Customer Reviews

Good Girls and Wicked Witches: Women in Disney's Feature Animation

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's very easy to criticize Disney's portrayals of women over the years. In fact, they do not fit with the current cultural idea of a motivated, active, and very maternal woman. Others believe that Disney is so ingrained into our popular culture it should be immune from criticism.

The tone of this book feels sympathetic to Disney more so than many essays about this topic. It considers many factors that contribute to the portrayals. But it is also not entirely apologetic for these images.

The book is all by one person. Her sources are cited well within the page in a way that academics can easily understand and casual readers can easily ignore. The chapters are divided by time period.

The worst thing I can say about the book is that there should have been more in some places and less in others. Chapter 2 is a brief history of animation. I'm not entirely sure that the actions of other studios, especially ones that weren't making movies, is relevant to the topic. In addition, the book only talks about human characters as they appeared as main characters in animated movies. There is no discussion about the portrayals of female animals in movies like "The Lion King" or "Robin Hood," which I feel has a great diversity of female characters. I also feel that the lack of women in movies like "The Jungle Book" and "Winnie the Pooh" is worthy of discussion.

If you think the ideal of American womanhood was established by Doris Day and other goody two shoes, then think again and read this enthralling exploration of the women in the Walt Disney films from Sleeping Beauty to Alice in Wonderland to the Little Mermaid and Pocahontas.