March 3rd, 2013 at 09:05am
While I agree with the Disney shows on the Disney Channel, I honestly agree with Usako. If you hadn't noticed, the girls may have been beautiful (the Disney Princesses I mean), but they all had lessons to learn and their songs are what symbolized it all. Snow White teaches about never giving up on love. Cinderella teaches about forgiveness towards those who have done you wrong. Belle learned not to judge others by their appearances. Jasmine's little moral was that she can fall in love with anyone regardless of their wealth and social status as long as she follows her heart. Rapunzel wanted to go out and have some kind of fun (as Usako said, she wanted to seize the day). Mulan wanted to people to know the real her instead of trying to be the perfect bride or what everyone else tells her to do. The Princess and the Frog has Tiana dealing with the struggles of being two minorities in one (a woman and being black). Ariel manages to bridge the gap between both humans and merpeople (though it didn't officially happen until the movie sequel, Return to the Sea). And Jane from Tarzan learns about following your heart and she raises the issues of poaching (which Tarzan did by itself) but still.
It's unfair to say that the Disney Princesses don't have any definition to them. I, personally think that Jane was more plain looking than all the others and she was more bold and outgoing than all the others mainly because she wanted to show Tarzan her world and be apart of his world. She also fought against Poachers as well. So, although the Princesses were all beautiful and had handsome men wooing them, they each had their own little quirks, especially when faced with their own villains and problems.
Aurora = Maleficent. Jasmine = Jafar (she stood up to him repeatedly). Snow White and Cinderella = Stepmothers. Ariel = Ursula. Mulan = Shan Yu and the Huns. Tiana = The Shadowman. Gazelle = The Stepmother in Enchanted. Rapunzel = her foster mother.
If you actually think about it, a lot of these Disney movies follow these kinds of formulas but they all have different lessons and morals.
And thats perfectly fine. Thank you for sharing your opinion, you did bring up a few things I overlooked.