#Disney meta

[curlytheintrovert]

I just watched Elemental tonight at home… why in the actual WORLD is there not more fanfare about Wade Ripple?! I love this character so much it’s insane. After I watched the movie I was trying to put into words why Wade is so unbelievably lovable. Is it cause he’s funny? Yes. Cause he’s adorable? Yup. Cause he’s sweet as pie? Absolutely!

But I think the main reason is because Wade is such a caring, emotionally intelligent and tender male protagonist. I don’t know if I’ve seen many archetypes like this, in most adult content, much less a “children’s” movie. But something about seeing emotions on a male character was so therapeutic! To see tears, unveiled love and a high perception of feelings was a breath of fresh air.

I think we, in our media culture, are in love with bad ass, strong silent type men (me included!) But seeing Wade be so far from that stereotype was riveting. It also got me thinking how sad it is that Wade’s loving, impassioned existence is more fantasy then reality. Give me all the sensitive, crybaby, lovey dovey boys please! (And can we just give Mamoudou a round of applause?! Like his voice work was so on point! He brought so much nuisance and charm to this character. I feel like I fell in love with his voice. Geez I was not trying to come out of this with a crush!)

But Pixar and Peter Sohn did not have to go as hard as they did on immigrant realities, parental exceptions or different culture relationships. Plus the movie was STUNNING and the music was rocking!!This is what the studio used to feel like and I’m here for it! Keep em’ coming!

[artist-issues]

And another thing.

The original The Little Mermaid is about understanding. One of the main plot devices is that the witch takes what from Ariel, ladies and gentlemen?

Her voice.

Ariel did not leave the sea “for a boy.”

Ariel left the sea to be understood. Because for the whole first part of the movie, we’re shown hints of what her life is already like, and how she’s tried to be understood but nobody’s listening or communicating.

She’s introduced by describing a ship as amazing and wonderful, while her fish friend clearly does not understand and wants to get out of there.

Even her best friend doesn’t share her love for another world.

Her first interaction with her father, count how many times he’s speaking over her.

He has this prejudice against humans, and because she’s disobeyed him, he won’t listen to any of her evidence that they may not all be bad.

Even when she has a voice and a cavern full of proof that humans aren’t all barbarians, her father won’t listen to her, so he can’t understand.

And the truth is, she doesn’t have that much proof. She knows that humans are clever and make “wonderful things,” and that’s what she bases her belief in them on. But those beautiful objects, and her pretty ideals, are not enough to make her abandon her family and culture and world.

When she sings and talks about why she wants to be Part of That World, it’s because she wants to understand it. And, subconsciously, Ariel also hopes to be understood up there. Where they make cool devices, and maybe daughters can stand instead of being reprimanded. There’s this hope for freedom and being known associated with the surface.

But it’s not until she meets Eric that those ideals are really, actually, proven true.

Ariel sees Eric out on the sea exploring instead of staying in a palace on his birthday. He gets a gift from the closest person to him, and it’s clear that even the closest person to him doesn’t understand his tastes—he doesn’t want an over-dramatic statue of himself. He sticks to his ideals in an argument that somewhere out there, is the right girl for him. But he doesn’t have to leave the argument in frustrated tears. In the end, he risks his life to not only watch out for his friend, but nearly dies going back to a burning ship to save his dog.

Eric personifies everything Ariel has always idealized about the Human World—AND he might understand her.

In her one observation of him, she finds out that he, a human, is:

A Prince, but nobody can tell him what to do.

More interested in activity and exploration than palace ceremony.

Unable to relate to his closest companions.

Handsome—beautiful, not a savage.

Criticized for “silly, romantic notions” but sticks to the idea of something wonderful out there in the great beyond.

Brave, self-sacrificial, and compassionate to animals.

Eric is, all at once, everything Ariel always hoped a human could be, and yet still so like herself. They have twin souls.

She’d rather be exploring human ships, he’d rather be out exploring the sea. She believes the surface world is good and beautiful, he believes in the girl of his dreams, no matter what anyone says. She has nobody who gets excited about new adventures, and he has nobody who gets excited about new adventures.

When she sees him, she falls in love not just with his upstanding character, or even the human world he represents—she falls in love with the hope that he might understand her in away nobody under the sea does.

Then the ironic thing is, she’s got to make him understand who she is and what she should mean to him without a voice. And unfortunately, that’s really hard because he is suddenly associating his dream girl with a voice and a magical rescue.

As close as they may get when she finally does meet him face to face and gets herself human legs, Ariel and Eric can’t be together until he knows who she is, for real. After all, how can love be true without understanding?

And we’re not DONE with understanding. Because even after he learns what and who she is and still commits to her and saves her and loves her, Ariel’s back to having a tail. She’s back to being in a world where he can’t be.

Except now, Triton is the one who understands. He finally sees what they’ll do for each other—and that Eric, ”savage, spineless, harpooning fish eater with no regard” saved his daughter. He sees that they love each other and are each worthy of the other’s love.

It’s not until Triton understands what Ariel has known and felt all along that he gives her human legs the right way.

That’s the point of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. “True love is found in understanding and sacrificing for one another.”

Triton had the sacrificing idea down, but he didn’t have understanding. Eric had understanding, but he didn’t have the chance to sacrifice for it.

Ariel has both. She understands that Eric’s world is not only barbaric, but beautiful, and she’s willing to sacrifice her tail to be understood in that world.

That is what this movie is all about. And because they’re probably willing to sacrifice critical scenes, like the Prince saving the day (which is important because it provides Triton with a new understanding of humans) or the girl leaving the ocean to be with the boy (which is important because what she really wants is to be understood) the creators of the Live Action Little Mermaid are going to miss the point and ruin the movie.

[elvisqueso]

"Our warriors fought with courage, but none more bravely than Kocoum."

Pocahontas (1995)

long, rambling meta under the cut:

you know i've taken some light dips into the tags looking for content on kocoum and i never see anyone going into depth about him as a character. sure you see the posts that are all "omg he was so hot pocahontas should have picked him instead :p" but that has little to do with his character or his place in the narrative or anything. in fact, it's a further objectification of a guy who is already dehumanized in-narrative, which is so very sad to me. kocoum is a lot more than his looks, which is why they're the first thing about him you're meant to notice. he's handsome, and he doesn't smile. he's a warrior and a stoic kinda guy. but that's all surface-level stuff. he's a very complex person with an intense internal turmoil that circumstances aren't allowing him to deal with properly.

like, you really can't come to an understanding about his character and go on to say "and he should have been with pocahontas" bc the fundamental aspect of their relationship as characters is that they would have been terrible for each other. you could feasibly make an argument that, on some level, kocoum would have been good for pocahontas (the "handsome, sturdy husband" who could ground her), but there is no way in any universe that pocahontas would have been good for him, bc the one who actually needed and wanted a steady, reliable partner is kocoum and pocahontas is the opposite of that (which is one of the reasons she and john smith kind of deserved each other but that's a whole other post).

see, kocoum is like a hemingway protagonist. remember, at the start of the movie, everyone is returning from war; it's important to note how much emphasis the movie places on family as a representation of "the ordinary world." the same is done with the virginia company members at the top of the film. there, they say goodbye to their normal lives and start an adventure. here, the powhatan warriors are returning to theirs. but who does kocoum, the celebrated warrior, have to return to?

kocoum doesn't have a normal life yet. he still belongs to the battle. there's a lot to be said about PTSD as a character motif in this film: it affects a lot of the major characters in different ways. for kocoum, it means he's not allowed to depart from his wartime mindset until and unless he can start a family of his own, and for that he pins his hopes on pocahontas. why exactly he likes her goes unsaid; it's implied they aren't particularly close, but may be familiar with each other. pocahontas being the chief's daughter may be an element, but it may also be that he's harbored an admiration for her from afar for some time. whatever the reason, kocoum has a misplaced idea that being with pocahontas will bring him peace. like a hemingway protagonist, he's taken up with the notion that being with a woman, an angel, will fix him; but the woman he wants is neither interested in doing so nor able to do so, whether or not she cares for him.

and this is why his outburst of emotion when he finds pocahontas and john in the glade is so understandable. he's watching his hopes for the future being ripped apart before his eyes. he'll never get peace, and that breaks him and then kills him.

and when i say he's dehumanized, i'm talking about the way characters talk about him and then how he dies. he's fierce, like a bear. he's handsome, but doesn't smile. he's a tool, an obstacle, and ultimately fodder for both pocahontas's and thomas's character development (mostly thomas's). there's something to be said about how both kocoum and his foil john smith are objectified so differently. where john is the subject of pocahontas's female gaze, kocoum is also objectified through a masculine one (the tension-filled lens that marries fear and admiration for athletic, warrior men and rivals). and then, again, he gets 'fridged for plot reasons because he's also the paris to pocahontas's juliet.

basically what i'm saying is kocoum really needed someone to take care of him, and no one did nor could. and that's why he's so tragic and tbh deserves better treatment by the fans, too.

[idiosyncraticrednebula]

I will always find the fact that Eric loved and accepted Ariel as she was, presumably mute (without being aware of what had taken place prior at all) to be very loving and amazing. That goes to show how much he loved her and also how much of a compassionate and patient person he was. This is also the only Disney Princess couple where one party wasn't even human, and that did not bother him at all, either. I think that's a great message to send to children, and since the movie has a leading lady, to girls, specifically. You will be able to find a guy who loves and accepts you as you are and will support you in your dreams.

[princess-ibri]

Updates DisneyVerse Timeline! Now that we've got a better look at the costuming in Wish (and got confirmation on when Encanto takes place. Still think the costuming fits better with the 1910s but I can take correction)

[gavillain]

Is the reason why the Queen in her peddler form acted so erratically because the potion drugged her mind? Or maybe the potion did more than that and caused the Queen to split into two persons who share one mind, like Jekyll and Hyde? Or maybe the potion didn't do anything to her mind and didn't need to do anything to her mind for the queen to act so differently in her hag form? She just acts differently in her hag form for some psychological reason. Some say that the hag form persona is her real self and that the Queen form is more of a facade. But is it true, or are the two personas equally real?

My personal interpretation of Grimhilde is slightly different, actually. See, as a queen, Grimhilde is very refined and subdued, and I think that's very much intentional on her part and by design. She's royalty and thus tailors herself to the expectations of being in such a position of authority. And that regality is also something that extended to her perception of how the "Fairest One of All" should act. She doesn't necessarily change herself, but she does structure her behavior and mannerisms in a very rigidly refined way. However, we see cracks in that proverbial mirror when she becomes enraged, and the regality gives way to something more visceral and dark.

However, when she becomes the hag, she's no longer beautiful, she's no longer royalty, and she doesn't have to be so refined and intentional in her mannerisms. She has permission to just let loose and be the cackling maniacal witch that she is beneath the surface. I don't necessarily think it's that the hag is her true self per se, but it certainly is a look at who she is completely unrestrained by the expectations and inhibitions of her station without a care to how crass she might come across.

Because the thing is that she's still largely the same person in both forms. It's just a matter of one persona being tailored to how she wants to be perceived and the other being very unrestrained and unfiltered. I also think Grimhilde is an actress at heart, and both the queen and the hag are "roles" that she takes on in a very method way that extends even to when she's alone without an "audience." And that's part of why she's so effective at manipulating and taking on disguises. She plays them both in a way that suits the part, drawing from her own self in both parts, but her true self is actually probably somewhere more in between. Not necessarily so refined or so uninhibited but more at a happy medium where she's not putting on a "performance."

[barefootbaltimore]

I just saw a post talking about Disney Princesses and the trope of a "strong female character" which is a conversation near and dear to my heart but I didn't agree with some of the ways OP framed the idea of feminism as a whole so I'm making my own post.

Classic, more stereotypically "feminine" Disney princesses have just as valid, if different, messages for children, and people as a whole, as modern more "strong" princesses. I feel like in 2024 this isn't really a hot take. I feel like we all know this. We know that "strength" shouldn't have to mean being loud and rebellious and a good fighter, and we know that "feminine" doesn't have to mean weak, and passive, and "a bad influence". At least we should know this.

And obviously we all know that no one children's movie is going to act as a person's entire model for how to be a person. Which is great because as much as I personally love classic Disney movies even the modern ones suffer from the use of racist, antisemitic, and ableist stereotypes. People need a wide range of role models and cultural touchstones and no one character or plot is going to "corrupt" them.

That said here are all of the ways some of the Disney princesses who used to be labeled as "bad influences" or "anti feminist" empowered me personally as a child and even today:

Snow White: This girl had an evil stepmother who tried to have her murdered, then she was left to find for herself in the woods. She'd have every right to rage and scream and never be kind or trust ever again. But she doesn't. She is still kind, she still trusts ( some times a bit too freely) and she makes a home and happiness where she is. She never blames herself for her abuse and neither do her friends. They believe her and they do their best to protect her. As a young girl who was being abused by her step-mom this was a powerful message for me. I can be happy after this. People will love me. I can be a kinder person. This doesn't define me.

Cinderella: Similar to Snow White in a lot of ways but shows even more how during the abuse Cinderella finds moments of joy and love and friendship. Her step sisters destroying her dress mirrors experiences I've had as a child, I know the devastation she was feeling. So the most important lesson for me, a child with very little control over her own life, was that someone could still come save me. I know that tends to be the exact opposite of the desire to have the princess save herself, and as an adult connect to those characters a bit more, but when I was watching Cinderella regularly? I needed to feel like if I could just find some happiness in my days then one day I would be rescued. Surviving until help arrives is also strength.

Belle: Beauty and the Beast has always been my favorite fairytale so Belle was, naturally my favorite princess. Also she loved books and *I* loved books so obviously we were basically the same. Belle isn't abused, she has her father and even though people in town see her as kind of weird she has some people, like the bookseller, who are kind. The thing I love about this movie in particular is that the point of her character *is* that she is so much more than what people see. Just like Beast. It's no wonder that her name means beauty after all. Then her father goes missing and she is determined to find him, to save him. And she does, she willingly trades herself so that her father will go free. That's bravery. As a little girl who thought my dad was a superhero I liked to think I'd save him if he needed it. Then at the end of the movie she risks her life to save Beast as well. She's kind of a badass actually.

Ariel: I'm gonna be real if I had to hear one person slander this child for being manipulated into giving up her voice to live the life she always wanted I'd have been on the news. Like the lesson is right fucking there. Her family didn't support her interests or dreams and it drove her to someone who was looking to exploit a distressed kid for her own goals. This isn't rocket science people. Support your kids but also giving up your voice is *never* worth it. The other ways might be harder or take longer but you need your voice to advocate for yourself and to be your full self. Don't lessen who you are, it will bite you in the ass.

Sleeping Beauty: Okay heres a little note on Aurora. There really is no way to look at that movie and say Aurora was much more than a plot device. I mean she was also seen to be making the best out of a tough living situation but mostly this is Phillips movie and I accept that. She plays the setpiece role that the Main Characters love interest always had in those early Disney movies. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing it's just a thing.

Anyway thanks for coming along on this long and kind of pointless post. Remember to continue to boycott Disney because they are a horrible corporation and also because the BDS movement has called for a number of boycotts of Disney services and movies. Cancel that Disney+ and watch your old DVDs instead. And as always Free Palestine, Free Sudan, Free Congo.

[fortunatelychaoticphantom]

Highlighted Posts - Fandom Topics

For some explanation, see serious topics post.

Avatar the Last Airbender / Legend of Korra:

Aang, forgiveness and violence in The Southern Raiders (meta).

Aang’s (lack of a) character arc (meta) + same response, posted independently from the original chain post with a bit of revisions (meta).

Avatar, violence and last second anti-killing rhetoric (meta).

The actual advice the past Avatars gave Aang (meta).

Aang vs. Ozai final battle and Star Wars influences (meta).

The Great Divide is good actually (meta).

Aang being rewarded by the universe? (meta).

Third season Scorched Earth plan out of left field (meta).

Bloodbending and Energybending (meta).

Katara didn't have a “plot armor” in the final battle with Azula, she's the epitome of a warrior (meta).

Katara and non-lethal battle winning (meta/joke).

Katara didn’t beat Pakku (meta).

Katara didn’t choose Aang “over” Zuko (meta).

Anastasia!Zutara AU (headcanon).

Mai and Zuko, what should have been (meta).

Mai happily joined Azula to hunt Zuko (meta).

Kanna and Pakku... why??? (meta/joke).

Gender equality in the Fire Nation and WW2 equivalents (meta).

Legend of Korra, the status quo and the institution of the Avatar (meta).

Making Korra’s dad chief is just… awful (meta).

Harry Potter:

The Malfoys didn’t have a redemption in canon (meta).

Michael Gambon is great, you guys are just mean (meta).

Snape, Dumbledore and the Defence against the Dark Arts (meta/joke).

No thanks, I don’t need a young Snape movie (joke).

What Harry’s reaction to his name being pulled from the Goblet should have been (joke).

The Tri-Wizard tournament has no rules (meta).

Star Wars:

Star wars and Pirates of the Caribbean are the same story (meta).

Kylo Ren and redemption in the Star Wars universe and Hollywood [tlj post] (meta).

DC:

so... does Superman have an appendix? (joke).

Why Selina Kyle never goes to Arkham (joke).

The Scorpion King/Wonder Woman comparison (joke).

Marvel:

Infinity War and the horror of the snap (meta).

Who’s the avengers’ designer? (joke).

Black Panther and The Lion King similarities regarding women (meta).

Shipping in the MCU (joke).

Antman and family (joke).

Pirates of the Caribbeans:

Elizabeth and Will’s relationship is the heart of the movies (meta).

The best things about PotC (meta).

Disney:

I sort of wrote a one-shot about the bimbettes from Beauty and the Beast (fanfiction).

Belle in the Hunchback of Notre Dame (meta).

Del Toro, monstrosity and Beauty and the Beast (meta).

Inner Workings is amazing (meta).

Frozen’s Anna and Hans (joke).

Quasimodo is awesome (meta).

Around the world with Captain Phoebus (joke).

Pocahontas’ ending is subversive as fuck (joke/meta).

Hercules didn’t know who Hades was (joke).

Other:

Bullshit “feminist” retelling and Mad Max Fury Road (joke/meta).

“Feminist” retellings explanation (analysis).

She-Ra and the inherently good protagonist (meta).

I hate the ending of She-Ra (meta).

Once upon a Time, Regina and redemption (two diverging threads of the same post) (meta): First and Second.

Ross Geller isn’t that bad, you guys are just mean. Or: The unbelievable cruelty of what Carol did to Ross (meta).

Bella Swan and Hermione Granger comparisons are bullshit (meta).

Twilight and depression (meta).

New Moon reread comments (meta).

Eclipse reread comments (meta).

Breaking Dawn reread comments (meta).

The Good Place is the greatest show in history. But also I have thoughts (meta).

The single most beautiful Geralt and Jeskier art ever made [The Witcher] (fanart).

Dimitri wanted to find the real Anastasia all along in hopes that she survived the revolution [Anastasia 1997] (meta).

Godzilla, Pacific Rim and Hollywood: between grim-dark and camp (meta).

Wednesday Addams and the usurpation of the summer camp for rich white kids (meta).

Debbie Jellinsky is the best [The Addams Family Values] (joke).

Achilles and Patroclus sitting in an urn. K.I.S.S.I.N.G. (joke).

Of course the Jewish women are the witches in Oz the Great and Powerful�� (joke/meta).

Bird Box and mental illness (meta).

My problems with Carmen San Diego (meta).

Ice Princess and teenage movie tropes. Or: They're lesbians Harold (meta/joke).

Lord of the Rings life goals (joke).

The School of Good and Evil and that little bit of antisemitism… (joke).

Game of Thrones / House of the Dragon genetics are weird (joke).

Why wouldn’t I keep talking about old fandoms? (joke/analysis).

I hate Barbie. Sorry. (meta).

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

Disney Master Post

Snow White

Thoughts on Snow White

Cinderella

Thoughts on Cinderella

Sleeping Beauty

Thoughts on Sleeping Beauty and Aurora’s Character

The Little Mermaid

Thoughts on The Little Mermaid and Ariel’s Character

Thoughts on The Little Mermaid Sequel

Beauty and the Beast

Thoughts on Beauty and the Beast and Belle’s Character

What if Bella Swan from Twilight and Belle from Beauty and the Beast Trade Places?

Frozen

What if Elsa Hadn't Made Eternal Winter?

A Hot Mess of a Movie with Likable Characters

What if Anna and Elsa's Parents Survived the Boat Trip?

Hunchback of Notre Dame

Thoughts on the Disney Adaptation

[etaleah]

The supposed plot hole of “Everyone in Beauty & the Beast just forgot there was a prince in a castle near their village even though he’s only been cursed for 10 years!” is not actually a plot hole. Neither is him being cursed at a young age. There are perfectly logical explanations for both of these.

On the age point, the Enchantress saw that this 11-year-old kid was well on his way to becoming an absolute asshole and she wanted to nip that shit in the bud before he became A KING. If he’s already saying “fuck the homeless and the elderly; I don’t care if they freeze to death” at 11 years old, that calls for some pretty drastic intervention so that he doesn’t end up becoming the ye olden version of the GOP with the UNLIMITED POWER of the monarchy. And yeah, she was a bit harsh in how she went about it, but this was ye olden times. Those were the days when people still thought beating their kids was a good thing.

And no, the villagers did not forget about the castle. They know where it is; Gaston leads them there. Maurice isn’t even that surprised to see it when he stumbles upon it in the beginning. When the Beast’s existence is revealed, they say “There’s a beast!” They don’t know that the prince is the Beast or that there was a spell. Belle and Maurice don’t even know that. The villagers only know that there’s a beast, with no context as to how he got there. For all they know, this beast could have killed the prince. They don’t know that it’s the prince under a curse because he never told them. Why would he? He’s ashamed of what he looks like and doesn’t want anyone to know what caused it.

These questions are silly and a waste of time. The questions we should be asking are:

1. Did the Beast have his current form from the start or was he transformed into a cute little beast cub and then grow? Did he just get to skip puberty?

2. What is Belle’s workout schedule? She somehow gets Beast’s entire body onto her horse after he saves her from the wolves. This girl definitely lifts.

3. Why is the bookseller letting Belle treat his shop like a library and how do we make that bookseller real?

4. HOW MANY FUCKING SIBLINGS DOES CHIP HAVE. MRS. POTTS TELLS HIM TO GET INTO THE CUPBOARD WITH HIS BROTHERS AND SISTERS AND LOOK HOW MANY THERE ARE.

Mrs. Potts definitely gets around.

[artist-issues]

thinking about how Lady & the Tramp is all about the loyalty of love

Who better to teach that lesson than a pair of dogs?

Lady’s character looks like a naive young woman who’s always stayed in her place in society. Tramp’s character looks like a rough-and-tumble, “live a little” bachelor of the world.

But because they’re dogs, they get to tell us something about how staying in your place is the best thing to do; as long as your place is centered around love, you should be loyal to it.

Tramp jumps from girl to girl in the name of freedom.

To him, breaking the rules and living for himself, taking advantage of everyone he needs to, is freedom. The whole world is his. But when he’s faced with a choice between the whole world or the love of one sheltered girl, he realizes that loyalty to that love is better than the whole world.

Why?

Because Lady teaches him. She seems like the naive one, the one who needs looking out for, but she’s actually got the most important thing figured out—she’s all about staying loyal to those you love.

Even before she starts her romance with the Tramp. When her place in the home is jeopardized, does she get jealous of the baby? Does shy try to fight for her place in her owner’s hearts? No. With their help, she just makes room in her own heart to include the baby, too. She shifts her own position in order to stay true to her people.

Tramp’s never learned that people can make room in their hearts before. He thinks people only have a limited amount of space in there. But you can tell that he believes the same thing about dogs, not just humans—he, himself, keeps bouncing from place to place and girlfriend to girlfriend because he’s afraid his own place in their hearts is temporary.

That’s why he tries to impress his worldview on Lady. He’s trying to warn her. But he’s wrong, and she proves him wrong by making room in her heart for the baby, the new element, the one that looked like it was crowding her out.

When she’s at her lowest point and has been mistreated by Aunt Sarah, with no knowledge of when Jim Dear and Darling will come back, and has fallen in love with the Tramp, he tries to convince her to leave them for good. After all, he just heard how insecure the human baby was making her when they first met.

But Lady’s response is, “it sounds wonderful. But who would watch over the baby?”

So Tramp gets to see that she’s different than the other girl-dogs. She’s different than anyone he’s ever known. She has all the potential to be like him (he saw a glimpse of it when she helped him con the beaver, and started falling for her) but she won’t. She’ll stay loyal to what she loves—even when what she loves is hard, and at one point made her feel like she was losing her place.

Of course, then she gets taken to the pound and learns that he is the opposite of her—he’s like, anti-dog. He has no clue how to be loyal. He’s never been loyal, not even to dogs. He’s had all these other girls!

So that throws a wrench in everything, because he’s changed. He’s ready to “settle down” like the pound dogs predicted. He sees that to have love worthy of being loyal to is all the world he’ll ever need. Lady’s a dog’s dog, capable of endless sacrifice to stay loyal to her family, and he wants to be a part of it. But you know, everything gets screwed up.

And you can tell he’s changed, and learned from her example, and really believes in loyal, selfless love because even after she’s rejected him he comes back. As soon as she needs help, he finds a way into the house—which to him would have been like breaking into a prison before — and gets himself hurt helping a baby he doesn’t even know. Lands himself in the pound. Sacrifices himself and his precious freedom because loyal love is better than empty freedom.

But then Lady saves him. Because she’s loyal. She could’ve remembered that he’s a triple-timing jerk. She could’ve considered how much trouble he got her into. She could’ve even said to herself “they’re taking him to the pound, the single most terrifying location I’ve ever been to, and my family is here, so goodbye Tramp.” But she doesn’t do that. She leads the family to the rat, then to Tramp himself.

So even though Tramp is the world-wise one, it’s Lady who teaches him the most fulfilling place for a dog; loyal love. And it’s way way better than “a big hunk of world with no fence around it, all ours, nothing but the best.”

Which is why dogs are such a great choice of character to teach that lesson. Because they really are at their happiest and most fulfilled when they’re loving others, even if, in our minds, the happiest and most fulfilled beings would be those that are free.

Disney should go back to making ‘em like they used to.

[idiosyncraticrednebula]

The "Eric never loved Ariel and was only spellbound by her voice" theory quite frankly needs to go away and never see the light of day ever again. It might sound "interesting" to many (it doesn't to me), but if people bothered to actually pay close attention to the movie for once in their entire lives, they would notice that the love was indeed genuine, otherwise Ursula wouldn't have transformed into Vanessa and literally enchanting Eric with her own magic powers through Ariel's voice. Ariel's voice serves the exact same purpose Snow White's looks serve: They are symbolic representations of virtue. The princes fall in love with them through that because of the fact that that very thing is representative of their benevolence, virtue and selflessness. This whole thing of reducing their romance to a spell makes me hella mad, ngl.

[princess-ibri]

I think it makes no sense that Ariel and Eric didn't tell their daughter about Morgana. Supposedly, Melodia could have been safe on land… but they probably forgot about Urszula's trick with Vanessa. Morgana could have done it too. Become human and infiltrate the palace - why didn't she do that…

Melody wasn't safe on land if Morgana could pull the human-turning trick. Especially since it's been 12 years…since they were looking for Morgana and nothing…they had to change strategy after a year or two, rather than being stuck with the same strategy for 12 years.

Yeah its a weak point in the storyline for sure, but then when you think about it, it's really the same sort of weak point as Stefan not just going "A witch is trying to kill you with a spinning wheel, don't ever touch one"

Instead of sending his only daughter off to be raised by fairies and then burning the entire kingdom's means of clothes production that somehow didn't lead to a violent uprising.

So if Sleeping Beauty gets a pass for "Sometimes dumb stuff has to happen for the Plot to happen" I'm willing to give TLM2 a pass as well xD

And if you want an actual sort of "Watsonian" answer I guess I'd say:

"Sometimes, people just do dumb stuff in the heat of the moment and then double down on it as a measure of feeling control in an incredibly uncontrollable situation--and also Morgana was shown to be less talented at magic anyway, especially transformations so she probably couldn't have snuck in that way if she wanted to and wanted to save the drop of Ursula's magic for something that would involve less being totally surrounded by enemy guards if it went wrong"

So there ya go xD

[idiosyncraticrednebula]

@ OP

Did you actually watch the original goddamn movie??????????

This is why I fucking loathe Disney remake stans. They disrespect the original material and claim it's better without understanding any of the damn nuance nor meaning of the original work it's based on at all. I know I shouldn't be taking this too seriously because "It's just cartoons", but this is part of a much larger prevailing problem in fandom discourse and media literacy overall. Posts like OP's piss me the hell off.

FOR REAL!!!! live action ariel/eric >>> animation

[flum3n]

shoutout to dior goodjohn's scream of anguish when percy broke clarisse's spear in 1x02. it was so striking from a character who has otherwise been very cold and controlled. she made it instantly clear that the spear was something special to her and the knowledge that it was a gift from her father places a whole new perspective on her bullying. she too, like luke, is pursuing her own form of ruthless glory. and she, like percy, is a child suffering from her father's neglect, desperate for recognition. a tiny moment but very impactful.

[bobauthorman]

Every good series has...

...An awkward protagonist...

...A goofy goober...

...A wily elder...

...And whatever this is supposed to be.