Disney Romance Fantasy - Essay Example

Disney Romantic Fantasy Question 1 Romantic fantasy remains a genre of fantasy fiction using the conventional elements of the Romance genre. Romantic films are published using fantasy or romantic lines or a combination of both while encompassing the topics of human relationships, social, political, environmental and cultural lifestyles of human beings. Unlike in fantasy romance where the emphasis is on fantasy, in romantic fantasy, the elements of romance are most important. The plot of romantic fantasy films is usually that of a struggle to leave an oppressive environment, regrouping with a new social circle so to achieve something more, or greater than what their current environment offers. The story therefore unfolds to introduce an antagonistic force and a protagonist that conflict each other where violence can be the ultimate solution to solve the problem. However, diplomatic and peaceful negotiations employment as a means of solving the problem is usually another characteristic. The stories of Beauty and the beast and the Beast and Wall-E, culminates within the aspects of Fantasy fiction whereby they teach certain moral values, discuss certain problems facing society thereby demonstrating the aspect of struggle to achieve something greater as is the case with romantic fantasy films. In Beauty and the Beast, the Beast is in a quest to find true love that will break his curse after a fairy hexed him. He therefore takes a great care of his roses that are a way of wooing his lover to be as is the case with Romantic films fantasy films. This is a story of unconditional love and offers great teachings to children and the society, about seeing people for who they are as people and not what they look like. It is especially great for child development as it gives them a standard of living in life. Aspects of magic are also common features in romantic films and Beauty and the Beast does not disappoint in delivering this as the enchanted mirror and the ring that allows automatic transport to the castle are magical aspects of the movie. These occurrences are what bring in the aspect of fantasy as in real life they do not exist. The aspect of romance is used to give them a friendly outlook and an entertaining theme. In WALL-E, the story also employs fantasy and romance whereby, the story is of a robot who meets another robot of very different personality and task, but they fall in love just the same. The problem that is facing society in this film is that of environmental degradation and therefore the society seeks to find a better habitat for the human race. The presence of protagonists and antagonists is evident in this film as Autopilot plays the role of the antagonists who is trying to prevent the return of the human race to earth. The magical or science fiction aspects of this movie are the teleporting hyper-jump feature of the space ship, Axiom. In both films, a story of love exists, a problem in society is addressed, and the aspect of happy ever after is executed. Question 2 There exists linearity in the narrative between Beauty and the Beast and Wall-E. The aspect of love at first is very evident in both story lines. In most films, characters fall in love within minutes, often without even conversing (Tanner, Haddock, Schindler Zimmerman, and Lund, 2003). In both films, the love happens between two people of different personalities and physical outlook, but they fall in love just the same. In WALL-E, when Eve gets deployed from outer space to look for signs of life, Wall-E admires her, becomes drawn to her despite her harsh treatment at first and eventually woos her to love him the same way. In Beauty and the Beast, despite lack of knowledge of Belle’s behavior and character, the Beast accepts her into his home, feeds Belle, dresses her with the most expensive gifts and out-rightly falls in love with her. Belle however, appreciates the Beasts actions, cares for him and sees Beast as a friend; however, the plot gets twisted when she fails to return after a week, the Beast gets sick of heartbreak and on her return, the Beast changes into the handsome prince that she always dreamed of. Immediately she fall in love at first site, accepts this handsome prince, and they lived happily ever after. Another aspect of Romantic fantasy and happily ever after is the aspect of marriage shortly after meeting a person. In Beauty and the Beast, Belle does not agree to Beasts proposal, but in the end when he turns into a handsome prince, they get married almost immediately and live a magical life together forever after. The same is evident in WALL-E where the robots are shown at the end of the film holding hands to symbolize union after many years. This reflects the human trait for settling together in marriage. This begins shortly after their re-union when Eve revives Wall-E’s memory. Both stories have a feature that sparks the theme of love and happily ever after whereby in the case of Beauty of the Beast, the tears of Belle and her declaration of love saves him from death and the spell. Concurrently, in WALL-E, the kiss that Eve gives to Wall-E is the one that brings back his memories of their experiences together thereby returning his personality. Wall E, and Beauty and the Beast also have other feature in common when relating to the presence of protagonists and antagonism. In Beauty and the Beast, the antagonists are the selfish sisters of Belle who wish her harm while in WALL-E, the Autopilot and his followers who wish to prevent successful return to earth. Magic and fictitious activity is also evident as the aspect of hyper-jumping and teleporting from one place to another serves exists in both films. In WALL-E, the space ship plays the hyper-jumping role while in Beauty and the Beast, the enchanted ring serves this purpose through teleportation. Both films address moral issues in society whereby one addresses the impact of environmental degradation and consumerism while the other addresses the aspect of loving people equally, kindness and diplomatic resolution to issues. Question 3 According to (Robinson, Callister, Magoffin, Moore, 2007, p. 205), “children internalize media messages and their perceptions of the world are influenced by their media consumption.” Walt Disney films might be funny, but the audience not only derives comedy from them but social issues affecting society. Disney romance fantasies are especially very important to young viewers as they derive a certain expectation to life from these films. The moral lessons derived from these films are embedded in the young kids’ minds helping them understand the complexities of life while providing a learning platform on how to interact with others. The audience in every Disney romance fantasy film experiences an emotional feel of the story line, the film softens the heart as it expresses love in its purest and easiest form. According to (Tanner et. al., 2003), the imagery depicted by some of this films can be misleading as viewers end up developing that attitude that a relationship should be perfect as the theme of happily ever after is vague on any future problems occurring. In Beauty and the Beast, the ideology of staying in the same premises as a Beast and eventually falling in love touches the audience’s heart as it brings out the natural desire to love and the desire to find love. Children generally develop that affection from a very young age and live with it until that norm through their lives. Disney romance also gives the viewers a sense of a purpose in their lives, it shows them that every human being has a role to play in society and therefore encouraging people to always do the best of what they do and to fight for what they believe in especially if it is right and worth it. The films encourage viewers not too give up on those goals that seem farfetched since with faith anything is achievable. This leap of faith is demonstrated by the tireless efforts of “reviving” Eve by Wall-E or when Wall-E fights to save the plant from the exploding pod. Disney romance films contain a given level of action especially when the protagonists and antagonists have to resolve to violence to solve a dispute and to prove a point thereby giving viewers that adrenaline rush that most people crave in movies. In WALL-E, the film has a good level of action of fighting for human freedom from antagonists, Autopilot and his followers, and escaping just in time to save Wall-E’s life. The film leaves the viewers with a food-for-thought in terms of the disease that eats up society, that of corruption, that of environmental degradation, that of discrimination, abuse and frustration. This food-for-thought enables people to change for the better and to realize the effects of continuing to do evil to others and to the environment. The romantic films also enable the viewers to know how it felt to live in the mediaeval era, it introduces topics such as gender roles, especially the role of women in the olden days. In Beauty and the Beast, we see the role of women in the olden days emphasized. Belle presents a good example of a good woman in the sense that, she is innocent, submissive, understanding, loving caregiver when she convinces her father to tell her what bothered him, and a dutiful housekeeper. These are stereotypic descriptions of how women were valued in the olden days. Question 5 In the olden days, beauty according to the characters in the film was what one could see. The visual aspect is taken as a very important in romantic films. The characters development of love is based on instantaneous infatuation with each other based on how they look. Character’s feelings of love were based solely on how appealing their partners presented themselves (Tanner et. al., 2003). In Beauty and the Beast, Gaston falls in love with Belle simply because in his words…”she is the most beautiful of all, and that makes her the best” (Henke, Umble, and Smith, 1996, p.238). The tale tells of visual attraction for men who are handsome, masculine, romantic and strong. This description of a man unveils the “prince charming” who is the “knight in shining armor” to the women. In Beauty and the Beast, a kiss is used at the end to depict love, romance and marriage is used to suit the theme of happy ever after. Expensive and colorful clothes signify riches, while dirty, torn and dull shoes best describe the peasants and the poor (Downey, 1996). Colorful cutlery and a sophisticated architecture of the palace describe the level of wealth that the beast possessed. Every man or woman wants to be successful, it is everyone’s fantasy to be successful and therefore this visual style proves that it is a fantasy film. The forest also describes the Beast’s situation of being lost in life until the time he finds love. The use of magic describes the human’s belief in a supernatural being thereby creating a sense of belief in either good or bad. The castle is filled with grimacing statues and gargoyles that are believed to send away evil spirits. This proves that the Beast is not an evil person since he would not need the statues to scare away evil if he were evil himself. It brings as closer to the Beast’s true and inner nature. The Beast also likes residing in the western wing of his castle that faces the sunset showing that he hopes that a day will come when things will change for the better. During the ball, the beast dances with Belle and the night filled with stars showing that the hope of breaking the enchantment is vivid. In Wall-E, the emphasis is of technology, Wall-E was just a simple robot that collected waste thus showing his true nature as a simple person. Eve on the other hand was more sophisticated, advanced thereby showing her difference in social class in terms of life. The visual aspects of the movie are more of science fiction that depicts the humans’ admiration for exploration and how fast the state of technology can advance and is advancing. In order to depict romance in the film, the director employs a song and dance especially when Wall-E manages to escape from the pod with the surviving plant. During the song, certain aspects of romance as expressed showing the happiness that Eve and Wall-E shared. As the film ends, the director shows a picture of Wall-E and the Eve holding hands, a gesture that is a visual proof of romance, affection, protection, and care. The teleporting used I the film proves that the film that that of fantasy as some of the actions portrayed by the film are yet to be discovered. Question 5 Color plays an important in showing emotion, feeling and traits of a person. In Beauty and the Beast, at the beginning of the film, when Belle’s father stumbles upon the castle in the forest, it is dark, stormy, with thunder and lightning, this imagery and use of dark color shows the fear that Belle’s father feels upon entering the Beasts palace. The inside of the castle is dark and gloomy which depicts mystery, the shame of the beasts as regards his appearance thereby causing him to hide in the forest and in a dark castle. The color of the sunset on the Beast’s west wing window is a sign of hope, redemption and better days. Another color used is the clear brightness of the stars after the Beast and Belle dance in the ballroom. This symbolizes that the future is bright for both Belle and the Beast (Downey, 1996). In the movie, Belle wears a yellow dress that is a sign of love that is growing, dazzling, young and strong between Belle and the Beast. At the end of the film when the Beast is transforming, he glows showing that their love is inextinguishable, that it can only spark more. The red color of the rose symbolizes an unattainable goal that most people desire but rarely accomplish. In Wall-E on the other hand, color played a very important role in telling the story since Wall-E was a mute character. At the beginning of the film, the earth is pale, brownish and gloomy to depict the lone nature of Wall-E. Wall-E’s color was yellow which reminded people of tractors thereby it was a suitable character for his role of cleaning up. The interior of Wall-E’s truck contained a variety of lights of different colors, lights that he had collected during his clean up. Wall-E switches on the lights when Eve comes to visit. This portrays the welcoming and warm nature of Wall-E. When the film is still in its introduction stage, the colors of magenta, brown, dull orange and yellows are most featured thus depict a rather cold tone of the film. This is the situation of the earth when Wall-E is all alone. However, when Eve first comes into earth, the colors shift from mute and dull to a subtle pink and blue. The colors saturate more and more as the get closer and closer to one another and especially the scene where Wall-E first introduces himself to Eve. Another scenario that color is used to express emotion is the moment Eve shuts herself down after seeing the plant. In this scenario, the world starts fading showing loss of hope for Wall-E after multiple attempts to revive Eve. The plant that Eve safe-keeps is green in color, it portrays that there lies hope in the revival of the world. The multiple colors on the Rubik’s cube proved that the world was once colorful and prosperous, until disorder affected it. In outer space, the colors used were warm and lively to distinguish the lonely world from the sophisticated outer space. Various urban colors used to show live technology and a sign of life at the Axiom included red, orange, blue, purple, pink among others. The space environment had colors that proved complexity of the galaxies. Question 6 In most Disney films, soundtracks tend to play a key role in telling the story. Soundtracks become part of the story with situations where the characters actually sing their hearts out expressing their feelings, fears, and other emotions. Sound effects are used to depict the feeling during a certain situation, for example during danger a deep sound is usually used to express danger. Other forms of sound are used to show danger depending on location, and the magnitude of the danger. Sound is used to depict suspense, or tension in a given situation. Sound effects are also cues to the viewer. They create that level of excitement that the director seeks to put out there. The sound effects leave the buyer wanting to know what the next thing to happen will be. It builds up emotion. Sound effects can also be used when good news are about to be delivered or at the time of delivery (Barbagallo, 2013). Soundtracks are also a means to building the plot of the film with particular soundtracks being specialized in conveying a message and others in posing questions. Soundtracks are used to show regret like when someone does something wrong that makes their lover hate them. This is very common in romantic fantasy films where the lovers disappoint each other at some point only to get back together and live happily ever after. During these moments of getting back together, soundtracks and music are used to show the relief, happiness, the emotion of love and getting back together and the message of happy ever after. Music in the Romantic fantasy films shows the support of the community for a particular person, or for a particular virtue or practice. This is in cases where the whole community is engaged in the soundtrack to portray violence, love or agricultural activity. The songs depict the spirit of togetherness in doing things thereby achieving goals since combined effort pays. Sound tracks are used to show the culture of the people in whatever they do. Activities such as festivities, and preparation for war are mostly promoted by music and communal singing to motivate the participants. This gives the audience a view of teamwork and a historic representation of the medieval era. Music is used to harness emotion at first sight. When the characters meet for the first time, and that attraction is established, music plays in the background narrating to the audience the beginning of a story of love. The music is slow paced with sweet words or a soundtrack with a slow enticing pace is employed. In situations of anger, soundtracks or music may be used to amplify the emotion in the audience. The whole point of music and soundtracks is to tell the story of the film while also guiding the viewer into understanding the film. Music is used in situations where the man has to save the lady whenever the lady gets into trouble. This music usually shows the tedious process through which the man must go through to be able to save his lover. In conclusion, music is a key factor in a film because without the music and sound, the film would feel like a drama or live performance therefore lacking the needed emotion. Question 7 Walt Disney has had a big impact in the Romantic Fantasy genre. Its influences are now the benchmarks to which a Romantic fantasy film is based. Walt Disney has exaggerated the aspects of love, thus misleading viewers on the true nature of love and what to expect in life. Viewers tend to expect more out of a relationship based on their experience with Disney films. The aspect of gender roles in Disney films positions a woman as a weaker sex, one that should be a care giver, house keeper, obedient, submissive and always in need of help from the man. This can have negative effects on the minds of viewers who might want to implement this on the modern day woman thereby going against the current norm of equal opportunity. Most Romance Disney films show certain similarities with very little differences between them. The story encompasses two forces collide in this films, namely the antagonists and the protagonists. There also exists the aspect of love at first sight and love forever after. A few challenges are placed in the plot of the film but the goal is usually to tell the story of a triumph in love. This aspect of Disney has become a benchmark to which the industry bases the plot of any Romantic film genre. The stereotype Disney plot of Romantic fantasy films has become the accepted way of doing things. The audience experience after watching Disney Romantic fantasy films is usually the same since most of the Disney films focus on emotion causing viewers to experience almost the same thing, every time, but in a different way. These films have influenced the Industry to employ a lot of emotion and stereotypic way of producing such that the Romantic fantasy genre has changed in a manner that every media house tends to aim at besting Disney in the emotion and plot sections of a movie. This has improved the creativity and mindset of most film directors who are in the Romantic genre Disney has taught them how to push the limits. Disney also uses various visual and color metaphors to express the mood of their films, the emotion, social status and other aspects of life. As is evident with the Beauty and the beast, many of metaphors were employed in telling the story making the film a classic, and later winning multiple awards. Imagery and the use of color are key features in attracting an audience and over the years, Disney has been able to combine those to remain a world leader in Romantic Fantasy films. Sound and music are also very relevant in a Film and this has influenced the Romantic fantasy genre following Disney’s dramatic sound tracks, musicals during films that have attracted many viewers and audience (Barbagallo, 2013). Now every production company in this Genre takes soundtracks as very important aspects of a successful film. In conclusion, Disney has had a great impact not only in the industry, but also in the lives of many viewers. The films offer teaching to the viewers, to the kids who take what they see as the basis of life while also entertaining the audience. Disney therefore will remain a key player in this genre. References Tanner, L. R., Haddock, S. A., Zimmerman, T. S., & Lund, L. K. (2003). Images of Couples and Families in Disney Feature-Length Animated Films. The American: Journal of Family Therapy, 31, 355-373. Robinson, T., Callister, M., Magoffin, D., & Moore, J. (2007). The portrayal of older characters in Disney animated films. Journal of Aging Studies, 21, 203-213. Beauty and the beast. Film. Directed by Gary Trousdale. Burbank, CA: Walt Disney Home Video :, 1992. WALL-E. Theater viewing. Directed by Andrew Stanton. Burbank, CA: Walt Disney Home Entertainment, 2008. Barbagallo, Ron. "Animation Art Conservation | DESIGN WITH A PURPOSE." Animation Art Conservation | RON BARBAGALLO. http://animationartconservation.com/?c=art&p=wall_e_design_with_a_purpose (accessed April 11, 2013). Downey, S. D. (1996). Feminine Empowerment in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Women's Studies in Communication, 19, 185-212. Read More