In several of the pivotal scenes of Strange world, just arrived on disney+, the family is the center of action. The Clade, a clan with a long history of adventures, must save the city of Avalonia from its destruction. But before that happens, they need to find a common ground where they can understand each other.
On this occasion, in the story there is no great romance in doors – although much brotherly love -, neither a predestined luck. And much less a princess in danger or about to succumb to misfortune. In fact, in the most recent Disney film there is a long journey towards the importance of forgiving, growing and maturing as a family.
This is a relevant change in the most recent Disney movie, Strange world. Since Charmand his story about reconciliation and inheritance, until Raya and the last dragon, which goes through recognition and identity. The great Disney themes have grown and matured.
They have also become much more elaborate, sensitive and focused on a common idea. The need to look at family ties in all their importance. A twist that has a broad purpose: tell stories in which love is more than just a romantic idea.
The evolution of Disney: from hapless princesses to worried families
Strange world is now available on Disney+
The evolution of Disney’s point of view on its stories has been slow, but steady. Over the past twenty years, princesses have gone from being cardboard stereotypes to major female symbols of pop culture.
The transformation brought a change in tone and in the way the studio explores its big ideas. But, at the same time, in new scenarios to debate and delve into topics of considerable collective interest.
From Merida to Elsa in search of identity
Maybe for that reason, the movie Frozen, by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck, released in 2013, was paradigmatic. The production became symbolic of the new way the studio understood its characters.
Elsa of Arendelle, queen in her own right and traumatized by an inexplicable power, freed herself from romantic and traditional interest to sustain her context. The result was an unprecedented success for Disney that opened the doors to experimentation in how she analyzed her classic princesses.
Curiously, a year earlier, Mérida in brave, by Brenda Chapman and Mark Andrews, tried without much success. The story of the rebellious princess, who only wanted to be free in the midst of dynastic impositions, did not meet expectations. Despite the fact that it caused a stir and aroused the curiosity of the public. However, it did not become the box office and critical success that the Pixar / Disney duo expected.
But Frozen became an event and also a a message to the industry: the power of heroines. Until then, it was unthinkable that one of the classic princesses could sustain a story without a love interest in the middle. Above all, without coinciding with the usual canon in how the study usually shows its fundamental stories.
Frozen It was an inspiration that brought together the idea of women who “dream big”. A concept that, on the other hand, Disney had timidly begun to exploit in previous productions.
The character who came to change everything
But it was Elsa, and to a lesser extent her sister Anna, who gave a face to a new vanguard of character power in the studio. In the second part of it, Frozen it didn’t just elaborate a deeper insight into Elsa’s ability to discover herself. Also about the perception of her secret power that makes her a singular heroine of inexplicable powers.
The queen of Arendelle is, perhaps, the first Disney princess close to the notion of the hero, as it is currently conceived. After embracing her power to the full extent of it, the monarch of a small kingdom began a quest for individuality. One that also did not include romantic love as the center or the reason for all actions, but rather Elsa’s spiritual evolution. At the same time, her ties to the past and to her family.
At Disney, women tell their own stories
Finally, it was Moana (Moana) in Latin America) the Disney princess who would take the first step in the narration about women who live their own story. Without the addition of a loving, tangential or even circumstantial element, as is the case with Elsa and Anna.
Vaiana/Moana is a princess in search of her own triumphs. One that also has an original purpose that relates her to an extraordinary feminine divinity and a narrative that will take her through a long and exciting emotional journey. The princess of a kingdom of infinite beauty in the islands of the South Pacific is also a hero in her own right on a fabulous journey.
One that takes her from the most elaborate points of local mythology to a denouement that celebrates individual spirit and the power of the journey to discover her own path. Vaiana/Moana, in the same way as Mérida and Elsa, are reflections of a forceful and profound change in Disney’s way of telling stories.
A solid and mature plot to the rhythm of Carlos Vives
With Mirabel, of Charmsomething similar happens. The only non-powered member of an extraordinary family is searching for her identity. But, at the same time, of the notion of love, forgiveness and solidarity. A subject completely removed from the usual searches and concerns of Disney.
In fact, the film defies all expectations about its plot. This moving story It is a journey through adult and deep paths about pain, uprooting and belonging. All to the rhythm of the voice of Carlos Vives and the lyrics of an inspired Lin — Manuel Miranda.
But beyond the novelty of including Latin American magical realism in its stories, Disney carefully ventures into unknown territory. The story, which explores private secrets, addresses very childish questions about individuality and rootlessness.
In fact, it ends in a fancy tour through the membership. A good part of his solid script bases its effectiveness on his ability to narrate introspective moments. Charm he meditates, with a surprising sense of maturity, on topics that Disney movies usually prefer to ignore.
Disney manages to win the bet
From rootedness, exclusion and intimate pain, to the way we analyze what unites us with those we love. Charm pay attention to the inner worlds of your characters. She does it through the metaphor of a magical and radiant house that, in itself, is another face of the great Madrigal family. The “little house”, in the middle of the exuberant jungle, is an extraordinary place that contains several at the same time. It is the center of the drives and desires of those who inhabit it and the people that surround it.
Enchantment is magical realism — even with its corresponding yellow butterflies — and, at the same time, shows a rebellion with the Disney formula. After an opening section that is deceptively familiar, the film moves towards its most unique recesses. The members of the Madrigal family ask each other questions about their life, their powers and, in the end, the expression of the self.
It is then that the argument finds time to question the purposes that are imposed and accepted. Likewise, those who are carried on their backs and, in the end, crushed turned into pain. Charm reaches its most interesting point in a mixture of moving and accurate reflection on the spiritual. A lucky combination that runs through to his last and tremendous scene.
A new narrative for the study
but it is Raya and the last dragon, by Carlos López Estrada and Don Hall, completely breaks the notion of the helpless princess that Disney had managed up to now. She does it in a narrative that combines mythology with a brilliant story about self-improvement, confidence, and personal power.
Disney seems to have made the decision to give the character something beyond a fabulous environment in which he can discover (and make use of) all his power. In addition, it has been allowed to build a journey towards plenitude in which creates a new perspective on the studio’s animated universe. Raya and the last Dragon is a balanced and inventive combination of traditional goal-seeking with a story of growth and learning. Something that takes his character through unprecedented places in the company’s narrative.
As if it were a celebration of its predecessors, Raya is also a tribute to the search for an individual space. A reconstruction of the feminine ideology and, in the end, a celebration of the power of the individual. As a whole, the film moves firmly towards the recognition of individual quality and does so with a finesse that surprises and is appreciated.
This is certainly a calculated risk. Disney left behind the pretense of goodness and the absolute of intentions to build a fallible character in search of his own redemption. He did it, moreover, from a careful mixture of conditions and hopes about the transit of good and evil as something significant in the individual.
The turning point that will change the future of Disney
In Strange world, the common good is everything. Either that of the inhabitants of the fictional Avalonia or that of the very common problems among the Clade family. This Dianey film carefully and painstakingly explores the idea of rebuilding the fundamental bonds that unite parents, children and siblings.
The route, which at times is almost painful due to its realism, is as sincere as it is frontal. In Strange world, the importance of domestic life, of its small pains and great discoveries, is crucial. So much so that the entire plot weight of the script is focused on how the Clade rediscover the power of supporting each other.
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A total change in the way Disney sees the world of his great stories and that, without a doubt, leaves a valuable legacy. So much so, perhaps, to change the history of the studio forever.