Disney Princesses in Thailand

“Disney Princesses’re gonna die.” After almost five hours of talking (and drinking) with one of my “animation freak” friends, we came to the conclusion that Disney’s princess stories, like Cinderella, Snow White, or the newest one: Tiana from The Princess and the Frog, will soon become obsolete and die in my country, Thailand. Basically, the whimsical stories of Disney princesses are untouchable in most Thais' eyes because most Thai people are middle class or lower. Many girls from a lower class background do not dare to even dream about becoming princesses while, in reality, they have to help their parents work or raise their younger sisters or brothers at home; they do not even have a chance to go to school. Also, Disney’s movies and stuff are like American representatives, so this makes Thai’s lower class feel like the goals in the stories are very unreachable for them. They would feel like they are acting like the rich who can have a chance to be “close” to the people of a rich, fancy country, like Americans. Although ten years ago, these two-dimension cartoons were popular among Thai girls in the upper middle class, they become too whimsical and unreasonable in the modern world; today’s girls are closer to everyday-life stories, such as Toy Story, or they are more interested in futuristic stories, such as Wall-e. Also, after the Shrek era, which changed the face of the classical princess story, most Thai girls expect every princess story to have a sense of humor and irony like Shrek, and the princess’ character has to have some modernized traits; she has to be quite adventurous and not always ask for any help from others, unlike most Disney princesses. 

Apart from the modernized stories from Pixar and DreamWorks--like Monster Inc., Up, or Madagascar--there are many competitors whose films are much closer to Asian culture, like many animations from the Japanese company, Studio Ghibli: Ponyo and Spirited Away (For instance, in almost all of Ghibli’s films, the main female and male characters’ expression of love is just touching or holding hands while there has to be a kissing scene in almost every American animation.), and Thai TV cartoons are improving. Even though Thai cartoons’ quality might not be comparable to those of Disney’s films or Ghibli’s, the fact that they use the Thai language and express Thai culture cannot be overlooked. However, if you ask me what kind of “animation nerd” I am, my answer is “You have to see my room. There is more of the princesses’ space than mine.”