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.

Wreck-it Ralph

A much-needed break from princesses, Disney presents Wreck-it Ralph as a hero who doesn’t need a princess. As a guy who is not particularly interested in love stories in general, I thought this is a very important movie for Disney to make. It helps create some sort of diversity between movies that target a larger audience.

One of my favorite points that this movie makes is that you don’t need to marry a princess or a prince charming to be happy in life. Ralph shows us that there is far more to life than just finding someone to marry. Ralph ended up finding his happiness by realizing that he wasn’t a bad guy deep down; he was a caring and understanding person. He showed this when he helped Vanellope ultimately beat the real bad guy Turbo who was posing as King Candy. Ralph helps Vanellope out of pure compassion and sympathy which truly show his real colors, and the backbone of his happiness.

Another thing this movie shows really well in my opinion is the lesson that life isn’t black and white; there is an inevitable gray area where right and wrong or good and bad can be seen in different ways. Generally, kids look at the bad guy in a video game, television show, or movie as being one sided. This movie shows the young viewers that people who do bad things aren’t always bad people. This lesson (although it may be a bit difficult for children to learn) is an important one.

Outside of the young viewership, there is a bigger lesson to be seen here. People in the criminal justice system get judged by the worst thing they have done. Many criminals are good people who made a huge mistake. The justice system generally punishes criminals harshly and doesn’t rehabilitate these criminals nearly enough. Wreck-it Ralph shows that people cannot always be judged just by the mistakes they make. Ralph knocks down houses, but is it really his fault? He is programmed to knock the houses in his game down. Luckily Ralph had proper guidance on his journey and was able to prove himself as kind and benevolent. However, in real life, many people are “programmed” to commit crimes by being born in impoverished areas or growing up with negative role models. These people don’t always have the conviction and support to become good members of society and often fall into trouble. This movie speaks volumes to the necessity to rehabilitate those who may not have had the perfect circumstances growing up and to not judge them based solely on their actions.

The last point that I’ll touch on is the necessity of pushing yourself against all odds that this movie shows us. Vanellope was told that she could never race because she was just a glitch. Many characters at this point give up or become dejected. Vanellope never stopped, she kept trying to race and put everything she had into it. Her eventual crowning as champion, although cliché showed that if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish the impossible.

Miniature inspired Up art

This artist made a mini version of the house from Up. Its a pin holder, and turned out pretty cool: http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2016/09/balloon-pin-house-by-clive-roddy/

Wild Pixar movie theories

Some of these theories are a stretch, but some seem relatively legitimate.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/annakopsky/pixar-movie-theories?utm_term=.knEra9PqNV#.ypaRlA5zbV

Hamlet vs. The Lion King

As many people know, a lot of modern day movies and plays are loosely the same plot as a Shakespeare play. The Lion King is an example as it mirrors Hamlet. There are many striking similarities but Disney still found a way to put their own twist on the story.

One of the most obvious similarities is the uncle figure. In The Lion King, Scar kills his brother and Simba’s father, Mufasa. Scar kills him over jealousy and desire for power. In Hamlet, Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius kills his brother and Hamlet’s father for relatively similar reasons.

Another blaring similarity is the reappearance of the fathers as ghosts. When Mufasa reappears in the clouds he tells Simba to take his rightful place as king. When King Hamlet reappears as a ghost he convinces Hamlet to take revenge on his uncle.

Both uncles had similar plans for their nephews, as well. Claudius convinces Hamlet to travel around England, where he plans to assassinate him. Likewise, Scar tells Simba to run away in the hopes that he would die on his own or never return.

While in exile, both Hamlet and Simba make acquaintances that make a huge difference. In Simba’s case, he met Timone and Pumba. Timone and Pumba teach Simba how to relax and live on his own. In Hamlet’s case, in falls in love with Ophelia and meets up with his old friend Horatio. They helped guide him through his internal struggles.  

As we look at Disney’s role in making a new story, we can see some differences between the two plots.

For starters, they are very different ages when their fathers die. When Simba’s died, he was just a child, and had a lot of time to grow up. In Hamlet’s case, he was already a man when his father and the king was murdered.

As is very obvious, the most important difference is the overall mood of the plots. Simba’s eventual rise to reclaiming power is a very happy one. Hamlet’s revenge is met with constant suicidal thoughts and a generally depressing mood. Tied into this, the amount of dead characters is very different, as well. In The Lion King, Scar and Mufasa are the only characters that get killed. In Hamlet, Hamlet, his uncle, his father, his mother, Ophelia, Ophelia’s father, Ophelia’s brother, and other characters all die. This clearly plays into the depressing nature of Hamlet.

Another difference comes from the fact that Hamlet’s mother marries his uncle after his father’s death. In The Lion King, Nala is definitely not involved with Scar. As a matter of fact, it is believed by many that Scar is actually a gay character.

Finally, the best difference of all: Shakespeare uses people, but Disney uses animals.