Damsels and dungeons monster girls8/8/2023 ![]() But here’s a note to the animators: Please don’t put a pink bow on her head. But I think the point of gender equality in the animated film world has been made.Īnd if an upcoming film features, say, a girl kangaroo who dreams of becoming the most famous boxer in Australia, so much the better. ![]() I suppose it would be lovely if the next animal- or machine-star in a Pixar film had a female identity. I doubt there were many who watched Colette in “Ratatouille” and thought her attitude of authority in her workplace was anything but normal. It’s simply a reflection of what little girls know about themselves now. And, yes, Ariel, “The Little Mermaid,” is a pretty limp fish when it comes to forging her own destiny.īut, come on, most of the fairy-tale gals have grown a brain and a spine in the last couple of decades. ![]() She mentions the lionesses in “Lion King” who have to wait around to be rescued from the clutches of the evil Scar. It’s true, as Magowan wrote in her op-ed piece, that there have been some sexist missteps even in the more recent films. If it weren’t for her buckskin mini-dress and desire to talk about their relationship, she would’ve seemed more macho than Capt. That was followed by “Pocahontas,” featuring a heroine who not only saved the hero’s life but taught him a thing or two about the glories of nature and womankind. She wasn’t a dumb princess, and she certainly wasn’t a doormat. Then she sets off to rescue her husband.ĭisney snapped out of it 16 years ago when the heroine of “Beauty and the Beast,” Belle, was depicted as a voracious reader who not-so-politely disdains the boorish attentions of her provincial suitor, Gaston. In one scene she metamorphoses into a motorboat to take her kids to safety. Then there is Helen Parr, the super-heroine wife in Pixar’s “The Incredibles.” Helen’s maiden name is Elastigirl, and she is a woman of many talents. There is nothing about Colette to suggest that if she were trapped in a castle dungeon she’d just lie around waiting to be rescued by some guy in a crown. He is clearly impressed by her savoir faire. First and foremost, he is a rodent.Īnd though chef Colette isn’t the star of the film, she is the one appointed to teach the human hero, Linguini, what to do in the kitchen. But when your lead character is a car or a monster or, in the case of “Ratatouille,” a rat, isn’t there almost a unisex philosophy at play? I don’t think of “Ratatouille’s” hero, Remy, as male or female so much as a simple, lowly creature. The girls, she said, are relegated to second-banana status. She blasted children’s films for having mostly boys as stars. Recently, the Mercury News published an op-ed article by Margot Magowan, co-founder of the Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership, an organization for young women. The tales of victim-princesses who await the arrival of their prince and savior on a white horse have, mercifully, been updated.įrom the hip ogre-princess of “Shrek” to Disney’s girl-warrior “Mulan” to the no-nonsense French chef Colette in Pixar’s latest, “Ratatouille,” there are plenty of fairy-tale girls who have emerged as chicks in charge.īut some feminist filmgoers disagree. ![]() Part of the reason I’m still interested is that they’ve managed to grow up with the times. Even though I don’t have children, I must confess a weakness for great animated kids’ films.
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