By: Brittany Thorburn
Peer-reviewed by: Meegan Hall, Sabrina Winkler
For years, Disney princess movies have made a lasting legacy and popularity throughout young women and children. These movies began with the common theme of finding a “Prince Charming,” and painting a story of frivolous ball gowns and slippers to depicting the power of a young girl and how she differs from a male.
This changing of the theme now brings me to compare from a distant reading the difference between two “princess” Disney movies. Below I dive into a comparison of the classic “Cinderella,” and the new modern “Moana.”
This word cloud above is from the 1950 Cinderella movie script. As you can see, some of the most prominent words are “Slipper,” “Dream,” “Prince,” “Majesty,” and “Sire.” These words all relate to material objects, like a slipper, or a prince-charming, ex. Sire or Majesty.
There are also words such as “Can’t,” “Wait,” “Oh” which symbolize a little bit of weakness within the main characters, who happen to be female. These words show that, even without full watching the movie or reading a book, you can understand that this isn’t a movie about the power of a woman. It’s actually quite the opposite. But in 1950, this wouldn’t be a surprise.
In today’s society, young girls need to be empowered and know that their main goal in life isn’t just to find a “prince-charming,” and Moana does the job of setting an example perfectly. In the word cloud above, from Moana 2016 movie script, you can see the use of the words, “Chief,” “Heart,” Welcome,” “Moana.” These are empowering words that have nothing to do with a “prince-charming” or frivolous material items, like a slipper.
These movements and change in the way we tell princess stories are going to have a lasting impact on generations of young girls and women to come.
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