Discussing Disney's Lack of Romantic Films

[Winter]

I've seen a few comments in regards to the current state of Disney films. The usual, people are disapointed in the films, wish they could recapture the magic, will Mickey and Minnie ever tie the knot, is Leia a Disney Princess and so on. But one point stood out to me which was the notable lack of romance in Disney's resent films. After Tangled Disney hasn't really made a full blown romance with most of their films being more about platonic love or familial love, there has been romantic love but it's not really the focus of the film.

For example Frozen's 1 and 2, Anna and Kristoff but the main relationship is between Anna and Elsa. The bond and love the sisters is the main driving force to the entire plot of the series and likely will continue to be so. Kristoff's love for Anna which she returns isn't unimportant but not, in anyway, the focus of the series.

Now one thing that needs to be addressed is that for the longest time Disney didn't actually make that many romances during the time when Walt was alive and didn't really make that many during the Bronze Age aka The Dark Age. All of the movies from the Golden and most of the Silver Age of the company weren't romances, romance was in them but much like today the core relationship was that of friends and family.

In during the entire time that Walt was alive there was only One animated movie that was a full on romance, that was Lady and the Tramp. But films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi, Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan and The Jungle Book had little to no romance and even when it was included it was a small part of the overall film.

The idea that Disney made almost exclusively romantic films is actually only accurate to one Era of the company, that being the Renaissance Era. This is, to date, the only Era of the company where almost every movie was a romance. Of all the films during this time only two are technically not romances and even then Romantic love still plays a major role in the story instead of a smaller one, the films in question being The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Mulan.

After the Renaissance Era Disney went back to having fewer romances released at a time, in fact the only romance films released by Disney over the last 16 years is The Princess and the Frog and Tangled. In fact the closest they've made to another full on romance is Raya and the Last Dragon with the relationship between Raya and Namaari, and even then that was mostly unintentional from the film outside of Kelly Marie Tran's interpretation of the relationship.

Now the main driving force for this argument, at least from what I've seen, is the fact that Wish was intended to be a romance, with Asha and the Star being a romantic couple along with King Magnifico and Queen Amaya being a romantic villain couple. And given the poor reception of Wish and highly acclaimed original story (to the point I've heard fans considering starting a campaign to remake the film as originally intended in a sort of "Release the Snyder-Cut" idea) fans have noted the lack of romances in resent years and are now pushing for more romance films like back in the good old days.

But as I hope I've shown there weren't really that many romances throughout the companies history to begin with. Again the only full on romance during the time when Walt Disney himself was alive was between two dogs and even as a romantic I do love that we other sort of loves have been at the heart of Disney.

So, should Disney work to make more romances or should they stick closer to what they've been doing more often over the last 100 years?

[CharlesPhipps]

To be fair, all of their live action remakes may count to the romance number.

[Winter]

To be fair, all of their live action remakes may count to the romance number.

Not really, there's only 5 films that are full on romances the rest just have romance play a big role but are, again, not really the focus of the story as much as other kinds of love. Cinderella certainly gives greater focus to the romance between Cinderella and the Prince while Lady and the Tramp, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Little Mermaid were already romances to start and didn't really change all that much.

And also I'm focusing mostly on the animated films and I do not count live-action remakes as part of the Animated Canon. They are their own set of films that are just based on the beloved classics that are just okay enough to make money only to be forgotten by everyone a few months after they come out.

Side note, how is Pete's Dragon a Live-action remake? The amount of animation is the same as it was in the original which was mostly live-action. Same thing for The Jungle Book and The Lion King, those are mostly animated films with VERY little live-action elements.

But back to the romance, I just find it weird how our views of the past don't really line up with reality. Disney has always had a lot of romances but the number of films were it is mainly a romance is much smaller then most people seem to realize.

I mean just to take Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs the romance between Snow and the Prince is a really only about 5 minutes in the total film. Most of the films is about, well, Snow White, young brother, her fathers and 5 crazy uncles. The romance is a side dish yet that small bit of romance is what a lot of people remember most when it's really a smaller part of the overall film.

To contrast with Raya and Namaari, whether you see it as romantic or not (it's totally romantic) that relationship forms the backbone of the entire film. Raya and Namaari's relationship drives the plot forward and shapes the two main characters for better or worse. Yes, I'm saying that Raya and the Last Dragon is driven forward by two dumb lesbians who nearly doom then save the world through their love... Mam if I had a dollar for every time I ran into a story that was driven by dumb lesbians unable to just express their feelings for each other I'd have 3 dollars, which isn't a lot but it's kinda weird that it happened thrice, right?

[stryke]

I suspect a lot of it is Disney geting all self-concious over the criticism that they just made retrograde anti-feminist princess twue wuv kiss films. Now I don't think that criticism was at all fair for all the reasons that you've noted, but Disney definitely reacted to it, and I do think it's been hurting them as it's made them a tad gunshy.

You've got Frozen as mentioned where it's about sisterly love and the love at first sight prince is the twist bad guy, there's Enchanted where they riff on a bunch of the usual tropes, you've got the princesses scene in Wreck It Ralph 2 where they complain about how they're viewed, you've got Brave where the princess rejects all her suitors entirely, and those are just the ones off the top of my head.

Most extreme example is I've heard it said that the live action Beauty and the Beast feels like a point for point sorting out the plotholes from the original to shut up the N.Critic/C.Sins/Honest.T bad faith crowd, and to no one's surprise, makes the film significantly worse by doing so.

[hammerofglass]

Wreck it Ralph 1 had a fun romance plot with Calhoun and Felix. It wasn't the main plot but there is quite a bit of screentime dedicated to it.

To contrast with Raya and Namaari, whether you see it as romantic or not (it's totally romantic) that relationship forms the backbone of the entire film. Raya and Namaari's relationship drives the plot forward and shapes the two main characters for better or worse. Yes, I'm saying that Raya and the Last Dragon is driven forward by two dumb lesbians who nearly doom then save the world through their love... Mam if I had a dollar for every time I ran into a story that was driven by dumb lesbians unable to just express their feelings for each other I'd have 3 dollars, which isn't a lot but it's kinda weird that it happened thrice, right?

She-Ra is one, what's the third?

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Disney films are just a big talking stage.

[Winter]

Wreck it Ralph 1 had a fun romance plot with Calhoun and Felix. It wasn't the main plot but there is quite a bit of screentime dedicated to it.

To contrast with Raya and Namaari, whether you see it as romantic or not (it's totally romantic) that relationship forms the backbone of the entire film. Raya and Namaari's relationship drives the plot forward and shapes the two main characters for better or worse. Yes, I'm saying that Raya and the Last Dragon is driven forward by two dumb lesbians who nearly doom then save the world through their love... Mam if I had a dollar for every time I ran into a story that was driven by dumb lesbians unable to just express their feelings for each other I'd have 3 dollars, which isn't a lot but it's kinda weird that it happened thrice, right?

She-Ra is one, what's the third?

Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

[hammerofglass]

Yeah that checks out.

[Winter]

Yeah that checks out.

Side Note: This AMV is really good.


youtu.be/ro-yoNe3ZOw

[hammerofglass]

It is, yes.

Trade you one. The edit is nothing but the song is good

https://youtu.be/kmmMZ6JJbGc?si=X3ez8WjK6vDgDxDP