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In the penultimate part of my piece on the Disney Princesses, we watch the House of Mouse strike out before finally starting to get it right.
“Enchanted” is a tricky movie to critique because it’s mostly a spoof. For the majority of the movie Giselle is a parody of her predecessors, particularly those from the Golden Era.
Hidden behind the laughs in “Enchanted” is a fantastic message (though one that gets sloppy when characters start vocalizing it): don’t just marry the first guy you meet. Spend time getting to know first yourself and then him. Learn what true love really is.
Then the movie suddenly starts taking itself too seriously. The next thing we know, Giselle is leaving behind her entire world to shack up in a strange city with a man she’s only known for about three days. That’s not much better than marrying her kingdom’s prince after only a few hours.
By trying to cement the film’s lesson on female independence and the form and role of true love, “Enchanted” actually undercuts itself. Satire makes social commentary out of silly antics, like those embodied by Giselle and her friends for the first half of the movie. If it’d just kept that up “Enchanted” would have been in the clear, taking a giant-if-belated step in repairing Disney’s previous damage.
Instead, Disney tries so hard to prove that it’s moved beyond its former mistakes that it ends up making the same one all over again. Giselle might not marry the first man that she meets, but her quick decision to adopt Robert’s life and world views isn’t real improvement.
We end up with another princess whose story culminates in finding a man. Giselle should have ditched both suitors to forge a new life on her own.
At least we see some significant progress two years later. In 2009 “The Princess and the Frog” heralded both a good and bad return to form for Disney. Once again the company was making fairy tales, but it had to go about doing so with princesses again. I hold responsible the last decade’s explosion of the Princess brand products.
Disney seemed skittish due to its recent failures and wanted to hide behind its winning formula. However, 1920s New Orleans was enough of a break from type that Disney should have just gone all the way and discarded its princess security blanket. Adding an African-American character to the leading lady lineup was also egregiously overdue, but they should have just created a girl’s brand without needing to make them all princesses.
But I digress; for all that I was disappointed in the “princess” part of “The Princess and the Frog,” the film was in terms of feminism very much the successor to “Mulan.” While Disney should have just left the royalty out of it, the whole princess thing is incidental to Tiana.
Here we have a hard worker and an independent business owner (one who’s ahead of her time, in fact, given the period). She’s pulled into an adventure she handles with aplomb, after the initial shock coping with her amphibious circumstances much better than Prince Naveen.
Tiana indeed marries into royalty, but her husband is estranged from his family. She’s a princess on paper, but she doesn’t receive any power or money from her title.
Instead, Tiana uses the friendships she built during her adventure to secure the funds she needs to open her restaurant. That’s how the movie ends: Tiana’s lifelong dream is fulfilled, and like with Mulan, the fact that she found love along the way is just icing.
Next week I’ll finally conclude my look at Disney’s female royalty and consider where the company ought to go from here.
Related Articles:
“Princess and the Frog” Hints at New Era for Disney
Most Controversial Disney Films Pt. 2
*(This image by popculturegeek is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
