MovieChat Forums > Moana (2016) Discussion > Most realistic body image??

Most realistic body image??

posted 8 years ago by sul-uddin96
24 replies | jump to latest

As we know, every "Disney Princess" seems to have a very similar body image... apart from Merida, who is Pixar, and her image was made to prove a point. I mean, when she was added to the Princess line-up, they did change her image to appear more slender, and her face was more wide and round than her actual look... this angered some fans, and even the co-director herself, Brenda Chapman, so her image was changed back.

When you look at Moana, she does look like Rapunzel, with a different skin color (of course) and different hair-style. But, she does appear more "thicker" with the arms and legs... but, to me, that's actually more realistic than the former...

Not to discredit the animators, but Rapunzel, Anna and Elsa look kinda anorexic compared to Moana. I mean, do yourself a favor and observe the image gallery for 'Frozen Fever' (2015), take a look at the still image where it's a painting of Kristoff, Anna, Elsa and Olaf sat on Sven and smiling. Kristoff's one arm looks chunkier than both of Elsa's legs!

I don't know if Disney will continue this look in their future films... but at least it's good to see that they know how a 16 year old should appear.

[–] thenmadewild 8 years ago

I thought she looked great. As someone who used to sail competitively, I know firsthand how difficult it is to be both skinny and a good sailor. You need a certain amount of weight and muscle even to handle the most easy conditions, let alone high winds on the open sea like this girl is doing. If she looked like Anna or Elsa I would have laughed aloud because yeah, no, that wouldn't work. I appreciated that she looked like a girl who could actually realistically manage it. Plus, it shows a diversity of body types on film which is never a bad thing.

[–] Devon_Farmer 8 years ago

Moana is probably also stronger and more fit then Elsa/Anna/Rapunzel... More athletic, and her figure shows it. If there was a Princess Battle Royale, I think Moana would trump all three of them physically... Elsa would only have the upper hand because she could freeze Moana's waterl; if you wanted to say that Moana had "Water Elemental Powers", what with her friendship to the Ocean.

[–] 8 years ago

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[–] Radrian_Grason 8 years ago

I think it's great! I hope they keep exploring different body types with their princesses. One of the things that's always struck me about Rapunzel is her feet. They aren't Barbie doll feet and I immediately noticed the same with Moana. I also love that I can look at Moana's limbs and think, yeah, me and a lot of people I know have arms and legs like that.

I'd also point out that Kida from Atlantis was a great deviation from previous Disney Princesses too. (Figures she gets snubbed as a Princess.) If you compare Kida's facial features to previous Princesses, you can see the similarities in previous Princesses' typically heart shaped faces. Mulan deviates a tiny bit with her face being more oval than heart shaped, but even then she's still got a bit of a point to her chin. Elsa, Anna, and especially Merida go further with the oval faces. But Kida's face is quite different than the rest: she has an extremely sharp jawline, flat chin, and a wide nose.

{Look at me and mah clevah nicksies.}

[–] 8 years ago

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[–] LukeLovesFilm28 8 years ago

These women are CARTOONS. I say people who have body image problems from cartoon characters truly need mental help. It's like saying Bugs Bunny gives boys body image problems ... or that bad guy who grows thousands of muscles when he flexes. At the end of the day, it's a fcking cartoon. It's a sad day when children of the 1940s had better common sense than adults today.

Get off your soapbox while I play you a tune on the tiniest violin.

[–] UnvoicedApollo1 8 years ago

Says the guy that thinks men should aspire to have the body of He-man.

[–] SuperBobster 8 years ago

The fact that these are animated characters is irrelevant. There are many animated films that have ridiculously exaggerated character proportions: they're either very fat, very thin or very muscle-bound, so much so that even a young audience know that these are not realistic representations of real humans.

Disney does exaggerate those proportions a little, but not to ridiculous or comedic levels. If the hero character is a reasonably accurate representation of a human person then young children will look at these characters and admire them and want to be like them: When Frozen came out, look how many young girls suddenly wanted to be Elsa in her sparkly blue dress.

So I agree with the OP, Moana is a more encouraging role model in terms of her body image: she's more athletic than skinny and has a healthy amount of fat and muscle on her.

[–] carrot_handvo 8 years ago

All cartoons are simplified and exaggerated. Unless you want hyper realistic rotoscope animation like the 80s creepy LOTR cartoons

[–] carrot_handvo 8 years ago

Brave is Disney also. Stop lying

[–] sul-uddin96 8 years ago

Can't tell if you're trolling or not... but look up the movie, again...

[–] carrot_handvo 8 years ago

How about you look up the movie? Brave is Disney also, Dumbass.

[–] sul-uddin96 8 years ago

How about you look up the movie?

This is IMDb... the very site that's used to... I don't know... LOOK UP movies. This tone of sentence convinces me that you could be a troll.

Brave is Disney also,

Disney in terms of distribution, Pixar in terms of what studio actually made it. In other words, Pixar is the chef that makes the 'Brave' pizza, and Disney is the delivery boy that distributes it to the cinemas/customers.

Dumbass.

That's mature... all I said was that 'Brave' is a Pixar movie, and that seems to have offended you more than anything else I have posted. What's next? You're going to scold me for saying that Han Solo is the best 'Star Wars' character, even though you think he's from 'Star Trek'?

[–] carrot_handvo 8 years ago

It's both a Disney and Pixar movie
dumbass

What's next? You're going to scold me for saying that Han Solo is the best 'Star Wars' character, even though you think he's from 'Star Trek'?

No, because that would be actually incorrect.
dumbass

[–] Zaphenzo 8 years ago

Not that I really want to get involved in this fight, I will help as far as the distinction between Disney and Pixar. Walt Disney Studios is the overarching parent of both companies. "Disney movies" would typically refer to movies from Walt Disney Animation Studios, which is the studio that pumped out Frozen, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Big Hero 6, Moana, etc. Pixar Animation Studios is completely separate and independent from Walt Disney Animation Studios, and they do their own work (Brave, The Good Dinosaur, Cars, etc.) So Pixar movies would not be "Disney movies" in the normal sense, though they are owned and distributed by Walt Disney Studios. But they have no relation to Walt Disney Animation Studios. That's why you would normally see something like "produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Studios" when referring to Pixar movies.

[–] carrot_handvo 8 years ago

Disney literally gave birth to Brave and nursed it like a child's mother with milk.

[–] Zaphenzo 8 years ago

And this is what I get for actually trying to have a mature conversation. I knew I shouldn't have even gotten involved. *sigh*

[–] OhNooos 8 years ago

Zap, sul-uddin is right. Brave is Pixar and Carrot is a troll at times. No logic there (on his part, not yours).

[–] sul-uddin96 8 years ago

Thank you for defending me, OhNooos! 

[–] OhNooos 8 years ago

I'm a big fan of seeing different body types in animation and toys, but have a problem with the suggestion that thin girls are not real or realistic. They are and they do represent a fair portion of the teenage population. And that's not starvation either, it's simply genetics and development.

But to add to the delight in different body types, have you seen Lilo in Lilo and Stitch, Eep in The Croods, and Gratuity in Home? I enjoyed them all.

[–] UnvoicedApollo1 8 years ago

I don't think it's that thin is unrealistic. It's that their bodies are out of proportion and exaggerated relative to their thin nature.

[–] OhNooos 8 years ago

Of course, you're right about that. The exaggeration of features has been one of those defining characteristics of cartoons and animation for decades. It's a quick stroke way of conveying an idea. In the case of Disney Princesses, it's to show femininity. The eyes will also be exaggerated as will the chin size. Men, who are heroes will have larger chests and huge jaw lines or chins.

In most animations I've seen, even when the females have larger bodies, the proportions are still exaggerated. Moana may well be the first time I've seen an animated character have proportions that mirror real people. Her father still seemed exaggerated. When it came to Elsa and Anna in Frozen, it felt very much that the artists were adhering in part to the old Disney formula of princess and also trying to illustrate thin, white, Nordic females.

[–] SuperBobster 8 years ago

The human characters in the Shrek films looked quite realistic in terms of their proportions, that includes facial features as well as body shape. But apart from that, yes there is usually some exaggeration.

[–] OhNooos 8 years ago

Good point about Fiona. She did seem rather realistic. Of course, Shrek did not in his monster form.

Dreamworks has a different focus in their films that Disney does. A few of the Disney ones have been like DW, where the focus is on telling a unique story and they use unique looking characters to tell it (such as Lilo and Stitch and Wreck-it-Ralph). Then there is this "Princess" line, which is very marketable and quickly explains that something will be a story as in the old fairy-tale type with familiar tropes. The Princesses have, in the past, pretty much been of a certain body type that communicated feminine beauty belonging to royalty.