Lilo & Stitch--Healthy bodies

[MentalElemental]

Has anyone seen Lilo & Stitch? I have to say, one of the things that I loved about that movie was the fact that Disney drew female bodies to reflect a healthier size rather than stick with their typical feather-thin stylized 'ideal'.

[SavingSelf]

Thanks for letting us know, even though there isn't a remote possiblity that I'll see this movie, I'm going to email Disney and thank them.

Karley

[mel]

My husband and I took our son to see this yesterday. My husband even commented on how nice it was to see more normal body images from Disney. I have to agree that the people portrayed in this movie were a lot closer to most people than anything that I've seen them do before. Wasn't the movie itself really great? It really triggered a lot of emotional stuff for me, so I burst into tears a few times, which is very unusual for me, but cathartic as well.

[infinitepiphany]

lilo and stich...advertised on practically every disney channel commercial break...

and paired with a commercial for kim possible, a cartoon tv show with a barbie-like main character. large breasts, over-exaggeratedly small waist, with all the abiblities of laura croft tomb riader (shes a whole other thread!).

belle from beuaty and the beast. cindella. wren from their afternoon show, even stevens.

im not buying it. the only other female lead i have ever seen portrayed by disney that looked rather healthy and realistic was the girl lion on the lion king. i cant remember her name - nina or something?

michelle

[juliaf]

I kind of agree with infinitepiphany..by the way the girl lion was nala :grin

I doubt very much disney made the characters the way they did for this movie because they wanted to promote healthier bodies...i believe the characters looked how they did for cultural reasons. I love disney movies, don't get me wrong, but they take the stereo typical surfaces of cultures and portray it as such. Hawaiians aren't stereo typed as being "dainty" Look at how hispanics are portrayed in The three caballeros...my father is definately not an overweight, curling mustach, sombero wearing "hombre". I guess it is positive though to have a cartoon out there like that for people since it seems to have an impact on some, but i personally have never compared myself to a cartoon character or doll.
just my thoughts.
~julia

[MentalElemental]

We're kind of a picky bunch, huh? Magazines use super-thin models and we complain about how media influences societal ideals. A Disney movie has healthy character designs and it's not good enough because it's not 'sincere'.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't?

:winky

I'm not naive; I don't think this is the result of Disney, as a company, saying 'We would like to promote a healthier body image to the public'; I don't think we'll immediately see change. But change tends not to happen in huge, drastic ways; change occurs through small successes and gradual progression.

As someone who is rather interested in animation, I've read a bit about this particular flick since it's ended up becoming the test they're using to make the decision as to whether or not to continue making two-dimension films. This movie was a departure for the company; it was made in un-conventional ways. It was a small-committee, low-budget (as far as animation goes) flick. Should they succeed, they'll pay attention to things that were done in this movie because, after all, money talks. They'll realize that they can be unconventional, that they can take risks, and still be successful.

So maybe someone in the feature animation department will look at the success of Lilo & Stitch and say: 'Hey, maybe we don't have to model our character designs after super-waifs. Maybe the public identifies better with more realistic representations.' And maybe they'll carry that thought over and make another movie somewhere down the line which contains more positive messages regarding body image. And then another. And then perhaps live-action movies will stumble onto that fact, led by example.

And so on and so on and so on...

As the PAYING public, we have to let Hollywood, magazines and television know what we want. And the only thing they listen to is money. Because sending them letter after letter, petition after petition, won't make a difference if they still make the majority of their money off the thin-ideal.

And as far as comparing oneself to a toy or a cartoon, it may not be a conscious impression but I believe they do serve as an influence. Consider that most elementary school aged girls are worried about being fat and many have been on diets, I think we need to be very careful of the things we present to our children.

Wow...this reply ended up being a whole lot longer than I intended. Heh. I guess it's what I wanted to say from the onset of this post but was too lazy to write out initally.

[infinitepiphany]

m. e. -

"I'm not naive; I don't think this is the result of Disney, as a company, saying 'We would like to promote a healthier body image to the public'; I don't think we'll immediately see change. But change tends not to happen in huge, drastic ways; change occurs through small successes and gradual progression.

...point well taken...

still dubious, however.

michelle

[Vanna]

Wasn't the movie itself really great?-mel

No.

I thought this movie was vulgar, violent, and completely pointless. The whole "family means noone gets left behind" is great and all but does family mean that you can scream, kick, yell, and disrespect each other. I don't think so. I didn't find it funny. My son and niece didn't laugh. In fact, very few people in the theatre were laughing. I was shocked and disappointed by this movie.

I wonder when our society started to condone this kind of behavior. If someone calls you a name, it's funny if you punch them in the face and bite them. If a car pulls out in front of you, it's funny if you scream at and kick the car. If your friends are mean to you, it's funny to pull out a voodoo book to punish them. If your parents or guardians make you mad, it's funny to lock them outside, yell and threaten to kill yourself. This is NOT funny! It's NOT acceptable. It is NOT family entertainment.

I hope noone writes to thank Disney for this movie without checking it out for yourself. I will be writing Disney to chastise them for their absolute lack of family values. It saddens me that this is what "entertainment" has come to.

Thank you.
Grace

[kers]

i love the movie. i didn't think the point was that you can treat your family atrociously; i thought it showed lilo's frustration at the change in her family. she lost her whole life when her parents died--everything changed. her sister became her "parent." in addition to her own personality quirks, this made life really difficult--so she is shown lashing out, angry without any apparent reason. this rings true to life, in my experience.

then stitch mimicked this behavior (also he was "built to destroy," heh.) but in the end they both realized what "family" meant--it meant loving what goodness was around you and not being angry that things don't fit your notion of how they should.

<shrug> we can disagree! :)

plus, stitch reminded me of my cat! he was abandoned as a very young kitten and is now very very aggressive and destructive (but getting better). the vet said it's not uncommon--he had no mom to correct his behavior and help him learn to feel comfortable.

also, i did really like the bodies! it was just nice to see a sturdy strong woman like noni.



kers

[shockresist]

a post card of the little mermaid used to be on my wall. it was actually triggering. i never got how come they always looked so damn perfect. notice how ursela the evil character was larger? so is one of the step sisters, and the queen from alice in wonderland is a tad on the larger side.this isnt the case in all disney movies...but still you never see a big heroine do you?

i applaud winnie the pooh for their shapes (animals, its sad when animals are the only healthy ones). cinderella uses different size mice but the "slow" one (gus) who is the fat one...figures...lucifer the evil cat is overweight too. i do like how mrs.potts is plump, but notice also how usually the good men can be plump? belles father, the servant in cinderella, the sultan in aladan, prince erics father is as well. ah and another evil character is fat: the man in pochahontas

:love whit