Brave

    Brave is a more recently released Disney movie. It came out in 2012. This animation is based in the Highlands in Scotland and centres around a young princess who would rather go and shoot her bow and arrow than dress up and act 'ladylike'.

    This animation is quite realistic in portraying the country it is supposed to be set in. The mountainous background with large lakes and forests looks quite like the mountainous areas of Scotland. It makes the movie quite a bit more realistic and interesting.

    The outfits worn in this movie are also quite similar to ones that would have been worn back in Celtic Scotland. The men can be seen wearing traditional Scottish kilts and the women wearing long sleeved dresses with celtic patterns on them. This helps show the geographical side of the movie.

    The people in this movie can also be seen taking part in traditional Celtic Scottish past times such as archery. Archery plays a big part in this movie as it is one of Merida's (princess) favourite past times and is the main event of the competition to marry Merida.

Beauty and the Beast

    Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 Disney animated movie in which a girl from a small town ends up at a castle where a beast lives after she follows her father to the castle. The town is set in France. The costumes and the buildings and houses in the village in the movie are quite similar to those in traditional French villages when this movie is set.

    The costumes on the villagers are quite realistic. They can be seen wearing similar headdresses, aprons and dresses that would have been traditionally worn by French villagers in that sort of setting. Belle's hair is slight less accurate though. Most French woman in the time that this movie is set would have worn their hair in very large and elaborate ways. Many would have worn large, powdered white wigs where as Belle's hair is simply brown and not extravagant.


 











The buildings in the village in Beauty and the Beast are quite similar to those in a traditional French town. The buildings in the village are 'half-timbered' which is basically when a wooden structure is built and filled and then you can still see some of the wooden frame on the outside of the house. This was used in traditional villages in France in this time period so the movie is quite accurate for that.

Mulan

    Mulan was released by Disney in 1998. It is about a girl who takes her father's place when he is called to the Chinese Military. He is unable to go himself due to injury so she dresses as a man and goes to fight for him. The movie is set in Ancient China. You can see that it is set in Ancient China because of certain landmarks, buildings and costumes that can be found in the movie.

 

    For landmarks in the movie that shows it is set in China there is the Great Wall of China and a version of the Emperor's Palace. These Ancient Chinese landmarks both show the geographical location of the movie.

   

For the costumes aspect of the movie they are reasonably accurately corresponding at some points to their geographical and historical location. An example of this are the clothes that the Ancient Chinese Warriors can be seen wearing in this movie. They have a similar style with the armour, pointed shoes and same style of hair bun as the real Ancient Warriors of China.

Aladdin

    Aladdin was released by Disney in 1992. This movie is set in a fictional Arabian city called Agrabah. It can be seen that this animation is set in an Arabic country due to the costumes, music and town scene that they used.
   
    The costumes used in this movie are loosely based off of clothes from the time period and place the movie is set in. For example The Sultan in Aladdin wears a large headpiece with a feather attached to it. This would have been the style of headdress that sultans would have worn in that time period. There are also multiple costume inaccuracies in this movie, for example Jasmine is seen wearing a belly top where as this would not have been allowed in Arabian countries in those times.

 

    Although the music in Aladdin may not sound like Arabian music from this time, the lyrics from songs such as 'Arabian Nights' show that the movie is set in an Arabic country. Many people claim that the lyrics to this song are stereotypical of Arabian countries and are politically incorrect. These people use lyrics such as "Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face. It's barbaric, but hey, it's home" to prove their point. These lyrics imply that there was a substantial amount of violence in these countries but they don't show the cultural side of Arabic countries.

    Finally the town scene that was used in Aladdin is based off of what a town in one of these countries may have looked like. The sultan's palace in the town is based off of the architecture of a real sultan's palace. An example of this is the domes on the building.

Snow White

    On October 16th 1923 Walt Disney signed with M. J. Winkler to create his first cartoon series named 'Alice Comedies' with his brother Roy. They began their careers in Los Angeles, USA. Disney's first feature length film, 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' was released on December 21st 1937. Walt Disney Studios has created 54 animated movies in total so far. All these movies have been set in locations all across the world.

    I will be discussing the geographical places where these movies were set and the relation of that to the movies. I will also be discussing the various Disney themed attractions across the world. Since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first animated movie by Disney, I will begin with it. Snow White was originally a story written by The Brothers Grimm. The Brothers Grimm were a pair of German brothers who wrote fairytales. Snow White is most likely set in Germany because that is where the brothers are from.

    In 1986 an idea was published by Karlheinz Bartels which suggested that the fairytale 'Snow White' was based off of the real life of a German girl named Maria Sophia Margaretha Catherina von Erthal. She lived in a castle in Lohr. Her father re-married to a lady who became her stepmother. The stepmother was cruel to the girl and when her father died, the girl was abandoned with her cruel stepmother. The father had given the stepmother a gift before he died. the gift was a mirror which became known as "The Talking Mirror". All of these similarities led Bartels to his connection between Maria Sophia and Snow White.

Bibliography

http://thefairytaletraveler.com/2014/07/31/explore-real-snow-white-destinations-germany/

https://en.wikipedia.org

https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/about-disney/disney-history

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/61/257.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWtxeTDBOHw

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/319263061058615796/

https://leonardostories.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/2nd-day-in-china/

https://onrrysun.wordpress.com/about/

http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Village_(Beauty_and_the_Beast)

http://www.britannica.com/technology/half-timber-work

 http://www.buzzfeed.com/eugeneyang/if-disney-princesses-were-historically-accurate

Introduction

Hey my name is Rebecca and this is my blog about the geography of Disney animated movies.