Someone died on a Walt Disney roller coaster

Apparently a man died after riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad back in February and Disney just released the news. He had preexisting condition, but that still doesn't make me feel good about the rides. More details in this link but stay safe everyone: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/walt-disney-world-reveals-roller-coaster-rider-death-report-article-1.3091726

Netflix and Disney might split ties?

Sadly, it looks like despite the success they've had together, Netflix and Disney are going to cut ties. Might be time to binge watch some netflix. More details here -->
http://host.madison.com/business/investment/markets-and-stocks/are-netflix-and-disney-close-to-breaking-up/article_501da780-5ba8-5455-a6d6-a1b52a8bc1ea.html

Craziest revelations that I have learned throughout the semester

In this final reflective blog post, I am going to reflect on the entire semester by talking about the things that I thought were the coolest revelations. As a kid, there are so many aspects to Disney movies that I didn’t understand whatsoever.

One of the most interesting in my opinion is Scar being homosexual. Due to his lack of mating partner, mannerisms, and lack of a child, Scar is seen as a homosexual character. As a kid that was the last thing going through my mind. Scar was a terrifying villain, and I wouldn’t have even tried to label him with a sexuality.

Another revelation is how historically inaccurate Pocahontas is. I had always thought of the movie as a historical fiction of sort. However, after watching and analyzing the movie, the inaccuracies are pretty astounding. First of all, there are no gigantic mountains or waterfalls in the fine state of Virginia. Second of all, it was a very happy ever after story of a very not so happy story. In real life, Pocahontas didn’t marry John Smith and she ended up dying from syphilis. I’m also not saying Disney should be talking about STDs in their movies, I’m just saying that it shocked me.

Another crazy reality I learned about The Lion King is the sense of Nazism throughout the movie. Being Jewish, Nazism is not something I take lightly. I had never realized until this year, however, how much Scar resembles Hitler and the Hyenas his special enforcers. The way the Hyenas march is so similar to how Hitler’s troops marched. Also, the song “Be Prepared” is filled with Hitler-like claims and statements. I guess this all makes sense given how evil Scar is in the movie, but it’s still pretty crazy that I never realized the Hitler allusion.

I didn’t realize how apparently racist some of Disney’s movies are, also. The Princess and the Frog, I thought was a progressive movie, incorporating the first black princess. Looking at it now, she isn’t a princess for most of the movie, she is just a frog. Making the only black princess into an animal for nearly the entire movie is a pretty bad look. In my opinion, it totally creates racist undertones in the Disney realm. Another very blatant showing of racism is in The Jungle Book. Mowgli, the main character, speaks good English and is white. The monkeys however, all speak in “jive” and are played by black actors.

The last thing that I will say I learned throughout this course is that Disney is getting better at what they do. If you look back at the really old Disney movies you’ll find they are increasingly more racist, misogynistic, and prejudiced in general. Disney is making strides towards becoming more inclusive and less prejudiced. Now Disney has a pacific islander princess and a Nordic ice shooting one too.

Cool shirt idea!

This article has a fun way to put the Disney logo on a boring shirt that needs a little flavor. All it takes is scissors, a Micky Mouse template, a pencil, a shirt, freezer paper, bleach, spray bottle, cardboard, and an iron.

For the full instructions and materials lists follow this link: http://simplybeingmommy.com/2016/05/02/diy-bleached-mickey-mouse-shirt/

Beware: Disney is going to start using robots

Disney just recently was found filing a patent for a soft robot for the theme parks. How crazy would that be if robots just came up to you at Disney world and sold you something or interacted with you. Its like a smart talking vending machine on wheels. A little more info can be found here: http://fortune.com/2017/04/09/disney-soft-robot/

Maleficent

There is something very similar about Wreck-it Ralph and Maleficent: they both show that the villain is often wrongfully seen in black and white. From a human perspective, Maleficent poisons their future queen and attacks their land. However, there is more behind her than just pure evil, Maleficent felt wronged and hurt by Stefan’s betrayal, which prompted all of her actions.

There is a certain facet to this movie that reminds me of The Lord of the Rings. The opening monologue from The Lord of the Rings begins with, “It began with the forging of the Great Rings. Three were given to the Elves, immortal, wisest and fairest of all beings. Seven to the Dwarf-Lords, great miners and craftsmen of the mountain halls. And nine, nine rings were gifted to the race of Men, who above all else desire power…” emphasizing the inferiority of men to all other races. Humans are seen as power hungry and corrupt, while the other races are wise and live in harmony. The same concept can be seen in Maleficent through the quote, “[Humans] They were forever discontent, and envious of the wealth and beauty of their neighbors. For in the other kingdom, the Moors, lived every manner of strange and wonderful creature.” It can be seen that there is a clear stereotype of humans as being completely materialistic and immoral. In the movie itself, Stefan is very obviously corrupt and power hungry as he betrays his friend (stealing Maleficent’s wings) just to become king. There is something to be said about the materialism within humans. It is very common for humans to always crave possessions or money or power because they seem so appealing. This is the bane of many problems within our society. Since success is treated like a competition, people are willing to take measures legal or illegal that are objectively immoral just to attain power and money. Maleficent almost fell into the metaphorical hole that the humans inhabit by taking revenge on Stefan’s daughter Aurora, an innocent girl. However, Maleficent proved to be better than the humans as she realizes her rash mistake and does everything in her power to save the young girl.

At the end of the day, it is isn’t Prince Phillip (Aurora’s potential lover) who saves Aurora, but rather Maleficent herself. The curse that was placed on Aurora stated that only a true loves kiss would free her from death. True love in movies is almost exclusively represented as a relationship between two intimate lovers. However, what Disney is showing us is that true love extends beyond a boyfriend or girlfriend. True love can be seen between father and son, mother and daughter, or in this relatively odd case a mother-figure/care taker (Maleficent) and her daughter-figure (Aurora). Maleficent proved further that hatred is not permanent. Maleficent hated Aurora because she was wronged by Stefan and held it against his daughter. She was the bigger person however, as she learned to let go of this hatred and learn to love the innocent and helpless soul that she wrongfully doomed. She went from casting a spell that would kill Aurora to having a sense of true love for the girl, which sends a strong message about remaining open minded. 

Frozen

I’m sure I don’t stand alone when I say that Frozen is one of my favorite Disney movies out there. Highly acclaimed by many, Frozen stole the spotlight and earned a place is many Disney fan’s hearts. This movie not only has a ridiculous score with great songs, but also has an awesome plot that shows a true inner struggle.

To start out with the obvious, this movie’s best lesson is to be yourself. With media and its portrayal of the perfect body image in today’s society, many young girls try to be something they are not. Girls eat unreasonably so they can be as skinny as the models they see on television. Older children sometimes wear revealing clothes to try to be more like the sexy characters they see in books or movies. Another really big problem is peer pressure. Many kids and young adults get trapped into doing things they shouldn’t because of external pressure from friends. What Frozen tells us is that you can be yourself and people will accept you for that. Elsa’s most famous number illustrates this pretty well when she says, “Let it go, let it go, And I'll rise like the break of dawn.” Elsa realizes that she can’t hide her true self anymore and lets it out displaying her immense power. People of all genders, races, or size should let out their true self and not hold back because of what others might think.

Another valuable lesson that is echoed through this movie is that it’s always easier if you have someone in your corner backing you up and helping you out. Elsa shut out everyone and everything in her life and she had all that bottled up on the inside and she released it in a fury of anger. Throughout the movie, Elsa learns that it’s easier to tackle her problems when she has people to talk to and rely on. Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf rely on Elsa to overcome their problems, which prompts Elsa to realize she needs their help too.

There is an abundance of love at first sight relationships in Disney. I strongly dislike this because you can’t really know if you love someone just by seeing them. As the cliché goes, don’t judge a book by its cover. Since you can’t actually know someone for their real self at first sight, I think this instills a false sense of love within children. Frozen helps combat this misunderstanding that love is based of appearances. Anna believes she is madly in love with Hans after first meeting him at Elsa’s coronation. The viewer doesn’t find out until sometime later that Hans is evil and plotting against Elsa and Anna. Since Anna was naïve and saw an attractive man who appeared to be nice, she fell in love. This shows the young viewer that you can’t fall for someone that quickly and you must first get to know them.