I was sitting at a table with some friends and we were discussing the fact that it was Valentine's Day and we were all going to spend it alone in our parents' basements eating chocolate and desperately refreshing our Facebook pages.
Somehow we got on the subject of the movie Beauty and the Beast, and I jokingly suggested that since it was Valentine's Day we should all get together and watch it and revel in the romance. I'm 95% sure I intended this to be a joke, but then something happened that I hadn't foreseen even though in hindsight it's really obvious: the girls at our table jumped on the idea. Not only that, they called over the girls at the neighboring table and told them the idea. The realization slowly crystallized in my head that if I had a party at my house centered around watching a girly movie then girls would come to my house.
The party was a huge hit. We had a 50% or better ratio of girls to guys (the holy grail of party planners everywhere), I learned the words to Gaston's theme song (he's especially good at expectorating), and even though I spent Valentine's Day eating chocolate in my parents basement watching a sappy romantic movie, for a few hours being single didn't stink too bad. Everyone agreed we should do it again, so we made it a Sunday evening tradition, and thus was born:
Disney Princess Sundays turned out to be immensely successful. I discovered that not only were most of my friends huge Disney fans, but most of the movies I shunned as a kid because they were too romantic actually had a high entertainment value. Case in point: Pocahontas. I remember not really caring for that movie when it came out, but when we watched it as part of Disney Princess Sundays it was hilarious. As a side note, we realized that the most dynamic, interesting character in that movie isn't Pocahontas, John Smith, or even Grandmother Willow, it's Batman. The proof is as follows:
1. There's a character named Thomas who is voiced by the Dark Knight himself: Christian Bale. He starts the movie off as an insecure young adventurer who falls off the boat and has to get rescued by John Smith. John Smith later has to give him pointers on how to shoot a rifle because he's too shaky and inexperienced to hit anything.
2. When Kokoum and John Smith are fighting over Pocahontas it's Thomas who shows up and shoots Kokoum, displaying a complete 180 in terms of confidence and manliness (and a total violation of Batman's code prohibiting firearms and killing. Maybe Ann Hathaway did the voice of Thomas's gun, since Catwoman clearly has no such prohibition).
3. When the colonists turn on the corrupt governor Radcliffe it's Thomas who gives the orders to lock him up. In other words, by killing Kokoum, Thomas has gained the respect of all the other colonists and is elevated to a position of authority.
Despite getting a girlfriend and learning not to be a racist, John Smith's character doesn't really change during the movie. The same can be said of Pocahontas, her dad, Radcliffe, and Kokoum (unless dying can be seen as character development). Thomas, on the other hand, goes from a fumbling, inept bystander to a confident, respected figure of authority.
We had a lot more fun with that movie once we realized that not only did it have Christian Bale in it, but that it chronicles his bloody rise to power. When you think about it, how many Disney characters have intentionally killed someone on screen? Notable examples include Scar from The Lion King, Mother Gothel from Tangled, Gaston from Beauty and the Beast (haha, just kidding, Belle loves the Beast so he's not dead), Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid, and Prince "I'm a freakin' stud" Phillip from Sleeping Beauty (with all apologies to Team Eric, Phillip is just on a whole other level).
Note that, despite Marvel being owned by Disney, Cyclops still isn't on the podium.
But we're getting a little off topic here. Aside from Beauty and the Beast and Pocahontas, we watched all the other classic Disney Princess movies: The Little Mermaid, Snow White, Cinderella, Princess and the Frog, Aladdin, Tangled, even The Black Cauldron.
Eventually we had to branch out into movies that didn't have princesses like Oliver and Company, The Lion King, and The Incredibles.
This went on until I met Jessica and recognized in her the essential marriage characteristics I'd been learning about from Disney movies for the past year. I don't know if it was that our apartment was in a less convenient location or we just smelled bad because we were married, but attendance at Disney Princess Sundays dropped off dramatically. We still tried to have them for a while, but we ran out of Disney movies and had to branch out into Dreamworks movies and Don Bluth movies. This post is getting a little long so that will have to wait until next week's post. Until then here's a picture that really made us laugh; Kasie this is for you.
Comment prompt of the week: What's your favorite Disney Princess/Prince pair? Why? More importantly, who has the best shoes?
Belle is my favorite princess by far. So I would have to say belle and the beast. The beast has true character development, going from a grumpy equivalent of a two year old to a man who understands that to truly love something you have to give it up. Belle is smart! She's independent, loving, caring, and has some smarts.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone argue that Cinderella has the best shoes? Her shoes get her the guy. Though not the most comfortable or most practical, I think her shoes are on top.
Hmm I think I'll go with Mulan and Chang. They weren't out looking for a spouse or wasting their time singing into wishing wells for true love -.- They were out doing what they were supposed to serving, fighting for their country and more importantly their families. (I say this loosely since one of them wasn't technically supposed to be cross dressing in the army.) Plus even though the first movie is better than the second, in the first scene you get to see how good Mulan is at training children. Which could possibly be the potential for the first ninja.
ReplyDeleteBest shoes genie. He doesn't technically have feet, but he still looks so stylish in his Indian shoes.