Revisiting Disney: Up is Probably My Favorite Disney/Pixar Movie, and Probably Always Will Be

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Up is Probably My Favorite Disney/Pixar Movie, and Probably Always Will Be

I really love this movie. It's heartfelt, it's genuine, it's like a handwritten note from Pixar. What I mean by that is that even though it does have some fantastic pieces, like a flying house, talking dog, etc, but mostly it's a slice-of-life piece that gets into real life as much as a children's movie can and should. In the opening sequence, Pixar shows the most equitable, realistic romantic relationship present in any of their movies. Ellie is basically the Rosie the Riveter of Disney, she could be an iconic feminist figure if Disney played their cards right. She takes control of her own life: when she's little, she likes Carl so she decides to be his friend (he has little hand in the manner), in the same vein when they finally get married, she leaps onto him rather than him whisking her away to some far away castle (like I assume the princes do to the princesses), and finally she has a thirst for adventure, not for a family, until she feels ready to start a family. Ellie isn't defined by her gender and need to conform to gender stereotypes as the other princesses are, she is a real person. And she undergoes hardship, and she mourns her inability to have children, and she moves on and enjoys the day-to-day. Some people might think of that as small minded, or not ambitious enough to be deserving of such a significant piece of the movie, but real life, like what Ellie and Carl experience in the first few minutes, is what brings the audience to tears literally every time they watch the movie. It's beautiful. It's much more delicate than some of the other messages that slap you in the face like "Bad things happen to bad people," and whatever. Maybe that's because it's silent so there's no forced comedy, instead it's like watching a memory.

There's beauty in Russell and Carl's relationship too, in the healing that Russell helps Carl undergo. Carl is obviously broken as a person once Ellie dies, however Russell's bouyancy revitalizes him and helps him reach the dream he once thought impossible, visiting Paradise Falls. He unknowingly achieves his and Ellie's other dream in tending to and nurturing Russell as he does on their trip to the Falls. It's not specified as an adoption, but there is obviously a message in the body of Up that your family can be those you choose to be your family if your biological family does not provide the support you need. Or that families don't have to be biological to be normal. Even after their wild adventure, Russell and Carl come back to their same small town, Russell gets his grape soda can badge from Carl, and the two sit on the curb talking about the passing cars. Even though they came together as a family under extraordinary circumstances, they ultimately became a totally normal family. If anybody should watch Up, it's adopted children because it doesn't force them to face their adoption, however it indirectly shows how totally acceptable it is for a child to not fit their biological family, but find all the love and care that they need in their adoptive family. (I'm not adopted but, ugh, I just can't get over how profoundly comforting I found this movie, it felt like a hug from my parents. It was kind of what I needed right now with this pre-LDOC slue of work.)

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Disney's as a Boys' Toy Too

I rarely remember that little boys, as well as little girls, watch Disney movies and look up to some of the characters. In many of the earlier films, the men/princes aren't really a significant piece of the story, but more recently males are playing a greater and greater role in Disney and Pixar movies. Males like Chang, Sebastian, and Wasabi serve as role models for young boys just as the princesses do for little girls. Because of this, it's just as important that little boys of all appearances and personality types appear in animated films. The Feminist community has been more outspoken about female representation than the male community, perhaps because women tended to be placed in a subservient position to the men of the stories in earlier Disney movies. However, if you try to closely examine the character of the men or male characters in the early Disney movies, they tend to just be place holders that allow the princess to achieve their happily ever after. In later films they are hyper masculine and tough, even sometimes emotionless, if they want to be attractive to the females in the story. The non-human characters like Sebastion, Timone, and the like can be more sensitive because they aren't the male protagonist trying to win the girl and save the world. If we're going to work to build up strong, independent girls, we should work equally hard to help develop sensitive, thoughtful boys. This begins with providing more complex characters for them to look up to and more representation in the male characters in Disney films.

Identity and Disney

Disney Characters' Race Breakdown

Although Disney is often criticized for its lack of diversity in the characters in its animated and live action films, the statistics are fairly close to those of the US census. Although in Disney, about 75% of the characters are White, and so minorities are somewhat underrepresented, the statistics are fairly close to the true proportions. In America, about 62% of the population identifies as White, while 17% of the population is Hispanic, 13.2% is Black, 5% is Asian, and 3.8% of the population identify as multiracial, Native American, or Native Hawaiian. While more diversity would be nice, especially regarding Latinos considering they are 17% of the US population and only one single Disney character is identified as Latino, the statistic is less drastic that I would have anticipated.