#Disney's Mulan wasn't that popular

[finnedfatale]

What kind of music do you think the entire savannaclaw listens to?

Oh my days I've been waiting for an ask like this hold on.

So first of all I gotta ✨loredrop.✨ I made silly little playlist for all the guys in the series before I got into it to see if they're even somewhat accurate, most of my predictions were appropriate to the characters at least in my opinion.

My predictions and current thoughts are as followed:

Ruggie is 100% into some popular punk bands but he calls them underground and niche. He probably heard some bands play live, he wasn't anywhere near them though, just camping outside of the stadiums and other places where the events were held. We know that Ruggieboy is a person who is rather wise when it comes to the streets. Therefore it's easy to assume he hung out around the more popular kinds of people (in and out of the groups) and spent lots of time outside. So he definitely heard a lot of rap and street musicians. Most people who tend to be popular listen to rock and rap due to how compatible and flexible these genre's can be. I can see him knowing pop songs and DEFINITELY knowing some k-pop.

Jack is a tough one. I feel like he's the type of a person to say he listens to everything that catches and just... Clicks yk? Most of it would seem like phonk, though it irks me to think that it would be just that. Jack would be the type of a guy who'd have a CD collection (perhaps even a record collection of he's feeling fancy) with like... Songs and music his friends like. He doesn't have much of the stuff he likes there, preferring to just listen to whatever his friends would listen to. He heard multiple songs that people said are like him... He's tired of hearing "let's get down to business" as the first words to said song. Damn I wanna rewatch Mulan now.

I feel like Leona wouldn't listen to much music. Like occasionally on a good day he would, other than that he seems like the type of a guy who finds music too distracting. My best friend suggested "He would probably listen to probably Disney/Kids movies songs because of his nephew." I can't argue with that one honestly, some of those are total earworms. Though it opens another worm of cans, would that mean in some way that he'd listen to Disney on ice too? That's basically theater, which would make him a theater kid therefore he'd know Hamilton... My mind is rotting. I cannot imagine him listening to much music.

Npcs from this dorm would listen to the most random shit ever. Like you 'd pull up the logs of the most listened songs and it would be like... Korn and then Babymetal followed by Sparta remixes idk. Also jack deffo had a Sparta remix phase, like I used to run a lot and I know that Sparta remixes were the BEST to run to. Omw to rewatch Mulan now.

[marciabrady]

I remember you pointing out how hypocritical it is to call Snow White a damsel for being scared in the woods (tho she's just been almost MURDERED mind you) but not Belle who was attacked by wolves and needed rescuing and it's SO true. Literally every princess after Walt's girls gets saved by a man or needs his help. Yes even badasses like Mulan and Tiana! Merida, Rapunzel and Elsa all get rescued TWICE! What is with the cognitive dissonance of Disney fans?

I think people just go along with being spoon-fed the popular narrative. Merida's the perfect example- by intentionally making her a character that wasn't "defined" by a man, they made her entire storyline centered around marriage and her refusal to participate- Jasmine's the same and even Belle. If you take the Beast or Gaston or Maurice away from Belle's story, what are you left with? Meanwhile, if you remove a Prince from Snow White's, it'll largely remain the same. Everyone's allowed to have their favorites, obviously, but I think people need to start examining the story structure of these films and holding them up against the criticisms.

Anika Noni Rose often says, and most recently has been reiterating, that Tiana was the first princess that wasn't centered around a Prince and this is almost laughable to me. Tiana isn't successful in her endeavors prior to her arc in the film because she doesn't understand the message her father left her with. She thinks hard work is the only thing that will take her to her goals and it isn't until she discovers that she's been neglecting the dreamy, romantic side of herself, through Naveen, that she's able to achieve her goals. Him kissing her and turning her into a frog is literally what sets the plot in motion and earns the title The Princess AND THE FROG. And this is nothing against Anika, she seems to be a thoughtful, intelligent person, but the way she talks about Tiana seems like she's only upholding pre arc Tiana and that's literally the inverse of what her own movie tends to tout and, to answer your question, the Disney fandom/pop culture at large tends to do the same thing. They marry their favorite Princess to whatever's en vogue at the time and rewrite their narrative/arc/etc to align with that while doing the inverse to the "unpopular" princesses.

[robbierants]

Li Shang Is A Bisexual Legend

Li Shang, voiced by BD Wong with Donny Osmond providing the singing voice in the 1998 film, was one of the most popular characters in the original animated "Mulan." His complex character was a departure from the more mundane, hollow love interests past Disney princesses had fallen for.

He was far more interesting, for instance, than any of the interchangeable princes in "Cinderella" (Prince Charming), "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (who is not even given a name and is referred to only as The Prince), "Sleeping Beauty" (Prince Phillip), and "The Little Mermaid" (Prince Eric).

"Mulan" dared to be different with Li Shang, a fully fleshed-out character with his own desires and difficulties.What really made his character stand out, though, was that he was clearly bisexual.

It may not be overtly stated, but his relationship with Mulan strongly suggests he is. Li Shang doesn't fall for Mulan after she reveals herself to be a woman — he's drawn to Mulan while she is still in disguise as Ping, a male soldier.

While Mulan is presenting as Ping, their relationship suggests intimacy and desire rather than soldierly respect or male camaraderie. You can actually pinpoint the moment when Li Shang seems to realize he's into Ping:

Yes, he is smiling because Ping has gone from a clumsy soldier to an incredible warrior. But any Disney fan will recognize that look — it's the same sort of moment as in "Beauty and the Beast" when Belle and Beast begin to like each other and sing "Something There." Both sets of characters come to an understanding that is strongly suggested to be more than friendship.

In "Mulan," traditional romantic relationships are pushed to the side, presenting Mulan as a fiercely independent heroine with her own story and agency. This was hugely inspirational to many young girls and Asian people, and it still is — but so, too, was the subplot of Li Shang's bisexuality (Link below)

It meant a lot to LGBTQ viewers, particularly kids growing up at that time who felt alienated and alone, to see themselves represented in a major Disney movie in such a natural way, even if it wasn't explicitly stated.

[vyssims-gameplay]

Day 12 - Beach Day!

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The Disney Dormmates spent their weekend at the beach! Jasmine, Aladdin, Mulan, and Shang enjoyed building sand sculptures together while Ariel and Prince Eric had taken to the water. Prince Eric proved very popular with the locals too, constantly surrounded by flirty sims. Ariel spent her time with friends of the ocean, speaking and swimming with her dolphin pals. Phoebus tried to find seashells in the sand, but instead only found irritation with Esmeralda. The two had an aggravating conversion that left both of them angry for hours.

Later that evening, as the sun began to set, Shang propositioned Mulan in a tiki hut. It wasn't long before they were discovered by Phoebus and Aladdin, who both joined in on the fun. Jasmine came along for the ride next when she discovered what the four of them were up to, and had a splendid time with Aladdin. We really didn't expect this to go down, but what an ending to a day at the beach!

[vampiremeerkat]

Why do you think Pocahontas, Mulan and Moana are official Disney Princesses? My mom says this bc a point of ''diversifying'' the line-up, since only Jasmine and Tiana are actual princesses of color, but you have another vision or argument?

If you want a quick answer to that question, I more or less agree with your mother on this. I think Disney wants to own at least one prominent female figure from every country/of every race to flaunt with, which is fair, since they got way too many German and French characters in their Smash Brothers roster. Like the rest of the world, they probably noticed how seldom their animation department leaves the European border, and they wish to seek out more stories. Of course, with the expectation people will love them for it and open up their wallets some more. I said it before: Don't think even once these companies are your friend. The Disney Princess line-up has plenty of rules, but some characters are given special treatment for reasons I'm not wholly certain of. Most of the "princesses" featured aren't even princesses. Their story ended with them becoming queen, so the brand was a lie from the start. In any case, just being a princess isn't enough. These are basically the requirements:

Be 100% Disney. Characters from Disney-owned studios are not allowed.

Be female.

Be human.

Be attractive (though honestly, Disney has rarely to never bothered to design an unattractive main character).

Wear/Have worn a dress.

Be a main character.

Be a hero character.

Have any kind of status that deems you an authority figure.

Come from a mostly successful (theatrical) movie.

Eilonwy, Nala, Kiara, Kida, Raya, maid Marian, and even Meg who's in a relationship with a literal god match most of the criteria, but Disney probably has access to tons of documents with pretty numbers on them that help them determine when a character is "worth it". It may be the case that certain princesses rake in so much cash, Disney is able to take a risk with less popular ones who'll definitely lose them money, but earn them brownie points, which the company lives for in today's age. For example, Belle and Ariel are so loved, their toy sales might be high enough to fund the production costs of two or three lower ranked ladies, like Snow White and Tiana. Snow White is a classic oldie who started off the brand, Disney can't throw her out without everyone who never cared about her going ape shit anyway, and The Princess and the Frog was marketed (perhaps only by spectators, not Disney) to be for African American girls as "finally having a princess to relate to". Because a raging workaholic frog is super relatable to children. Anyway, what I'm saying is that Tiana was put on a political pedestal, and when that happens to a character, creators become afraid to touch them. Kida from Atlantis, on the other hand, wasn't marketed as any kind of trendsetter, and so, Disney is allowed to forget her. I understand Kida doesn't represent a real race, but that never stopped people from projecting their face on a fictional character before. If Amethyst from Steven Universe is "black", why will no one call Kida "the first black princess"? Concerning Pocahontas and Moana, they're Disney's only Native American and Polynesian (?) character. They wouldn't dare to let go of them, regardless if their movie is popular, because the backlash of not letting them join will be greater. And really, it's the same case with Merida, because she strongly represents a culture Disney never bothered with before. With seriousness. Then there's Raya, who I think wasn't welcomed in because of the same reasons Kida wasn't. The movie didn't sell well enough and you can't pinpoint one definable race to her. Why settle with Raya, if we have the infinitely more liked Mulan -who has a clear Chinese origin? Announcing a character to be Asian is not enough; you're not truly exploring a culture if you mix it up with 4 other cultures. Jasmine is the only exception in this category, because she's a classic oldie that helped start off the brand. Assumedly. Some movies come with a message, intentional or not, and this kind of thing causes a born and raised princess from one unpopular movie to get snubbed, and a frog from another unpopular movie to get VIP entrance. Also note that I grade popularity not in terms of box office sales, but how much viewers liked the product. It helped that The Princess and the Frog enjoyed pre-release attention, but it didn't necessarily make people like the story more than that of Atlantis. It's great when you earn back your budget, but how will you sell merchandise if everyone thinks your movie is average? It'd be a waste of money. Many movie studios are that dumb, though. But be happy, at least the abandoned princesses were spared from that unfunny Wreck-It Ralph 2 scene.

[ultrahpfan5blog]

The Little Mermaid(2023) is a delight...

I am not a cynical person. I know that these Disney remakes are a cash grab for the company, but as long as I enjoy them, I don't really care. The quality of the remakes have been a mixed bag so far. I really enjoyed Aladdin and loved The Jungle Book. But The Lion King, despite being a technical masterpiece, was pretty soulless, and Beauty and the Beast was very meh. Some other ones like Pinocchio, Mulan, and Dumbo have been poor. Cinderella is one I have heard good things about that I haven't seen. I grew up during the Disney Renaissance era, so The Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King are four films that were very popular in my household when I was a kid. My sister used to make me sit and watch The Little Mermaid, which was her favorite, and I always was terrified by the shark attack scene. But because I watched it so many times, I had a crush on Ariel as a kid, so am pretty fond of the movie, especially the songs. So I was both apprehensive of this movie, as well as looking forward to it. Thankfully, the movie is a delight with a genuine star making performance from Halle Bailey.

The plot of the film is virtually the same, as expected, but the film has expanded upon a few things and has made alterations on a few other things, without changing the essence of the movie. One of the major improvements is definitely in the expansion of Prince Eric as a character. Eric in the animated movie was a dashing and brave prince. That was the extent of his characterization. The film spends significantly more time with him and gives him a bit of a backstory and a reason for him and Ariel to connect on a personal level. He even gets a new song for himself. One other improvement is that Ariel is less a love lorn teenager here and more a curious adventurer. Her actions are not purely dictated by the fact that she's in love with Eric. There was a little bit of that in the animated film, but it gets more focus here. The love story's development definitely feels more organic and natural here. Again, this has to do with more time being spent on Eric and Ariel getting to know each other. There are a few alterations to the finale, where they essentially switch Ariel and Eric's actions, in order to have Ariel have more direct role in killing Ursula, which is a change I get, though wasn't strictly necessary.

Outside of the above points, the strengths of the original film are still here. The songs are wonderful and they are all very well showcased. Part of Your World, Kiss the Girl, Poor Unfortunate Souls, and Under the Sea are major highlights. The vocals are all very strong and the picturization is very vibrant and very fun to watch. Outside of the leads, side characters like Sebastian are a lot of fun and lend a lot of humor, just like in the original. Some of the major action sequences, like the first shipwreck scene in which Ariel saves Eric, are thrilling. The new songs, particularly 'Wild Uncharted Waters' add something to the movie.

When it comes to issues, there are definitely aspects that don't translate. Some of the slapstick humor from the original is removed, which is a shame. While Melissa McCarthy is really good as Ursula, the character is never as creepy as in the original. Ursula in the original was genuinely scary and her punishment for those who failed her contracts was terrifying to see. She is significantly sanitized here. King Triton is also a more one dimensional character. Whereas the animated version showed dotting fatherhood and toughness, here Bardem plays him pretty one note. There is also some natural expression loss in the animal side characters. Characters like Sebastian, Flounder, and Scuttle obviously don't have the same visual effect due to being portrayed very realistically and not being able to show the emotions and expressions portrayed in animation. The film also probably stretches out for 10 minutes too long towards the end.

When it comes to performances, Halle Bailey delivers an absolute knockout performance. More than in other films, The Little Mermaid requires a knockout singing performance. Matching Jodi Benson's singing performance is almost impossible but Halle Bailey comes awfully close. She is also incredibly expressive, so she stands out even in the portion of the film where she is without her voice. Daveed Diggs as Sebastian is a standout. He delivers a lot of humor in the movie without having the benefit of having facial expressions to assist. Jonah Hauer-King is strong as Eric and he shares good chemistry with Halle. Melissa McCarthy is strong as Ursula, even if she isn't very scary. She definitely delivers a knockout vocal performance in 'Poor Unfortunate Souls'. Javier Bardem, as mentioned before, is a little one note. Akwafina is very much Akwafina, Tremblay is good as Flounder, and Art Malik as Grimbsy does add something to Eric's story.

All in all, Rob Marshall has done a commendable job to bring back a classic. While it is very difficult to live up to the animated original, this definitely counts as one of the better ones. An 8/10.

[my-plastic-life]

Summer is coming, and that usually means vacation for a lot of people. A popular destination is Disneyland or Disney World, and what better time to visit than the park namesake’s centennial? Yep, Walt Disney Studios turns 100 this year!

I’ve been on a Disney Princess kick lately, so I've decided to share pictures of my princess dolls with some of their information and fun facts. I’ll skip the movie plots because I’m sure anyone who knows Disney already knows that. These posts will be about the original cartoons, not the live action adaptations. Let’s dive in!

But first, Kenleigh and Kiku are wearing clothes inspired by my two favorite princesses - Ariel and Mulan!

The new Disney ily Forever fashion dolls come with princess inspired headbands, but not there wasn't a doll made inspired by Mulan (just a fashion and accessory pack), so I had to make one. :D I'm having fun making these little Minnie ear headbands, and I have more in the works for princesses whose inspired dolls weren't made. :)

Fun fact: Not only does Disney turn 100 this year; it's also the 40th anniversary of Tokyo Disneyland! Double the fun!

[moveslikeanape]

that is very understandable about preferring to save money and not really keep up with the latest tech haha, but it really is too bad that companies don't make their games compatible with older devices. maybe someday if you end up wanting or needing to replace yours you'll have a chance to play the game! and if you ever do then i hope you'll enjoy it. the songwriters for wish were two people who had only ever written for pop singers before, which i guess isn't automatically bad--after all, phil collins did a great job with the songs he wrote for tarzan. but i wish that for disney's 100th anniversary movie they had gotten a team that was experienced with broadway-style music, the way they usually do for their musicals. the song "at all costs" from wish is an especially strange song to me because just listening to it, you'd think it has a way different context than it actually does in the movie. oh wow i've actually not heard of that book series before, but it's cool that it's getting a disney+ series! i hope the show turns out well. the only thing i'm reading right now is "disney's art of animation: from mickey mouse to hercules", which so far is a great overview of disney's history and i really wish it had had a newer edition. ooh that sounds interesting, i might try and watch greystroke sometime! what do you think of the direct-to-video sequel (or midquel, i guess) to disney's tarzan, and the tv series, if you've watched those things? i remember watching them both when they originally came out, but i don't recall much of what happened in them and i don't think i saw every episode of the tv series. also, i saw your post about the supervising animator of jane following you on instagram--that's so cool, congratulations!! -🌟

I was listening to Hercules this morning at work, and all I could think about was how amazing the lyrics were. The line from One Last Hope "I'm down to one last shot and my last high note, before that blasted underworld gets my goat" is so satisfying because it rhymes perfectly, makes sense, and is a clever pun using a common phrase that is also in this case literal given he's half goat. And in Zero to Hero there's the line "and this perfect package packed a pair of pretty pecs" is probably the best example of alliteration I've ever heard in a song. Also, all the songs fit perfectly in the movie. They don't sound like something written to get radio plays or to hit the top of the charts and then stuffed into a movie they don't belong in.

More and more lately it seems like Disney's really just going for the quick buck. Just trying to get things out as quickly as possible with out putting the effort in to making it quality like they used to (nothing against the crew, at the end of the day they have to do what their bosses say). So frustrating… just because something is popular does not mean it's the best. Thinking back to growing up in the 90s and the music that was popular then. I loved the music, but it would have been awful to shove that into the movies. Technically it did happen with Mulan. I love that movie, and I do really enjoy True to Your Heart, but it is soooo out of place with the rest of the songs that it practically pulls out out of the movie, like you just changed to channel to something else, and it ruined the ending for me. I honestly feel like skipping the end every time I watch it. One of the reasons the 90s worked so well is they brought in that broadway style that worked so well, and kept the pop music out of the movies (and in the credits where it actually makes sense).

I think the reason Phil Collins worked so well is he was making music for the movie, not what was popular at the time. It made complete sense to bring him in because he's probably the best known drummer at the time. From what I've seen and read he came in willing to learn, because he'd never done music for a film before. This wasn't just writing individual songs, this was telling a story and moving that story along. If you listen to his other work you can notice the difference. Still distinctly Phil Collins, but still serving the film they were made for.

I also remember seeing an interview a few years back with a number of different film composers talking about writing for movies (this one was specifically Marvel movies) compared to "back in the day". One thing that really stood out to me was they said that the movie's are filmed or story-boarded and the director will watch playback with temporary music, sometimes music from other movies that have already been released. The composers said that by the time they are brought in to write the actual music for the movie, the director has "seen the film" so often with the place holder music that that's what they want in the film. So the composers have to write something new that sounds similar to the temp music, instead of having the freedom to create their own music. I wonder if it might be a little of that going on too.

Ooo, I picked up a copy of that art of animation book at a convention a few years ago, still haven't gotten around to reading it though. It's always a shame when book series don't continue. Would be interesting to see a newer version of that series now with todays computer animation included.

I enjoyed the tv series for the most part. A lot of the episodes were based on the original novels, and I loved seeing new adventures for Tarzan. But at the same time, it felt off. The animation was understandably poor (they had only a tiny budget), but the thing that bothered me the most was the way the characters behaved. I know some of it was to make the story work, but they for the most part felt like different characters playing the ones from the movie. Jane was probably the worst, she seemed even less equipped for life in the jungle in the series than she did when she first appeared in the movie. Tarzan and Jane was basically 3 episodes of the series tied together as flashbacks for the story of their 1 year anniversary.

Tarzan 2 was basically an expansion of the Son of Man segment of Tarzan. It had far better animation than Tarzan and Jane (the characters were actually on model!), and the story was pretty cute too. I loved the new songs in it, although they weren't quite up there with Tarzan's songs, it was nice they were able to bring Phil back to write them. Also love that the one was reworked and put in the broadway show.

OMG, thank you!!! I'm still over the moon about that… I keep checking back to see if it actually happened and I didn't just dream it, lol.

[contortionyx]

I think Disney lost a lot of respect from China with their adaptation (animated & live - especially live) of Mulan. The live adaptation was a raging dumpster fire and the animated one wasn't that popular when it came out either

whenever a liberal blames disney homophobia on china I blow up another AO3 datacentre

[lets-make-music-together]

I think everything would get better if Disney died. Right now.

The movies here lately aren't really *that* good, and if they are *that* good, they're either live action (Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella) or they didn't come out *this* year.

Live action is boring. Famous actors who are just there to boost popularity are boring. Disney was good, and it should have died in it's prime.

I know, I know, someone is gonna argue, "What about the actors?! The Animators?!" As much as I love AI, *I* wouldn't want to watch something made heartlessly with it. *I* wouldn't want to listen to robotic voice "actors" just so Disney could save just a few more dollars. AI is honestly super stupid! It's fun to play with, but that's about it! Animators deserve better than that! Professional voice actors deserve better!

I wholeheartedly understand "Oh! My favorite meow meow actor is gonna be in this movie!" But getting actors who are honestly Eh as voice actors is just boring! And it's not like they're bad actors, they just do better in a group where they can bounce off other actors.

Another thing! Live action is BORING! The one's I named before, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, they're just there to get nostalgia points! Lion King wasn't even live action! It was animated in a live action style! Mulan, a beloved movie that was beautifully animated and had wonderful songs, was turned live action and they got rid of the songs! That's boring!

Even though I, like just about everyone else, love Disney, sometimes you let what you love die.

TL;DR Disney has gotten stale, and like all stale things, you throw it away.

[don-dake]

《花木蘭》 | 《A Tough Side of a Lady》 (TVB, 1998)

邊個會估到喎？「花木蘭」 竟然可以用一個滑稽嘅角度嚟造出一齣喜劇！(^^) 頭先聽緊呢齣劇嘅主題曲，葉倩文嘅 《揚眉女子》，就一瞬之間覺得懷舊，便上網搵下關於本劇嘅資料。一搵就搜出呢幾張截圖出嚟…呢啲截圖，相信而家係屬於一些稀少罕見嘅圖像啦罷！即刻保管喺tumblr呢邊！(笑)

新詞：滑稽 (waat6 kai1)

後記：可惜啦！tumblr唔容許我上傳 《揚眉女子》 嘅音頻文件…否則我可以喺呢度介紹亦分享一下呢首歌。葉倩文嘅老歌…仲係廣東話歌添…相信後生啲嘅朋友應該未聽過罷？(笑) 無所謂啦…真有興趣嘅話，人哋會知道自己去搵啩？(笑)

Because I'm feeling assiduous, and on the off chance anyone (who doesn't know Cantonese) actually cares to read my rubbish ramblings, have an English translation this time! Heh!:

Who would have thought? The legend of 花木蘭 (Hua Mulan) could actually work as a farce/comical series? Was just listening to the themesong (揚眉女子 by Sally Yeh, 葉倩文) from this series and was hit with a wave of nostalgia, casually looked up some stuff on this and found these (by now rather rare) pics! Saving to tumblr immediately! (Heh!)

P.S.: Pity tumblr didn't allow me to upload the song file. Would have liked to introduce and share it here. Sally Yeh's old song…and a Cantonese one at that, don't think many younger folks here would have heard of it? (Heh!) No matter…if someone's really interested, they would know how to look it up for themselves won't they? (Heh!)

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

top 5 ouat moments? i've only seen a few eps but everything i've heard about the show is wild so i'm curious

jesus christ let's go

first and foremost I would be absolutely refuckingmiss if I didn't talk about Emma and stupid fucking eyeliner Captain Hook absolutely sucking face in the goddamn cursed jungles of Neverland while an absolutely demonic Peter Pan was skittering around abducting children. absolutely insane payoff to that sexual tension. this woman's annoying 12 (???) year old has been abducted by his own shit-eating immortal great-grandfather and she has this absolute mess of a wet one-handed man dragging himself after her in 700 pounds of leather rambling about how he's in love with her because they have the same abandonment issues... and he was right. she truly said fuck it I will climb this particular leather-bound tree don't mind if I do. this might as well happen. most desperate make out ever aired on a network that doesn't allow kissing with tongue. goth kings do not despair there is a jock gf out there for you and if you go on enough stupid little adventures together she WILL want to peg you.

do you guys remember when Belle went off on an adventure by herself for a episode and she had the absolute KICKIEST little leather booty shorts outfit you ever did see? god. a fashion icon. and then she met this flamboyant CGI Lumiere which absolutely no goddamn sense because he wasn't even, like, IN the Beast's castle because the Beast was just Rumplestiltskin and he had a completely different deal but OUAT was only kept alive through the goodwill of terminally unhinged Disney adults so they had to pepper in little movie references no matter how misplaced and inexplicable they were? okay good now that we've layed the groundwork for that one let's talk about this:

when Elsa and the cast of Frozen showed up as major supporting characters for an entire arc in goddamn live action LESS THAN A YEAR after the movie came out. hello??? HELLO??? unhinged. also very funny how the show played exactly as fast and loose with Frozen as they did with all the older Disney fare up to and including introducing Elsa's Evil Ice Aunt Who No One Ever Mentioned Even Though She Has The Same Goddamn Powers Don't Worry About It.

okay sorry I've sat on this long enough but we simply MUST discuss that a not insignificant chunk of Rumpelstiltskin's backstory is that his wife left him for Captain Hook. and then however many decades later (like every fairy tale character in this show was 500 years old because of *magic* and no one talked about it) Captain Hook came back and. god you guys are not going to believe this. he came back, still the exact same age, and he cucked Rumplestiltskin's son (WHOMST HE ALSO MET AS A CHILD) with tremendous success. please see point #1 again. if you need a reminder. this is so funny and I will genuinely never get over it. this show is nothing but convoluted connections between public domain characters but that is by FAR the most insane. Henry better watch his fucking back when he grows up because this patrilineal is evidently cursed with Getting Cucked By Captain Hook Disease. "Makenzie that's crazy what are the odds it would happen a third time" WHAT ARE THE ODDS IT WOULD HAPPEN TWICE. of all the women you could have fallen gobsmackingly stupid in love with. it was your stepson's baby mama. idiot.

the final season finally coughing up some canon gay rep in its death throes but instead of getting a really popular existing ship like Mulan/Sleeping Beauty together or canonizing a beloved Disney character common headcanoned as queer like the aforementioned Elsa they decided to get Little Red Riding Hood together with never-before-seen Dorothy Wizardofoz in a 5 second scene that was disrespectful to Mulan, Aurora, the audience, and Dorothy's book gf Ozma.

and I'm like barely even scratching the surface here. OUAT is insane. a pre-MCU-fame Sebastian Stan is there for a few episodes. Star Wars is canon. there's an alternate universe based on classic horror instead of fairy tales and everything is black and white there. Christian Gray is a pretty significant character in season 1. Rapunzel showed up like three different times and was a a completely different character each time. Maleficent and Zorro had sex. Emma Stone wishes her Cruella had a SLIVER of what Victoria Smurfit was bringing to the role.

[marciabrady]

Idk if it's a generation thing with zoomers being clueless about what the Disney fandom was like before they got into it but I've seen so many people deny that anyone was ever presenting faux feminist critiques of the princesses, esp Walt's girls. But I don't even understand why they deny it, it's become a huge phenomenon you still see today and it takes only 5 seconds to use Google and find thousands of articles, memes, videos, comments, etc calling the girls weak and sexist. I feel it stems from these fans just not caring about the particular princesses who tend to be hated on and don't notice the unfair hate because their focus has always been on the popular, safe princesses (ie Mulan or Moana or whoever). If any of that makes sense lol. Just wondering your thoughts!

There's a very apt characterization of what occurred and it definitely comes down to a few things. The first being that a lot of these people didn't really have a strength of sentiment, one way or the other, for the original girls and just kind of assumed and inherited a lot of the misogynistic undercurrents in those contemporary, popular social criticisms that were parading around as feminism. I think a lot of those people pretended to have that passionate, spirited outlook on why Walt's girls were reductive somehow, while never really having had that opinion themselves. Most of those people didn't really spend much time consuming or thinking about their films, but did so because they felt it aligned themselves with being progressive or having a good social image.

There are some people that genuinely did seem to have seen those movies at least once and continued to carry that outlook, but it never really seems to be rooted in anything we see in the films themselves. Those people tend to just view every woman that was prominent prior to the 1960s with the same reductive paint-stroke and feel they were all victims of being socialized in a different time (which is so stupid lol if it weren't for the women that lived in that era, we never would have gotten the social movements we have today, nor the progress we have in each of them; but many people have told me "all woman born before the 1950s are inherently sexist because they're victims of what the system was like" which...). Then, there are people who- again- have seen these movies, but tend to condemn Walt's girls and pin them as a symbol of everything that was anti-feminist of that time, as opposed to actually judging them for the contents of their character. I'll never forget a book I bought at a used store called "Where the Girls Are," because it talked about female representation in the media and harked back to one of my favorite film titles. I was shocked when I read the book and it talked about how Cinderella in such shallow, mean-spirited terms. It brought up so many questions...the author writes that Cinderella had to be attractive, but wasn't allowed to be vain or spend a good deal of her film primping in front of mirrors- and I uploaded a good deal of screencaps to the contrary, but then it ran through my mind...if the author had been aware of that side of Cinderella, she probably would've condemned that too and called her materialistic or looks-obsessed. So it isn't really about what Cinderella herself did or was, but ultimately the author must've just held her up as an unfair expectation of what she, as a woman, was meant to live up to and made Cinderella a figure of all of her childhood frustration. That tends to be the case with a lot of boomers that grew up with Cinderella, and even kids today that write sympathetic backstories for blatantly abusive characters, like Anastasia; they emphasizing with her, despite all of her privilege and the atrocities she's committed, because she would be conventionally unattractive in our world and they project onto her what she must feel and what her lived experience would be, while discounting Cinderella- because she's conventionally attractive in our world- as being shallow or having privilege. It really is a fascinating study of how people view the world, which can be surmised through their view of the characters and how they react to them.

Which, and I have to make this note, but I'll truly never understand how Cinderella, the story about a female orphan who suffered abuse her entire life and continues to build a community and resources for herself so that she can escape and transcend her circumstances, has been painted through history to be a story about women being meek and staying in their place and being complacent and perpetuating so many patriarchal ideals about marrying rich and feminine beauty??? Especially when that wasn't Cinderella's goal, but the goal of the stepsisters who are always putting themselves in competition with Cinderella and are actively wanting to marry money and take a much greater delight in material riches.

[badbunny139]

List the top 5-10 cartoon characters you aspired to be when you were a kid and tag 3 people.

Tagged by @the-lighthouse-lit. Thanks for the tag. I suddenly forgot all the cartoon characters I wanted to be when I was a kid when I got it. But I remembered some faves and thought up some more, so here ya go!

10. Sam Manson from Danny Phantom. I always thought she was really cool and could've honestly handled most of the ghost problems the town had on her own. She was independent and smart and I really liked that. The fact that she was also the exact opposite of her family was incredibly funny to me.

9. Danny Phantom/Dani Phantom. Danny Phantom was kinda a first cartoon crush for me. I found him very attractive. I also thought his powers were incredibly cool. I put Dani here, because she was the female version of Danny, and that made a difference to me as a kid.

8. Terra from Teen Titans. She was blond, I am blond. She had blue eyes, I had blue eyes. She liked rocks, I liked rocks. She wore shorts, I liked shorts. (See where I'm going with this?) I think I stopped liking her after she betrayed the titans. But I used to pretend to be her in the backyard when my siblings and I would play games like that.

7. Bubbles from Power Puff Girls. She had blond hair, etc. I also thought she was very sweet.

6. Cindy from Jimmy Neutron. Keeping in the theme of blondes, I liked Cindy also because she was smart. She, normally without the boy genius at the next desk, had been the smart kid in class. I was the smart kid in my own class, and though I never sought popularity for it, I never had a boy genius in a class, so never felt jealous. Still, Cindy was easy to relate to, in some respects.

5. Toph from ATLA. She was really cool. Tough, head strong, stubborn. Oh the blind jokes that show made. And she could kick some serious butt! Quite an inspiration.

4. Raven from Teen Titans. Currently my favorite super hero, I used to not really care about her when I was a kid (terrible, I know). But I always did enjoy her powers, and she had a really cool story arch on the show. Not to mention her sarcastic humor and love of books. I loved reading as a kid!

3. Mulan. My favorite Disney princess. She's honorable, courageous, and equal to the boys. Not to mention she's the only disney princess with a kill count, i.e. the entire hun army. Also, it was just a great movie.

2. Katara from ATLA. I always loved Katara. She was a fantastic character with great morals, cool powers, and a great love for those closest to her. She was a fantastic friend to have. Moral support and great backup for on-the-fly lies ("Sapphire Fire. Nice to meet ya."). I loved all the characters from this show, but she was my favorite and who I wanted to be most.

1. Kim Possible!!! I always wanted to be her when I grew up! She's cool, she's funny. She can kick butt like nobody's business. She was very clearly a girl superhero with a boy sidekick (UNHEARD of before then really). She was fashionable and smart and could fight! What's more is that she was a great friend to Ron and chose him everything, even though she was popular and he wasn't. That didn't happen often on TV when I was a kid. Kim was a true icon.

I hope you all enjoyed this list! I enjoyed making it and remembering all my fave cartoons and characters from my childhood! Oh the nostalgia! Anyway, @lilytimbers, @thepinkcardigan, and @queen5239, you're next, if you're interested.

[smalls-words]

Ooh sweet here y'all go:

- If the sky could rain food, what food would you like for it to rain?

- If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

- If there was a movie about a you, what would it be called?

- Favorite disney princess?

- Rather have wings or a mermaid tail?

- Favorite flower?

most important question for you both : have you had some water and food today?

I love hearing about you and your little. When you first started to where you are now with them, how different is it?

-🐚

These were some nice questions!!

Raining Food

Me: Well I've had a fixation for cinnamon toast lately, so I would loooove for it to rain cinnamon toast.

Munchkin: hmmm oooh dino nuggies orrrrr blueberri pancakies! yumyum 😋

Superpower

Me: If we're talking a singular power... Hydrokinesis!! Avatar The Last Airbender (show, not that stupid movie) had me HOOKED as a child. Would have loved to be a waterbender and I used to copy the actions whilst I was in the pool 😁

Munchkin: i wan be lik wands!!! an den wands can teach me 'o use dem! orr teleports so can see squish squish 🥺

Life Movie Title

Me: Damaged, But Never Broken (😅 both figuratively and literally, since I've broken about eight bones including my knee cap) [it is also the name of one of my Wattpad fics lol]

Munchkin: sunflowr froggie! hehehe

Favourite Disney Princess

Me: Oooh, this is hard! Elsa, especially since Frozen 2, is a high contender. I haven't watched Mulan or Pocahontas, so I can't give judgement on that. Elsa's only competition would be Tiana, because I love her movie and her singing and everything (it might seem like I'm favouring Tiana, but those icy powers are sooooo cool)

Munchkin: mulan!!

Wings Vs. Mermaid Tail

Me: Mermaid Tail. H2O (Aussie show) had me in a chokehold right next to ATLA. I also have about 20 mermaid books loaded on my Kindle (the Waterfire Saga is perfection, I do recommend)

Munchkin: ooooh wings! buuuut can' 'cides if tey be big lik dragons or lil like fairy!

Favourite Flower

Me: Middlemist Red

Munchkin: sunflowrs! so pretty pretty pretty pretty heheh

Important Question

Me: Yes, I have had lots of water and some food (I just finished my butter chicken/vindaloo mixed lunch)

Munchkin: i hads lots an lots watr an only lil bits of food tho 🥺 but i thinks am goods at tak care myselfs ☺

Munchkin would like to say that "da shell anon has been sooooooo nice!" and I completely agree. You seem like such a good, kind person 🥰

We started out mostly as just chatting on Tumblr, but then their little side showed and we only progressed from there. They wanted to give me a nickname since I have so many for them (munchkin, little love/dove, my sweet/darling/precious baby) and because I really really like jellyfish, they chose the name Squishy. So now, I get variations of that name like squish squish (that seems popular). There were some mental health days early on and I wasn't quite sure how to handle them, but the reassurance that they aren't needy, or annoying, or anything else but perfect was what they needed.

And to all of the littles out there that think they are 'needy', remember this:

Your needs were not met as a child. Because of this, you are doing your best effort to make up for that lost time, which (to idiots who don't have eyes) can seem needy. It is not. You are valid, you are human, and you are loved. (If nobody loves you, then you're wrong - I do 🥰🥰)

[whatanoof]

Shang Chi

rant below!

as an East Asian girl who grew up watching the MCU and Star Wars and loving the content with my whole being, I am used to not having people who look like me in mainstream popular media. It's the sad truth. Whenever I wanted to dress up for Halloween, I limited my options to Mulan and non-human characters. I believe that I was Mulan for two years in a row at one point, because I couldn't go as Cinderella or Belle or Aurora.

In middle school, I was obsessed with Comicon and the idea of going and being able to cosplay. But who would I cosplay as? Mulan was again, an option. But this is comicon, you're able to go as anything within the magnified range of fandom, dress as wildly and accurately or inaccurately as you want. Nothing excited me more than the idea of being able to dress up as a superhero, specifically MCU. But who? The only person in the MCU who looks like me is Helen Cho, a side character in Age of Ultron that was brushed to the side as soon as her basic plot device of genius bio-engineering was finished. She had so much potential, and then she was lost to time.

In Star Wars, the only character who remotely looked like me was Rose Tico, and I felt uncomfortable cosplaying as her because Kelly Marie Tran is Southeast Asian and I am East Asian. It didn't feel accurate nor right. And the writers did her so dirty with her character development. She was written off after her debut film, The Last Jedi, to the point where my mother went to see The Rise of Skywalker a few years later and completely missed her. She became a background character after being one of the leading side characters.

The point being, I don't claim to know any of the inner workings of Disney. I'm not angry about this issue, I'm happy that there is any Asian representation in this media. But I'm sad that whenever I think about cosplaying and dressing up and playing characters in mainstream media(MCU and Star Wars), the only logical options that I jump to consider are background characters. I'm sad because there are going to be other little girls like me, who feel alienated from a fandom because they don't look a certain way. Who feel like there is a certain activity and dream that they can't participate in because of their monolids and flat noses and features.

But when I see Disney slap Shang-Chi and Simu Li and Awkwafina to the side and not hype it up, then I get angry. They have an entire movie made. An entire fucking movie, and they can't be bothered to promote it. They promoted Dr. Strange, they promoted Black Widow and Captain Marvel and Black Panther all amazing standalone media that features new heroes and actors and welcomes them to the MCU franchise. Everyone knew when Black Panther was coming out, everyone couldn't hear enough about Captain Marvel dropped. But where is Shang-Chi? I've seen exactly one(1) trailer about it, and that wasn't even on normal TV. They're leaving Simu Liu on his own, working with every social media tool he has to communicate his excitement about this project, and brushing him to the side?

No they don't get to do that. They don't get to brush aside every little boy and girl that looks like them that internally, even subconsciously, is wondering why no one who looks like them is on the big screen. They don't get to do this.

So I'm asking politely, would you guys all consider supporting this movie? Whether reposting trailers and posters, or going to see it in theatres, or even buying it, please? As you consider, don't do it because of a hatred against a big corporation(though it is justified) or because you want to be a social media activist or whatever shit. Do it because somewhere out there, there's a child who will sit up during the movie and tug their parent's sleeve, point at the screen, and say, "That looks like me!" Do it so that Asian kids can dress up like Shang-Chi and more heroes for Halloween. Do it so that people don't end up feeling unnecessarily alienated from a fandom because of their faces.