#46: Let's cluck

(c) Disney

Chicken Little, 2005
watched August 5, 2012

Chicken Little is one of those familiar tales that has a variety of names and outcomes, with a single element that threads them all together, the famous adage: "The sky is falling!"

But Disney's 2005 version (there was a 1943 Disney short of the same title) veers rather far from the original folk tale, taking a sci-fi spin (yup, more aliens) and adding pop culture-y humor. While the alleged falling sky plays a key role in the plot, Chicken Little is less of a warning not to believe everything you hear, and more about the power of believing in the people you love.

Chicken Little is the ultimate underdog. He's small and unpopular, and always seems to get the short end of the stick. While he struggles to be accepted by his peers, the film's central relationship is between Chicken Little and his father, who happens to be [GASP!] a widower. Similar to Tarzan, Chicken Little does not focus on redemption from his embarrassing "acorn incident," but on making his father proud once and for all.

Though he is encouraged to communicate his issues to his father, instead he joins the baseball team. You know, communication, baseball. Same thing. When Chicken Little finally hits a home run against their biggest rival, their family problems appear to be resolved. Then the aliens arrive, and it all goes haywire.

Dude. Aliens ruin everything.

Ultimately, Chicken Little realizes he needs to talk to his father about how he feels. Amidst invading aliens wreaking havoc through their town, father and son have a heartfelt conversation for the first time. At last, Chicken Little hears the words he has longed to hear: "I love you, son."

Although our Father is not at all embarrassed or unsupportive like Mr. Little, we often perceive him this way. We believe the lies that he's a father from whom we must earn love and approval. That our dreams and hopes are foolish in his eyes. That he is ashamed when we make mistakes. These ideas about our Father's character come from a lack of communication. The more we distance ourselves from him, the longer we perpetuate these false beliefs.

Sometimes it takes catastrophic situations in our lives, like an alien invasion, to serve as a catalyst to push us towards him, leading us to cry out and express our despair. When this happens, we see that he's nothing like the cold, disapproving parent we thought he was. Close conversations with him reveal the truth: our Father's love is unconditional. All along he has been waiting to tell us, "I love you, son." "I love you, daughter."

Maybe aliens aren't so bad after all.

Renaissance Parallels Pt. 5: Love

It's the last of my Renaissance Venn diagrams! I promise. :)

In this final set I focused on love, unquestionably the central theme to almost all Disney movies. But love doesn't necessarily mean romantic love (though 9 out of 10 times it does). I would like to point out the two fathers featured here: Mufasa and King Triton, both of whom give their lives for their child. Mufasa's death is one of the most emotional moments in the entire Renaissance.

It's also notable that Pocahontas shows up the most often, whereas it had very few appearances in the previous sets. This is probably because the love story in Pocahontas is the most overwhelming and dominating (ie: that movie doesn't have much else going on). It's probably not a coincidence that it's my least favorite Renaissance film. I love a good love story, but not when it becomes the whole story, which is kind of Pocahontas' downfall, in my opinion.

So, what did you think? Did I miss any major similarities? What was most surprising/interesting? Leave your comments!

And check out the other sets here:  main characters  |  songs |  villains  |  sidekicks

#43: Drawing Lines

(c) Disney

Treasure Planet, 2002
watched July 15, 2012

"Is that even a real movie?" Yup, it is. You may recognize the novel from which it was adapted: Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Turns out we get most of our pirate stereotypes from Mr. Stevenson (e.g.: wooden legs, parrot on the shoulder, X marks the spot, etc.). Treasure Planet takes the pirate theme in Island and puts it in outer space. Think steam punk meets Star Trek. Brilliant, eh? Well, sorta.

As a troubled teen who has never quite recovered from his dad's abandonment, Jim Hawkins longs for adventure in outer space. And so, we follow him on his journey to find meaning in life. In addition to this feeling really familiar, I am bewildered at how a ship travels through space where there is no atmosphere. It's worse than Pocahontas' language "miracle." Almost.

Jim develops a friendship with the ship's cook, John Silver, a cyborg to whom he has been assigned to work as a cabin boy. Over time, Jim begins to see him as something of a father figure. However, complications arise when the audience discovers Silver is planning a mutiny with the rest of the crew, who are actually pirates.

In Disney films, we like to draw a solid line between the good guys and bad guys. It helps us order our emotions about the characters. We like to root for heroes and root against the villains. You're a misunderstood teenager whose dad left you? I'm on your side, buddy. Oh, you're a one-legged cyborg? You must be bad.

But Silver, the so-called villain, experiences the most significant transformation of any character in this story--something that usually happens to the hero. As he grows more fond of Jim, he realizes that his pursuit of Captain Flint's lost treasure is no longer his sole priority. When faced with the choice of saving Jim's life or collecting the treasure, Silver acts in a way that surprises even himself. Not your typical villain's story arc.

In real life, we, too, have people pegged (no pun intended) as one thing or another. What? You're gay? You're straight? You're an atheist? You're a Christian? That must mean you're _____. We have all sorts of ideas about what people should be like based on some category, the way they look, who they associate with.

It's significant that the audience remains undecided about Silver throughout the film, even up until the last moment. I found myself wanting to just put him in a category. Are you a villain? Are you a father figure? Should I care about you or not?

Animated characters are portrayed by simple, defined strokes, just like the lines we draw around each other. But in reality, the edges are much blurrier. People are designed for good but have potential for evil as well. Like Silver, no one fits into just one category.

Perhaps instead of drawing lines between people, what we should do is see them for their capacity for change. When we do that, we see them the way that Jesus did, enabling us to love and care indiscriminately. The results are always quite surprising, no matter what side of the line you're on.

Renaissance Parallels Pt. 1: Main Characters

I'd like to say that I noticed similarities between all the Renaissance films after watching them consecutively for these past 3 months. But in reality, I created a highly extensive spreadsheet several years ago. Yes, I just admitted that here in the public blogosphere. I figure after 9 months of Disnerdy antics, I don't have much face left to save.

SO, I thought it was about time to turn that spreadsheet into some fun Disnographics! Here's my first edition of "Renaissance Parallels." This first set of Venn diagrams (should I call them RenVenns? Haha. Wow.) focuses on main characters.

I find it interesting that 5 of these 8 parallels are family-related, two of which have to do with father-child relationships. Also, Tarzan, the latest of the 9* movies I'm comparing, shows up 5 times as well. I suppose by the time they got to Tarzan, they just grabbed stuff from all the previous stories? In any event, you start to see how similar these movies are to each other when you look at them like this.

Coming up: sidekicks, songs, villains and a couple others if I can muster up the time. There are a LOT of parallels!

*Rescuers Down Under will not appear in this Disnographic series. It has so little of the same structure, which is why I've always said it doesn't count as Renaissance.

Disney Fathers - Two Types

Have you ever noticed there are really only two types of Disney fathers?

1) Strong, powerful, serious. Not particularly verbose, often has anger issues. Angular face, broad-shouldered. Almost always a king or leader. Undeniably good, but priorities to stay in control or to protect their family/kingdom can be their downfall.

Examples:
King Triton, Mufasa, Chief Powhatan, Zeus, Fa Zhou, Kerchak

2)  Short, fat, round, bumbling. Overly talkative and often mumbly. Comes off as silly and harmless, yet lovable. Hard to take seriously.

Examples:
Maurice, Sultan, Archimedes Porter (Jane's dad)

I've always been fascinated by this. Why are there only two kinds of fathers depicted in Disney movies? What does this communicate about the image of a father or a man?

Do these father images resonate with your experience, either as a father yourself or the fathers in your life?


Happy Father's Day! 

To my dad, who took me to my first Disney movie experience when I was 10. I have a vivid memory of him not falling asleep, as he was prone to do during most movies, but laughing and smiling along with my siblings and me. I guess you could say he's a Disnerd too (although recently I had to explain this term to him. That was a hilarious conversation.)

#37: Like Father Like Mother

Tarzan, 1999
watched June 3, 2012

Well, we've come to the end of the Renaissance Era. It's been a wonderful ten weeks of (mostly) great movies and a lot of fun! But more on that later. Must get on with the task at hand.

Some people dispute the inclusion of Tarzan in the Renaissance, but I think thematically the film fits in just fine. In fact, I fear sounding like a broken record by now. For nearly 10 weeks straight we've been dealing with characters searching for deeper fulfillment, meaning, belonging, and love. Tarzan is no exception.

So what sets Tarzan apart from the others, I find, is the tenuous relationship between Tarzan and Kerchak, the clan's leader and the closest thing Tarzan has to a father. While extremely protective of his family, Kerchak is cold and distant, and refuses to recognize Tarzan as one of them. And though he has a loving mother and good friends, Tarzan is discontent without Kerchak's acceptance. In Tarzan's eyes, Kerchak's disapproval only highlights all the ways he doesn't fit in.

Speaking of not fitting in, I wonder if Tarzan ever got upset that he was the only one who had to wear a loincloth. I can just imagine a belligerent 6-year-old Tarzan during a temper tantrum, refusing to put on his loincloth: "But Mom, it's itchy!"

Anyway.

Tarzan hones the more significant differences--his agility, creativity, and intelligence, to prove that he belongs in the only family he has ever known. But his remarkable skills in tree-surfing, fruit-spearing and vine-swinging impress everyone except Kerchak.

This strained relationship between son and pseudo-father hits a nerve with any of us who have felt the rejection, criticism, or just plain ambivalence from our father (or mother, perhaps). And too often, we believe that our Heavenly Father is also like Kerchak: stern, unforgiving, judgmental. As we are prone to do with our own fathers, we try everything to earn the Father's acceptance and love. But of course, when the Father's character is distorted as such, nothing ever seems good enough, and our failure leads to a lonely and unsatisfying life.

Believe it or not, the film does give us a glimpse of the true Father. But it's not through Kerchak. In fact, the clearest picture of the Father is found in a mother.

Kala is the parent who seeks Tarzan out and saves him from sure death. Without hesitation she adopts him as her own. And in the most sacrificial mother's way, Kala allows him to choose a life in the human world, even though it means that she will never see him again. Her unwavering love reminds Tarzan that no matter where life takes him, he will always belong. And ultimately, it's this love that draws Tarzan back to his true family.

When we are lost and left for dead, we have a Father who rescues us and brings us into his family. When we are feeling dejected and rejected, we have a Father whose heart beats with ours. And here is the best news: When we think we've failed, we have a Father whose acceptance and love can never be earned, because it's already ours.

Disney Mothers

Disney animated films have a lot of missing mothers (Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin, for example), and also many evil stepmothers (Tangled, Cinderella, Snow White). Why? I do not know.  I'm sure someone more intelligent and thoughtful than me has a theory. If you've got one please feel free to leave it in the comments! (I've already said some stuff about orphans, a related subject.)

But, since it is Mother's Day, I thought it would be appropriate to supply you with a list of Disney mothers that are present (for at least part of the story) and who demonstrate an immeasurable kind of love, a mother's love.

Mrs. Jumbo: She gets locked up in the "crazy" cage simply for trying to protect her son Dumbo. "Baby Mine" is by far the most memorable mother/child moment in any Disney movie.

Bambi's mother: Here's another example of a mother who gives her life to protect her child. We never see it on screen, but her death has a remarkable impact on viewers of the film.

Fairy Godmother: She's not an actual mother, but she is kind, warm and caring in all the ways Cinderella's stepmother is not. While her bibbidee bobbidee magic is helpful, it's her gentle, loving nature that makes us love her.

Perdita: Anyone who gives birth to fifteen puppies at once deserves to be on a list like this! Not to mention the lengths she goes to in order to rescue her lost puppies. I'm assuming she also adopts the others that come to live with them in the end, totaling 101 children in all. Wow.

Sarabi: Showing great strength after losing both her husband and son on the same day, she does her best to lead the lionesses under Scar's evil regime, and stands beside Simba when he returns to challenge his uncle.

Quasimodo's mother: She's only on screen for the opening song, but her sacrificial love for her deformed child leaves a lasting impression.

Fa Li & Grandma Fa: The only example of multiple generations of mothers, these women deeply care about Mulan, even if they're unsure about how to handle her. Grandma Fa steals the show, proving that old traditional Chinese mothers can be quite funny.

Kala: Perhaps Disney's most well-developed mother character, we see in her a courageous resolve as she adopts Tarzan after losing her own child. She helps him to understand that he belongs, no matter what anyone else says or where life takes him.


Who would you want for your mother? Vote in the poll.

Have a Disnerd Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!

King Triton, Single Dad

(c) Disney

I've been pretty hard on Ariel this week, so I thought I'd end my week of Little Mermaid posts with another angle on the story. Since I absolutely refuse to watch the prequel ("Ariel's Beginning"), I need to do a little guesswork here, so just go with me. Please?

As is the case with so many Disney movies, the central family in TLM is a single parent household. We have to assume that Ariel's mother passed away, when Ariel was quite young. Actually, I don't know enough about merfolklore to even try to figure out how they reproduced. Do you even need a mother and a father? Uhhh...yeah. Let's not go there.

So, let's just assume that King Triton is a widower, and having 7 daughters, I am not surprised that he is a little stressed out. However, some of his parenting choices greatly impact the way Ariel's life plays out.

First of all, Ariel is the youngest child, meaning she was the youngest when their mother died. She seems to be a loner, with her older sisters paying little attention to her. Does anyone find this strange? Fortunately, Ariel's resilient spirit allows her to remain hopeful. Perhaps her hobby of collecting shipwreck artifacts began as a means of dealing with her grief or loneliness. Clearly, it becomes much more than a hobby as her curiosity about the human world grows in intensity.

King Triton does nothing to engage this curiosity. Instead, he bans her from ever rising to the surface of the waters and explodes with anger whenever he finds out she has done so. He has some right to do this; I'm sure there are legitimate dangers for merfolk to come in contact with humans. Knowing humans, we would probably try to conquer them or put them in a zoo. Also, Ariel can be quite annoying, so it's understandable that he would lose his patience with her.

But still, I can't help but wonder if this blatant disapproval only serves as fuel to the fire for Ariel's teenage rebellion. What if King Triton had spent time talking with her and looking at the interesting things she had found and kept stored in her cave? What if he had helped her put her interests to a better use? (See my post "The Not So Modern Princess"). He would have never needed to blow up her cave (clearly not the way to get his message across, if he knew anything about parenting teenagers.) Also, I really think Ariel would not have felt it necessary to go to Ursula, whom she knew was bad, to solve her 'problem.'

I'm not a parent and I'm pretty far removed from teenagers (I'm thankfully not yet old enough to have friends with teenaged kids). But I really do think King Triton makes a few mistakes as a parent. Even towards the end, when he decides to let Ariel go, transforming her into a human so she can marry Prince Eric, I feel a bit torn. Ariel saw how her decisions caused her own near death, not to mention Eric's and her father's. And yet she doesn't seem repentant. She continues to wish away at her love for Eric. The sea king obviously loves his daughter, and it's one of the most touching scenes of the movie. But is enabling her to marry a man she barely knows really the best way of showing his love? I'm really not so sure.

We can't be too hard on King Triton. After all, he's the king of the sea - no small task, he has seven daughters, and they are motherless. It's a tough job. But I think this analysis gives some argument that Ariel may not be completely to blame for her foolish actions throughout the story. With better guidance, I think she had potential for a much more productive life, one that channeled her interests in a more healthy way.

What do you think? (I'm especially curious to hear from those of you who are parents!)

Cinderella's supporting cast

Cinderella has some well-developed lovable (and love-to-hateable) characters! If you watch closely, Cinderella herself has a fairly small role in her own movie. It is all the surrounding characters which move the story forward. Here's my analysis.

The sidekicks 
There is a large amount of screen time devoted to the mice, led by Jac, the capable one, and Gus, the round cute one (there is always a round cute one, in case you didn't know.) In fact it almost seems like the story is more about them than it is about Cinderella. Most of these scenes involve the mice trying to get past the evil Lucifer (great name for a cat huh?), which provides both humor and tension. While Cinderella attends to endless chores, they are busy making her a dress that she can wear to the ball. How adorable is The Work Song? I love that they call her "Cinderelly".

Their shining moment, however, comes when they risk everything to retrieve the key in Stepmother's pocket so they can get Cinderella out of the attic. Even though I know how it ends, I can't help but nervously bite my nails during this scene. At the end of the day, it's clear why Gus and Jac are on Entertainment Weekly's list of "Most Valuable Pets."

The villain
Lady Tremaine (did anyone else know this was her name? For a long time I thought her name was just Stepmother) is one of the best worst villains. She is quiet and controlled, but just one glare is enough to know exactly how she feels. It's her subtlety that makes her so cruel. Though her motive may be to advance her own daughters' status, she also seems to use her daughters as pawns in abusing Cinderella. Notice that when the two stepsisters destroy Cinderella's dress, Anastasia and Drizella appear to be the vicious ones. But in reality the Stepmother provokes them, thereby continuing to oppress Cinderella without lifting a finger.

The most chilling moment of animation in the film is when the Stepmother realizes that Cinderella was the mysterious girl that the Prince danced with last night. The camera zooms in on her face as the whole scene darkens to a shade nearly black. Somehow we can feel her wrath just from the shadow that comes across her face. It's a genius moment in the film.

The magical/wise character
And what about the Fairy Godmother? There is no explanation of where she came from or why she up until now has been absent from Cinderella's life (or why after that night she is nowhere to be found). However, there is something connected with Cinderella's ability to believe and the appearance of the Fairy Godmother. Note that she says to Cinderella, "If you'd lost all your faith, I couldn't be here. And here I am." Hmmmm. In any event, the Fairy Godmother is a stark contrast from the Stepmother as far as mother figures go. While the latter is cold and distant, the Fairy Godmother is warm and kind. She's just the kind of person you would want to give you a big hug when you're feeling like crap.

I think it's interesting that her magic has limitations:

1. She uses existing items to conjure up the things that would take Cinderella to the ball. (I notice that the Genie in Aladdin also does this to a certain degree when he uses Abu as Aladdin's 'mode of transportation'. I guess it makes for a humorous/charming scene to have the sidekick turn into something different?)
2. The magic only lasts until midnight. It seems like this plot device is used just so there is some tension in the story. Otherwise there would be no threat. Still though, there's no explanation and we just take it at face value that no magic could be completely all powerful. I suppose this is where the parallels end when calling the Fairy Godmother a type of savior figure.

It's a breath of fresh air to have so many great supporting characters in Cinderella. I'm impressed that in an 80-minute film they're able to develop such rich and complex characters. I'm still waiting for a better developed love story though. We'll have to wait for the next princess story to find out (Sleeping Beauty, if I'm not mistaken. Though I suppose Lady & the Tramp has a love story as well.).

#10: Rhymes with Cute

Melody Time, 1948
watched October 23, 2011

Little Toot is the most popular segment from Melody Time, which, like Make Mine Music, is another collection of shorts. It's not hard to see why he was popular - an anthropomorphized tugboat with a name that rhymes with cute? Catchy little harmonic song by the Andrews Sisters? Genius.

I actually think this short is very similar to Pinocchio. Little Toot is a well-meaning young tugboat who wants to make his father proud, but instead is always geting into trouble. It's this same theme of wanting to be good and yet messing up over and over again (yup...definitely have no idea what that's like). Just like Pinocchio, Little Toot has a respected father, and yet this father seems to be quite uninvolved in teaching or training his son to be a proper tugboat. I find this quite frustrating. How is he supposed to learn if no one is teaching him? Again, we find absent parents in the story. Even when parents are present they are absent in terms of being active in their child's life.

And again, similar to the end of Pinocchio, Little Toot also proves himself by an act of bravery. In this case, he helps pull in an ocean liner that is stuck out at sea during a big storm. In a moment when the stakes are high, Little Toot comes through and earns the respect from the rest of the community.

I questioned Pinocchio's change of heart at the end, and I think this little story raises similar questions for me. I see the same theme of the protagonist redeeming himself in a situation where he at first is utterly helpless to change or be good. Do these stories communicate to us that we just need to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps (or whatever the equivalent is for tugboats... anchors? ropes?) and simply be better, do better - and eventually things will fall into place? This narrative is so ingrained in our society that sometimes we don't even realize we live by it. I believe it is one reason the Gospel of grace has become so distorted in the Western church.

Both Pinocchio and Little Toot are based on children's books. It's an interesting message to be giving kids don't you think?

Why are so many Disney characters orphans?

I'm intrigued by the portrayal of parents in Disney movies, mostly because it is really rare for any hero or main character to have both parents around for the whole movie. In Bambi, this is the first time we even see both the mother and the father of the main character. As I mentioned in my Dumbo post, in these films we find most of our protagonists at some great disadvantage. Since these are children's movies, it makes sense that they would use the most traumatic disadvantage from a child's perspective: the loss of one or both parents. That must be one reason why orphans are so prominent in children's literature.

Having no parents or missing parents is a way for audiences to sympathize with the main character, but it also serves as an opportunity for the character to discover new love or new family-like relationships. In Tarzan, my favorite line in the whole movie comes near the end when he returns to help the gorilla family who has raised him as their own. Kerchak, the patriarch, says to him, "You came back." Tarzan replies, "I came home." (I seriously get choked up every time.) The message, "at first I didn't belong, and now I do," is truly powerful, and I would suggest, wonderfully echoes the message of the Gospel.

And so here in Bambi, the death of his mother is extremely tragic. In fact, it is so dramatic that we forget that we don't actually see her die. But then, Bambi's up-until-then-distant father, the Great Prince of the Forest (this dude could seriously give Harry Potter's patronus a run for its money), reaches out to Bambi. It is implied that he is the one who takes on parenting responsibilities, which, in normal deer behavior, pretty much never happens. When the stoic, serious father shows that he in fact dearly (hehe, no pun intended) loves his child, it resonates deeply with any of us who may have less than perfect relationships with our own father (and let's face it, that's all of us).  Loss or loneliness is a great plot device for the character to move towards a happy ending and for the audience to be drawn into all of the emotions, both painful and triumphant.

As always, comments and thoughts are welcome!