I'm usually a big advocate of proper representation and changing questionable things. I don't get my panties in a twist when a movie stars all men, or when women are villains. I don't say that to be a 'cool movie girl' or anything. If you've seen me around the interwebs, I'm fiercely defending 'Birds of Prey' from those who think women existing, being friendly toward each other, and fighting an opponent who happens to be a man is blasphemy of the highest order.
But conflict isn't a questionable thing, no matter what a certain job networking site will tell you. Why won't you let protagonist men disagree with the female leads? Hell, the first Frozen was pretty good at that, and I am no fan of it.
Disney doesn't have the balls to have new or remade stories where men are multifaceted or in roles that hint at a conflict with the main female character unless they are truly the villain. I'm surprised the remake of "Beauty and the Beast" kept the clashing nature.
Today's movie topics of discussion:
i. Mulan (2020)
ii. Frozen II
iii. Artemis Fowl
Remember in the animated Mulan, how Shang was there and made no moves toward Mulan at any point? Dressed as a man or a woman, he was respectful.
Apparently, that was too risky for the Mouse House:
“I think particularly in the time of the #MeToo movement, having a commanding officer that is also the sexual love interest was very uncomfortable and we didn’t think it was appropriate.”. [src]Do you remember any sexuality in the movie? Not sex, not sexual acts, but sexuality? Maybe that part where Mulan's eyes widen at him shirtless before the famous musical sequence?
Either they are really pushing the PG-13 angle, or...I don't know, they want to seem progressive and woke. Probably the latter. Again, as of this writing, the movie isn't out. I do not know if this is more accurate to the legend. But it really seems that they were trying too hard to see a problem where there wasn't any and fix, essentially, nothing.
Frozen II...The issue is...it feels so strongly that now that Elsa is free, Anna has shifted her attention to, once again, fawning over her and being in her shadow, essentially leaving the one person who supported and helped her in the dust for most of the movie until the end.
A much stronger story would have been keeping most of the Elsa stuff, but including the aspect that Kristoff is always worried that he will be second to Elsa in Anna's mind. They almost touch on it with the "Anna, you have to let me live my life." aspect.
Did Disney not want this to be 'pick the man or pick your sister'?The moral could have been 'Tell Anna to be her own person, as Elsa is growing into being hers'. Let Kristoff voice that he might always feel second in her heart and there be some genuine conflict there.
You can use the excuse that he's kind of a stoic guy, but remember "Frozen Fever"? When he had a public declaration of love to Anna?
So, Artemis Fowl also isn't out yet - and whoo boy, that second trailer shows just how much they deviated from the material.
Instead of kidnapping Holly Short to hold her for ransom to pay for the search efforts to find his missing father, Artemis Fowl meets his father's fairy friends after he is kidnapped and they help him.
If you've never read the books, know this - Artemis, for the first 3 books, is a huge asshole. He's like 12. He's a genius jackass. He gets better while still keeping his haughty demeanor, but he's a jerk.
I'm glad that we've seen to move on from asshole male protagonists for the youths, but that is a huge aspect of his character, how he changes.
Does Disney think that no one wants to see the, essentially, antagonist we're following, kidnap a girl? I still think the movie looks passable and will definitely watch it, but the big appeal to many was seeing this jackass kid be the character we're following.
Other than
In short, Disney, it's fine if you want to re-adapt/sequallize a story to have a man not be 100% in the woman's corner.
Without them being the big bad.
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