"BEAUTY AND THE BEAST."   Term Paper ID:30487 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Analysis of the Disney animated film of the fairy tale.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Analysis of the Disney animated film of the fairy tale. Additional features and characters added. Images of the film, especiallybeauty, and how they shape viewer response. Criticism of Disney's use of folk tales and history in a false way. Learning attitudes and behaviors from movies and the media. Depictions of gender. Paper Introduction: The Disney company's animated feature film Beauty and the Beast (1992) tells a well-known folk story in a fresh way, developing personalities for the characters that were not apparent in the fairy tale from which the story is taken. The film added other features and characters, including something feasible only in a fairy tale or an animated film, anthropomorphic furnishings that turn out to be enchanted servants left with their changed master. An animated film is built of abstract images, for no matter how much the artist may attempt to render reality, it is always only an image of reality and thus an abstraction. The abstract images of the animated film are developed so as to serve the needs of the story, to convey not only the details of the story as such but also the underlying meaning which constitutes plot. Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Folk tales of this sort suggest primalconcepts about human nature and its relationship to the animal world, whilemuch of this is muted in prettified depictions such as this one offered bythe Disney company. Every story is sacrificed to the "gimmick". His treatment of folklore is without regard for its anthropological, spiritual, or psychological truths. The audience has changed in how itviews the offerings of the Disney company at the same time: To the audiences of the 192 s, Disney was entertainment. The fairy tale emphasizes the intermixture of natural andsupernatural, natural and unnatural, and the film does this as well to acertain extent. Significantly, the first view we have ofBelle is when she leaves her cottage and is surrounded by the flying birdsand bright foliage of nature. To the audiences of the 199 s, Disney is myth. However, ultimately the Beast is good andnot ugly at all, while Gaston is outwardly beautiful and yet ugly throughand through. This is not simply amatter of imitation, for other influences are at work at the same time.All behaviors are regulated by their consequences, and these can come fromthree sources: direct external consequences, vicarious experiencing ofconsequences to others, and self-produced consequences (Pervin 396-399). Belle is beautiful both within and without, while the Beast is uglybecause he has had an ugly soul. It is natural to inquire what lessons are taught (Seldes 26).One might also complain about the beautification of the Beast, for theoriginal story presented a Beast who was much more frightful and animal-like until tamed by the Beauty. Now, all this might seem simply harmless to most people, but thereare critics who find that Disney is pandering to the audience by presentingimages that falsify the intent of the original stories the studio presents,that may perpetuate certain stereotypes and unwanted social attitudes, andthat do little to enrich the life of the audience beyond creating asoothing but false image of the world. With just these few words, an image may have sprung to mind of the glowing castle with myriad spires thrusting phallically toward the heavens and triangulated banners waving over all (Hearne 138). In 1965, Frances Clarke Sayers wrote the followingwith reference to Walt Disney and the way he treated his film material: I call him to account for his debasement of the traditional literature of childhood, in films and in the books he publishes: He shows scant respect for the integrity of the original creations of authors, manipulating and vulgarizing everything for his own ends. In the opening sequence, the image of the castle appearsthrough the trees of the forest. . Personality: Theory and research. of animation. Gaston is a villain, but he is a comic villain most ofthe time, as are his henchmen. Social learning theoryholds that our behavior patterns are learned from observation of others.We learn our behavior from the family, peer behavior, and from theobservation of models in the mass media. Beauty and the Beast. the child observes the behaviorof people in life and characters on television and then models his or herown behavior on that example in order to gain certain advantage or expresscertain feelings associated with such behavior. . In the film version,the seemingly animated household utensils represent this clearly, for theyare not enchanted furnishings at all but people transformed into objects aspart of the punishment of the Prince, a fact that emerges in the course ofthe film and that is not readily apparent at the start. The story of Beauty and the Beast is well-known, and what this filmneeds to do is not convey the story in its bare essentials so much as shapethe way the viewer responds to this particular version of the story. New York: John Wiley, 1993.Seldes, Gilbert. The linking of the castle with nature isimportant, for nature evokes a sense of life, love, wonder, and belonging.For much of the film, the castle will be in a more foreboding atmosphere,for the actions of the young Prince caused him to lose his link with naturedemonstrated by his unnatural appearance and the changed atmosphere in andaround his castle. Critics have noted how the Disney company tends to use folk tales andhistory in a false way. The film added other features andcharacters, including something feasible only in a fairy tale or ananimated film, anthropomorphic furnishings that turn out to be enchantedservants left with their changed master. The first"moving" image comes when the newly-created Beast, in despair, scratcheshis nails through a painting over the mantel. These are images that are readily understoodon first viewing as conveying certain set ideas that emerge from the fairytale, though there can be variations. Many of theimages in the animated film are for comic effect to lessen the tension ofthe central story. Works CitedHearne, Betsy. In Beauty and the Beast, forinstance, the primary variation is on images of beauty and the meaning ofthem. To the audiences of the 196 s, Disney was an icon. The darkness of the story is also muted. Manyof the images constitute what might be called aspects of the iconography ofthe fairy tale--the castle, the simple village, the creature, theenchantress who casts a spell, the beauty who can take the spell away, theenchanted mirror, and so on. Buena Vista, 1992. The New Mass Media: Challenge to a Free Society. The Beast is a tragic figure, and Belle isthe sensible and "normal" figure who in part stands in for the viewer andresponds to the comedy and tragedy taking place all around her. More than most fairy tales, the story of "Beauty and theBeast" is a story where appearances are deceiving. Some concerns are raised about the depictions of gender in works likethis, and there have been complaints about Beauty and the Beast as to thetreatment of the female character in a way that some see as regressive andas teaching children to view women as objects whose value is based on theirattractiveness. . The story of the change is told in a series of stilldrawings, not unlike the stained-glass windows of cathedrals. The slowawakening of the castle because Belle is present is evoked in changingimages of the surrounding countryside, in a developing brightness toreplace the gloom, and ultimately in the transformation of the Beast backinto the Prince and the Castle and the countryside back into a beautifulhome. Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1968.Walt Disney Pictures. Not content with the films, he fixes these mutilated versions in books which are cut to a fraction of their original forms, illustrates them with garish pictures, in which every prince looks like a badly drawn portrait of Cary Grant, every princess a sex symbol (Hearne 137). The character's name is, after all, Beauty, and this isher primary characteristic. The sense of what he haslost is embodied in the rose that is kept in a glass case, and that brightrose in the darkened house is the image of nature, of what was once part ofthe castle and part of the Prince's world but that is now kept at adistance or enclosed in glass. . A variety of theories have been offered to explain how we learncertain attitudes and behaviors, and they shed some light on the effectthat demeaning portrayals of women in the media may have on futuregenerations, as well as on contemporary society. "Disney Revisited, or, Jiminy Cricket, It's Musty Down Here." The Horn Book Magazine (March 13, 1997), 137-146.Pervin, L.A. An animated film is built ofabstract images, for no matter how much the artist may attempt to renderreality, it is always only an image of reality and thus an abstraction.The abstract images of the animated film are developed so as to serve theneeds of the story, to convey not only the details of the story as such butalso the underlying meaning which constitutes plot. Does this teach children a lesson society maynot want perpetuated? In the absence of a permanent electrical blackout, the Disney Olympus is centrally mapped as a pinnacle in the kingdom of childhood. Gilbert Seldes writes: Enough evidence exists to indicate that a part of the audience learns how to live from the movies and television. The Disney company's animated feature film Beauty and the Beast(1992) tells a well-known folk story in a fresh way, developingpersonalities for the characters that were not apparent in the fairy talefrom which the story is taken. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.