I always like to wait until the actual year is over before creating my annual mixtape, mostly because I think it's dumb to review something that isn't completed yet. This is also why I post my annual mixtape track listing about 3 weeks after anyone would actually care, but I like it so here we are.
I don't know if it was because I was paying more attention this year, but I thought 2015 was a pretty darn good year for music, so much so in fact that I actually created two ancillary lists for Dance Music and Cover songs (I'll be posting those later) One big difference this year is that as far as top 40 pop goes, it was a pretty down year for me. Justin Bieber came back, Fetty Wap and Silento happened, and people still like Drake for some reason. I still can't decide if Trap Queen or Hotline Bling is the bigger crime against humanity, but if anyone has a deep need to punish me for some reason, a Drake/Fetty Wap concert would be my personal version of hell. Anyway, let's talk about music I liked before I fall into a rage spiral. This is the internet after all and civility matters.
My top 10 albums of 2015 (except for #1, order is pretty arbitrary)
1. Nightwish - Endless Forms, Most Beautiful: My favorite female vocalist joined my favorite metal band and they made a concept album about science and evolution, complete with a 24 min opus with nature sounds and narration by Richard freaking Dawkins. I also got to see them in concert and it was amazing!
2. Meghan Trainor - Title: this was probably the most played album in my household this year. Delightful pop goodness
3. The Decemberists - What a Terrible world, What a Beautiful World: Everything I love about this band was condensed into this one album. Special shout out to "Philomena" for being one of those songs you hum along to for a long time before you realize just how dirty it is.
4. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats: This self titled debut album is fantastic throwback blues and R&B with a modern twist
5. Leon Bridges - Coming Home: Speaking of throwbacks, Leon Bridges may be the closest my generation will ever get to a voice like Sam Cooke
6. Adele - 25: This one took me a few listens, but I'm starting to think it could be her best work yet.
7. The Arcs - Yours, Dreamily: If the Black Keys took more downers and listened to a lot of early rock and roll, this is what I think you'd get.
8. Florence + The Machine - How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful: Florence made a new album, it was awesome, what more do you need from me?
9. Kacey Musgraves - Pageant Material: Kacey continues to write clever, usually playful country songs for people who don't like country.
10. Chris Stapleton - Traveller: Don't let the Country label fool you, this is a bluesy, southern rock gem.
Honorable Mention: Various Artists - We Love Disney: Pop stars covering Disney songs shouldn't be as enjoyable as this is. Most of the Artists really put their own spin on the songs and it feels like something they did for fun first, paycheck second.
OFFICIAL 2015 MIXTAPE
1. I NEED NEVER GET OLD - NATHANIEL RATELIFF & THE NIGHT SWEATS: A pulsing drum beat and guitar riff slowly build to reveal the horn section and the classic R&B vocals
2. SMOOTH SAILIN' - LEON BRIDGES: while track one has a rough, aggressive style, this song is smooth as silk, and the saxophone solos make up for everything the 1980s eighties did to that instrument.
3. LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL - JD MCPHERSON: Sticking with the classic theme, this songs feels like it time warped out of the 50s. If you don't feel like dancing when you hear it, I can't be friends with you.
4. VELVET DITCH - THE ARCS: This is one of those songs that feels like it belongs in a Quentin Tarantino Movie, it wears it references on it's sleeve but still stays it's own thing. If you needed to make a song that stole inspiration from about 5 different decades while still being cohesive, this is what I would play for you.
5. GIMMEE ALL YOUR LOVE - ALABAMA SHAKES: What if Led Zeppelin wrote a song that was sung by a female with a bluesy powerhouse of a voice that can rival the raw emotion of Robert Plant? If you like to intermix your soft moments with blasts of pure emotion, this is for you.
6. TENNESSEE WHISKEY - CHRIS STAPLETON: This ballad is a soulful blues gem. The guy may write more country hits than I can shake a stick at, but his vocal approach reminds me much more of a Stevie Ray Vaughan, but better.
7. RIVER LEA - ADELE: Adele is back! And her best song hasn't even been released as a single yet! Quick, enjoy it before it gets used in every commercial for TV dramas trying to make you think their show is deep and mysterious.
8. WHAT KIND OF MAN - FLORENCE + THE MACHINE: I had a hard time picking my favorite Florence song this year, but in the end, the energy change one minute in is too much fun to deny. Every time I hear it, I want to crank my car stereo and floor the accelerator...
9. I LIKE IT HEAVY - HALESTORM: ....Which is good because this song is built for going 80 on the freeway. They also get the award for most quintessential rock n' roll lyric of the year "Hallelujah Mother****** Take Me to Church!!!" Come for the hard rock, stay for the beautiful a capella solo at the end.
10. NOT MY TIME - SPECTRA 2015 SINGERS: I know absolutely nothing about this group, and given their name, I'm so scared they're from some reality competition or something, but I really, really like this song.* I'm a sucker for a driving beat and a singable vocal with random Indian influences and weird chanting. *Update: I looked it up and it's a Canadian Song for Cancer Survivors and proceeds went to charity, all good things.
11. BETTER NOT WAKE THE BABY - THE DECEMBERISTS: Like I said, I'm a sucker for a song with a driving, stomping feel that I can sing along too.
12. RUN LIKE THE RIVER - VINTAGE TROUBLE: driving beat, check. singable chorus with gospel choir, check. classic blues rock, check. Rip off Led Zeppelin in a riff solo? I will allow it.
13. FEEL RIGHT - MARK RONSON ft. MYSTIKAL: This is what I imagine it feels like to be Samuel L. Jackson almost everyday. Also, whenever I hear Mystikal's voice, I can only picture WWE wrestler/comedic genius/national treasure R Truth.
14. BROKE - JASON DERULO, KEITH URBAN, STEVIE WONDER: This song shouldn't work given the people involved, but it turns out that when you drop a beat behind a country guitar and Stevie's harmonica and add Jason's capable R&B voice, it really works. It also helps that a hip-hop harmonica breakdown is on my list of favorite things ever.
15. WALKASHAME - MEGHAN TRAINOR: Another homage to the early days of rock n roll and pop. I'm starting to sense a theme here. It's almost like I grew up listening to oldies or something... thanks mom and dad!
16. BISCUITS - KACEY MUSGRAVES: If the essence of the serenity prayer was a bouncy country sing along, it would sound like this.
17. RIDE THAT LIGHTNING - CHRIS HADFIELD: foot stomping beat, sing along chorus, now with handclaps and boogie woogie piano!!!
18. THE EVERLASTING MUSE - BELLE & SEBASTIAN: This was one of those songs that you don't expect much from at first. It begins like the background music in a Disaronno commercial, until the song makes a left turn into a Gypsy wedding or something, and then shifts back and forth between the two styles. It's quirky and weird and I love it.
19. ALPENGLOW - NIGHTWISH: Time for a heavy metal break, but with an orchestra and Floor Jansen's gorgeous vocals.
20. NEARLY FORGOT MY BROKEN HEART - CHRIS CORNELL: The best singer from the grunge era made a mostly acoustic record this year, and the result was my favorite work of his in about 20 years.
21. 1,2,3,4 - ALAN DOYLE ft. ED ROBERTSON: What? You didn't think I would find an Irish Pub rock song and NOT put it on this list did you? Foot stomps and sing alongs, it's almost all I want out of life.
Monday, January 18, 2016
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
IDODP: The Little Mermaid
Movie: The Little Mermaid (1989)
Age: 16
Common Complaint: Ariel is a girl so obsessed with a boy that she is hoarding his garbage like a crazy person and is willing to trade her identity and mutilate her body to be with a boy she thinks is cute. Your standard, psycho stalker/hoarder scenario.
The Little Mermaid marks only the 4th Disney Princess in the first 52 years of Disney feature animation and arrived 30 years after Sleeping Beauty. In between Sleeping Beauty and The Little Mermaid, Disney experienced roughly 20 years of quality decline following the death of Walt Disney. The Little Mermaid would turn out to be the first step in restoring Disney to it's former glory and arguably surpassing it.
After a brief prologue, we are introduced the the world of the Merpeople as they gather for a concert to act as Ariel's musical debut. Alas, Ariel is nowhere to be found as she is off exploring. In the first 6 minutes of the movie, we learn that Ariel, who is already a beloved princess, has no real interest in being the center of attention as she is too busy exploring an alien civilization. She doesn't have time for fancy costumes and parties, she's a scholar and explorer. She spends her days exploring shipwrecks and evading sharks, looking for artifacts for her private museum. She's basically Princess Ariel: Tomb Raider. She has a passion for knowledge, even if most of her information comes from a seagull who doesn't know what he's talking about. Because we have knowledge of our own day to day existence, it is easy to laugh at Ariel's mistakes, but it is not a condemnation of her intellect. She is making an effort to learn and become an expert about a world she is passionate about, using the best sources she can find. By even communicating with Scuttle, she is violating the laws of her people, so she is clearly willing to go after what she wants, no matter the cost.
When she returns home, she is confronted by her father, King Triton, who is a severe racist and isolationist. While we can certainly empathize with Triton's concerns, calling an entire race of people barbarians is pretty racist. After Ariel tries unsuccessfully to counter her father's ignorance, she retreats to her museum, where she sings one of the best songs in the Disney canon. "Part of Your World" is sung prior to Ariel having any contact with Prince Eric, meaning her song is not a song about boys, but a song about a woman who longs to be free to explore and pursue knowledge. She wants to leave her one seahorse town and lead her own life. While the title of the song is "Part of Your World", The actual lyric is "Part of THAT world." She is not a hoarder pining after a boy, she is an anthropologist trapped in an insular world that rejects any knowledge of outsiders.
When she finally sees Prince Eric, her fascination with him is an extension of her love of the human world, not the other way around. A well worn trope of the adventure story is of the hero falling in love with a native of the land the hero is exploring (see Pocahontas, Avatar, Ferngully, etc.) In the case of the Little Mermaid, this trope is inverted when the explorer is a mermaid, and the exotic land is Denmark in the 1800s. It is shortly after her first close examination of the humans that a storm arises and she ends up saving Prince Eric from drowning, and sings a song about wanting to be with him. I must admit my bias at this point, because I have direct experience that being involved in a water related accident and being helped by a pretty girl is a great way to woo said pretty girl, just ask my wife (who also said that the Florence Nightingale effect is a real thing). So now our leading princess has heroically saved a very pretty boy of the world and culture she is obsessed with, and has a shared traumatic experience with him. This is the part where I try to remind people that stories happen in a particular order, and given circumstances can change as the plot unfolds, but it is unfair to attribute intentions to characters using information they themselves do not yet have. Sure, Ariel is smitten with a boy she just met and sings a song about wanting to be with him. But at this point in the story, she has no knowledge that becoming human is even a possibility. Her desire to literally become human is still idle fantasy, similar to any teenager daydreaming about being magically united with their favorite celebrity. As a bonus, Ariel, the fighter of sharks and fearless explorer, now has a story about the time she saved a prince from drowning. If she wasn't later caught up in a power grab by a deposed tyrant, this would likely have been the extent of it. Even if her plans to see him again had worked, her best case scenario would have been for her to be a friend and improve human/merpeople relations once the anatomical realities kicked in. She would have eventually phased out of her crush and moved on with her life.
Unfortunately for Ariel, her father is told of her love for a human and goes completely nuts when he catches her in the midst of a romantic daydream. Rather than try to patiently have a discussion with her about the realities and dangers of becoming too attached to someone she can never be with, he goes full fundamentalist and destroys her entire life's work. While the human value of her collection may have been minimal, these were priceless artifacts to her. Imagine if you were 16 and your Father stormed into your room, tore every poster off your wall, smashed your collectibles and burned all of your books because they didn't like who you were associating with. Oh, and your mother is not in the picture so you have no backup parental figure to save you or offer solace. All this happens when 30 seconds earlier, you were happily daydreaming and enjoying being in love. Wouldn't that put you in a slightly emotionally vulnerable state? King Triton does most of Ursula's work for her.
Even in this state, Ariel initially refuses to even go to Ursula until the eel knocks over a piece of Eric's statue. While the traditional reading is that Ariel swims off to be with a boy, the manner in which she leaves and the way she shuts down Sebastian is one of anger and defiance. Her father has just tried to dominate and control her, taking away her ability to make her own choices, so she makes the one choice still available to her. She refuses to be bullied into submission and is running away to live her own life. This is the essence of many Disney stories. They are about the yearning for freedom, adventure, and independence that most children have. The lack of good parenting role models is a great way to allow these characters to get themselves into dramatically interesting situations. Ariel needs to learn from active experience, something that is utterly denied to her at home. Her move isn't a great choice, but it is HER choice.
The scene in Ursula's lair is a classic devil's bargain sequence in which Ursula applies numerous manipulation and sales techniques to trick Ariel into an impossible situation. Ursula starts with an otherwise reasonably intelligent person caught in a highly emotional state and offers her the very thing Ariel most desires, something she never imagined would even be possible. Step two is to tell Ariel that if she can win the heart of the man she loves in three days, she gets to stay human forever. She then gives the consequence of failure, eternal slavery, which, given Ariel's current state of mind, is not much worse off than she perceives she is right now. Only after Ariel has had a few moments to realize the lure of getting her heart's desire does the cost come up. Sales 101: The price comes at the end of the sales pitch because if they can get you emotionally invested in the value of what they are selling, you are less likely to care about the price. Go to any timeshare presentation to see this in action. Ursula is a very good salesman, and so she immediately downplays the price as well, but telling her that in the human world, talk is overrated. So her simplified pitch is basically, "I will give you everything you've ever wanted for a song! Literally!" Then, to seal the deal, Ursula demands and immediate decision, preventing Ariel the time to come to her senses. Step by step, Ursula seduces an intelligent woman into a stupid decision by playing her like a fiddle. This also the same technique Palpatine uses to turn Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader, except in Star Wars, it is referred to as tragic, but with Ariel, she is often accused of being stupid. What I'm attempting to show is that while Ariel makes an extremely poor choice, it is not because she's just a boy crazy bimbo. The movie just spent half it's run time showing us that she is independent, intelligent and heroic. She is simply caught up in a moment of weakness and tricked into an impossible situation.
Now we come to the part of the movie where Ariel has to woo the prince without being able to speak. This is where jaded adults who grew up with this movie go, "WHY DOESN'T SHE JUST WRITE DOWN WHAT HAPPENED TO HER?! PROBLEM SOLVED!!!" This is where I try to remind folks to review what the given circumstances of the movie are. First, Merfolk are only a myth to the humans. Second, there is no magic that we know of in the human world. Third, despite her best efforts, she has very little working knowledge of human culture and customs. So what exactly is Ariel supposed to write? "Hi, I'm Ariel. I used to be a mermaid, but I saw you and fell in love with you and then my dad blew up my secret room because I saved your life, so I sold my soul to a witch who made me a human but took my voice. Please fall in love with me and kiss me so I don't get turned into a creepy worm thing for all eternity" Yes, that should go over well. Also, her initial attempts to explain come off as random flailing about, so she reverts to simply being herself as best as she can. Even without her voice, her passion for life, and eagerness for new experiences charms everyone she meets. Yes Ariel is in love with a boy and has made one massively ill advised choice under duress, but she has otherwise remained true to herself throughout. She wanted to live in the human world before she fell in love with a boy, and once she was there, she kept her same personality. She does not spend her finite time as a human throwing herself at a boy. She explores the country and tries to experience as much of the human world as possible. Her zest for life is what draws Eric to her. It is her male sidekick characters that try to get her to shamelessly flirt and throw herself at him. But Ariel never tries to force the issue, even after she learns that Eric will marry someone else. However, when she learns that Eric is about to marry Ursula in disguise, she immediately rushes off to save him. She doesn't even hesitate, almost drowning in the attempt (don't swim in a dress kids). The man who just broke her heart is in mortal peril, and she rushes to save him without a second thought because it is the right thing to do. Call it what you will, but I see this as an act of real love.
In the climactic fight against Mega Ursula, Ariel does appear to just be a victim who needs to be saved by a man. But if you think about it for a second, Ariel has actually been rushing to save those she cares about throughout the movie, so she is not so much a damsel in distress as she is a person who is in a situation that has finally become too big for her to handle alone. Also, she already saved Eric's life, and stopped him from marrying a sea witch so he kind of owes her one if he's going to pull his own weight in their relationship. In all of the excitement, it is easy to forget that there is no magical true love's kiss to save the day. Because we are watching a fairy tale, we assume that if Ariel and Eric kiss all will be well, but we are never given a deus ex kiss moment, so whether or not Eric is Ariel's true love is up for debate. What we do know is that they seem to be two nice kids who've been through something extraordinary together. And really, if impaling a 100 ft tall octopus lady with a sunken ship isn't a sign of true love, I don't know what is. In the end, Ariel is able to live the life that feels authentic to her, and her fundi dad finally accepts his daughter for who she is, and not who he wanted her to be. This is where I'd say something like stop minimizing Ariel and defining her by her choice of husband, but really, she doesn't need my help. She's probably off curating a museum somewhere when she's not teaching classes about human and merpeople culture or exploring ancient ruins.
Age: 16
Common Complaint: Ariel is a girl so obsessed with a boy that she is hoarding his garbage like a crazy person and is willing to trade her identity and mutilate her body to be with a boy she thinks is cute. Your standard, psycho stalker/hoarder scenario.
The Little Mermaid marks only the 4th Disney Princess in the first 52 years of Disney feature animation and arrived 30 years after Sleeping Beauty. In between Sleeping Beauty and The Little Mermaid, Disney experienced roughly 20 years of quality decline following the death of Walt Disney. The Little Mermaid would turn out to be the first step in restoring Disney to it's former glory and arguably surpassing it.
After a brief prologue, we are introduced the the world of the Merpeople as they gather for a concert to act as Ariel's musical debut. Alas, Ariel is nowhere to be found as she is off exploring. In the first 6 minutes of the movie, we learn that Ariel, who is already a beloved princess, has no real interest in being the center of attention as she is too busy exploring an alien civilization. She doesn't have time for fancy costumes and parties, she's a scholar and explorer. She spends her days exploring shipwrecks and evading sharks, looking for artifacts for her private museum. She's basically Princess Ariel: Tomb Raider. She has a passion for knowledge, even if most of her information comes from a seagull who doesn't know what he's talking about. Because we have knowledge of our own day to day existence, it is easy to laugh at Ariel's mistakes, but it is not a condemnation of her intellect. She is making an effort to learn and become an expert about a world she is passionate about, using the best sources she can find. By even communicating with Scuttle, she is violating the laws of her people, so she is clearly willing to go after what she wants, no matter the cost.
When she returns home, she is confronted by her father, King Triton, who is a severe racist and isolationist. While we can certainly empathize with Triton's concerns, calling an entire race of people barbarians is pretty racist. After Ariel tries unsuccessfully to counter her father's ignorance, she retreats to her museum, where she sings one of the best songs in the Disney canon. "Part of Your World" is sung prior to Ariel having any contact with Prince Eric, meaning her song is not a song about boys, but a song about a woman who longs to be free to explore and pursue knowledge. She wants to leave her one seahorse town and lead her own life. While the title of the song is "Part of Your World", The actual lyric is "Part of THAT world." She is not a hoarder pining after a boy, she is an anthropologist trapped in an insular world that rejects any knowledge of outsiders.
When she finally sees Prince Eric, her fascination with him is an extension of her love of the human world, not the other way around. A well worn trope of the adventure story is of the hero falling in love with a native of the land the hero is exploring (see Pocahontas, Avatar, Ferngully, etc.) In the case of the Little Mermaid, this trope is inverted when the explorer is a mermaid, and the exotic land is Denmark in the 1800s. It is shortly after her first close examination of the humans that a storm arises and she ends up saving Prince Eric from drowning, and sings a song about wanting to be with him. I must admit my bias at this point, because I have direct experience that being involved in a water related accident and being helped by a pretty girl is a great way to woo said pretty girl, just ask my wife (who also said that the Florence Nightingale effect is a real thing). So now our leading princess has heroically saved a very pretty boy of the world and culture she is obsessed with, and has a shared traumatic experience with him. This is the part where I try to remind people that stories happen in a particular order, and given circumstances can change as the plot unfolds, but it is unfair to attribute intentions to characters using information they themselves do not yet have. Sure, Ariel is smitten with a boy she just met and sings a song about wanting to be with him. But at this point in the story, she has no knowledge that becoming human is even a possibility. Her desire to literally become human is still idle fantasy, similar to any teenager daydreaming about being magically united with their favorite celebrity. As a bonus, Ariel, the fighter of sharks and fearless explorer, now has a story about the time she saved a prince from drowning. If she wasn't later caught up in a power grab by a deposed tyrant, this would likely have been the extent of it. Even if her plans to see him again had worked, her best case scenario would have been for her to be a friend and improve human/merpeople relations once the anatomical realities kicked in. She would have eventually phased out of her crush and moved on with her life.
Unfortunately for Ariel, her father is told of her love for a human and goes completely nuts when he catches her in the midst of a romantic daydream. Rather than try to patiently have a discussion with her about the realities and dangers of becoming too attached to someone she can never be with, he goes full fundamentalist and destroys her entire life's work. While the human value of her collection may have been minimal, these were priceless artifacts to her. Imagine if you were 16 and your Father stormed into your room, tore every poster off your wall, smashed your collectibles and burned all of your books because they didn't like who you were associating with. Oh, and your mother is not in the picture so you have no backup parental figure to save you or offer solace. All this happens when 30 seconds earlier, you were happily daydreaming and enjoying being in love. Wouldn't that put you in a slightly emotionally vulnerable state? King Triton does most of Ursula's work for her.
Even in this state, Ariel initially refuses to even go to Ursula until the eel knocks over a piece of Eric's statue. While the traditional reading is that Ariel swims off to be with a boy, the manner in which she leaves and the way she shuts down Sebastian is one of anger and defiance. Her father has just tried to dominate and control her, taking away her ability to make her own choices, so she makes the one choice still available to her. She refuses to be bullied into submission and is running away to live her own life. This is the essence of many Disney stories. They are about the yearning for freedom, adventure, and independence that most children have. The lack of good parenting role models is a great way to allow these characters to get themselves into dramatically interesting situations. Ariel needs to learn from active experience, something that is utterly denied to her at home. Her move isn't a great choice, but it is HER choice.
The scene in Ursula's lair is a classic devil's bargain sequence in which Ursula applies numerous manipulation and sales techniques to trick Ariel into an impossible situation. Ursula starts with an otherwise reasonably intelligent person caught in a highly emotional state and offers her the very thing Ariel most desires, something she never imagined would even be possible. Step two is to tell Ariel that if she can win the heart of the man she loves in three days, she gets to stay human forever. She then gives the consequence of failure, eternal slavery, which, given Ariel's current state of mind, is not much worse off than she perceives she is right now. Only after Ariel has had a few moments to realize the lure of getting her heart's desire does the cost come up. Sales 101: The price comes at the end of the sales pitch because if they can get you emotionally invested in the value of what they are selling, you are less likely to care about the price. Go to any timeshare presentation to see this in action. Ursula is a very good salesman, and so she immediately downplays the price as well, but telling her that in the human world, talk is overrated. So her simplified pitch is basically, "I will give you everything you've ever wanted for a song! Literally!" Then, to seal the deal, Ursula demands and immediate decision, preventing Ariel the time to come to her senses. Step by step, Ursula seduces an intelligent woman into a stupid decision by playing her like a fiddle. This also the same technique Palpatine uses to turn Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader, except in Star Wars, it is referred to as tragic, but with Ariel, she is often accused of being stupid. What I'm attempting to show is that while Ariel makes an extremely poor choice, it is not because she's just a boy crazy bimbo. The movie just spent half it's run time showing us that she is independent, intelligent and heroic. She is simply caught up in a moment of weakness and tricked into an impossible situation.
Now we come to the part of the movie where Ariel has to woo the prince without being able to speak. This is where jaded adults who grew up with this movie go, "WHY DOESN'T SHE JUST WRITE DOWN WHAT HAPPENED TO HER?! PROBLEM SOLVED!!!" This is where I try to remind folks to review what the given circumstances of the movie are. First, Merfolk are only a myth to the humans. Second, there is no magic that we know of in the human world. Third, despite her best efforts, she has very little working knowledge of human culture and customs. So what exactly is Ariel supposed to write? "Hi, I'm Ariel. I used to be a mermaid, but I saw you and fell in love with you and then my dad blew up my secret room because I saved your life, so I sold my soul to a witch who made me a human but took my voice. Please fall in love with me and kiss me so I don't get turned into a creepy worm thing for all eternity" Yes, that should go over well. Also, her initial attempts to explain come off as random flailing about, so she reverts to simply being herself as best as she can. Even without her voice, her passion for life, and eagerness for new experiences charms everyone she meets. Yes Ariel is in love with a boy and has made one massively ill advised choice under duress, but she has otherwise remained true to herself throughout. She wanted to live in the human world before she fell in love with a boy, and once she was there, she kept her same personality. She does not spend her finite time as a human throwing herself at a boy. She explores the country and tries to experience as much of the human world as possible. Her zest for life is what draws Eric to her. It is her male sidekick characters that try to get her to shamelessly flirt and throw herself at him. But Ariel never tries to force the issue, even after she learns that Eric will marry someone else. However, when she learns that Eric is about to marry Ursula in disguise, she immediately rushes off to save him. She doesn't even hesitate, almost drowning in the attempt (don't swim in a dress kids). The man who just broke her heart is in mortal peril, and she rushes to save him without a second thought because it is the right thing to do. Call it what you will, but I see this as an act of real love.
In the climactic fight against Mega Ursula, Ariel does appear to just be a victim who needs to be saved by a man. But if you think about it for a second, Ariel has actually been rushing to save those she cares about throughout the movie, so she is not so much a damsel in distress as she is a person who is in a situation that has finally become too big for her to handle alone. Also, she already saved Eric's life, and stopped him from marrying a sea witch so he kind of owes her one if he's going to pull his own weight in their relationship. In all of the excitement, it is easy to forget that there is no magical true love's kiss to save the day. Because we are watching a fairy tale, we assume that if Ariel and Eric kiss all will be well, but we are never given a deus ex kiss moment, so whether or not Eric is Ariel's true love is up for debate. What we do know is that they seem to be two nice kids who've been through something extraordinary together. And really, if impaling a 100 ft tall octopus lady with a sunken ship isn't a sign of true love, I don't know what is. In the end, Ariel is able to live the life that feels authentic to her, and her fundi dad finally accepts his daughter for who she is, and not who he wanted her to be. This is where I'd say something like stop minimizing Ariel and defining her by her choice of husband, but really, she doesn't need my help. She's probably off curating a museum somewhere when she's not teaching classes about human and merpeople culture or exploring ancient ruins.
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
IDODP - Sleeping Beauty
Movie: Sleeping Beauty 1959
Age: 16
Common Complaint: Sleeping Beauty is a dumb blonde with zero agency who gets saved when she is kissed while unconscious and unable to consent. (see also my previous blog post from a few years ago, I was not a fan)
I think it is worth pointing out that Sleeping Beauty is only the 3rd major Disney Princess since 1937. So for the first 22 years of Disney Feature Animation, we only have 3 of 16 films being "princess" movies. I just like to remind people that there was a time when Disney Princesses were a minor part of the Disney Canon, so there must be a reason that they still feature so prominently in our pop Culture history. Something about these movies connected with people, and I don't believe it is just because all little girls want to be princesses. There has to be something more there.
In the case of Sleeping Beauty, the obvious appeal lies in one of the greatest movie villains of all time, and the astonishingly detailed animation. This movie almost bankrupted the studio, and every penny made it to the screen. I frequently find myself wishing the characters would move off screen so I can just examine the set animation.
But what of Princess Aurora? Of all the princesses, she seems to have the least amount of screen time. She's an infant in the beginning of the movie, and we barely get to know her at all before her world is turned upside down and she is almost killed. The good fairies don't help things when the first gift they give her is the gift of beauty, and then the gift of song. Right off the bat, it seems that the movie is telling us that the best thing a woman can be is beautiful and entertaining. We never learn what Merriweather's gift would have been, but we can hope it would have been something a little more useful, like a the gift of advanced mathematics. So before we even meet a more grown up Aurora, she has been put into the box of a pretty little object to be admired, and not to have any thoughts or opinions of her own. I'm hardly the first person to bring these issues up, but if I'm going to try to defend Aurora as a character, I thought I should at least acknowledge that the movie doesn't make it very easy.
When we finally meet 16 year old Aurora (now called Briar Rose), we find a young woman who does have the gifts of beauty and song, but like most Disney characters, what she longs for is to be allowed to explore her world. She laments still being treated like a child and longs to meet different people. Her whole world is herself, and three eccentric ladies, so it's not surprising that she is interested in meeting a boy. I would argue that a lonely girl longing to find a companion isn't a sign of being an empty headed bimbo, but rather a natural response to a lifetime of isolation. When she meets a handsome stranger in the woods, she seems to be excited and frightened at the same time. Phillip is a little grabby initially, which seems a little creepy, but he does let her leave, and it is after she has put distance between them that she decides she would like to see him again, as soon as possible. I think the order of this sequence is important because if the order had been any different, Phillip becomes a villain and Aurora is just a woman acquiescing to a man. As the film shows it though, Phillip's initial handsiness feels more like the awkward romantic gesture of a young man in a patriarchal medieval society. He lets Aurora go and then woos her in the traditional Disney courtship ritual of singing with animals. He does not try to grab her again, even after she panics and starts to run away, he respects her enough to let her leave, only asking to see her again, and it is Aurora who invites him to her home, setting her own terms. Given her panic at being asked her name, it would be perhaps understandable if at this point, Philip attempted to find the source of her fright and save her, but he lets her leave, and doesn't impose himself upon her. It's a small moment, but given the short amount of time we have for courtship, I have to try to make the most of what is there.
Upon returning to her home, Aurora, after attempting to share with her guardians the exciting day she has had, is blindsided with the news that she is an adopted princess and will be leaving everything behind to live in a castle that night. So here we have an incident in which Aurora's individuality and desires (wanting to invite a new romantic interest to her home to meet her family) is suddenly disregarded by the only family she has ever known and she is stripped of any agency in her own life. Where Philip showed himself (albeit very briefly) to be a person who would allow her to come and go as she pleased and possibly treat her has an equal and a companion, her own family has suddenly betrayed her, wanting to shackle her in a dress and send her off to be married to a complete stranger. "Happy 16th birthday! You're being married off to a monarch and will never see your family or home again!" Aurora is understandably mortified by this news and flees to her room in tears. While it would be easy to criticize her for not simply running away, I empathize with her reaction. A person's bedroom is often a place where they can feel safe to be completely themselves. Visit almost any teenager's bedroom and you will see a shrine to their own sense of self. I spent enough time in my own room as a teenager to know that it can be a place of refuge when faced with difficult, or in Aurora's case, devastating news. Aurora's near catatonic state as she is led to her new home is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of her humanity. Her world has been shattered and she's barely had any time to process this before being ushered away to her new stone prison.
Her guardians, showing a stunning lack of understanding, attempt to cheer her up with a crown, which, being a symbol of the new life she's been forced into, only serves to cause her to break all over again, putting her in a highly vulnerable state. This is a woman who DOES NOT want to be a princess! Honestly, the three Good Fairies show such a tremendous amount of stupidity here that they practically do Maleficent's job for her. By the time Aurora is guided to the spinning wheel, she looks to be almost suicidal. The "good" fairies then compound the issue by knocking out everyone in the kingdom to cover up their failure rather than owning up to it and asking for the whole kingdom's help to solve the issue. They are so dumb, I don't really blame Maleficent for hating them.
Now the movie shifts to the part of the story where the heroic male must save the helpless woman. It should be noted that he wouldn't need to act alone if the fairies hadn't roofied all of his back up, also making him the only viable option to break the spell. At no point did any of them stop to consider the fact that true love's first kiss does not have to be romantic love. Maybe Aurora's parents should have been able to give it a shot. After all, her father attempted to do everything he could, including crippling his kingdom's fabric economy by destroying all the spinning wheels, just to save his daughter's life. So now we've been forced into a story of romance due to the incompetence of the political and magical leadership of this world, and Phillip must save the day, because so far, he is essentially the only one who has treated Aurora as a human being instead of some object to be used as a political chess piece.
Unfortunately, he is currently chained in a dungeon, to be kept prisoner until he is a crippled old man, only then to be released to break the spell as some sort of sick game Maleficent is playing, reminding the audience that Philip is almost just as much of a pawn in this whole thing as the woman he has fallen in love with. Philip has the benefit of at least being conscious though, which enables him to receive help from the "Good" fairies, who are struck by a sudden bout of practicality and usefulness. Philip and the fairies (but mostly the fairies and their magic) kill Maleficent and Phillip gives a closed mouth kiss to the magically sleeping woman he has a crush on, something he knows he has to do in order to break the spell. This is a medicinal kiss, not a creepy abuse of a sleeping woman. Anyway, Aurora chooses to be with the one person who has treated her with any respect in the whole movie, which is not the worst thing in the world, while her former guardians, having learned nothing from their failures, argue over fashion choices. Aurora ignores her ever changing dress, because her looks do not define her. The movie concludes allowing the audience to begin debating whether or not the fairies should be jailed for their crimes against the kingdom, or if their eventual heroism excuses almost 2 decades of incompetent and dangerous abuse of power.
For a more honest treatment of the Fairies, I highly recommend the live action version of this story, Maleficent.
UP NEXT:
The Little Mermaid - 1989
Beauty and the Beast - 1991
Aladdin - 1992
Pocahontas - 1995
Hunchback of Notre Dame - 1996
Mulan - 1998
Lilo & Stitch - 2002
The Incredibles - 2004
The Princess and the Frog - 2009
Tangled - 2010
Brave - 2012
Frozen - 2013
Age: 16
Common Complaint: Sleeping Beauty is a dumb blonde with zero agency who gets saved when she is kissed while unconscious and unable to consent. (see also my previous blog post from a few years ago, I was not a fan)
I think it is worth pointing out that Sleeping Beauty is only the 3rd major Disney Princess since 1937. So for the first 22 years of Disney Feature Animation, we only have 3 of 16 films being "princess" movies. I just like to remind people that there was a time when Disney Princesses were a minor part of the Disney Canon, so there must be a reason that they still feature so prominently in our pop Culture history. Something about these movies connected with people, and I don't believe it is just because all little girls want to be princesses. There has to be something more there.
In the case of Sleeping Beauty, the obvious appeal lies in one of the greatest movie villains of all time, and the astonishingly detailed animation. This movie almost bankrupted the studio, and every penny made it to the screen. I frequently find myself wishing the characters would move off screen so I can just examine the set animation.
But what of Princess Aurora? Of all the princesses, she seems to have the least amount of screen time. She's an infant in the beginning of the movie, and we barely get to know her at all before her world is turned upside down and she is almost killed. The good fairies don't help things when the first gift they give her is the gift of beauty, and then the gift of song. Right off the bat, it seems that the movie is telling us that the best thing a woman can be is beautiful and entertaining. We never learn what Merriweather's gift would have been, but we can hope it would have been something a little more useful, like a the gift of advanced mathematics. So before we even meet a more grown up Aurora, she has been put into the box of a pretty little object to be admired, and not to have any thoughts or opinions of her own. I'm hardly the first person to bring these issues up, but if I'm going to try to defend Aurora as a character, I thought I should at least acknowledge that the movie doesn't make it very easy.
When we finally meet 16 year old Aurora (now called Briar Rose), we find a young woman who does have the gifts of beauty and song, but like most Disney characters, what she longs for is to be allowed to explore her world. She laments still being treated like a child and longs to meet different people. Her whole world is herself, and three eccentric ladies, so it's not surprising that she is interested in meeting a boy. I would argue that a lonely girl longing to find a companion isn't a sign of being an empty headed bimbo, but rather a natural response to a lifetime of isolation. When she meets a handsome stranger in the woods, she seems to be excited and frightened at the same time. Phillip is a little grabby initially, which seems a little creepy, but he does let her leave, and it is after she has put distance between them that she decides she would like to see him again, as soon as possible. I think the order of this sequence is important because if the order had been any different, Phillip becomes a villain and Aurora is just a woman acquiescing to a man. As the film shows it though, Phillip's initial handsiness feels more like the awkward romantic gesture of a young man in a patriarchal medieval society. He lets Aurora go and then woos her in the traditional Disney courtship ritual of singing with animals. He does not try to grab her again, even after she panics and starts to run away, he respects her enough to let her leave, only asking to see her again, and it is Aurora who invites him to her home, setting her own terms. Given her panic at being asked her name, it would be perhaps understandable if at this point, Philip attempted to find the source of her fright and save her, but he lets her leave, and doesn't impose himself upon her. It's a small moment, but given the short amount of time we have for courtship, I have to try to make the most of what is there.
Upon returning to her home, Aurora, after attempting to share with her guardians the exciting day she has had, is blindsided with the news that she is an adopted princess and will be leaving everything behind to live in a castle that night. So here we have an incident in which Aurora's individuality and desires (wanting to invite a new romantic interest to her home to meet her family) is suddenly disregarded by the only family she has ever known and she is stripped of any agency in her own life. Where Philip showed himself (albeit very briefly) to be a person who would allow her to come and go as she pleased and possibly treat her has an equal and a companion, her own family has suddenly betrayed her, wanting to shackle her in a dress and send her off to be married to a complete stranger. "Happy 16th birthday! You're being married off to a monarch and will never see your family or home again!" Aurora is understandably mortified by this news and flees to her room in tears. While it would be easy to criticize her for not simply running away, I empathize with her reaction. A person's bedroom is often a place where they can feel safe to be completely themselves. Visit almost any teenager's bedroom and you will see a shrine to their own sense of self. I spent enough time in my own room as a teenager to know that it can be a place of refuge when faced with difficult, or in Aurora's case, devastating news. Aurora's near catatonic state as she is led to her new home is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of her humanity. Her world has been shattered and she's barely had any time to process this before being ushered away to her new stone prison.
Her guardians, showing a stunning lack of understanding, attempt to cheer her up with a crown, which, being a symbol of the new life she's been forced into, only serves to cause her to break all over again, putting her in a highly vulnerable state. This is a woman who DOES NOT want to be a princess! Honestly, the three Good Fairies show such a tremendous amount of stupidity here that they practically do Maleficent's job for her. By the time Aurora is guided to the spinning wheel, she looks to be almost suicidal. The "good" fairies then compound the issue by knocking out everyone in the kingdom to cover up their failure rather than owning up to it and asking for the whole kingdom's help to solve the issue. They are so dumb, I don't really blame Maleficent for hating them.
Now the movie shifts to the part of the story where the heroic male must save the helpless woman. It should be noted that he wouldn't need to act alone if the fairies hadn't roofied all of his back up, also making him the only viable option to break the spell. At no point did any of them stop to consider the fact that true love's first kiss does not have to be romantic love. Maybe Aurora's parents should have been able to give it a shot. After all, her father attempted to do everything he could, including crippling his kingdom's fabric economy by destroying all the spinning wheels, just to save his daughter's life. So now we've been forced into a story of romance due to the incompetence of the political and magical leadership of this world, and Phillip must save the day, because so far, he is essentially the only one who has treated Aurora as a human being instead of some object to be used as a political chess piece.
Unfortunately, he is currently chained in a dungeon, to be kept prisoner until he is a crippled old man, only then to be released to break the spell as some sort of sick game Maleficent is playing, reminding the audience that Philip is almost just as much of a pawn in this whole thing as the woman he has fallen in love with. Philip has the benefit of at least being conscious though, which enables him to receive help from the "Good" fairies, who are struck by a sudden bout of practicality and usefulness. Philip and the fairies (but mostly the fairies and their magic) kill Maleficent and Phillip gives a closed mouth kiss to the magically sleeping woman he has a crush on, something he knows he has to do in order to break the spell. This is a medicinal kiss, not a creepy abuse of a sleeping woman. Anyway, Aurora chooses to be with the one person who has treated her with any respect in the whole movie, which is not the worst thing in the world, while her former guardians, having learned nothing from their failures, argue over fashion choices. Aurora ignores her ever changing dress, because her looks do not define her. The movie concludes allowing the audience to begin debating whether or not the fairies should be jailed for their crimes against the kingdom, or if their eventual heroism excuses almost 2 decades of incompetent and dangerous abuse of power.
For a more honest treatment of the Fairies, I highly recommend the live action version of this story, Maleficent.
UP NEXT:
The Little Mermaid - 1989
Beauty and the Beast - 1991
Aladdin - 1992
Pocahontas - 1995
Hunchback of Notre Dame - 1996
Mulan - 1998
Lilo & Stitch - 2002
The Incredibles - 2004
The Princess and the Frog - 2009
Tangled - 2010
Brave - 2012
Frozen - 2013
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