The star's of Disney's real triumphant return to the animated world
I was watching one of my all time favourite Disney films yesterday; Bolt. It’s sweet, funny, fantastically animated and has a wonderfully heartfelt story behind it. I’ve seen it literally hundreds of times, I still laugh I still get a bit saddened, (although now I’m cool and manly and a grown up, I of course, do not cry) and feel fantastically uplifted and snuggerly by the end.
Everything someone should feel when watching this movie is given to you. If you haven’t seen it, then WHERE, HAVE, YOU, BEEN! (Also, stop reading this post, and go and watch it: spoilers and shit come later. Oh, and you’ll have NO idea what the hell I’m talking about throughout this entire entry).
So anyway, I was watching Bolt, laughing, crying (not really, grrr, manly!) It reached the final dramatic scene (SPOILER ALERT), Bolt saves Penny from the stage fire, the evil agent gets kicked out of the ambulance by an angry parent and the words “We quit” echo around my lounge in triumphant fashion.
How Cute?
Hooray! A happily ever after! And then, all of a sudden it hit me… I saw something; a ripple of a hidden story, or message within the storyline itself, something I had clearly negated to observe in previous viewings (I am easily distracted by primary colours and puppy eyes and fluffy talking animals… I’m probably Disney’s main source of income to be honest… they’re my main source of expenditure, it would only make sense).
It appeared that the Disney Corporation, was either advocating that it had made mistakes and taken advantage of child actors and artists, and that that would no longer be the case. OR, the writers and director (Dan Fogelman and Chris Williams, Bryon Howard and Jared Stern respectively) had just taken the biggest, most underhanded stab at the Disney Corporation in recent memory.
I know what you’re thinking; “That’s stupid, Disney would never admit to making mistakes” and “Disney would never even green light the creation of, let alone release, a movie of its own production that publically criticised it, especially in such a manner”. But, hear me out, and perhaps you’ll agree, it isn’t as crazy as it sounds, both arguments actually have pretty solid foundations to them.
Was there more than just a shimmering Similarity?
To begin with, would Disney ever publically admit that it had made errors in its management, publicising and use of child stars? I mean, they’ve been using them for years – Britney, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake all achieved their big breaks on The Mickey Mouse Club in the 1990’s. Miley Cyrus herself (the voice of Penny in the film Bolt) has had resounding international success through her alter ego Hannah Montana (an unprecedentedly successful show on the Disney Channel). So why would they suddenly change their minds?
Well, if one looks just slightly deeper and reads between the lines of public statements by the modern day ‘Disney Children’, official statements by Disney, newspaper articles and the like, even looking at broadcast and running dates on Wikipedia, the ever reliable information source there is evidence within there to suggest that around the time of Bolt’s production and release, there were efforts and corporate movements to change the face of the ‘Disney Children’. A number of key ‘coincidences’ arise upon a slight investigation:
During Bolt’s production in 2007, Miley Cyrus publically admitted she had no intention of renewing her contract with Disney once it expired, preferring to ‘Move on and do her own thing, probably take a break from music to pursue some more independent acting roles, maybe do some writing and just chill out, it’s been such a hectic none stop rocket ride, sometimes you just want to take an extended break, something I will definitely be doing at the end of all this’. Disney confirmed this in 2009, stating that a mutual decision had been taken to not renew Cyrus’s contract, essentially cutting all ties between the two parties.
A new ‘Disney Band’ is introduced just after Bolt’s initial trailer release in April 2008; The Jonas Brothers,
Were Disney Going from This...
new, heavily religious, sickeningly squeaky clean ‘pop/rock’ group, who wore purity rings, condemned sex before marriage and if I’m being honest? They simply seemed to be Disney’s response to the ever more rebellious Miley (culminating in the release of the 2010 single and album entitled Can’t Be Tamed… yeah, really subtle love). However, was this in fact the case? Evidence through leaked sources on the internet suggested that it was not actually Disney who pursued the band, but rather the band and their agents that asked Disney for an audition. That in itself is an immediate change in stance; Disney not actively pursuing such a clean band, seemingly perfect to fill the ‘Cyrus hole’ (pardon the pun) and generate and spawn squillions of dollars in merchandise, squillions of fans flashing those dollars and screaming the names of these lovely boys at gigs, at the TV and more importantly, at their parents and their wallets. Secondly, this squeaky clean band did not receive a TV show (or rather at not first) but a very poorly publicised ‘Disney Channel Original Movie’ and DVD, of which they
...To This?
were rather the backing stars for one miss Demi Lovato. Here again, Disney broke with tradition and hired an already certified child actress and singer/songwriter (she had already appeared in Barney and Friends, Grey’s Anatomy, and Just Jordon all before she was approached by Disney to star in the lead role of Camp Rock), who immediately pushed the Jonas Brothers into the background so to speak and after the initial airing of the film, she returned to more serious acting (appearing in Prison Break) and a solo pop career choosing to leave Disney, or Disney deciding to not offer her a more serious long term contract, again, another break with tradition (as it is the latter that is true, Disney did not offer her a contract, choosing instead to recommence with the rebuilding of their feature animated film franchise and push Pixar to create bigger films).
The above all seems to suggest that Disney around the time of Bolt’s production and release, had already chosen to switch their focus away from pop role models and back onto their traditional pedestal of animated features. Bolt was pushed and advertised as ‘the big return to the animated world’, after the success of other recent animated features such as Cars, Ice Age 2, Surfs Up and others, an increasingly popular animated film market was something Disney seemingly thought was something they should return their attention to in a more serious way. This was again, something they displayed publically by purchasing animation giant Pixar in late 2006 (around the time that Bolt was first green light for production… the coincidences continue), However, here, there is a crossover to another argument, that could suggest that director Chris Williams and writer Bryon Howard had given Disney the biggest middle finger ever; a way of getting back at them after Disney apparently ‘financially bullied’ Pixar (a company they are heavily involved with, although both have worked with Disney in the past on Mulan and Brother Bear before moving to Pixar) into allowing Disney to purchase controlling shares of the smaller (though more contemporarily renowned, groundbreaking and respected) animation company.
There are rumours that suggested the character of Penny was purposely modelled to look like her voice actress Miley Cyrus by animator Chris Williams. This again ,is just rumor, but it is common for animators to model characters on the voice actors to as to increase realism in the facial features and voice matching. However, there are were leaks that suggested he had done this to give his opinion of the way Disney treat it’s child star and lead money maker. I am however sceptical of this. I think that it might JUST be a coincidence in this case, although I do find it rather amusing and I do like to think it’s true in my own little way.
A character I do believe is far too obvious to be ignored (Another Spoiler coming up) is that of Penny’s Agent… a nameless character simply referred to in the credits as ‘Agent’. His comedy dialogue and larger than life caricature actions and rapid speech do make him an amusing interjection in the narrative, but having watched it in a different more analytical mind set he is actually rather sinister and manipulative and certainly do NOT paint agents of young children in a positive light. It appears, again, to be another stab at the way that children in the media are treated. Never allowed to actually do what they wish, merely manipulated into thinking they are actually are. His way of ‘putting a pin in it’ when wishing to change the subject off one that would involve doing something Penny wishes to do, but can’t, whilst adorably stupid and now one of my adopted catchphrases, is actually rather cynical and represents a way of treating children as objects rather than actual people.
Adults in general are not represented in a positive light, even Penny’s mother, a plump loveable looking woman, is not there for her daughter, is willingly pushed into the background of her daughter’s showbiz life, walking behind her unhappy daughter, her entourage and at times telling her daughter that ‘Bolt will be alright’ when he goes missing. Hardly mother of the year eh?
I do believe that having watched this rather fantastic film a further three times there is a lot of undercurrent suggesting that either Disney is subtly telling adults their values have changed. Yet they seem to be doing so in a rather odd way. They seem to be saying
“Here, we’ve changed our values. We aren’t destroying children’s lives anymore with money and stardom. BUT what we are doing is returning to make spectacular animated features like this one that have fluffy animals, bright primary colours, amusing set pieces and a happy ending for your children. But you can enjoy them too parents! Yes, we’ve dumped subtle sexual humour, innuendos and adult plot lines that you’ll understand if you’re smart enough in there as well. ENJOY!”
Yep, enjoy guys. Watch it, let me know if you think there’s something there too. I’m going to start on their back catalogue now, and see if there’s anything in any of them to warn children and parents that they will soon be subjected to shite music, overly sexual young teens and the most repetitively crap storylines and awful humour ever conceived… I’m going to start with Peter Pan and Bambi…
thethoughtsofjamie 