Racism And Sexism In Tangled - Or, Okay WHAT Are These People Smoking?

[zelda_queen]

ZeldaQueen: Right. This is one bit of idiocy that threw me for a bit of a loop. Warnings folks, this will have spoilers for the movie Tangled. If you want to read the original article, it's available here

Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
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Brown Is Not Beautiful

(This post first appeared on my blog ReelGirl which rates kids' media and products on girl empowerment)

ZeldaQueen: It worries me that seeing the words "media", "girl", and "empowerment" together in a sentence fills me with a vague feeling of dread

Renee of Womanist Musings points out, the glorifying of blonde hair - yet again - is problematic. She writes:

www.selfishmom.com

Can't get past the hair

 

"As a Black woman, I know all to well how complicated the issue of hair can be. Looking at the above image (of Tangled's Rapunzel), I found that I could not see beyond her long blond hair and blue eyes. I believe that this will also become the focal point of many girls of colour. The standard of long flowing blond hair as the epitome of femininity necessarily excludes and challenges the idea that WOC are feminine, desired, and some cases loved and therefore, while Disney is creating an image of Rapunzel that we are accustomed to, her rebirth in a modern day context is problematic, because her body represents the celebration of White femininity.

The fact that "Tangled" is coming on the heels of the first African American princess is indeed problematic. It makes Princess Tiana seem like an impotent token, with Rapunzel appearing to reset the standard of what princess means and even more precisely what womanhood means."

ZeldaQueen: Okay, first up, everyone take a good look at Rapunzel in that poster. I'm sure everyone can see her eyes. They're about the size of tennis balls. The color? Green. So yeah, apparently Renee wasn't trying too hard to see past it, or she might have noticed it. In fact, I do believe that Rapunzel is the first of the princesses to have green eyes. Isn't that progressive? Power to the emerald eyes!

On a more serious note, Rapunzel is one of exactly two princesses in the official princess line-up with blond hair. Everyone else is mostly brunette, with Ariel as a redhead. I also feel it's worth mentioning that it is often written in the fairytale itself that Rapunzel has "hair of gold", which is hardly racist when you consider that the tale was Germanic and that's the hair color that was considered most attractive at that time. The other thing worth mentioning is that Rapunzel is not a natural blond. In fact her real hair color (which, as we see, she inherited from her mother) is brown.

In short, I'm not really sure what Renee here was expecting from the movie. It was clearly in a vague fantasy quasi-European setting, and using source material which specifies that the heroine has long, flowing, golden hair. That would be like complaining that Mulan is Chinese even though the folktale her story came from kind of had her that way.

I also don't really get what she expected about Tangled following up on The Princess and the Frog. Of course Disney was going to do another movie after that one. It's kind of silly to expect them not to. And I fail to see how Rapunzel in any way overshadows Tiana or tells girls "She doesn't matter! I do!"

I watched "Tangled" with my sister, both of us brunettes, and when we heard the line about how Rapunzel's hair, if cut, loses its magic and turns brown, we looked at each other and started cracking up.

ZeldaQueen: I'm also a brunette. I fail to see how that's funny. It actually made sense, considering that the magic flower came from a drop of sunlight, Rapunzel is a natural brunette, and the haircutting clause was put in to make sure that Mother Gothel kidnapped the baby instead just a bit of her hair

(Also I think I remember in the movie, that there is some other reference to "brown-ness." Does anyone remember what it is? Flynn takes Rapunzel into a bar full of drunken men, and he says something, or someone says something like" "It seems very brown in here" or it "smells brown." Please tell me if you know what I'm talking about.)

ZeldaQueen: What Flynn actually says is, and I quote, "Ya smell that? It's part man-smell and the other part is REALLY BAD man-smell, but overall it just smells like the color brown. Your thoughts?" If you keep in mind that Flynn was trying to scare Rapunzel at that point, it's rather obvious what the "brown" smell referred to was supposed to be

It is notable to, as Girl W/Pen! refers to, that the princess death sentence is coming right after the first African-American young royal finally made her way to the animated screen. There's lots of internet chat about ending the only cartoon vehicle that repeatedly allowed girls be stars, but not so much discussion about the race issue involved in the timing of this decision. Also, I keep hearing that adjusted for inflation dollars, "The Princess and the Frog" did just as well as "The Little Mermaid." If this is true, I don't get why Disney execs claim the film was such a failure.

ZeldaQueen: I might be mistaken, but I believe the announcement came shortly before or around the time when Tangled was actually released. If my memory serves, I'd hardly call that "right after" The Princess and the Frog".

And Disney never said The Princess and the Frog was a failure. In fact, it got them a good bit of money, a cash cow in the form of a new princess for merchandise, and a good bit of praise. What they said was that the movie didn't do as well as they had hoped. Their expectations for the movie were high, perhaps ridiculously so. It was fairly clear, through interviews and talks about the making of the movie, that Disney was desperately hoping that this would be that movie that would revive things. The movie that would start a second Disney Renaissance. The movie that would put their 2D animation back on the map.

Instead, it did good but not great. It made back money, but didn't have nearly the splash they'd hoped. And I'd hardly consider Disney excommunicating the movie, as this article seems to imply. Tiana and Naveen are both official members of the Disney Princess and Prince line-ups. Their merchandise is everywhere. Disney would not do that if they didn't want them sticking around. After all, look at how eager they were to drop poor Princess Eilonwy or Kida. Those two were in movies that didn't do well, so look at how much media attention they've gotten

Again, I don't want to be defending princesses here. I don't like them. But I also don't like the way they're being used to get rid of starring girls roles all together.

ZeldaQueen: Um, it is possible to make movies with non-princess leads. Granted, I know Disney made princess protagonists very popular, but they do exist. Susan, from Monsters vs. Aliens? Coraline? Heck, Lilo and Stitch had both Nani and Lilo, who were well-rounded and likable characters, and neither of them were royalty. And hey, Disney has exclusive rights to the release of English dubbed Miyazaki films. So we also have movies like Howl's Moving Castle or Spirited Away, which also have strong, interesting, non-royal female protagonists. Saying "no more princess movies" doesn't mean Disney will do away with female leads, it just means they'll have to get more creative

Natalie Wilson writes the cast of "Tangled" isn't quite all white. On Rapunzel's wicked mother:

Notably, Mother Gothel, Rapunzel's evil abductress, has dark hair and eyes and non-Caucasian features.

According to Christian Blaulvelt of Entertainment Weekly, "Mother Gothel is a dark, dark character. I mean, she's a baby snatcher." Ah yes, and she is dark in more ways than one - her dark skin, hair, and clothing contrasting with the golden whiteness of Rapunzel.

Alan Menken, the musical composer for the film, similarly notes that "Mother Gothel is a scary piece of work. Nothing she is doing is for the good of Rapunzel at all. It's all for herself" Emphasizing her manipulative relationship with Rapunzel, Menken admits, "I was concerned when writing it. Like, will there be a rash of children trying to kill their parents after they've seen the movie?" Wow - how about worrying if there will be a rash of children who will see DARK-SKINNED mothers (and non-wedded ones) as evil and sinister?

In addition to carrying on Disney's tradition of problematic representations of race, the film also keeps with the tradition of framing females beauty obsession as evil and "creepy" (Flyn's words) rather than as understandable in a world of Disneyfied feminine norms. A mirror worshipper to rival the evil queen in Snow White, Gothel is presented as a passive-aggressive nightmare - she is the tyrannical single mother that is so overbearing Rapunzel must beg for the opportunity to leave the tower.

ZeldaQueen: First, on the matter of those "non-Caucasian features". This is Mother Gothel







ZeldaQueen: So yes, she has dark hair. While I'll admit I'm not the best at judging facial features though, she looks rather European to me. So...yeah. And I would not call her "dark skinned", by any stretch of the imagination.

I'd also like to remind the jury that it was just last Disney movie that we had Eudora, Tiana's mother who was, in fact, clearly black and a wonderful, caring mother.

Finally, I'm rather confused about that quote. So it's wrong that Mother Gothel is a vain bitch who would rather kidnap a baby than let herself naturally age and is portrayed as evil for it? I'd say that is plenty good reason for a person to be considered evil

I always ask my daughters when we're watching these movies: where are the moms? Belle in "Beauty in the Beast:" no mom. Ariel in "The Little Mermaid:" no mom. "Jasmine" in Aladdin: no mom.

ZeldaQueen: Mulan - mom and grandmother. Aurora - mom, plus three adopted mothers. Tiana - mom. Rapunzel - evil mom plus good birth mother who she reunites with. I also feel it's worth noting that in most of those cases, the fairy tales themselves specify "no moms". After all, how could Snow White or Cinderella have wicked stepmothers if their birth mothers were still alive? It's certainly preferable to the earliest forms of the tales, which had that it was the birth mothers who tormented Snow and Cindy and abused them.

Now granted, some cases were by Disney's choice. For example, Aladdin's mother was supposed to make an appearance, but was cut out of the story. In general though, the lack of mothers came from the fairy tales, which used the deceased mothers as metaphors for how children see their moms (the "good" side of mom, who is portrayed as the angelic but dead birth mother, and the "mean" side of mom, who is portrayed as the wicked stepmother)

Maybe us moms should get together and start making some movies.

ZeldaQueen: Good idea. I'm sure that none of the women on the Disney staff, after all, have children. The idea is ludicrous

Update: Billjitsu,one of my biggest fans, comments: "Little Mermaid (1989): $111M Princess and the Frog (2009) : $104M As I suspected and adjusted for inflation, "Mermaid" positively annihilates "Princess and Frog".

Um, no. Annihiltates? Since when does a 7 million dollar difference make one movie a "blockbuster" and another "a flop?" If your figures are correct, you're proving my point. Thanks! (though it isn't really my point anyway, but reporters.)

ZeldaQueen: Actually it proves my point, that The Princess and the Frog did well, but not as well as expected. Which, what a surprise, was also Disney's point. So everyone's point is proven! Hooray!

Second update: About the brunette princesses, yes of course, there are some, but their hair doesn't have magical power that when cut, loses that power and turns blonde!

ZeldaQueen: Right. About that. And if there still are people here who are bothered by spoilers, you might want to skip this. I'm pretty much talking about the end of the movie.

So as the movie goes, Rapunzel's hair is magic. It's her big thing. It can heal injuries, provide people with eternal youth, and makes a kickass lasso and whip. So on the surface, I see the author's point. Unfortunate implications, yeah.

Except, look at how Rapunzel views the magic hair and what it does to her life. She never asked for it. It was the only reason at all that she was kidnapped. The woman who raised her, who she thought was "mother" only ever took care of her because of the magic hair. In other words, Rapunzel was raised without love, by an abusive woman, who essentially tricked a young girl into thinking she cared, just to use her. It was because of the magic hair that Mother Gothel never let her leave the tower and tried to drive a fear of humanity into Rapunzel. It was because of the magic hair that Rapunzel was nearly kidnapped by the Stabbington brothers, why Mother Gothel wanted to keep her captive for her entire life, and why Rapunzel wasn't able to fully trust Flynn's love for her until the very end. The one guy who she meets who shows her genuine love, she can't bring herself to fully trust because she thinks it's because of the hair.

In short, the magic hair has given her nothing but heartache and grief for her entire eighteen years of life.

Now, let us look at the inverse. At the end of the movie, Flynn cuts off all of Rapunzel's hair, turning it brown and robbing it of its power. What happens? Mother Gothel dies about two seconds later. No one has any reason to want to hold Rapunzel captive. She's able to go back to the castle and be with her own parents, who genuinely love her and have spent eighteen years trying to find her.

In other words, it looks a lot more like it's the other way around. Yes, Rapunzel's blond hair is shiny and magic, but it also symbolizes her captivity and miserable life. Her brown hair symbolizes her freedom and ability to go home to her loving parents (parents who have the exact same shade of brown hair). At the end, she's thrilled to be ride of her hair.

So yeah, what is this stuff I don't even
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Comments

[(Anonymous)]

YAY!!! A PRINCESS WITH GREEN EYES :D!!! ALL GREEN-EYED BEAUTIES REJOCE!!!! (Yes, I have green eyes. We have been horribly underrepresented. Its ALL about either the blue eyes or the brown eyes! *hmph*)

I have never seen the movie, because I don't have any young children to sneak in with. I thought it was suppose to be good because it has a strong(er) female lead? o.O...

Personally, I think Mother Gothel looks like Ezmerelda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, who was a Romanian Gypsy, who are from Europe. They all make it out like she's black or something. Or at least latina. Again: o.O...

Mulan wasn't a 'princess' either! At best, she was a nobleman's daughter. Yet, she is part of the 'Princess Line'. Li wasn't a prince either, so she can't take that route either. She was blessed by the Emperor, if I rememeber correctly.

I know I'm lame, but who are Princess Eilonwy and Kida?

[carmyn]

Opps, ^^^^^ that was me ^.^

[miyuko-matsuda.livejournal.com]

*applauds* WIN,and i Can`t wait to see that movie with friends,hopefully this weekend,I like reading spoilers anyways so yeah,Great job :D*thumbs up*

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

I know, and her eyes are adorable! (I have blue eyes, but I always think green eyes are pretty! ^_^)

It did. Rapunzel is pretty much the perfectly balance between a cheerful, perky, naive girl and a tough girl. She reminds me of Zelda from Spirit Tracks, in a way.

Disney's criteria for who goes to their Princess line is a little wonky at times. Almost everyone there is a princess by birth or marriage. Pocahontas is technically the chief's daughter, but the movies, for all intents and purposes, treat her as a form of royalty. Mulan was given the crest of the Emperor, but she was never born into or married royalty. Disney justified keeping her in by saying that a Disney Princess doesn't necessarily *have* to be a princess, it just depends on how she fits into the canon. The movie popularity and Disney's hold on the rights also play into it, I'm sure (that, incidentally, is why Jane from "Tarzan" isn't in there - Disney doesn't have the rights to that book series or something).

Princess Kida was from "Atlantis: The Lost Empire". She was the princess of Atlantis, who desperately tries to preserve her people's culture and way of life after the continent is sunk. She falls for the geeky and adorable Milo, who is a member of a group of explorers looking for Atlantis. He's just as interested in saving the culture, so they get on well together. The movie didn't do very good financially, though it does have its fans, so she often is forgotten.

Princess Eilonwy is even more obscure. She was originally a character in the book series, "The Chronicles of Prydain", by Llyod Alexander (a very good series, incidentally). She's a princess who's the last in a long line of enchantresses and is tough and pragmatic, though rather shrewish when she first is introduced (to her defense, she's a kid). Disney meshed the first two books in the series and made the movie "The Black Cauldron". In it, Eilonwy is the daughter of a king, and was kidnapped when the Horned King wanted her father to give info on the titular cauldron. She was pretty watered down from her awesome book self, although pretty much all of the characters were. The movie flopped terribly (though it was later remembered as being nicely creepy, what with the army of the undead and all), and Disney tends to pretend it never existed.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

Thanks! ^^

And the movie is utterly adorable and well worth seeing. XD My best friend hates Disney and she was squeeing when we exited the theater. Hope you enjoy it. :)

[miyuko-matsuda.livejournal.com]

thank you I hope to enjoy it as well

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

Oh, I did. ^^ Makes me really look forward to Disney's next movie.

[carmyn]

Ahh, I remember Atlantis. I actually liked that movie, but I haven't seen it in so long. I never saw The Black Cauldron but I've heard of it.

I don't think Disney is going to stop the whole 'Disney Princesses of other ethnicities', which I think is what this author is whining about. The Rapunzel story is probably too restrictive for them to play with, while the Princess and the Frog isn't, which is why they played around with that one. Who knows, I don't doubt they won't do it again once they have the chance.

[white-wolf03.livejournal.com]

So how does being black mean you understand the complications of hair?

And Mother Gothel, using my sister as a comparision, actually looks half-Asian to me. Just something I noted. Had no one pointed out that she looked different though, I probably wouldn't have noticed.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

From what I understand, The Princess and the Frog wasn't even *supposed* to have the first black princess. They decided that it would be cool to set it in New Orleans and then decided "Hey, why not?" And for Rapunzel, they figured "We'll go back and have it be a vaguely European setting, like with the older movies".

So no, I doubt Disney will stop giving us a range of ethnic characters. Actually, I'm kind of hoping that Disney will consider adapting fairy tales from other cultures, like they did with Mulan.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

I'm not entirely certain. I think she meant it as characters have hair that isn't "black", like the style not the color or...I don't know. O_o

She looks a little darker, but that's because, for most of the movie, she goes slinking around at night or is inside the tower. Rapunzel, meanwhile, spends most of the movie running around in the sun. It's another example of how they're foils. It's like that argument that Jaffar has darker skin than Aladdin, and they use a pic where Aladdin's standing next to a glowing object.

[stormswift]

Though to be fair, pointing out that Mother Gothel looks Romanian/gypsy still has Unfortunate Implications - a gypsy-looking woman kidnaps the pretty blonde baby for selfish personal gain? Um.

For what it's worth, I haven't seen the film at all. That just stuck out at me.

[(Anonymous)]

Dark hair and eyes? To me those eyes look more grey or light blue.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

That's true, but I seriously doubt that that was in mind. I mean, when Disney did "The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the gypsies had clearly darker skin. So yeah.

It could be unintentional though. She was voiced by Donna Murphy who, to quote Wikipedia, is of "Irish, French, German and Czech ancestry", and Disney tends to give their animated characters the facial features of the voice actors.

[southerngaelic.livejournal.com]

To be fair to the person, Disney execs actually DID cite 'Princess & The Frog' as one of the reasons why they renamed this movie from 'Rapunzel.' They said the reason for the renaming was that they felt like little boys wouldn't be interested in seeing a movie with the female protagonist's name in the title. They thought this was why PATF didn't do as well in the box office. Not like James Cameron also released a fuck-off juggernaut of a digital wet dream at the same time.

But as to the rest of the article - yeah, wtf indeed O-o

[das-cain.livejournal.com]

"WTF?" was my first thought on the title of this post and then I read it and thought "Phewwww. Tangled not gonna be sexist or racist. It's just an idiot."

I haven't seen tangled yet and even I thought whoever wrote that article was a dumbass. Mother Gothel is a dark character, for Christs sake! In princess movies, the villian is almost always dark or scary looking. She's quite tame looking in the pictures. And is this person blind or just being stupid? Mother Gothals eyes are either a blue or gray tone and her skin appears to be an olive colour, like mine. It is very possible to have eyes such as gray (usually with blue, as well), blue or green, black hair and be Caucasion; Believe me, I know.

Rupunzel's eyes looked blue to me in the poster, but I've seen the trailer and clips on youtube and they are GREEN. Apparently this person has seen the movie but then wouldn't they KNOW this? Green eyes is the rarest out of blue, green and brown and if your like me, you can sometimes end up with two different colours. Hasn't this lady noticed most blondes in the world are either blue eyed or brown? Guess not. *Shrug*

[darkslover.livejournal.com]

*applause* Bravo!

When I saw the trailer, I knew there would be whining about the fact that they chose a blond princess. I just knew it. And I dreaded it.

Thank you for this answer. Some people just don't have enough brain, I guess.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

That is true, but even then, it has nothing to do with Tiana having been black, it was because Disney worried that they narrowed their marketing down to just girls.

I personally think TPATF did middling because it had a lot of good ideas, voicework, fantastic art, and interesting ideas, but didn't take as good advantage of it as it could have. It was a valiant attempt and a great addition to the canon, but Disney was stupid to depend on it to save everything.

And yeah, the marketing wasn't very smart either. I think Sherlock Holmes and that stupid "squeakquel" were also out at the same time.

[redrose6540.livejournal.com]

Who really goes to these movies to try and find racism and sexism?

I haven't yet seen Tangled but am oh so looking forward to it. It looks like a great movie. I do remember that when the Princess and the Frog came out people were calling racism in that as well. Everything from the prince being to light-skinned to Tiana wearing a perm. They complained about Ray's Cajun accent but he was by far my favorite character.

These movies have great themes and morals behind them. Unfortunately, with blogs like this one you have brought us (which I love your rebuttals by the way) it can turn off some people from the story itself.

I have known of a few people who wouldn't see TPATF because of the blogs and articles calling the movie racist. Or those that did see the movie kept looking out for the things pointed as "racist" and really never got the chance to enjoy the movie.

It reminds me of Ms. Magazine's article about Toy Story 3 being sexist.

http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2010/06/24/third-time-still-not-the-charm-for-toy-storys-female-characters/

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

With the announcement of Disney's first black princess, I was kind of hoping that they'd do an adaptation of an African fairytale. Oh, well. Here's hoping that they will indeed adapt fairytales from other cultures, particularly the cultures of non-white peoples. It never hurts to have more diversity!

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/In short, I'm not really sure what Renee here was expecting from the movie. It was clearly in a vague fantasy quasi-European setting, and using source material which specifies that the heroine has long, flowing, golden hair. That would be like complaining that Mulan is Chinese even though the folktale her story came from kind of had her that way./

I agree. I'm a member of the racebending community on LiveJournal, which discusses whitewashing and other kinds of racism in media, and there was a recent post that also talked about this issue. Apparently, during the casting process for "The Hobbit," a British woman of Pakistani origin complained that her rejection by the casting director was racist because the casting director told her that it was because of her race that she was unable to be in the movie. Now, on the surface, that does sound pretty discriminatory and plenty of the members of the community argued that such a move was indeed racist.

However, another member pointed out that the world of "Lord of the Rings" is specifically based on Anglo-Germanic culture and folklore. She pointed out that Tolkien was a professor and specialist in Anglo-Saxon texts and that he borrowed heavily from pre-existing tales and myths in Germanic cultures in order to create the world of "The Hobbit." So, an all-white cast for the movie wouldn't be necessarily racist; it would just be accurate and faithful to the source material.

She also pointed out that "Lord of the Rings" was often used by members of the community (including myself) as a counter-example to people who supported the whitewashing of "The Last Airbender," which was based on a show that had a fantasy world that was derived entirely from East Asian cultures. Her point basically seemed to be that just as it wasn't right to whitewash "The Last Airbender," it wouldn't be right to change the ethnicities of the characters in "Lord of the Rings" while trying to do an accurate adaptation of the books.

So, while I understand that there definitely needs to be more diversity in media, I don't think that randomly putting people in color in movies that are clearly based on old European folklore is the way to go about it. I think that the more productive thing to do would be to create movies that are either specifically based on non-European cultures (thus the non-white cast would be necessary) or create movies that aren't necessarily based on any specific culture and include people of color as the leads there (I'm thinking of general children's movies, romance comedies, action movies, etc. that don't need to always have white leads, but, of course, often do). That's why, like you, I think that this person's indignation about Rapunzel's appearance in "Tangled" is misplaced.

[lurkythespork.livejournal.com]

Okay, a little input from the Lurkster.

Disney doesn't produce strong female characters? Pixar ring any bells? (In fact, Lasseter is in charge of Disney's animation department now, methinks.) Just in the ones I'm thinking of at the moment, we've got Elastigirl, Violet (who knows how to use defensive skills as weapons), Collette, Celia, Roz, Sally...

And of all of the Pixar heroines, Elli is the strongest. She had to wrestle with never getting any of her big dreams. I think people fail to understand that it takes even more strength for an energetic person to slow down than it takes for that same person to grab a sword and fight.

But then again, Pixar films tend to have subplots about how men need women, so I guess that would escape people like ReelGirl.

Also, racism? RACISM? So once you've had a black heroine, you can't have white ones anymore?

Finally, Mother Gothel? Here you go: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm477660928/nm0000333

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, The Princess And The Frog had its own share of idiocy, from people complaining over Naveen's deliberately ambiguous race to Tiana doing girly things like wanting to be a master chef (she wants to start her own business, le gasp!) or getting married (after she gets the guy to start taking life seriously, yeah).

I think the problem is that if you look at anything hard enough, you can see unfortunate implications or "sexism" or "racism". But really, if you have to look so hard, is it likely that someone would go to so much trouble, just to offend a handful of people on the internet?

Toy Story 3? Sexist? O_o I...erm...I'm not sure which is dumber, that she missed the fact that Barbie's speech was funny because Barbie herself was a genius ditz, that she failed to notice that Barbie was never a traitor at all, or somehow thought that children would view an insult from the film's villain as something to live their life by.

Which is something else I never understood - why is it that when villains or characters that are clearly unsavory say things that are nasty or cruel, people accuse the authors of endorsing that view? If the bad guy says it, isn't it more likely that the authors view the opposite? You don't have the characters written to be hated say stuff you agree with.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, no, Tangled's a fine movie. ^^;

Right, it's standard practice to make the villain/villainess have a "dark" design. It's not "dur, dark-skinned people are scary!" it's "dark" like the night and the fears that go with it.

Yeah, they're giant eyes and clearly green. I have no idea what that person was looking at. It's not even like Flynn had blue eyes. He had brown hair and brown eyes.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

Thanks! XD

I didn't quite expect it, but then again I can be hopelessly naive. ^^;

You're welcome! Eh, I think they have brains, but are too busy focusing them on obscure and stupid stuff.