Do you know how many times a day I get to hear that song?
Sure, Demi Lovato and Idina Menzel have taken the song, "Let It Go" to the top of charts, the Oscars, and the stratosphere. But lucky for me, I get to hear my little girl sing "Let It Go" about fifteen to twenty times a day.
Sometimes she even makes up her own words for it. And I gotta admit, no matter how many times I get to hear that tune (which actually isn't a bad song at all for the first few times), when Ryleigh sings it I always listen.
Somewhere along the way, over the last three years or so, my life changed. I stopped hating Disney.
I used to have a real hate-on for Disney. Not the company, or the parks, or Walt himself, or even the buttloads of merchandise you'd see kicking around the mall... just the animated movies. God, I hated the Little Mermaid.
What I never understood was how, with all the quality animation Disney produces and is capable of producing, they never opened a mature studio to capitalize on the demographic that glues their eyes to Family Guy, The Simpsons, etc etc. I guess we'll never know.
So after watching the Lion King and Alladin for a hundred times in the early 90s, I got really sick of Disney cartoons. And the stupid songs. Why did those characters have to break out into song for no reason at all, just to explain the events they were doing in the first place?
It wasn't until much later in life that I realized that I too often break out into random song, explaining exactly what I'm doing at any given moment... Here I am, walking down the street, to check the mail and who do I meet, but a nice old mailman tall and thin, oh he's got my parcel and he reeks of gin...
So, I guess I can't really hate on Disney films for that.
In the mid-90s, while I was still in high school, I had started sorta quasi-dating this girl who was in love with everything Disney. Because I'm a sucker for a pretty girl, I re-educated myself on those animated classics - everything from Lady & The Tramp, Snow White, and more recent ones like The Little Mermaid. Go figure that when she broke my heart was coincidentally when I really started hating Disney movies. As disappointed as I am that I never did get to make sweet passionate dirty love to her, it did mean that I never had to sit through the later-90s Disney films like, Mulan, Pocahontas, the Hunchback, and all those other shitty ones. I guess you win some and you lose some. I'd like to think I broke even. Though I might be wrong. I'll never know for sure.
While animated Disney movies sucked in the late 90s, those Pixar movies started to take off, and unfortunately I missed out on that too. Stupid ego pride.
 |
| Hmmm... maybe these movies aren't so bad after all... |
So let's flash forward fifteen years or so. I've become a dad, to a beautiful little girl, and she just so happens to be in love with everything Frozen. I've said before, that when we watch Disney flicks as part of family movie night I tend to watch Ryleigh watch the movie. That's where my enjoyment comes from these days. But also, I'm picking up on things I'd never picked up on before.
For example, The Little Mermaid has one of those most gruesome death scenes I've ever witnessed - when the big octopus lady is impaled by the mast of a ship! That was fucking awesome! There should've been more of that in the movie.
Last week when Sleeping Beauty was re-released on Blu-Ray I decided to sit through that one too. I'd never seen it before, and it was pretty darn good too. The action sequence at the end was everything I'd like to see in a Hobbit-style movie.
WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME? Has being the father of a little girl really transformed my opinion of Disney movies so much? Did I sell out my beliefs to make my daughter happy? Have I just become a big softie at heart?
For the record, my favorite Disney movie of all-time is still The Black Cauldron. That movie beats up all other Disney flicks. But, man, I actually really enjoyed Frozen (the first couple times) and I really liked Tangled too. And Brave? Damn good movie!
So there, I guess I don't hate Disney movie anymore. Well, except for what they're doing to my bank account.
- ryan
PS - I also won't let anyone say a bad word about Darkwing Duck. That guy was a stone cold bad ass mother fucker.
No comments:
Post a Comment