So, The New Disney Film Is Not As Heartwarming As Advertised- Page 3

[morosco]

Posted: 8/21/12 at 11:12am

All I could think about while watching these two crybabies is Ned Flanders kids Rod and Todd.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 8/21/12 at 12:47pm

Just to wrack up some youtube views, I'm going to take my niece and nephew to a double feature of Plague Dogs and Grave of the Fireflies and then film their car ride home.

Strummer, I largely agree with you, but the thing about evil step-mothers definitely goes beyond Disney and is way too common in the original stories to be just something he picked and chose (of course if we're blaming Walt, let's remember he had very little--some say too little--involvement in choosing stories after the war anyway when he was more focused on live action films and Disneyland), so it's more relevent to the brilliant, first five movies they did. Bettelheim mentions that the evil step-mother archetype came partly out of the economics of the time--a new mother in a family often would be very concerned about what kind of money her child would get and (apparently) mistreat the existing kids because of it.

And there definitely are some interesting (even if I don't fully agree) articles about the queer/outsider sense many Disney villains (particularly male) have, though again, you can see that even in old British pantomimes.