“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.”