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Recent disney moives following a narrative pattern, General Thread of Media about the need to belong.

Last posted Mar 17, 2015 at 11:26PM EDT. Added Mar 16, 2015 at 07:30PM EDT
5 posts from 5 users

It's just something I've been observing that are just about the major animated moives, but some of the most recent disney animations have been sharing a similar theme and I have a feeling it isn't a coincidence, just like at the set-ups of the moives:

  • Tangled is about an losted princess who lived in an tower, isolated from anyone else, most of her life until she unexpectedly meets a thief who then agrees to take her on an adventure that "begins her life."
    the story ends with her reuniting with her ture parents.
  • Wreck-It Ralph is about a video game character who is sick of doing the job for 30 years because he is completely unrespected by most of his co-workers. He then goes an adventure for a mcguffin that he thinks will earn him respected but instead has him crossing-paths with a outcast "Glitch" character from another game who has a similar mission for recognition.
    The story ends with the glitch character discovering she's the true ruler of her game, giving her recognition from everyone and putting her in the highest social status in the game world, and Ralph getting the respect he wanted for the last 30 years.
  • I might not even have to explain what happens in frozen for how much success it made, but doing it anyway since it's showing this theme the most:
    The story is about two princesses who are isolated from their citizens and themsleves because one of them has to learn how to handle dangerous powers that she is losing control of.

    And then after her crowning and the sudden love between her socially nelgeted sister and prince "TurstMeImANiceGuy" of the Southern Isles, the secret about her powers is out and then queen elsa runs away intending to protect everyone from herself, leading to princess anna teaming with an icemen who seems to be unintersted in socializing with anyone except his reindeer.

I don't need to explain the rest to explain my point, you either already watched it, looked it up, or decided you don't care.


And after the success of frozen, I feel that Big Hero 6 also followed the pattern (being the most recent moive, I'll leave it to you to found out way if you haven't already.) And also feel that some of the Future disney and pixar moives might also explore it. And bring this up because those four moives have been pretty successful, and I think frozen having that theme might've been a big part of what made it successful as it got.

So what I'm really asking is:What is the take you guys have about the idea that those disney moives are exploring loneliness as a theme, and why do so many people want to watch them?

Last edited Mar 17, 2015 at 02:17AM EDT

Honestly almost all of Disney's big hit movies have dealt with the main character experiencing loneliness and isolation until some big adventure brings them to self-acceptance. Sleeping Beauty did it to an extent with Aurora spending the first 16 years of her life living in a cottage in the woods with her fairy godmothers (although the movie was more about the fairies than anything else), Cinderella was a slave who wasn't allowed to go outside ever, Aladdin was a homeless thief with only a monkey as a friend, Hunchback of Notre Dame I don't even think I need to explain how those themes are explored, Beauty and the Beast had, well, the Beast, the list goes on.

Hell, Dreamworks does this theme a lot too. Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon, Megamind, Rise of the Guardians

I think in general it's a theme that's common in movies for younger audiences because, well, it usually contains pretty good messages about loneliness and self-acceptance. It's a simple storyline that gives us characters with struggles that are easy to relate to on some level and as we can see with all the examples it's a story that can be done in a million different ways.I doubt animation studios will be dropping these themes any time soon.

I also notice that Disney movies recently have a very similar tonal script. It goes like this:

Things looking good, cool, something semi-bad
(Ex: Cars, monsters u, frozen)

Things go bad
(Lightning gets lost, grades going down/social outcast, Elsa lost/Anna out in wild looking for her)

Things go good
(Accepted in community, grades high/win competition, bonds with kristoph/finds Elsa )

Things go bad again
(Media drags him away, cheating exposed/friendship ruined, Elsa says gtfo/handsome mcdoucebag betrays Anna)

Final Confrontation
(Final race with towns support, saving mike from humans and teamwork reestablished, thwarting mcdoucebag/love cures Anna's whatever the fuck)

Things go good again, better than before
(Lighting a celeb/humbled/in love/living in town, mike and sully besties 5ever and work their way up to working on scream floor, Anna X Kristoph/Elsa accepted/mcdouchebag thrown in the brig)

Last edited Mar 17, 2015 at 02:40AM EDT

Now that you mention it, I think Kingdom Hearts might also be dabbling in this theme, (Though I think this is more apparent with the Numbered games, BBS and 358/2 Days)

Skeletor-sm

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