Discussing Disney's Lack of Romantic Films
Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2024 5:07 pm
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?
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?