On November 21, 2010, the Los Angeles Times published an article about how Disney is “closing the book” on fairy tales and musicals in their feature animation department for the foreseeable future.  If you’re interested in the worlds of film, animation, or the latest Disney animated feature, Tangled, the article is an interesting read, but what really stood out are the reasons behind Disney’s decision to move away from making fairy tale movies.  The article states that the current mentality among filmmakers is that fairy tales are predictable and don’t appeal to a broad enough audience, especially the young boys who are more enticed by movies like Transformers than by The Princess and the Frog.  Furthermore, the article discusses the preferences of young girls today, particularly around the ages of five and six. Girls of that age appear not to aspire to the princess ideal and instead are more influenced by “tween” role models from Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel and by what is considered hip and cool.  As a result, fairy tales don’t appeal to the young girls of today like they did to previous generations.

On the flip side, one could argue that the reasons behind audiences’ apparent lack of enthusiasm for fairy tales has nothing to do with society’s view of the genre itself.  Perhaps audiences just don’t want to waste their time with fairy tale movies that don’t appeal to them for other reasons, whether it’s poor storytelling or bad marketing. One could argue that a truly great movie with exceptional storytelling will sell itself regardless of the marketability of the genre or premise. Consider the movie Up, for example. Taking into account the young people of today, does a movie about a curmudgeonly man in the twilight of his life sound like a hit? Nevertheless, it proved itself by appealing to audiences both of previous generations and the younger set. It’s possible that a fairy tale film could be a huge success even among tweens if it strikes the right emotional chord.

The day after this article was published, Ed Catmull, the president of Walt Disney Animation Studios, who was interviewed for the article, responded that the article’s claims are erroneous.  Nevertheless, the questions the article poses are still worth discussing.

What do you think about the reasoning in this article? What does that say about the role models and influences on children today, especially young girls, and what appeals to them? Is it better for their role models to be rooted in reality rather than fantasy? And, most of all, do you think that fairy tales really dead among audiences in today’s society?