Disney princesses are known to be stereotypically “perfect.” They all have the same body, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Then, all the movies shared the same plot: the “perfect” girl gets saved by a strong, handsome man, they fall in love, and live happily ever after.
To viewers in the 20th century, this was exactly what they wanted. This “perfect” girl and plot all made sense. But when the 21st century rolled around, this all changed. People started to realize that this wasn’t the real world, and this has upset some viewers. So, Disney had to change its ways.
They started by taking small steps. In 1992, Aladdin was the first movie where the main character had a different ethnicity, but the condescending plot stayed the same.
The next big leap was in “Mulan”, where the plot dramatically changed. Mulan was an Asian girl who pretended to be a man so she could fight in the army. This movie showed the …show more content…
In this movie, the boy and girl are equal. So, Disney has been breaking all of its boundaries except one: sexual orientation. Every character has been straight. There were rumors floating around that some characters were gay, such as Timon and Pumba from the “Lion King,” but these rumors were never confirmed by the producers.
Until now: the creators of the remake of “Beauty and the Beast” have announced that Josh Gad’s character, LeFou, is gay, and has feelings for his leader Gaston.
The backstory behind this controversial choice is touching. Howard Ashman, the brilliant lyricist behind many Disney films, was fighting a losing battle against AIDS as he worked on the original “Beauty and the Beast”. Ashman decided to make a couple changes of his own.
“It was his idea, not only to make it into a musical but also to make Beast one of the two central characters,” director Bill Condon explained. “Until then, it had mostly been Belle’s story that they had been
To viewers in the 20th century, this was exactly what they wanted. This “perfect” girl and plot all made sense. But when the 21st century rolled around, this all changed. People started to realize that this wasn’t the real world, and this has upset some viewers. So, Disney had to change its ways.
They started by taking small steps. In 1992, Aladdin was the first movie where the main character had a different ethnicity, but the condescending plot stayed the same.
The next big leap was in “Mulan”, where the plot dramatically changed. Mulan was an Asian girl who pretended to be a man so she could fight in the army. This movie showed the …show more content…
In this movie, the boy and girl are equal. So, Disney has been breaking all of its boundaries except one: sexual orientation. Every character has been straight. There were rumors floating around that some characters were gay, such as Timon and Pumba from the “Lion King,” but these rumors were never confirmed by the producers.
Until now: the creators of the remake of “Beauty and the Beast” have announced that Josh Gad’s character, LeFou, is gay, and has feelings for his leader Gaston.
The backstory behind this controversial choice is touching. Howard Ashman, the brilliant lyricist behind many Disney films, was fighting a losing battle against AIDS as he worked on the original “Beauty and the Beast”. Ashman decided to make a couple changes of his own.
“It was his idea, not only to make it into a musical but also to make Beast one of the two central characters,” director Bill Condon explained. “Until then, it had mostly been Belle’s story that they had been