Movie’s That Subvert “Princess” Norms.

I re-watched the first Shrek movie recently and I had forgotten about what a clever parody of fairy tales it is. After reading the articles about “Princess culture” I started realizing that Shrek is a great subversion to the idea that ultra-femininity, being superior to others, and materialism, i.e. being a princess, will bring a girl happiness. In Shrek, the main female character, Princess Fiona, is a legitimate princess to be sure; she wears a crown, believes she’s in charge (for a while at least) and has the idea that she will be happy when she marries her “perfect prince.” This is contrasted by the fact that she never plays the damsel in distress (she’s a martial arts expert), she can belch on cue, and, oh yeah, she turns into an ugly ogre at night. In the end she realizes she, as well as Shrek, let go of their skewed ideas about what will make them happy and fall-in-love-and-happily-ever- you know the ending. That movie shows what no Disney movie ever does; you don’t need to be a princess to be happy.

I also thought of the movie Tangled as I was reading those articles. That movie also subverts fairy tale tropes for comic effect like Shrek. It is a Disney movie but the princess, unlike most Disney princesses, does not have an overly sexualized body. In fact, she is small and skinny as compared to the voluptuous and curved Jasmine from Aladdin or Meg from Hercules. Instead of emphasizing her body, the animators chose to emphasize her face, which gives a character more of an identity rather than just being the prize for the male lead to win. If Disney continues to make princess movies I hope they are done similar to Tangled.