By RANDI RODRIGUEZ
Staff Writer
Since the 1950s, The Walt Disney Company (more commonly known as Disney) has captured the hearts of many people with themes of magic, love, and friendship. With classics such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Lady and the Tramp, and Pinocchio, present-day society has treasured Disney films and will continue to as long as the company continues to produce well-made movies. Sixty years later, Disney’s movies have changed drastically, causing today’s films to be less cherished. Significant changes in Disney movies – before and after the year 2000 – including the villains and the protagonists.
Firstly, the protagonists and the roles they take in their movies have adapted to the modern age. In movies like Cinderella (1950), The Little Mermaid (1989), and Sleeping Beauty (1959), the princess ends their adventure with marriage. With the more recent movies, for instance, in the 2016 film Moana, which features a female-male duo, it does not end up in a relationship. Neither does the team-up of the male and female protagonists in Zootopia (2016). With this said, Disney has gone from the route of the prince and princess marrying at the end of the movie to male and female team-ups – not ending in a relationship but ending as best friends. This signifies a new open-mindedness in the minds of the creators of Disney movies, and it makes newer movies very different from older Disney movies.
Not only have protagonists developed into new roles, but the role of villains have also been evolving also; villains have gone from visually evil to hiding their true identity. Comparing Jafar from Aladdin (1992) to Prince Hans in Frozen (2013), not only has the villain’s appearance changed but so has the whole concept of Disney’s villains. Jafar wore a long red and black robe, a deep, sarcastic voice, accompanied by a dangerous-looking staff. In one of Disney’s modern films, Frozen, the antagonist Prince Hans had the characters and audience convinced that he was one of the good guys. He dressed in white, with neatly combed orange hair and a friendly smile – not an evil smirk. Near the end of the movie, however, we find that Hans was corrupted with greed, willing to kill for the chance to become rich and powerful. The villains in Disney films after the year 2000 have developed a new technique – they lie and manipulate the people around them in order to, in the end, fulfill their selfish greed to become powerful. With this new role, villains have made newer movies more entertaining, and better at engaging the audience with the events of the movie.
In conclusion, Disney’s villains have transitioned from making it obvious that they were a vile, sarcastic villain dressed all in dark hues to a plot twist villain – when an antagonist appears as a good guy until their technique of manipulation and lies have concluded into them revealing their hidden identity, attempting to fulfill their dream of becoming powerful, and ultimately being stopped by the protagonists. Also, no longer have the heroes ended in being married, but now they are ending their adventure with a best friend. Before and after the year of the 2000’s, the concept of villains and antagonists have changed drastically, but change is a good thing. If Disney made all of their movies concerning the princess and the villain ending the same way every time – with good defeating evil and the princess getting married – The company of Disney would have crashed and burned a long time ago. With the change, however, Disney continues to make a wide variety of different films that continue inspiring people all around the world.