The Problem of Unproblematic Stories

Sorry for the slightly late post. I just got back from seeing Infinity War.

*screams*

Ahem...anyway, the blog post.

This is something I've been thinking about for a long time.

Now, I love Disney. I have my whole life. And, soon I'll be visiting Disneyland with my siblings and I'm about as excited as an eight-year-old about it.

But I was talking with my sister yesterday about some of Disney's most recent blockbusters, and about their older movies (the Renaissance ones), and we discussed how those older ones could not be made today.

Think about it. Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and certainly The Hunchback of Notre Dame...all movies with plots or elements that would face enormous scrutiny and backlash today. Race relations and religion, gender roles and unfeminist messages. Un-PC terms and ideas.

I honestly think Disney could not have released these, brand new, today. I think the reason for this is that they're all a bit problematic, and big companies can't afford to be problematic.

Okay, before we move forward, I just want to say that I'm not advocating writing and producing stories that offend major audiences, or even minor ones. There are things that should be left out of movies and stories because they are offensive, and they do make people angry, and it's bad writing to include them because they can easily be corrected by compassion for one's subject as well as proper research and understanding. Look at Coco; Pixar did a good job with that one.

But I think that, sometimes, in the desire to stop this kind of problematic content, a writer can throw out all complicated, heavy, and problematic themes and plots as well as the offensive material. This makes the final product, well, weak.


I throw a lot of shade at Frozen, and here's some more. It was a good movie, but honestly, I think the heaps of praise it receives are a bit much for what it is. I know Frozen has a huge following and lots of people love it, and yes, the music is good. But when I look at the story and themes, I'm not wowed. I don't feel the awe I felt in The Lion King when Mufasa tells Simba to, "Remember who you are." I don't ache for the characters. Sure, I feel for them, but I don't feel for them. Everything is...a little washed out.

Frozen had a binary theme: love=good, fear=bad. No one is going to dispute this. No one is going to feel for the villain or question what to do in this situation. It's obvious; Elsa needs to let love conquer fear. Because of this weak theme, we had a paper doll villain who needs to be a psychopath in order to actually work as a believable villain (which is lazy writing).

Now, let's compare this to another Disney movie, one that I think they allowed to be a bit troubling. Big Hero 6.

In Big Hero 6, there is no easy binary. Hiro has a legitimate reason to grieve, as does Dr. Callahan. The film deals with ideas of depression, obsession, revenge, and justice, and it doesn't make it easy for the viewer. Hiro lost a loved one, but so did Dr. Callahan. Does that make Callahan's actions just? Is Hiro justified in doing the same? What is justice, and how can healing happen? We see Hiro come just shy of becoming villainous himself.

The movie does comment on the rightness or wrongness of their actions, and Callahan is the villain, but he's a believable, even relatable one. It's not neat or clear, and there is no easy fix, no wave of the hand that can return what has been lost. There are consequences that don't go away, and that makes me care a bit more. It also leaves me thinking about the themes for myself.

Let's look at another movie comparison. Moana had a protagonist who didn't actually grow all that much, or discover all that much about herself, through the whole movie. The movie presents a choice: Moana must choose between her love of her people and her love of the ocean. But it's a hollow choice. The two are not mutually exclusive, not inherently. I never felt like this was a real choice. No choice, no consequences. No problems to solve. So, I think, that's why Moana doesn't seem to grow. She's never challenged to determine for herself who she is at the expense of anything.

Now, there's Tarzan. Tarzan grows up among the apes, feeling like an outcast. Then humans come to the jungle and he realizes that there are creatures like him. Soon, he has to face a choice: to stay in Africa or go to England and be with other humans.

These choices are mutually exclusive. Tarzan cannot do both. In the end, he has to choose one or the other, and the other door closes, so to speak. Yes, the girl he loves stays with him. In the jungle. It's a good ending, but a choice is made, and there are consequences for choosing it. We see a moment where Tarzan decides who he is and where he belongs.

Now, I know the point of Moana is that she can have both. But there was never any problem with it, not really. No conflict in the viewer's mind. Moana starts as someone who loves her people but will go to the sea against her father's wishes, and in the end, she still chooses the sea and her people. There's never really a moment where she has to consider giving up one or the other, or where she's really stopped from having one.

Not like in Wreck-It Ralph where Ralph wrecks Vanellope's car. Dang, that's always hard to watch.

This is getting long-winded, so I'll wrap it up. I'm afraid that Disney, scared of offending anyone, has also stopped allowing problematic themes in their musicals. Other films, like Big Hero 6, aren't as scrutinized and so get away with more. But the musicals seem to have stopped trying to explore complicated themes.

So, here are some suggestions I have for Disney, on how to do this again:

- No easy binaries. If 99% (if not 100%) of the audience can point to love as better than fear, then why not replace the binary with personal comfort versus responsibility, like in The Lion King? Even if audiences know which one Simba should choose, they at least can see why he might want to choose the other.

- Consequences. If one choice is made, the other has been lost. Winning the day requires a sacrifice, even if it's small.

- Start treating the female-lead, musical movies like the male-lead, non-musical movies. Wreck-It Ralph and Big Hero 6 have a lot more compelling plots and characters than the female-lead movies, which all seem to have the same plot and characters.

- Don't be afraid. Do your research, and be kind to the cultures you're depicting. But part of humanity is dealing with difficult ideas and making hard choices, and that should be present in your movies. Now, more than ever.