... FOR "THE MASCULINIZATION OF DISNEY PRINCESSES (A VISUAL GUIDE)"

As the Disney live-action remake/cartoon nostalgia train rolls on (this morning, Sir Ian McKellan posted this report from the Beauty And The Beast table read), I thought we'd take a gander at the effects these films have had in our current pop culture climate.

Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland (2010) came first, of course - a (some would say) drastic re-conceptualizing of the animated Disney classic, with Johnny Depp as a bug-eyed Mad Hatter and Helena Bonham Carter suffering from the most horrifying case of elephantiasis ever captured on film. Next, Universal took a crack at the fairest one of them all with Snow White & The Huntsman (2012), starring Charlize Theron and Kristen Stewart. Then in 2014, Disney earned themselves a mint by casting Angelina Jolie in Maleficent, a faux-feminist retelling of Sleeping Beauty from the POV of the villain. And while I didn't much care for Maleficent ("This is an ugly, embittered film on many levels," I wrote here, and I stick by that - just not for the reasons you'd expect), I did pick up on a strange sort of trend that popped up at the end of all three films - namely, the desire to turn beloved Disney princess-types into pant-wearing warriors.

... FOR "DISNEY'S 'MALEFICENT' AND THE FARCE OF THE FEMINIST FAIRY TALE"

"In any event, we know what's really going on in the scene.... It's a symbolic assault with sexual overtones, specifically an attack that occurs after a woman has passed out. Maleficent doesn't just lose her wings; they're stripped from her, against her will."

  — Matt Zoller Seitz, rogerebert.com

"[A]fter the brutal attack, Maleficent quickly retools itself, heading into a whirlwind of tones while ignoring the darker implications of its opening story. In a brisk 97 minutes, decades of narrative are distilled into boilerplate genre elements: The chills of a rape revenge fantasy, the mirth of slapstick, and the adrenaline of action."

  — Monika Bartyzel, Girls On Film

"[W]elcome to Walt Disney's I Spit On Your Grave."

  — Drew McWeeny, HitFix.com

So intoned the critics of Disney's Maleficent, which (so far) has managed to gross over $756 million since opening May 30th. Many reviews, as a matter of fact, touched on this rape-as-metaphor idea in some form or another, to the dismay of many moviegoers/overprotective parents who outright refused to believe that the Mouse House would sneak such subversively sinister material into one of their patented family entertainments. Never mind that Angelina Jolie herself admitted as much during interviews ("The core of [the movie] is abuse, and how the abused have a choice of abusing others or overcoming and remaining loving, open people," she told the BBC on June 10). The cold hard truth is that, from Hans Christian Anderson to Charles Perrault to the Brothers Grimm, even our fondest fairy tales have always been metaphors for something. What matters is how those metaphors are presented to the eyes and ears of anyone old enough to comprehend them.

... FOR "WALT DISNEY'S ANIMATED FIFTY (PART 50 - 'TANGLED' EDITION)"

Our continuing foray into Disney's fifty official Animated Classics. As always, don't hesitate to share your thoughts/memories/complaints in the comments section below. Links to previous entries are also included below.

Title: Tangled (2010; based on the fairy tale Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm)

The Plot: A princess whose hair possesses magical healing powers is imprisoned in a forest tower; on the eve of her 18th birthday, she escapes and experiences life for the first time, with the help of a wayward thief.

The Songs: "Incantation Song," "When Will My Life Begin," "Mother Knows Best," "I've Got A Dream," "I See The Light," "Something That I Want" (performed by Grace Potter)

... FOR "WALT DISNEY'S ANIMATED FIFTY (PART 49 - 'THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG' EDITION)"

Our continuing foray into Disney's fifty official Animated Classics. As always, don't hesitate to share your thoughts/memories/complaints in the comments section below. Links to previous entries are also included below.

Title: The Princess And The Frog (2009; based on the novel The Frog Princess by E. D. Baker, and "The Frog Prince" by the Brothers Grimm)

The Plot: In 1920s New Orleans, a waitress who dreams of opening a restaurant and a pampered, arrogant prince are magically transformed into frogs by a voodoo doctor's curse.

The Songs: "Down In New Orleans," "Almost There," "Friends On The Other Side," "When We're Human," "Gonna Take You There," "Ma Belle Evangeline," "Dig A Little Deeper," "Never Knew I Needed" (performed by Ne-Yo)

... FOR "WALT DISNEY'S ANIMATED FIFTY (PART 30 - 'BEAUTY AND THE BEAST' EDITION)"

My continuing foray into Disney's fifty official Animated Classics. As always, don't hesitate to share your thoughts/memories/complaints in the comments section below. Links to previous entries have also been included below.

Title: Beauty And The Beast (1991; based on La Belle et la Bête by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont)

The Plot: A young prince, turned into a hideous beast by an enchantress's spell, finds redemption through the love of a beautiful girl.

The Songs: "Belle," "Gaston," "Be Our Guest," "Something There," "Human Again" (Special Edition), "Beauty And The Beast," "The Mob Song," "Beauty And The Beast (End Title)"

... FOR "WALT DISNEY'S ANIMATED FIFTY (PART 28 - 'THE LITTLE MERMAID' EDITION)"

My continuing foray into Disney's fifty official Animated Classics. As always, don't hesitate to share your thoughts/memories/complaints in the comments section below. Links to previous entries have also been included below.

Title: The Little Mermaid (1989; based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen)

The Plot: A mermaid dreams of becoming human, but she's outwitted by an evil sea witch.

The Songs: "Fathoms Below," "Daughters Of Triton," "Part Of Your World," "Under The Sea," "Poor Unfortunate Souls," "Les Poissons," "Kiss The Girl," "Vanessa's Song"

... FOR "WALT DISNEY'S ANIMATED FIFTY (PART 16 - 'SLEEPING BEAUTY' EDITION)"

My continuing foray into Disney's fifty official Animated Classics. As always, don't hesitate to share your thoughts/memories/complaints in the comments section below. Links to previous entries have also been included below.

Title: Sleeping Beauty (1959; based on the fairy tale "La Belle au bois dormant" by Charles Perrault, and the ballet by Pyotr Tchaikovsky)

The Plot: Three fairies take a newborn princess into hiding, to prevent an evil curse that promises she will prick her finger on her sixteenth birthday and die.

The Songs: "Hail The Princess Aurora," "One Gift," "I Wonder," "Once Upon A Dream," "The Skumps Song," "Sleeping Beauty," "Sing A Smiling Song"

... FOR "WALT DISNEY'S ANIMATED FIFTY (PART 12 - 'CINDERELLA' EDITION)"

My continuing foray into Disney's fifty official Animated Classics. As always, don't hesitate to share your thoughts/memories/complaints in the comments section below. Links to previous entries have also been included below.

Title: Cinderella (1950; based on "Cendrillon" by Charles Perrault)

The Plot: The daughter of a wealthy aristocrat, raised by her cruel stepmother and two jealous stepsisters, finds true love with the help of her Fairy Godmother and some friendly mice.

The Songs: "Cinderella," "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes," "Oh, Sing Sweet Nightingale," "The Work Song," "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo," "So This Is Love"

... FOR "WALT DISNEY'S ANIMATED FIFTY (INTRODUCTION / PART 1 - 'SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS' EDITION)"

Walt Disney's Tangled is the studio's fiftieth full-length animated feature, computer-generated or otherwise, to be released directly to theaters. That's 74 years, for those keeping track – a cinematic milestone that began with Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs in 1937. Since then, they've had their share of hits, misses, classics, stumbles and technological advances, but if there's one common bond between them, it's been an honest-to-goodness desire to entertain audiences worldwide. You can hardly fault them for that.

I haven't always been the most avid follower of that old Mouse House magic. I was too old for them, I guess, by the time I started gaining any real interest in movies. Princesses, Pinocchio, Alice In Wonderland and Mowgli and Baloo... not really my thing. Those songs... not the kind of stuff you'd find playing on regular rotation on my CD player at home. As an adult, though, that's when I started to get a sense of what the animators were actually up to – to appreciate the love and are that had been poured into every frame.