Having worked in TV news for more than a decade I am used to seeing “Breaking News” alerts pop-up on my computer screen. However, yesterday’s bulletin, which read: “Disney shelves fairytale movies” made me realize that the term “Breaking News” is painfully overused, and in this case, inappropriate.
Or is it?
If you are the parent of a princess-in-training, you know, the kid, who lives in her Cinderella costume, insists on wearing her tiara – even in the shower – and refuses to believe that frogs aren’t really handsome princes in disguise, then the news is probably life-altering.
In our home, not so much.
When I broke the news to my 6-year-old Disney-loving daughter that the studio has no plans to produce any more fairy tales “for the foreseeable future,” I was met with a barely audible: “Meh.”
Regular readers of this blog know that I mother an anti-girly girl who shuns all things pink and princess-y; which is not to say that she doesn’t love Disney movies-—that’s not the case at all. In fact, one of her favorite Disney flicks is Mulan. However, instead of pretending that she is the gorgeous Asian maiden, my daughter adopts the role of manly Captain Shang, leader of the Chinese army.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Disney is putting the kibosh on Mulan-type movies and has already axed two fairy tale movies that had been in development, The Snow Queen and Jack and the Beanstalk.
Disney execs claim that it no longer financially feasible for them to produce movies that cater to a narrow audience of princes-loving girls. Rather, the mega-studio is hoping to market movies that appeal to a larger audience (see: girls, boys and anti-girly girls).
The Los Angeles Times explains the reasoning behind Disney’s new announcement this way:
“Among girls, princesses and the romanticized ideal they represent — revolving around finding the man of your dreams — have a limited shelf life. With the advent of “tween” TV, the tiara-wearing ideal of femininity has been supplanted by new adolescent role models such as the Disney Channel’s Selena Gomez and Nickelodeon’s Miranda Cosgrove.”
So the days of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Jasmine, and the rest of Disney’s sorority of princesses, ruling the big screen seem to be coming to an end in an effort to reach a broader demographic.
Is that breaking news in your world?