Cruella DeVille
Easy: she's utterly irresponsible and selfish. She chases after a man she doesn't know--she's never even had a conversation with him, and it should be noted, as her father does, that HE EATS HER FRIENDS--at the cost of abandoning all her friends and family who love her, eventually literally signing a pact with the powers of darkness to do it. She ruins absolutely everything, and is rewarded for doing so. Ursula is the devil. Ariel is Faust. I guess the story could be seen as an allegory for Christian redemption, insofar as she really deserves to be turned into sea-foam, but her much worthier Father sacrifices all to save her?
Does Darth Vader qualify these days? :o
Easy: she's utterly irresponsible and selfish. She chases after a man she doesn't know--she's never even had a conversation with him, and it should be noted, as her father does, that HE EATS HER FRIENDS--at the cost of abandoning all her friends and family who love her, eventually literally signing a pact with the powers of darkness to do it. She ruins absolutely everything, and is rewarded for doing so. Ursula is the devil. Ariel is Faust. I guess the story could be seen as an allegory for Christian redemption, insofar as she really deserves to be turned into sea-foam, but her much worthier Father sacrifices all to save her?
Well, now that you put it that way ( rather nicely, I might add )it sounds like something straight out of C.S. Lewis. Dad is the Christ figure.
I wasn't a Mermaid fan, I liked the Steadfast Tin Soldier. ( I wonder why they haven't done that one?) I just tended to think of Ariel as a terrible role model, and once it went Disney I tended to think of it as some of their best singing and songwriting ever, and ignore the story.
I've seen segments, but I don't think I ever saw the animated Sleeping Beauty from start to finish. For me, Malificent is the Disney Arch Villain in that she has a sort of dark evil presence like Darth Vader. She wanted to eat Aurora's heart, if I recall correctly.
You know, Guinevere's character arch in Camelot is like that; at the beginning, she naively sings of longing for all that princess stuff, being rescued and having men fight over her -I look at it as she's 16 or so and doesn't know any better- and is punished by getting exactly what she asked for.
What's your beef with The Once and Future King? (the musical takes a fair few liberties, mind you.)I'm surprised you, of all people, would need to ask; it's not very respectful to the material. TOAFK isn't as bad as the earlier books, which aren't nearly as bad as Twain - but yuck. I already knew the Middle Ages were a filthy ignorant time, and that's not what I was looking for in my King Arthur, as if that's even the right setting. It crowds out the good stuff, y'know.
I don't think I saw Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, or Snow White prior all the way through prior to Talia.
Think you're mixing up Maleficent with Queen whatshername from Snow White. They look nearly identical (crown vs horns, but otherwise...), so it's an understandable mistake, but the latter wanted to eat snow white's heart.
Maleficent's motives are never really revealed in the Disney cartoon, other than she was offended by the parents for not inviting her to the christening. The subsequent Maleficent really neuters her 'evilness'.
I read "The Hunchback of Notre Dame " as a kid. I don't remember it well, and I didn't see the Disney movie, but the descriptions of the movie sound pretty dark, worse than my impression of the book.
This Frollo character committed acts of evil in the guise of God's will, including murdering Quassimodo's mom on the steps of the cathedral while she's screaming for sanctuary, attempting to throw the baby down a well, which isn't merely murderous, but criminally irresponsible with regard to the water supply. Then there is the matter of burning the city and committing gypsy genocide in the pursuit of jailbait Esmeralda. Pretty darn evil.
But I overlooked Chernabog the demon of Fantasia. Even moreso than Malificent you know he's evil at first sight. Raising the dead to dance for him so that he can crush them or cast them into hell or eat them seems pretty evil.
Be warned though - when I finally saw it after a lifetime of hearing how ground-breaking and brilliant it was, there's dancing cartoony hippos in tutus...
Be warned though - when I finally saw it after a lifetime of hearing how ground-breaking and brilliant it was, there's dancing cartoony hippos in tutus...
yeah...the bits I've seen are cringeworthy.
I made a pepper's ghost organist that played toccata and fugue years back, nothing else can compete, sorry.