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Semi related: A great YouTube video by Lindsay Ellis about how Disney has further changed aspects of their stories between Disney originals and the live action / CGI remakes / modern sequels, largely in the form of the remakes being woke meta-commentary on the original works:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU1ffHa47YY

Topics it covers include:

• Dumbo and the attempts to paper over ideas of racism, alcoholism, animal cruelty;

• Beauty and the Beast and feminism/female empowerment;

• Aladdin adding redundant ideas of female empowerment (that the original arguably didn't lack);

• Mary Poppins being a story about not caring about material possessions to the 2018 sequel being centred around concern for material possessions.



The woke Disney remakes have all been worse than their previous counterparts. The pseudo-empowerment of Jasmin in the live action Alladin was particularly egregious. She is a strong character in the original with nuance and agency. In the remake she sings a song about female empowerment where she tells everyone off, but it turns out to be a dream sequence. Sigh.

Having said all that, the live action Cinderella remake was really something special. I can’t recommend it enough. After seeing it, I great hopes for the rest. I’ve since been disappointed.


> In the remake she sings a song about female empowerment where she tells everyone off, but it turns out to be a dream sequence. Sigh.

Any "empowerment narrative" that has "be a princess" as step one is doomed to failure. Might as well drive the point home that it is all a fantasy.


I thought Enchanted did a reasonable job, but may be from an out-of-touch generation.

Not all princesses are royal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TQmo5TvZQY




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