I thought it might be interesting to see some discussion of trends in Disney/Pixar's films recently!
I'm especially thinking of Brave, Tangled, Frozen, and most recently, Moana!!! I've been thrilled at how they're slowly making films which communicate healthier and healthier views to the audience. Examples of that would be "It's important to communicate with your parents and to be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt," (Brave), "It is also important to not let yourself be emotionally manipulated in abusive situations," (Tangled) "Siblings are awesome and worthy of your affection," (Frozen), and then that girls can be ridiculously badass and heroic on their own (Moana). Thrown in there are other wonderful things, such as "big hair can be just as cool as non-big hair," "Scots, Reindeer, and Manta Rays are the coolest," and "You don't have to be a white, effeminate girl to be a princess/beautiful/admirable, nor do you need to be white in general." I like seeing Disney become more inclusive as it provides characters which more of their audience can identify with.
As a historian, I'm also very excited to see how Disney's putting more and more work into grounding their stories in actual history, culture, or at least some semblance of accuracy/fidelity. There is a world of difference between Pocahontas and Moana, for example, while Frozen was practically dripping with Baltic-ness. There is still some pandering in their films, but it's been charming to see how much progress Disney has made over the years.
On the other hand, I know that not everyone thinks that Frozen was a step forward from Tangled at least as far as feminism is concerned, and I'm curious to hear more views on that!!
So, speak! What do you think of these new films, and how their characters stack up against the ones from our childhood--Prince Philip, Eric, Ariel, Aladdin, the Beast, Pocahontas, etc.! To be fair, we can also include Woody, Buzz, Bo Peep, and other Pixar characters in the mix.
Gimme a comparison. 