mulan and Lilo & Stitch after. Yeah, I kind of like Lilo & Stitch.). After it Pixar started to take over (which, as we know today, isn't a bad thing at all), and Disney itself has released mainly lousy sequels. I haven't seen the most recent animation, The Princess and the Frog, but somehow I feel it won't top Hunchback, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, etc...

But still. Thank god for Disney.

"Now here is a riddle / To guess if you can / Sing the bells of Notre Dame / Who is the monster / And who is the man?/ Sing the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells / Bells of Notre Dame"

My TOP 5 favourite Paris movies

To mark my upcoming trip to Paris (I'll be off TOMORROW!!), here's a list of my favourite Paris movies. This was fairly easy, as I haven't seen that many films set in Paris. (Or French films, for that matter. They are often a bit weird.) The original plan was to first post this and then during my absence publish longer posts of each movie. Well, as it happens, I recently picked up a nasty virus called lazyness, so I'll only post this now, and the others after I came back. Cured. Hopefully.

Anyway, here you go, sil vous plait, voila and a couple of stress mark thingys here and there, I don't know where.

5. Marie Antoinette (2006)

THE PLACE TO SEE: The palace in Versailles.

"This is ridiculous."
"This, Madame, is Versailles."

4. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

THE PLACES TO SEE: Notre Dame. Duh. And Disneyland, ooooooh yeah, I've only been waiting for this for twenty years!!

"Morning in Paris, the city awakes / To the bells of Notre Dame / The fisherman fishes, the bakerman bakes / To the bells of Notre Dame / To the big bells as loud as the thunder / To the little bells soft as a psalm / And some say the soul of the city's the toll of the bells / The bells of Notre Dame" 

3. Before Sunset (2004)

THE THING TO DO: The Seine cruise.

"I heard this story once about when the Germans were occupying Paris and they had to retreat back. They wired Notre Dame to blow, but they had to leave one guy in charge of hitting the switch. And the guy, the soldier, he couldn't do it. You know, he just sat there, knocked out by how beautiful the place was."

2. Amélie (2001)

THE PLACE TO SEE: The café where Amélie works. And its toilet.

"Let me help you. Step down. Here we go! The drum major's widow! She's worn his coat since the day he died. The horse's head has lost an ear! That's the florist laughing. He has crinkly eyes. In the bakery window, lollipops. Smell that! They're giving out melon slices! Sugarplum, ice cream! We're passing the park butcher. Ham, 79 francs. Spareribs, 45! Now the cheese shop. Picadors are 12.90. Cabecaus 23.50. A baby's watching a dog that's watching the chickens. Now we're at the kiosk by the metro. I'll leave you here. Bye!"

1. Paris, je t'aime (2006)

THE PLACES TO SEE: Everything! The Eiffel tower, Tuileries subway station, the tomb of Oscar Wilde, the mosque...

"Sitting there, alone in a foreign country, far from my job and everyone I know, a feeling came over me. It was like remembering something I'd never known before or had always been waiting for, but I didn't know what. Maybe it was something I'd forgotten or something I've been missing all my life. All I can say is that I felt, at the same time, joy and sadness. But not too much sadness, because I felt alive. Yes, alive. That was the moment  

I fell in love with Paris. And I felt Paris fall in love with me."