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Disney’s Live-Action Princess Movies Are Trapped in the 2010s
These decadent yet chintzy nostalgia pieces with delusions of forward momentum once ruled the box office. Not anymore.
Give me Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Mulan, and The Little Mermaid, all apex products of Disney’s Domination Era, the archetypal lineup of the company’s Princess brand brought to big-budget life. These films re-created and hyperinflated their source material, filling expanded run times with prologues and backstory, fitting performers into elaborate costumes designed for two dimensions, and situating human beings into steadily uglier CGI surroundings. When I revisit the old cartoons over my kids’ shoulders, it’s obvious the most vivid personalities are in the ensembles — bighearted little miners, winged godmothers, hungry mice, a fussy crab, the candelabra hot for the feather duster, a transmorphic meta-genie.
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