Disney History Lesson: Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, and the Never Fairies

Why is Peter Pan always in the air? Because he NEVER LANDS!!

The story of Peter Pan first appears in the adult novel The Little White Bird by J.M Barrie in 1902. In 1911 it was made into a play called Peter Pan or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. Walt Disney actually played the role of Peter Pan in a school play during his childhood. In 1911 it was finally decided to be made into a novella called Peter and Wendy. The name Wendy was never used before the creation of the story of Peter Pan. There are no records of the name Wendy prior to the publication of that story.

Peter Pan was made into an animated film in 1953. Tinker Bell made her first appearance in this film though she did not talk. In 2005 Tinker Bell was given her own franchise called the Disney Fairies. This started with a book collection which began with the publication of the book In the Realm of the Never Fairies and continued with Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg, Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand, and the Fairies and the Quest for Never Land. Afterwards another series called Tales of Pixie Hollow was created which consisted of 28 books. Then in 2008 Tinker Bell had her own movie in which she spoke for the first time. Some of the characters that were in her books were incorporated into the movie and many were altered.

 Over the next few years, new fairies were introduced in each new Disney Fairy movie including Tinker Bell's long lost sister Periwinkle. There are now a total of 6 Tinker Bell and the Disney Fairies movies which are only available on DVD and television premiers, the newest one being Tinker Bell and the Legend of the Never Beast which came out on March 3rd.

A new, live-action version of Peter Pan will be coming to theaters on July 24th this year and it will be called Pan. In my opinion, the best version of Peter Pan was the 1953 animated film. The animation and the story line are immaculate and really whisk you away on a magical adventure. The live-action movies and Tinker Bell and the Disney Fairies spin-off series are okay but will never be as good as the original. Peter Pan was one of my all time childhood favorites and still is. It hold a certain magic that no other version has been or will be able to even slightly emulate.

Tinker Bell and the Never Fairies (2005)

The Original Tinker Bell (1953)

Disney Fairies (2008)

Disney History Lesson:Mulan

In honor of the Chinese Lunar New Year that happened last week (Februrary 19th) I decided to tell you guys about the wonders of Mulan. Let's go!                                  

Believe it or not Mulan was based on a Chinese poem called the Ballad of Mulan about a girl named Hua Mulan. The film is an incredibly accurate remake of the poem. For the English translation of the poem Click here. It is rumored that the poem is true and that Mulan was an actual person since the story has been told in China for over 2000 years. In the movie Mulan's surname is Fa instead of Hua but Wei and Zhu have also been used. Also some people in China spell Mulan's name in English as Fa Muhk Lhaan. The original story is said to date back to between 386-534 B.C.E. during the Northern Wei Dynasty but the movie takes place around 180-120 B.C.E. during the Western Han Dynasty during the invasion of the Huns. 

 Mulan was released on June 15th, 1998. It was the first Disney movie to be realsed on DVD in November 1999. It was also the first animated Disney movie to openly deal with warfare. The film was also almost rated PG because the word "cross-dresser" was used. It was the first time an animated Disney movie used that word. In all about 700 artists, animators and technicians worked on the film.

Mulan is depicted as being 16 years old. She is voiced by Ming-Na Wen for talking and Lea Salonga for singing. In the scene where Captain Shang asks Mulan what her name is she replies with "Ping" which makes her soldier name Fa Ping. This translates to "flowerpot" and is an inside joke indicating that she is not actually a man. Hua is the Mandarin version of Mulan's last name and Fa is the Cantonese version.

Li Shang is said to be 19 years old. He is voiced by BD Wong for talking and Donny Osmond for singing. Jackie Chan was Li Shang's martial arts model and later voiced him in the Cantonese and Mandarin editions of the movie.

It also should not go unsaid that Eddie Murphy was the voice of Mushu. He recorded the dialogue during his breaks from Holy Man (1998). Mushu was animated by director Tony Bancroft's twin brother Tom Bancroft.

I hope you enjoyed the history of Mulan join me next time as we uncover more Disney secrets!

Click here for the full list of cast and crew members.

Disney History Lesson: Beauty and the Beast

Since yesterday was Valentines Day I decided to uncover the mysteries of the greatest animated love story of all time, Beauty and the Beast.  

Beauty and the Beast was released on November 13th, 1991. It was the first animated movie to earn over 100 million dollars at the box office and the first animated film to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, unfortunately it lost to Silence of the Lambs. The movie was also declared a "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant film" in 2002 by the Library Congress and was therefore selected to be preserved in the National Film Registry. Walt Disney himself tried to create the film twice, once in the 1930's and once in the 1950's, but his writers felt the story was too difficult to adapt.

Beauty and the Beast takes place in France in the 1700's. Beauty and the Beast was originally a traditional French fairy tale that was widely known in varying forms throughout Europe. In 1756 it was finally written and published by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. It was called La Belle et la Bete which is French for Beauty and the Beast. Other versions that inspired the film were Zemire et Azor (Zemire was the name for "beauty" and Azor was the name for "beast") which was an operatic version of the tale that was written by Marmontel and composed by Grety in 1771. There was also a play called Amour pour Amour (meaning love for love) written by Nivelle de la Chaussee in 1742 which was based off of Gabrielle Suzanne Barbot de Villenueve's version which was more complex and detailed than Beaumont's more popular version. 

However the biggest influence on the animated film was the live-action French version of Beauty and the Beast, La Belle et la Bete, which was released in 1946. The idea of a rival love for Belle (Gaston who was called Avenant) who tried to kill Beast and ultimately ends up dying originated from this movie. The objects in Beast's castle coming to life was also derived from this movie.

Belle was voiced by Paige O'Hara. Belle is portrayed as being 17 years old. Belle's personality was based off of Katharine Hepburn's portrayal of Jo March in the 1933 movie Little Women. Belle's physical appearance was based off of Sherri Stoner who was also Ariel's reference model. Belle was also modeled after Vivian Leigh and Audrey Hepburn. In the movie, Belle is the only character in town who wears blue. Animators did this to represent Belle's uniqueness and to show how she is different from the towns people. And in the scene where Beast dies, Paige O'Hara was actually crying.

Beast was voiced by Robby Benson. Beast's name is actually Adam but this is never mentioned in the movie. We can infer from the prologue that Beast (or Adam) is in fact 21 years old because it says that "the rose will bloom until the prince is 21". We can also infer that Adam was 11 years old when he was turned into Beast because in the song "Be Our Guest" Lumiere sings "10 years we've been rusting..." Animators used a number of different animals for Beast's appearance. He has the mane of a lion, the beard and head of a buffalo, the brow of a gorilla, the tusks of a wild boar, the body of a bear, and the legs and tail of a wolf. Only his eyes remained human. 

A lot of celebrities were considered for different roles in this movie, Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel from The Little Mermaid was considered for Belle. Regis Philbin, who holds the Guinness World Record for most time spent in front of a television camera, was turned down for the voice of Adam (Beast). The character Cogsworth was written specifically for John Cleese, who is a renowned British actor, comedian, writer, and film producer, but he turned down the role. Patrick Stewart from Star Trek almost voiced Cogsworth but he had to turn down the part due to scheduling conflicts. Julie Andrews turned down the role for Mrs. Pots. Rupert Everette, the voice of Prince Charming in Shrek 2 was turned down for the role of Gaston because Disney Studios felt his voice was not arrogant enough. Jackie Chan provided both the talking and singing voice of Beast (Adam) in the Mandarin version of the film.

The dancing scene at the end of the movie is reused and recolored footage from the dancing scene in Sleeping Beauty. Also, the smoke used in the scene where Beast turns back to Prince Adam is actual smoke, it is not animated. 

For a full list of cast and crew click here

For the Beaumont version of the traditional story click here

  

Tale as old as time

song as old as rhyme

Beauty and the Beast

Disney History Lesson:Cinderella

This blog post is dedicated to the live-action remake of the classic Cinderella coming to theaters in March 13th.

Cinderella (Cenerentola in Italian) was first written by Giambattista Basile in 1637 Charles Perrault then rewrote it in French (Cendrillon) in 1697. It was then re-written by The Brothers Grimm as tale number 21 in their book of fairy tales in German (Aschenputtel). The "most accurate" version of Cinderella or the one that the Disney film was mostly based off of was Charles Perrault's version.

Cinderella was premiered in Boston on February 15th 1950 and was officially released on March 4th.

Cinderella is portrayed as being 19 years old. She is voiced by Ilene Woods who beat 309 girls for the part and was modeled after Ingrid Bergman. Prince Charming is said to also be 19 years old and was voiced by William Phipps for talking and Mike Douglas for singing. He was left unnamed.

Cinderella's dress is actually white in the movie and her hair has and orange-red tint but she is shown as being blonde and wearing a blue dress on merchandise and later remakes. She also looses her shoe a total of three times in the movie. Once when she is delivering breakfast trays. Then when she runs away from the ball. And finally when she is walking down the steps after her marriage with Prince Charming.

Walt Disney used subtle evidence to indicate Cinderella's location and time. The movie takes place in June in France because the sun rises at approximately 6:00 A.M. at the beginning of the movie which shows that it is a few weeks before the summer solstice and that also means that a pumpkin would have grown 20-40 pounds by this time.

Make sure to watch the all new version of Cinderella coming to theaters March 13th! I'M SO EXCITED!!

Watch the trailer here-

For a full list of cast and crew members click here
For a full list of cast and crew member for the NEW Cinderella click here

To read the French version of Cinderella click here
To read the Italian (and shortest) version of Cinderella click here
To read the German version of Cinderella click here

Thank you and make sure to join me on the next Disney History Lesson.

Disney History Lesson:Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty is probably the most underestimated Disney movie of all time. This is because the concept of the movie was considered generic even for its time.

Sleeping Beauty was released on February 6th 1959. Disney spent $6 million dollars to make this film which makes it the most expensive cartoon Disney has ever made. Despite this, it completely failed in the box office raking in approximately $51 million which was not enough to measure up to production value and expected income. Even though Sleeping Beauty is regarded as a classic nowadays, back then critics believed the movie was slow and lacked character development. Part of the reason is because Aurora only has 18 minutes of screen time. Also during this time, Walt Disney was busy creating Disneyland and focusing on television shows which were a top priority and probably effected the movie's quality. Due to its failure Sleeping Beauty put a halt on the Disney Princess Industry for 30 years. The next Disney Princess Movie was The Black Cauldron which came out in 1985 and turned out to be even more underestimated than Sleeping Beauty was.

The original Sleeping Beauty has mixed origins all of which were incorporated into the film. The first versions of the story cropped up around France and Germany in 1330 and was called Perceforest, Disney based most of the romance between Aurora and Prince Phillip off of this version. The second version was written by Charles Perrault in 1696 and was called The Beauty Sleeping in the Wood (in French- La Belle au bois dormant). Disney took away the fairy tale aspect from this version. Finally The Brothers Grimm published a version of the story in 1812. It was called Little Briar Rose (in German- Dornroschen) and was tale number 50 in their collection of fairy tales. Disney based most of the plot off of this edition. Also the name Aurora which was used in the movie was also used in Perrault's version of the story but in the movie when Aurora is hiding from Maleficent she uses the name Briar Rose.

The story doesn't have a specific time period or location but is most likely somewhere in Germany or France anytime during the 1300's-1600's.

Aurora was voiced by Mary Costa. Aurora is said to be 16 in the movie She was modeled after Audrey Hepburn and Helene Stanley. Helene Stanley was also the live action model for Cinderella and Anita from 101 Dalmatians. Surprisingly Mary Costa had a very prominent southern accent which almost prevented her from getting the job but she was able to prove that she could do a sufficient British accent for Aurora's character. Mary Costa was also a professional opera singer at the time. she preformed at John F. Kennedy's memorial at the request of Jackie Kennedy who had heard her sing the Star Spangled Banner at the Academy Awards. She was also one of the original Chrysler Girls.

Prince Philip was voiced by Bill Shirley. Prince Philip was named after the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. When Sleeping Beauty was released they had been married for 12 years and Queen Elizabeth II had been queen for 7 years. He was modeled after
 Ed Kemmer and it is said that he is 18 in the movie.

That's it for this Disney History Lesson! Look out for the next one!

If you want to read Little Briar Rose by The Brothers Grimm click here
If you want to read The Beauty Sleeping in the Wood click here
For a summary of Perceforest click here

Also keep in mind that there is a spin off version of Sleeping Beauty called Maleficent which was released in 2014 and stars Angelina Jolie as Maleficent.

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

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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.