Disney History Lesson: The Princess and the Frog

Are you reeeeeaaaadyyy for The Princess and the Frog?

The Princess and the Frog was released on December 11th 2009. The story is based off of Der Froschkonig oder der eiserne Heinrich (The Frog Prince/Iron Heinrich in German) written by The Brothers Grimm in 1812 as Tale 1 in their book, Grimms' Fairy Tales.

The movie takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana in the 1920's while the original story take place in Germany during the 1500's.

The Princess and the Frog was the last Disney movie (thus far) to be traditionally animated (hand drawn).

Tiana is voiced by Anika Noni Rose except during her childhood where she is voiced by Elizabeth M. Dampier. She is portrayed as being 19 years old in the movie. She is the first "modern" Disney Princess. This is due to the fact that she has a job, is working toward a career goal, maintains interracial friendships, encounters automobiles, is raised in a still-existing city, is surrounded by jazz music which is still a popular form of music today, and owns more than one outfit (11 in total).

Prince Naveen is voiced by Bruno Campos and is portrayed as being approximately 20 years old. Naveen is the prince of a fictional land called Maldonia. Disney purposely created the unknown country to make Naveen racially ambiguous and therefore show how a person's race isn't an important part of life.

Maldonia was based off of the real-life countries of Maldives and Macedonia, Greece. In the movie the country was said to have the official language of Maldaquesh which Disney derived from the Italian language. Naveen also mentions that in Maldonia there are two numbers between 28 and 29 called twenty-badini and twenty-cazini. Naveen's name means "new" in Indian. And if you look closely at the newspaper at the beginning of the movie when "Down in New Orleans" is being sung you can see that it says "Maldonia cannot be found on the map".

The Princess and the Frog explains the existence of the second star to the right which ties it to Peter Pan (but you'll have to watch the movie yourself  to find out why :D ).

For a full list of cast members click here
For more movie fun facts click here

That's all for now! I hope you're reeeeaaaadyyy for the next Disney treasure we'll uncover!

Disney History Lesson: Frozen

Winter is fast approaching. December 21st is just about a week away. In honor of that I decided to uncover the mysteries of the the most successful movie ever...the Oscar winning Frozen!

Frozen was based off of Snedronningen (The Snow Queen in Danish) written by Hans Christian Anderson on the first day of winter (December 21st) in 1844. The original story is very very VERY different from the movie adaptation. So much so that it's not really based off of the fairy tale but off of a faint whisper of an idea from it. I am not exaggerating when I say that it is an incredibly far cry from the initial written story.

The Snow Queen was one of Hans Christian Anderson's longest and most popular stories. It is frequently incorporated in his "best works" collections and has been redone in the form of an illustrated children's book numerous times. The story was split into seven parts and was about the struggle between good and evil whereas the modern day rendition is centered around the importance of love- not just romantic love but the love that is shared between family members. If you want to compare Frozen to the original story then you can get a copy of The Snow Queen from Barnes and Nobles or the public library or click here for the digital copy. There have also been several animated movies and live action films that are more accurately based off of The Snow Queen such as; the Universal Studios English dubbed version of Snezhnaya Koroleva made in 1957 as an animation and 1966 as a live action film in Russia, The Snow Queen animated feature made in England in 1995, Snow Queen made in 2002 by Hallmark as an American television movie production. There was also a Japanese anime series adaptation made in 2005, a Finnish adaptation named Lumikuningatar in 1986, and even an episode in the anime series Sailor Moon that was dedicated to the story. The list goes on and on.

Walt Disney initially wanted to make an animated movie adaptation of The Snow Queen in 1937 but due to countless complications the film's concept was put aside for later. Over the next 70 years the production of The Snow Queen was heavily disputed in Walt Disney Studios before it was finally put to work in 2011. There the story was renamed Frozen and the plot began to take a significant shift from the fairy tale. The movie was released on November 27th 2013 and became an immediate success. Frozen made an approximate total of $1.274 billion and no other movie has EVER made that much money. It also won an Oscar for best animated feature and best original song for "Let It Go". It has also won a total of 56 awards from numerous associations and 87 nominations. Frozen's soundtrack album was also on top of the billboard chart for weeks which also makes it the most successful movie soundtrack ever.

For a more in depth explanation of the history and success of Frozen check out the video below-

Frozen is indisputably the most successful movie of all time and its Snow Queen origins are a timeless classic that have and will be admired for generations. I personally love Frozen and if anyone has yet to see it then they need to see it like now...no really I mean RIGHT NOW.

Well that's all for this history lesson! If you run out of things to do during your holiday break or you're just looking for an amazing movie to watch then I can not over emphasize how much you should watch Frozen. Have a wonderful winter!

If you're interested- Click here for a full list of cast members

Disney History Lesson: Pocahontas

Welcome back one and all to the Wonderful World of Disney! Since we're getting close to Thanksgiving and one of the popular aspects of Thanksgiving is the peace that was established between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans I thought it'd be cool if I did this Disney History Lesson on Pocahontas. Let's have a look-see shall we?

Unlike the other Disney Princesses, Pocahontas was an actual person not a character in a story. The real Pocahontas was born in 1595 in Werowocomoco, Virginia but she was originally named Matoaka and then called Amonute before finally going by Pocahontas. It was customary for Virginian Native Americans to go by several different first names through the course of their life as different names had different meanings and would be used in certain contexts. Perhaps the most amazing part of Pocahontas' real story is this...she never viewed John Smith as a potential love interest.

Captain John Smith was an Englishman who was taken captive by Powhatan in 1607. Powhatan was the father of Pocahontas and the paramount chief of the Virginian tide-water region tribal nations known as Tsenacommach. The story goes to say that on the day of John Smith's execution Pocahontas rushed in and put herself in between him and her father's war ax and thus saved him from getting killed. The act of bravery she displayed bought her some respect from the British settlers for some time. John Smith was 27 year old at the time and Pocahontas was 12. Historical records claim that there was no romance what so ever between the two of them and if anything she viewed him more as a father-figure. John Smith left a few years later and Pocahontas was told that he died even though he was living in England.

In 1613 tensions rose between the Native Americans and the British settlers and Pocahontas was one of the many Natives taken captive by the British. Pocahontas was held prisoner for a year in Jamestown-she was 17 years old. During her imprisonment a tobacco magnate named John Rolfe made a deal with Pocahontas and her father Powhatan -John Rolfe was 28 years old. He said that he would have her released from the British and that he would expand Native American influence if Pocahontas would agree to marry him and convert to Christianity. John Rolfe's diary reveals that he was actually quite in love with Pocahontas but there is no documentation to claim what she felt about him.

Pocahontas married John Rolfe and converted to Christianity under the name Rebecca Rolfe in 1614. Their marriage is said to be the first documented interracial marriage in North America. They had a son named Thomas Rolfe in 1615. In 1616 John took Pocahontas and Thomas to England. They attended a masque at Whitehall Palace where John used Pocahontas as an example of a "civilized savage" to expand Native American influence as he had promised Pocahontas and her father Powhatan and to promote the Jamestown settlement. There Pocahontas found out that John Smith was in fact not dead. In 1617 Pocahontas died at the age of 21 from unknown causes right before she, John Rolfe, and her son Thomas were due to sail back to Virginia. She was buried at a church in Gravesend, England.  

The animated film Pocahontas was released on June 14th 1995 which was approximately around the same time as the real Pocahontas' 400th birthday. The movie was the 33rd in Walt Disney's Animated Classics Series and the first to be based on real-life historical accounts. Pocahontas was voiced by Irene Bedard for talking and Judy Kuhn for singing and was portrayed as being 18 years old. John Smith was voiced by Mel Gibson and was portrayed as being 21 years old.

To see the full list of cast members from Pocahontas click here

To read more into the sources I used for the historical accounts and the plot differences between the real story and the movie click here or here or maybe here and even right here if you like oh and here's one more....


That's all for this Disney History Lesson! Have a Happy Thanksgiving and stay marvelously magical!

Disney History Lesson: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Welcome back my fellow Disney fan girls and fan guys! Today's Disney history lesson will be on the world renowned Disney classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs! Let's take a closer a look at this beautiful story in the wonderful world of Disney.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs first premiered in Hollywood on December 21st 1937 but was not available in theaters until February 4th 1938. It was the first full length animated feature film ever made and the first movie to have released a soundtrack album.  Walt Disney claimed that he came up with the idea of creating an animated version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs when he watched a silent film version of the tale as a 15 year old in his hometown, Kansas City.

There was much contradiction about the making of this movie because it was being created during the Great Depression and many of Walt Disney's coworkers, friends, family members, and even his wife tried to dissuade him from continuing the production. They believed that people were struggling and were more focused on improving their lives than they were about sitting in the movies and watching a cartoon fantasy about dwarfs. The Hollywood Film Industry even went as far as calling Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs "Walt Disney's Folly" because of how much they believed it would be a failure. But they were proven wrong.

Walt Disney put his life and career on the line when he invested $1.5 million dollars into the production of the movie but it was all worth it because the movie made a grand total of $8 million dollars. The profit of the movie helped Walt Disney build Disney Studios in Burbank, California. No other film had made that much money up until that point.

Snow White was voiced by Adriana Caselotti and was portrayed as being a 14 year old which makes her the youngest of all the Disney Princesses. Walt Disney wanted to keep the voice of Snow White special so he had Adriana Caselotti sign a very strict contract saying that she would never be allowed to perform on stage, radio, or film again in order to preserve her voice only for Snow White's character even though she was a classically trained singer. She only "appeared" once more in the entertainment industry when she had an unaccredited speaking part in The Wizard of Oz (1939). In the scene where the Tin Man sings "If I Only Had a Heart" she is the voice in the background that says "Wherefore art thou Romeo?".

The Prince was voiced by Harry Stockwell. He is believed to be portrayed as an 18 year old but this is a commonly disputed fact as none of the Disney Prince's have official ages. When the movie was first released the prince was unnamed and was just referred to as The Prince but once the Disney Princess Franchise was established in January of the year 2000 he was given the name Prince Florian.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was originally a German fairy tale known throughout Europe by word of mouth. It was officially published by The Brothers Grimm (Wilhem and Jacob Grimm) in 1812. The story was named Sneewittchen (meaning Snow White in German)  and was Tale 53 in the book Grimms' Fairy Tales. The original story is known to be somewhat more gruesome. Click here to read about the the plot differences in the movie and in the original story.

The movie is said to take place in the fictional land of Far Far Away where time doesn't exist but the original story takes place in Germany during the 1500's.

Click Here if you want to read the original Snow White published by The Brothers Grimm
Click Here if you want to view a full list of cast members from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

If you have not seen this film yet I highly recommend that you do especially because it was voted #1 on the American Film Institutes List of the top 10 greatest films in the genre "animation" in June of the year 2008.

Well that's all for this Disney History Lesson! Join me next time as we uncover the historic wonders of Disney.


Sources (various facts and pictures)-
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/disney-releases-snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070604024613/disney/images/1/17/Adriana_caselotti.jpg

http://optimisman.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/disney-walt.jpg

http://www.buzzfeed.com/briangalindo/20-fascinating-facts-about-snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029583/trivia

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110910182212/disney/images/c/cd/Harry_Stockwell.jpg

http://news.moviefone.com/2013/02/07/snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs-trivia/

http://listverse.com/2009/01/06/9-gruesome-fairy-tale-origins/

http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/files/images/HD_WilhelmGrimm.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9a/JacobGrimm.jpg

https://fanart.tv/api/download.php?type=download&image=69074&section=3

http://img.deseretnews.com/images/article/midres/1281948/1281948.jpg

Disney History Lesson: The Little Mermaid

Welcome Disney enthusiasts! If you're like me and you are absolutely in love with cartoons then this is the place for you! Even if you aren't that into animation this is still a great opportunity to expand your knowledge about Disney and one of its all time greatest movies...The Little Mermaid! Let's get started!

The Little Mermaid was released on November 17, 1989 and became an immediate box office success. The film made $211,343,479 and is considered to be the start of the "Disney Renaissance and Golden Age". This is because it revived Disney's popularity in the movie industry and presented characters that had a lot of personality whereas before characters were somewhat dull and one dimensional (i.e.- Snow White).

Ariel was voiced by Jodi Benson and was portrayed as being a 16 year old. Ariel's physical features and personality was mostly modeled after Alyssa Milano who played Samantha Micelli on the ABC series "Who's The Boss?" (1984-1992). It is also believed that Sherri Lynn Stoner, who was an actress and a writer, inspired some of Ariel's physical attributes as well. The movement of Ariel's hair was modeled after footage of Sally Kristen Ride in space. Sally Kristen Ride was astronaut and physicist who worked for NASA at the time.

Eric was voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes and was portrayed as being an 18 year old. Eric's physical features and personality were modeled after Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise (1977-1984), and Mel Gibson. It is rumored that he was named in honor of Eric Larson who was one of Disney's leading animators during this time period but died a year before The Little Mermaid was released. It is also rumored that Eric was named after Edvard Eriksen who created a sculpture of Ariel in Copenhagen, Denmark. Eric is the only Disney Prince who doesn't sing.

The movies plot was adapted from the story Den Lille Havfrue (meaning "the little mermaid" in Danish) which was written by Hans Christian Anderson in 1837. The book and the movie have many similar points but have incredibly different endings. Click here to find out more about the differing story lines.

Since Hans Christian Anderson was Danish it is believed that the story was set in the Baltic Sea (while Ariel was a mermaid) and Denmark between 1650-1700. But the animated film is believed to be set in the Caribbean Sea (while Ariel was a mermaid) and Puerto Rico between 1890-1900.

If you haven't watched The Little Mermaid yet then make sure to check it out on Netflix. If you don't have Netflix then the next showing of The Little Mermaid on TV will be on ABC Family on Tuesday, December 9th at 6pm.

If you want to read the original Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson then click here.
If you want a to read the full list of cast members in The Little Mermaid click here

That's all for today's Disney History Lesson! Keep a lookout for the next one!


Sources (various facts and pictures)-
http://animatedfilmreviews.filminspector.com/p/the-golden-age-snow-white-pinochio.html

http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/the-little-mermaid/articles/17208/title/creating-ariel-stuff-dont-tell

http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/leading-men-of-disney/articles/33844/title/men-behind-disney-princes

http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Prince_Eric

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/12/the-real-story-behind-eve_n_4239730.html

http://d-princesses.livejournal.com/1104677.html

http://hca.gilead.org.il/li_merma.html

http://abcfamily.go.com/

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTM5NTAzMzIzN15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwODA0MzcxOA@@._V1_SY317_CR8,0,214,317_AL_.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Jodi_Benson_crop.jpg

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097757/fullcredits/

http://disney.go.com/vault/legends/images/LEGENDS_ELarson.jpg

http://s3.e-monsite.com/2011/01/19/01/resize_550_550//mel-gibson2799.jpg

http://images2.fanpop.com/images/soapbox/leading-men-of-disney_33844_7_med.jpg?cache=1257410511

http://astoldbylaura.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/photo1.jpg

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ll0m5payU21qg6ybr.jpg

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/_pinkpornstar_/1198725/9558/9558_original.jpg

http://www.aarhus.dk/da/politik/Byraadet/Byens-raad-dengang/Byraadsdatabase/Byraadsmedlemmer/E/~/media/Fotos-og-film/Borgmesterens-Afdeling/Byraadsservice/Byraadsdatabase/1867-1969/Holger-Eriksen.jpg

http://robburke.net/norway99/pages/copenhagen/DSC00086.JPG

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Constantin_Hansen_1836_-_HC_Andersen.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/75/Movie_poster_the_little_mermaid.jpg

Reponse to CP#1

I just read the article "Exposing Hidden Bias at Google" by Farhad Manjoo and I have to say it was incredibly eye-opening. This article was written on September 24th, 2014 which is literally just five days ago. FIVE DAYS AGO. Why are men still discriminating against women? Why aren't all humans totally equal yet? We should not be having these kinds of issues at this day and age. We should not have had these issues to begin with!

Before reading this, I didn't know there was so much bias against women in the tech industry. I just always believed men and women were equal and that the idea that women are second to men was ancient history but that's clearly not the case.

I'm surprised to hear that Google and Apple in particular don't have much female representation.I wouldn't expect Google and Apple, who are basically the faces of technological advancement, to have such a "medieval" mind set.

Although I believe that the bias tech companies had (and still kind of have) against women is unfair, I do understand what they mean when they say that biases are "...pervasive and hidden, a deep-set part of the culture ...". Women have been treated as weak and mindless beings since the beginning of time so I guess that, in a way, it does make sense for men to have this subconscious discriminatory attitude towards females but I don't understand why bigotry ever needed to exist in the first place. Discriminating against a particular race or gender or ANYTHING seems pretty useless and why anyone would put someone else down just because of what they are is beyond me.

I'm glad Google is taking these steps to put an end to a prejudice that should never have come to be  but I don't think this subconscious bias will be completely eliminated...not right away anyway. "Everyone is a little bit racist or sexist....people do the worst stuff without meaning to, or even recognizing that they're being influenced by their preferences." and that's the sad truth. There's always going to be people who think their opinions are facts and the only way to change that is to educate them which is going to take an obviously huge amount of time.

"Suddenly you go from being completely oblivious to going, 'Oh my god, it's everywhere," which is mostly how my generation is. We, for the most part, realize the discrimination that exists in the world and are aware of how wrong it is. The first step to solving a problem is realizing there is one which is what Google, and many other organizations are doing, but there are still many steps remaining until we reach a solution and many generations to go to achieve this goal.