Tea at Trianon: The First Disney Princess

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, February 13, 2016

The First Disney Princess

From Smithsonian:

"The Goddess of Spring" wasn’t Walt Disney Picture’s last foray into Greek mythology or myth-inspired animation (hello, Fantasia), but it’s worth noting that animators used this myth to practice for their famous retellings of European-style fairy tales in the tradition of the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault. Given recent research that shows that both types of tales could share common roots, perhaps it's no surprise that the spring maiden who launched an entire genre of movies was not German or French, but rather Greek. (Read more.)

Ludwig Károly said...: A major correction: "The Goddess of Spring" was released in 1934, not 1937. Still, it's impressive how much the Disney studio progressed in just three years from that cartoon to "Snow White", which featured genuinely compelling, believable characters (the scene of the dwarves crying over Snow White is amazingly realistic). Personally, I think it's better than any of the Disney princess films that followed.; February 13, 2016 at 1:03:00 AM EST