Is it bad that I am humming the music after watching Snow
White?
In all seriousness, after the couple days of class we have
had, I have never truly listened and looked at a movie so closely to try to
pick out and understand how and why things were the way they were. Disney’s
approach to Snow White is one of perfect manipulation and attention to detail.
It seemed like Snow White served as a “casual flex” of Disney’s “presumed”
animation powers. From the monotonous and boring repetition of Snow White
cleaning the house to her running through the dark woods, Disney wanted to
capture his audience with these ground breaking technological advancements for
film rather than focus solely on story. It was as if Disney believed that in
demonstrating superior editing and animation that the story would then tell itself
to the audience.
Similar to Brothers Grimm, Disney portrayed the patriarchal symbols
and status throughout the movie, from Snow White cleaning and kissing the
males, her coffin as a sight of the male gaze, to even the song she sings about
wishing a prince to come and marry her. Without truly understanding these attempts
of these notions to influence our conscious, the audience is just left in a
trance of following the main character of Snow White and hopes that her wish
does come true.
This is where Disney really gets it going. My man drops
himself (self-figuration really is something I began to notice) in certain
areas of the story to then truly come in at the end as the Prince who gets to
reap the benefits with literally having nothing to do with Snow White besides
falling for her beauty.
(short aside:
He kissed her on the lips while she is presumed dead. Let that one soak in.)
I was somewhat shocked to see the credits at the beginning
of the movie, as Disney may have finally learned that he can’t take all the
credit for the continual success of the Disney brand. The film’s premise
focuses around not only the Queen poisoning Snow White, but also Snow White getting
her wish come true. I believe that Disney was trying to represent through the poison
attempt, that many have tried to steal or stop him from reaching his goal, but
in the end, he still is the victor with “the best reward in the land”.
This self-figuration is a persistent feature that I began
uncovering, though I am still trying to distinguish if this was intentional of
Disney. Did he purposefully include himself in the stories so that his legacy
may continue and his appeal to the American Dream would capture many? Or was it
more a subconscious influence that felt the need to tell his story, upbringing,
and dreams through the media of film? I believe I will begin to see more of
which side is more correct as we dive deeper into other Disney films, and even
to see if films today still fit somewhat of that construct.
But for now, I will let Walt Disney, the prince, walk off
into the heavens with Snow White on his white horse towards a castle that could
only make me think of the Disney Castle.
(Talk about many allusions and metaphors in that one
sentence.)
No comments:
Post a Comment