¡Sarah!

So here's another petty whine for an LJ that has become little more than petty whines: I hate when someone finds out that I am a Disney fan and they immediately assume that I am an idiot. I can't recall having quite this problem at home, but for some reason revealing my Disney fandom to other ALTs has so far only produced two reactions: the "omg I love Disney too!!" reaction, or the "omg you're awful" reaction. My neighbour M took the latter, and attempted to lecture me on how problematic certain Disney films are.

Dude.

If you want to talk about problematic Disney, I would love to do so. I could talk about problematic Disney all day. If you want, you can take a look through my collection of books and academic articles about the many gender- and- class- and- race-related problems in Disney films and parks. This is an endless topic that I am well aware of and have been reading and talking about for at least seven years.

So you don't have to start with a "You know, Disney doesn't portray its female characters very well." Because believe me. I know. It is also unnecessary to bring up Jasmine's unrealistic thinness like you think it's going to shatter my worldview and convince me to swear off Disney forever. Dude, I could talk for like an hour about the problems with Jasmine. This is stuff I have thought about a fair bit.

"Well there are race issues in Aladdin, too." Yes, I agree. Proceed. "Jafar is the villain and he has the most Middle Eastern accent of the whole cast!"

Uh ... by "Middle Eastern" do you mean "British"?

Have you actually seen this movie recently or are you just basing your entire argument off of things other people have said?

Okay well I don't know where this entry is actually going but I guess my frustrations are a mix of:
Why do people hear "I'm a Disney fan" and understand that to mean "I like Disney movies because I don't see any problems with them"?
Why do people hear "I'm a Disney fan" and understand that to mean "I like Disney movies but I don't know anything about them"?
Why do people think they can or should attempt to remedy these made-up problems by throwing out random things that are oft-quoted but a) not actually true, or b) only like 2% of the whole story?

It's like - guys! I am a Disney fan. It is pretty much my always and forever One True Fandom. I say this secure in the knowledge that a large number of Disney films and parks have parts that are hugely problematic. I also happen to know a fair bit about these films and parks and the problems they contain. If you want to talk about these problems I am absolutely always happy to do so. But that happiness fades pretty rapidly when I realize you don't actually remember the movie you are trying to argue against.

Basically: don't assume I don't know what I'm talking about when it's actually you who don't know what you're talking about!!!

In conclusion I am sick of people trying to tell me that movies like Anastasia and Road to El Dorado are Disney and then arguing with me when I correct them. Guys, would you like me to recite for you the entire Disney animated canon? No, I don't think you would.

So in cleaning out my bookmarks I came across a page that I bookmarked during my obsession with the Disney Rarities DVD, from which I have now learned that Virginia Davis passed away almost exactly a year ago. I missed this news when it broke, and I must admit that even though it's not exactly a surprise (she was ninety), I'm still a little saddened by it.

From 1923 to 1927, the bulk of the work produced by the Walt Disney studio (which had pretty much just begun and wasn't even going by that name yet) was a series of shorts that combined animation with live action footage of a little girl named Alice, who for the first two years was played by Virginia Davis. I have a serious love for these shorts; I find them adorable and super fascinating at the same time.

For those of you on whom I haven't been able to force this already, allow me to introduce you to "Alice's Wonderland," the first of the Alice shorts. I like that it begins with Alice and Walt just being their awesome selves. xD



Old Disney is the most fascinating stuff. <3

I guess if I'm sitting here wasting time I might as well write a post, even if it's random and totally useless. :) The return of my favourite meme~~!

List seven songs you are into right now, no matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your LiveJournal along with your seven songs.

( 男なんてなんて信じない )

Okay, now to spend the rest of this lovely day off studying!! :D I feel like I keep forgetting my intention to attempt the JLPT at the end of this year, whoops.

Super short and only a little bit spoilery (but I'll cut it anyway) first thoughts on Toy Story 3 before I run back to the theatre to start my shift aaaaaah~!!!

( Buzz-- Buzz-- Buzz Lightyear to the rescue! )

Also, we got to watch the Tangled trailer but apparently there was a mix-up of some kind because we watched it in FRENCH. xD

I love how listening to Disney songs in foreign languages is something that even people who aren't interested in foreign languages sometimes do. xD (And something I did even before YouTube, ngl.) I was partaking in this most excellent of activities last night and I managed to get stuck on "That's How You Know" from Enchanted for like half an hour. Here it is in Japanese (although the subs are a little off in parts and it's irking me), Latin American Spanish, and Quebec French (haters to the left, 'cause that's my favourite kind of French xD ). I had completely forgotten how much I love this song! Fingers crossed that Alan Menken writes the songs for the sequel. <3 (The sequel is due in 2011? Oh my god, it's going to be another Pirates and Enchanted year and I AM SO DOWN WITH THAT.)

Uh ... insert some deep observation here. I'm off to find some more Disney dubs to listen to. xD (I'm also kind of in love with the Latin American Spanish version of "I Won't Say I'm in Love," mostly because of the way Megara sings "no van a oir" and "porque no todo es maravilloso." Awesome!!)

HEY SARAH WHY ARE YOU WRITING A TRIP REPORT ABOUT A TRIP THAT ENDED (unfortunately ;_; ) A YEAR AGO

BECAUSE I WANT TO SO SHUT UP AND ENJOY IT!!

For months now I have been completely stuck on how to write my Universal Studios Japan entry, so I guess I'll skip it for now and write about it alongside my other theme parks at the end.

( day thirteen )

Another sad day on my friendslist, this time from a different fandom: Roy E. Disney passed away today, forty-three years and one day after his famous uncle. I confess I don't pay as much attention to the people in charge at Disney as I probably should, but I definitely knew of Roy and his continued efforts to protect the company from falling into the wrong hands. So I definitely consider this sad news. :(

51. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), 2000
I can count this as a movie if I want to count it as a movie, haha. I heard about this play when the_wykydtron went to a local production (without me!! HOW DARE SHE), and so intrigued was I by her report that I looked to see if I could find a version of it on YouTube. Lo and behold, I found the entire thing! I finally finished watching it last night, and, while it was a little more ridiculous than I'd been expecting, overall I really enjoyed it! They actually manage to include pretty much all of Shakespeare's work, including my beloved but much-ignored "Troilus and Cressida," which is awesome! As a wannabe Shakespeare fan I was definitely laughing through the whole thing (except for the occasional serious moments, which were also very good), and I'll probably be looking into the Reduced Shakespeare Company's other productions in the future. xD

In other news, last night trumpydoesmagic and I watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which was most excellent, and then I had a dream that Lady Gaga featured Morning Musume's Reina Tanaka in one of her songs. Uhm. Awesome?