Cinderella Live-Blog

Just like The Little Mermaid, it has been a long time since I've seen this film.

Between the music and the display, seems so old!

The song seems to be foreshadowing and also it talks quite fondly about Cinderella, but I'm guess we will be seeing scenes soon of people who don't think fondly of her.

The whole thing isn't going to be still drawings, is it? Nevermind

Unlike normal villains, the stepmother has green eyes.

Cinderella staying upbeat and positive and mostly unaffected by the abuse might send messages that it is weak to be affected by it.

No one wakes up like that!

This talking to animals thing is pretty annoying and sad.

Music is reflective of rodents when Cinderella is checking the mouse trap. Same with when the cat is walking.  

Cat didn't "take the blame" just like a classic villain according to Warner.

Musical scoring is by far the best part so far.

Super relatable when Gus goes for the extra bread (or is it cheese) thing and then it all pops out.

All this stuff with the animals seems so unnecessary to the plot.

Step-mother's room is all dark and purple.  Step-mother has short, grey hair, a deeper voice, sharp features.  Typical villain.

LOL at the crown shaped glass shatter. Super realistic.

The bad singing/flute is hilarious.
She can't read :( :( :( :(

Step-mother's voice is higher when talking to the step-sisters than to Cinderella

"Leave the sewing to the women." Good.  Quite a strict gender role.

The step-sister ball gowns are just humorous.  Those 2 characters just generally look silly.

Fairy godmother looks like a typical, lovable grandma - smiling all the time, a little overweight, white hair, big round eyes.

This movie would make me think that clothes (especially the more ornate and expensive) cause beauty.

The time limit presented by the fairy godmother seems a lot like that presented by Ursula... I guess here it was with good intention.  I'm suspicious.

How the heck did the stepmother and step sisters not recognize Cinderella.  I know she was all dolled up but that is just ridiculous.

I want a bed that bounces like that!!!!

Is this where "if the shoe fits" comes from?

The tea being like jelly was great.  Made me feel like I'm watching a very accurate film.

A glass slipper doesn't even make sense though.

She is liberated by this man!

Her pursuit of a man as being the central theme of the movie is much more reasonable than in a lot of the Disney films.  For Cinderella, getting married meant liberation from her step-family that treated her so miserably.  The pursuit of freedom from a terrible life is noble and admirable. 

I can get on board with this film a lot more than The Little Mermaid.  The central theme was more understandable and aside from the line about leaving the sewing to the women, it didn't seem as gender-stereotypy.

I think this film could have been about half the length and not lost any of the main or tangential themes.  It seemed like it contained a lot of unnecessary stuff that didn't even make it more enjoyable.

The Little Mermaid Reflection

I've seen this movie, but it was so long ago that I remembered none of it.  I found it quite objectionable and dull.  The dull part isn't surprising as it is a children's movie.  A lot of it though infuriated me.  First, I was confused when Ariel claimed to love Eric.  She'd watched him from afar (a little creepy) and then saved him (the entirety of this encounter, with him unconscious).  How she can claim to love him after these experiences baffles me.  I thought that this film would include more about Ariel wanting teenage independence and wanting the experiences and freedom associated with legs and being on land.  Unfortunately, though, this film revolved entirely around Eric, especially considering that we hardly got to know him.  On a similar, feminist thread, the size and shape of Ariel's body certainly isn't helping how girls view their body from a young age.  While I absolutely oppose skinny-shaming, the animators of The Little Mermaid made Ariel fake.  Striving for how Ariel looks is unhealthy and dangerous.  Creating Ariel this way also could make children think that they are not beautiful unless they look like her. 

On an unrelated note, Ursula is truly a villain.  All she wants is for people to suffer.  Her main motive was to overthrow Triton for the throne.  However, as made evident by the weird green things in the ground (ghouls?), Ursula was also very interested in simply causing people pain.  Posing danger for Ariel, she is skilled at manipulation and can make herself seem like she is doing people favors.  And then when she turns people into those ghoul things, she blames them for doing something wrong!  This appears to go beyond just the search for power, and she seems to just want people hurt.

The appearance of Ursula is, unfortunately, very classic Disney villain.  She has dark skin, a deeper voice, heavy makeup, a heavier build, white hair, and the darkest, most colorless eyes of all of the characters.  As Priscilla Warner's essay "Fantastic Outsiders" explains, this look is intended to be foreign and different.  The idea that darker features can achieve this in 1989 America is sad, anti-progress, and should just be incorrect.  I understand that this is a classic villain look, but it is damaging to children and society and this villain archetype should be changed.

In my upcoming paper, I will discuss the abandonment of conventional values for the sake of power.  One of the values is family.  While this is typically a trait of the villain, interestingly, Ariel is the one who abandons family for something!  Her total abandonment of all of her family and friends for this one man who she hardly knew seemed extreme and maybe misguided.

All of this said, I guess I did get some enjoyment out of watching the film.  A lot of lines, especially from the crab, Sebastian, made me chuckle.  The plot, despite being dull and intensely Eric-driven, was enjoyable.  Also, upon seeing Flounder, I got a little hit of nostalgia, remembering that my arm floaties when I was learning how to swim were Flounder. 

Edit: my mom alerted me that my floaties were actually Tweety Bird.  Bummer.

Disney's Celebration

*Spoilers for The Office ahead*

I just got done watching The Lion King so that I could sure up my opinions in preparation for writing my thesis statement.  Unfortunately, watching a childhood classic is just so much work that I needed a break to watch The Office.  I'm on season 5, episode 5.  The office just got robbed as a result of Michael's and Holly's negligence and earlier in this episode Andy handed out save-the-dates for his wedding with Angela.  Angela was saying that she never felt safe in the office and so she wasn't surprised that it got robbed.  In response, Andy told her that in a few years, they will move to Disney's Celebration and then feel safe.  And then in classic Andy behavior, he sang a Celebration jingle.  Angela seemed super enthusiastic about this.  Although this is sort of mocking Celebration, it shows how much the general population sees Celebration as a safe place.

It truly is a "Small World"

The Small World ride at the Disney parks really gets a lot of hate.  I can't blame the haters, it certainly freaks me out and seems to be filled with many cultural stereotypes.  The ride originally was meant to be for the World's Fair of 1964 celebrating ‘Man’s Achievement on a Shrinking Globe.’  The 300 robotic, singing children represent this decently.  A lot of the criticism lies in its repetitiveness and how much the song stays in your head for hours or days after the ride.  I can surely get on board with all of the criticism.  But today I learned a whole new layer.  
My Dad's step father, an architect for Disney, designed the ride at Disneyland!  Later, when Disney wanted him to move to Orlando to help design Disney World, he said no.  Interestingly, with Disney considered to be an icon for capitalism, this man was a communist!

Disney's Important Research

I don’t know if it comes from my gullible-ness or just that so many people are so good at composing arguments, but it’s hard for me to read an argument without agreeing.  So these books and articles from class are really turning me into a Disney pessimist.  With all of these anti-Disney sentiments we’ve been reading in class, however, I try to counter the arguments with some positive aspects of Disney.  Of course I think about how much joy people get from the Disney films and parks and merchandise.  While reading the Giroux pieces, I was thinking about the intense marketing strategies and figured that Disney must have a fair amount of research under its belt.  

Most obviously, Disney has made major strides in animation, often leading the field.  Since the release of Steamboat Willie in 1928, Disney has been a pioneer. What most don't know is that the early pioneer of many Disney animations was not Walt Disney, but his employee Ub Iwerks. Much later, in 1995, with many innovations in between, Disney-Pixar released the Toy Story, which was the first feature-length, computer-animated movie. Animated films surely would be less enjoyable and aesthetically pleasing without the innovations of Disney. Nowadays, in attempts to improve animation of things like fog, water, and cloth behavior, Disney has improved modeling technologies and created algorithms that could have wider implications than just animation.

Ub Iwerks creating the character Mickey Mouse

Less obviously, Disney has "innovented" a lot of technology. Some of it is useless, but so is a lot of technology. One of these seemingly useless technologies is called Visually Consistent Acoustic Redubbing. This takes a video of mouth movements and generates all possibilities for what the speaker could be saying, making use of the McGurk Effect. This has implications for film and television production, but it also can go beyond that. With these technologies, a computer would be able to analyze what is most likely being said and could translate into other forms of communications, such as written word or sign language. This could enable communication between many more people, which is definitely a positive outcome of Disney technologies.

Press Play to see the McGurk effect

This is how our brain mixes audio and visual to interpret words

Another new technology that Disney was working on this spring could transform parts of society. This technology is called "hybrid hydrostatic transmission and human-safe haptic telepresence robot." After skimming the research paper put out about this technology, I can't say I understand almost any of how it works. The important thing to know about this robot is that it can move incredibly human-like with fluid motions. It is controlled remotely by a person who can see through camera "eyes" on the top of the robot. For Disney, this means that the characters around the parks for people to meet can be robots instead. In its current state, this technology can be used for cheaper, more efficient manufacturing, which one human controlling the motion of many robots. Once the robot is autonomous (well, coded by humans) it will eliminate the role of humans in a lot of ways and further human-robot interactions. This scares me a little bit. I find both the ideas of robots maliciously taking over the world and eliminating the need for humans in low-level manufacturing jobs utterly unappealing. That being said, I'm sure this robot innovation could have very important implications with medicine or other important fields.

This is the hybrid hydrostatic transmission and human-safe haptic telepresence robot

Disney research also figured out a way to use one material but create different elasticities. While previously people could achieve this by varying the materials, a team of Disney researchers figured out that this could be achieved by printing areas with varied densities and structures (lattice vs more solid structures). This technology can be applied to create cheaper toys, medical equipment (perhaps prosthetics), etc.

This is a 3D printer.

This shows the difference in lattice structure and density

One final technology of many is a tough technology developed by Disney. It is called "Aireal." Aireal is a 3D-printed technology that shoots out air vortexes that apply a force to the user. These air vortexes can give the user the sensation of touching a real object in thin air. In a CNN article about the technology, Aireal was compared to an Xbox Kinect where the user would actually feel, say, a soccer ball coming at them or the force of a ball hitting a tennis racket that they are pretending to hold. The goal on the part of Disney for this product is to be able to create diverse interactive experiences for the user, which I suppose would be a Disney park guest. Other possible implications could be as an educational tool for sports or just various new experiences. It also could help people who are in a wide range of physical therapy, especially with reaction to stimuli of sorts.

This is Aireal. The circle is moving from the apparatus to the hand and the hand will feel it as a force.

These are just a few examples of the incredible technological advances Disney has had in the last few decades, not even including marketing strategies, audio technologies, understanding of child development, and sports innovations. I like to think that for all the criticism Disney receives, there is an important breakthrough to counteract it. Even if Disney's research often seems selfish, just benefiting the profit of the corporation, there are broad implications for almost every innovation Disney has put out.

Reading Response to Hiassen's Team Rodent

The style of the writing and argument in Team Rodent made it such an enjoyable and agreeable piece.  His recurring quips throughout the book made the book go buy very quickly and made me laugh very frequently.  In comparison to the Giroux pieces, especially the second one, Hiassen's work was much less accusatory and it made many more concessions to the positive (or at least not inherently negative) aspects of the Disney corporation.  This made the argument much easier to get on board with because it did not feel like one sweeping generalization, and it instead had reasons.  Additionally, because the book was a string of examples, he defended his claims very strongly.  Hiassen's personal connections to Disney - the family trips, the journalist trip, living in the state, etc. - all add to his credibility and perspective.

Chapter 2, "Insane Clown Michael," detailing the release and near-immediate take back of The Great Milenko album was hysterical.  I can't decide if I buy into the conspiracy theory, though.   I probably do more than I should.  The fact that Disney recalled the album so soon after release in response to the Southern Baptist Church's outcry is not fully believable.  Disney doesn't typically seem to respond to its critics, so I find it easy to believe in the idea that it was a "sly public-relations trick" to "reassure Middle America that it knew exactly where the lines of decency were drawn" (p16).  The lyrics were also so ridiculous that it'd be hard to believe that it was a serious attempt at an album release.

Chapter 4, "The Republic of Walt," blew my mind.  The concept of the Reedy Creek Improvement District being run by Disney and having the abilities to form the same municipal systems as, say, Philadelphia, is wild.  One of the biggest surprises for me though comes from the fact that Disney has not actually taken up many of the allowed duties (like having cemeteries, a judicial system, schools, etc.).  Additionally, the fact that Disney "composes its own building codes and employs its own inspectors" borderlines on terrifying (p27).  Disney's building codes could comply with nothing and be unsafe (but cheap!) and it seems like no one can question that.  The rest of the secrecy exposed in this chapter also scares me.  The fact that Disney heavily prioritizes their PR image over the well-being of their employees is very telling of why people like Hiassen and Giroux hate Disney.  This showed very well in the example about the employee who spyed on the 6 female dancers and was allowed to continue doing so until Disney felt it should intervene.  Then they settled on an undisclosed sum the night before the trial!!!! That is some sketchy stuff...

I appreciated Chapter 5, "The Puppy King," because Hiassen didn't put the blame for the dalmatian issue on Disney.  This was important to me because it showed that Hiassen was reasonable and not blaming Disney for everything, whereas I feel that Giroux would have twisted it to blame Disney.  

Chapter 7, "The Future World," stirred up a lot of reaction in me.  First, the idea that, "Celebration invokes nothing so much as a small-town neighborhood of the 1950s, remembered overfondly" was very telling of a lot of the problems people have with Disney (p51).  The idea that Disney glosses over and gentrifies history showed very well in the word "overfondly."  Soon after, I was appalled by how much people were willing to pay for these houses just because of the name Disney, and then that they were sloppily built.  Reading that just after reading that, "when Disney does something, it does it right" really emphasized the blind, "childlike trust" that people have in Disney (p53 and 52 respectively).  

Throughout the whole book, the idea that people are paying for safety, both at a large monetary cost and at the cost of a real, new experience showed a large and true concession on the part of Hiassen.  Hiassen, it seems, isn't fond of those fake, safe experiences, but he understands why people would be.  

Is Moana just the same old princess?

I have been paying so much more attention to Disney in media and news, but now that I'm looking, I feel like it isn't showing up as much.  So, I asked a group of my friends to let me know if they ever come across anything interesting with Disney.  One of them pulled through (shout-out to the wonderful Grace), referring me to a Snapchat Discovery feed that contained a post titled, "Will Moana Really Be Different From Other Disney Princesses?"  It is one of the first things I read about Moana (trailer) and I am now very curious to see it when it hits the theatres on November 23rd.  The short article pondered if Moana's body type will be different enough from the classic Barbie-doll figure of the other Disney princesses.  Moana looks like an athletic and fit young woman, and still extremely skinny.  I think Moana is a great step toward varying the image of a princess or desirable body figure.  Also from the article, I learned that Moana will not have a love interest.  Since all (most?) other princess movies revolve around the man, I am looking forward to see what Disney does with the plot of this movie.  The article also referred to the complaints of people over the depiction of the Polynesian demigod, saying that it creates a negative stereotype.  After a little research, Maui seems like he is supposed to be a large, strong man, and that is exactly what his character looks like.  Maybe his character will even help with the perception of large people, showing that big is not equivalent to unhealthy, out of shape, or lazy.

Reading Response #1: Giroux's "Animating Youth" and "Shape Youth Identity"

After reading Giroux's "Animating Youth: The Disneyfication of Children's Culture," I was super on board with him anti-Disney sentiments.  I agree with Giroux that Disney movies have the ability to negatively impact children from a very young age, indoctrinating them with ideas of racism, sexism, and classism.  Some of his claims took the issue a little bit too far for me, like when he seemed to suggest that government regulation on many facets of Disney would be beneficial.  That being said, I felt that "How Disney Magic and the Corporate Media Shape Youth Identity in the Digital Age" had its merits but was overall a very extreme argument.  

While many scholarly arguments start off more mild and palatable, this one hit the ground running with some wildly aggressive claims.  One of these claims that struck me as far-fetched and beyond exaggerated was that the "massive multimedia corporations" shape children "every waking moment of children's daily lives."  While I definitely agree that these corporations have large impact on children, it is unreasonable to say that it is happening the entire day.  Additionally, had Giroux started out more mild, I may have been able to get on board with his ideas.  He must have so much credibility in this field that he was able to attack such a beloved company with so much force.

The most compelling part of Giroux's argument was when he addressed the marketing to very young children and continued with evidence against "baby DVDs" (that Disney demanded was redacted!!!!). Although three months old can be influenced, I was shocked to see that there is a $4.8 billion and expanding market just for marketing to infants as young as three months old.  Three month olds can't even talk or ask for a product, so this must just be considered a long term investment.  It still seems ridiculous to be that a company would target children that young.  Just let them be!  I also always thought that shows like "Baby Einstein" were educational and exposed young children to new scenes (or in the case of that show, new music).  I was shocked when I read that these sort of videos caused kids to have slower language development.  And then that Disney tried to get that study redacted?!?! Their basis that, "the study did not differentiate between brands" was relatively fair, but that just seems like an excuse.  

Later in the article, Giroux opened my eyes to products that I never would have thought existed to strengthen consumerism and materialism, like Club Penguin.  I always thought of Club Penguin as just a interactive game for kids to have fun on.  I understand his point, but wonder if that was a main intent of the game producers.

When Giroux claimed that the option in Disney stores for children to "customize their identities" is negative, all my doubts that had been festering throughout reading the article came together and I think he is taking his argument too far and making every single aspect of Disney's marketing strategy seem negative.  Giroux claimed that the customizable identities ultimately confine the imagination without explaining how it could possibly do that, so I was not able to understand his reasoning and it seemed very far-fetched.

My doubts continued onto the next page when Giroux asserted that, "self-expression is once again reduced to what a young person can afford to buy."  While some aspects of self-expression are tied to fashion, this is an example of a blanket, over-the-top statement that doesn't have enough basis to contribute to his argument.  Later in this paragraph, I became almost mad at Giroux when he bashed "retail therapy."  No one is ever in a place to judge what makes other people happy and calm and relaxed.  

I agree with Giroux that Disney has sacrificed some of its morality for profit, but it is also unreasonable to hold them to an incredibly high standard.  While Disney does deal with children, and thus it would be great if they followed a slightly stricter moral code, they are just a corporation trying to make a profit.  I disagree with Giroux that Disney has had the effect on consumerist values that he suggests it does.

Buzzfeed doesn't know how to do math

On this lazy Saturday afternoon (that I could have sworn was still morning), I was scrolling through Buzzfeed quizzes to find one called, "How High is your Disney IQ?".  I know my Disney IQ is relatively low but I gave it a shot.  I struggle with remembering characters names or plot details from even my favorite TV shows and movies, so this was especially difficult considering I have only seen some of the questioned movies once or twice and maybe years ago.  Some of the questions were, "What did Aladdin steal from the Marketplace?" (which is relatable because I "stole" a banana from our MP today) or "In The Princess and The Frog, Tiana's dream is to renovate what kind of building into her dream restaurant?"  A lot of my correct answers were lucky guesses, but I wound up with 8/15.  Buzzfeed told me I only missed one or two, though, so either they've got a faulty calculator or they've gotta hit the subtraction workbooks.

What Inside Out has done for me

        I came to Duke eight days early for Project B.U.I.L.D.  I had some incredibly difficult goodbyes the night before that left me sobbing on the floor of my room.  I still get emotional thinking about that evening and the many people that I love and miss.  Although I was having an amazing experience at pbuild, I was thinking about home and the people at home a lot.  It didn't help that I was the first one to leave, and I would hear about my friends hanging out still without me.  I called one of my very good friends a few times during the program.  One of those times, I was feeling extra emotional.  I'd had a lot of time that day to think and reflect, causing me to remember everything I missed at home.  I called him so that I could hear a familiar voice that always had the right words.  

        Him and I have discussed the merits of sadness in the past and we share very similar beliefs.  While sadness is, well, sad and tough, it is often very valuable.  Sadness that represents permanent loss is hard to spin as positive, but it is normal and expected and an important part of grieving.  Fortunately, I have had only a few occasions of this sort of sadness.  The sadness I typically experience comes from endings - the end of a few great weeks at my summer camp, the end of a great school experience, the end of a TV show that I've connected to (maybe too much), or in the case of this summer, the temporary end of the time I'd get to spend with my friends.  This sort of sadness is incredibly valuable and can be summed up by one Winnie the Pooh quote: "How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."  This has never been more true for me than this summer, saying goodbye to my amazing friends who I was and am so lucky to have.  

        So when I called my friend, I was feeling so emotional that I could not rationalize myself to remember the value of the sadness I was feeling.  When I called him and explained how I was feeling, he reminded me of Inside Out, a movie I've only seen once but that I deeply appreciate.  Joy's struggle to try to suppress the other feelings and only allow Riley to feel happy appears to be such a noble pursuit.  Being happy all the time almost seems appealing.  Sadness, anger, fear, and disgust are not comfortable emotions, so in theory we'd be better off without them.  However, as the movie perfectly displays, those emotions are important and are necessary to guide many of our actions and to provide contrast for joy.  So my friend reminded me of this.  He reminded me of how joy and sadness fused together in Riley's core memory of missing home.  He reminded me that sadness is not void of happiness and that when I think about what I miss, I should look back on it fondly, remembering the great memories rather than focusing on the fact that I have said goodbye to them. 

        The resolution of coexistence of emotions in Inside Out is such an important idea.  Pure joy is a very rare emotion, but people believe it is the only way to be happy and live an optimal life.  Once the idea of coexistence of emotions is accepted, society will be able to live in a much healthier way.  Also in Inside Out is the important idea of talking about the uncomfortable emotions (sadness, anger, fear, disgust, etc.).  Too many people - myself often included - believe the best way to live is to bottle up any negative emotions and always put on a happy face.  If dialogue opens up about the uncomfortable emotions, people will be healthier and happier..

How Disney Shaped Me

        Disney, from a young age, helped me understand and appreciate the differences between me and the people around me.  Whether that means briefly learning about a historical culture in Mulan or teaching me about disabilities, like Dory's "remembery loss" or physical disabilities in a number of Disney Channel original shows, I learned the importance of acceptance and appreciation as well as learning just how similar everybody is (even if some of the characters were animals).

        Disney also exposed me to teamwork.  I hold the mantra from John C. Maxwell that "teamwork makes the dream work" very close to my heart.  Themes of teamwork showed up in almost, if not all, of my favorite Disney movies, from Lilo and Stitch to Toy Story and from Finding Nemo to Monsters Inc. 

        Disney taught me that it is okay to be emotional.  This came both from emotional characters and from the reactions of people around me while watching.  My dad, your classic "tough-guy" exterior with the biggest heart, could be spotted crying during so many beloved Disney movies, like the sad montage in Up or the gut-wrenching, inevitable growing up in Toy Story 3.

        "Hakuna Matata" taught me to brush off the worries when it doesn't help to worry.  Other aspects of The Lion King taught me to be brave and to value my friendships.

        Growing up, I had many real-life strong female role models, but it didn't hurt to see them in some of my favorite movies as well.  Mulan was one of my main movie role models.  Looking back on the movie, I am not a fan of the fact that she had to disguise herself as a man in order to be taken seriously, but I am still amazed by her strength and persistence as a character.  The lioness Nala from The Lion King was also a strong role model for me, despite her being a lion.  Nala took on impressive feats, encouraging my own independence and ambition.  I also loved seeing the more "nerdy" Belle from Beauty and the Beast.  She showed me that it was cool to like to read and learn, which were not values that commonly came across in children's movies and especially TV.  Last, but certainly not least, I had great respect for Princess Leia in Star Wars (and now Rey in The Force Awakens) and I looked up to her.  Similarly, High School Musical taught me that it is cool to have diverse interests.

        I loved some of the humor in Disney movies, and I believe that I absorbed a lot of it, although maybe my humor has since changed.  Two of my favorite movies in terms of the comedy aspect were The Ice Age and Monsters Inc.  Both would have me laughing on the floor.  Humor and laughing were huge parts of my childhood, and a lot of that came from Disney.

        Most of all, I just thoroughly enjoyed Disney movies.  I would be so excited for the release of all of them.  I still look forward to the new movies.  I saw the midnight premiere of The Force Awakens and I saw Finding Dory very soon after release.  The anticipation of the movies would brighten the weeks before seeing them, and the happiness from seeing them would stick around for a while after.  Looking forward to Moana and The BFG :)

Netflix Reserves Exclusive Streaming Rights to Disney

        Scrolling through Facebook this morning, hardly paying any notice to the posts going by, I saw the Genie from Aladdin pop up on my screen.  I looked around at the rest of the post to see that my friend Sarah had shared a video from Obsev Entertainment with the caption "never leaving my bed on weekends."  I was quite intrigued so I continued to watch the video.  Netflix just bought exclusive streaming rights for all Disney movies coming out after 2016 for $300 million a year.  Netflix will also start streaming the movies earlier than expected.  Now I just have to come up with more excuses for staying in and watching Netflix.

Click here to view the full video!

Introduction 

       As I was wearily browsing through the numerous sections of Writing 101, I had no idea what I wanted in the class.  Due to my own involvement in music and belief that music has curative powers to my psyche, I initially took interest in the "Music as Medicine" option.  I had recently decided, though, that I did not want any ties between music and academics in an effort to keep music a stress-free activity.  A few other classes caught my eye throughout the initial stages of the process, but I hadn't actually read the descriptions of many of them.

Me with my cousins at Disney World.  Beyond excited.

        I called my brother, a senior here at Duke, stressing about this process.  He told me, "If you can take "Decoding Disney," you take it."  I immediately read the description for this class and realized that it would be a great medium through which I could further my writing skills.  I felt I would be able to gain a lot of analysis skill by examining and studying a topic that has always seemed extremely un-academic.  The topic of this class also just seemed fun and entertaining.  I have always worried about losing interest in writing, but between Disney and the nature of evil, I am not fearful of that for this semester.

Disney World

        My experience with Disney thus far is no more than average.  I have watched many of the movies throughout my life.  I love some and get bored with others, remember some and completely forget others, and watch some countless times and skip over many others.  I have been to Disney World a couple times and Disneyland once.  I always enjoyed meeting the characters, acquiring and trading the pins, and going to the themed meals.  My mom loves to tell me a story about the time I went to a princess dinner at Disneyland when I was six or seven.  I put on a dress, but I considered myself a "tom-boy" and so I was opposed to the overwhelming femininity in the room.  To counteract it, I made a mess with the spaghetti and would only dance in the least feminine way I could think of as a young child.  I dressed up as Jessie the Cowgirl from Toy Story for a few years of Halloween and Tinker Bell for a couple other years and a character from The Incredibles one year.  I have played music from Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean.  I would not call myself a Disney fanatic, but I have enjoyed a lot of what Disney has produced.

Messily eating the pasta at Disneyland.

        I very much look forward to exploring aspects of gender within the villains.  I am curious to know if there is a sweeping difference between male villains and female villains in how they are created, viewed, and how they interact with the other characters.  I also wonder if there is a framework that most or all of the Disney villains follow.  While of course a villain in Monsters Inc. would have a different role as a villain in Frozen, it seems like there must be common threads between all the villains.  I am also excited to learn about the way that the protagonists overcome the villains and also how the villains get revealed to the various other characters.  After reading "The Aesthetic of Evil," I am also interested in why we find villains and evil so appealing and intriguing.

Jessie the Cowgirl costume in 1st grade.

The Incredibles costume in elementary school.

Disney World again with the music program in 11th grade.