osprey_archer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
osprey_archer) wrote2020-02-14 07:28 am
osprey_archer) wrote2020-02-14 07:28 am
Entry tags:
Sleeping Beauty
“So is Sleeping Beauty the first Disney movie to pass the Bechdel test?” I asked Julie, as we watched Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather bicker over Aurora’s birthday dress.
After some discussion we decided that Cinderella was probably the first, given all the conversations that Cinderella has with her stepmother about cleaning the grates etc, but Sleeping Beauty is the first one where the female characters conversing actually like each other.
IMO Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather are the real stars of this film: Aurora and Philip are pretty much just along for the ride in this titanic battle between the fairies. (Thought: maybe Maleficent’s curse on Aurora is motivated not just by general petty “you didn’t invite me to the christening” spite, but also “I’m mad at my fellow fairies and want to show them up in public” spite.) It’s all a big fairy chess match, and the humans are mere pawns!
...actually, that’s quite unfair to Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, who are genuinely goodhearted and truly love Aurora (I’m still mad at the movie Maleficent for butchering Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather’s characters in order to make Maleficent look good), but I would 100% read a retelling that went the “fairy chess match” route.
But nonetheless, Philip could never have gotten out of that dungeon without Flora, Fauna, and Meriweather’s help. Plus, the fairies get all the best lines! Truly a case of the side characters stealing the show.
After some discussion we decided that Cinderella was probably the first, given all the conversations that Cinderella has with her stepmother about cleaning the grates etc, but Sleeping Beauty is the first one where the female characters conversing actually like each other.
IMO Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather are the real stars of this film: Aurora and Philip are pretty much just along for the ride in this titanic battle between the fairies. (Thought: maybe Maleficent’s curse on Aurora is motivated not just by general petty “you didn’t invite me to the christening” spite, but also “I’m mad at my fellow fairies and want to show them up in public” spite.) It’s all a big fairy chess match, and the humans are mere pawns!
...actually, that’s quite unfair to Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, who are genuinely goodhearted and truly love Aurora (I’m still mad at the movie Maleficent for butchering Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather’s characters in order to make Maleficent look good), but I would 100% read a retelling that went the “fairy chess match” route.
But nonetheless, Philip could never have gotten out of that dungeon without Flora, Fauna, and Meriweather’s help. Plus, the fairies get all the best lines! Truly a case of the side characters stealing the show.
no subject
I realized it was gorgeous and vivid as a kid but somehow that made everything worse. I dunno what effect it would have on my psyche seeing it as an adult in high def -- when a friend of mine and I saw the rerelease of Fantasia in the theatre for its 50th anniversary in 1990, we gave up all pretensions at dignity and clutched hands during the Bald Mountain part. (Also, every time I've seen Fantasia in the theatre -- which I think is three or four by now, plus the first one as a kid -- during that part there are always WAILS from the young viewers as that part really gets going.)
no subject
no subject
AAAAAAAAAAAAAACK
AND that wimpy-ass Ave Maria bit afterwards DOES NOT make it better, either.
no subject
no subject
I'm convinced someone at Disney had the job of going "No, no, this is GREAT! MORE terror, the kiddies will love it!" Otherwise I am just boggled at the beautiful high quality TRAUMA INDUCING stuff they churned out. I don't think books are the same -- I had a non-censored Grimm's as a kid, with red-hot iron shoes and eyeballs being plucked out and so on, and that never gave me nightmares!