Character Simulation Suitable for the Times and Society, Suitable for National Identity and Cultural Space

In the “Classic Period” (with films such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , Cinderella , Sleeping Beauty ), Disney’s female protagonists were often beautiful, but passive, and weak girls. They were girls who needed to be protected and sheltered. This accurately reflected the position and role of American women, as well as other European countries, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were just housewives, serving the family, taking care of the house, raising children, while the husband was the pillar, working to earn money to support the family, and controlling the economy. Masculinity during this period developed quite strongly. Growing up, girls were married off in a “matching” way, educated in the way of “wherever parents put them, the children sit there”, obeying their husbands and children… The desire of young girls was nothing more than to marry a rich husband and have a happy family. The dependence of women on men, as well as their secondary role in the family, has influenced the image of women in literature and film. The image of the female protagonists in classic Disney films is always that of innocent, pure, weak teenage girls... while the villains are all mature, strong, sharp, powerful and cruel women (most of them are stepmothers, stepmothers because the female characters are often motherless). The male characters of this period are often obscure.

bland, just acting as a kind of gift that falls from the sky “onto the heads” of girls, and fulfills the wishes of these girls. They get these girls without any effort and they are similar as if they were “cast in the same mold”.

However, in the following periods, we see a significant change in the image of female characters. Author Amy Michelle Davis comments in her study:

The 20th century witnessed two major changes in women's rights in society. Those were the right to vote (in 1920 in the US) and the feminist movement from the 1960s to the present… [36, p.131].

In the late 1980s, gender equality was enhanced. Women were present in the ranks of leaders in public and private agencies, playing an important role in family and social life. The image of female characters in Disney films also clearly reflected this change. There was a shift from passive, weak female characters who needed to be protected and sheltered to strong, independent female characters who were proactive in life and love. These characters had clear goals and were willing to pursue their goals to the end, even if they had to go through many difficulties. A series of films produced in the late 1980s to the end of the 1990s, such as The Little Mermaid , Beauty and the Beast , Aladdin , Pocahontas , The Hunchback of Notre Dame , Hercules , Mulan and The Jungle Book all had female characters with different images from the past, with initiative, courage, independence, and daring to act. They have dreams that are far different from passive girls who consider the prince's love as the salvation of their lives. They still want true love, but not passively waiting. Ariel in The Little Mermaid initially wanted to be a part of the world above (the human world), but after meeting Prince Eric, she wanted to be a part of his world. Because of that desire, she disobeyed orders.

father, sought out the witch Ursula to exchange her voice for legs, determined to become human. Her initiative, perseverance and courage finally paid off, she made peace with her father, married Prince Eric and lived a happy life. Belle in the movie Beauty and the Beast is also a strange girl. She wanted to go far away, escape from the peaceful but boring village. She did not like the constrained family life (refused to be the wife of the handsome and arrogant Gaston). To save her father, she became the Beast's prisoner and gradually, step by step, transformed him. From a hot-tempered, cruel and selfish person, she gradually became a good person, sympathetic, sharing, and sacrificing herself. The fairy's curse was lifted, he regained his human appearance, a prince and married her, living happily ever after.

However, not all female characters in Disney animated films at this stage had the prince's love as their goal, but they had other goals. For example, the girl Pocahontas in the movie Pocahontas broke up with her lover, became a leader, and led the tribe to fight to protect their ancestral land. The girl Mulan in the movie Mulan disguised herself as a man, replaced her old and disabled father to join the army to fight the enemy. With her intelligence and courage, she fought tenaciously, defeated the Huns, saved the palace and the king. Her goal was to protect the country and honor her family. Along with the above female characters, other female protagonists in the remaining films such as Jasmine in Aladdin , Jane in The Jungle Book , Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame , or Meg in Hercules are all independent, strong-willed, determined, and decide their own fate, always being themselves. The choices and decisions they make in situations that occur during the development of the story, arouse curiosity, create interest, and attract viewers. Author Amy Michelle Davis commented:

Although romance remains the dominant theme in Disney animated films, most of the female characters here pursue their own primary goals. Instead of passively waiting for a prince charming, young women in Disney films of the 1990s have the goal of experiencing, seeking new things (like Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, and Jane) or justice (like Pocahontas, Esmeralda, Meg, and Mulan) in different ways. Romantic love is no longer the main goal but more like an exciting, unexpected experience – like finding gold. [36, p. 246]

In addition, viewers not only see the changes in the female characters, but also in the male characters. They are no longer rigid, naive princes, "cast from the same mold", passive targets for girls to pursue, images copied from one film to another, with each job being to appear at the right time to welcome the girls. They have the appearance of late 20th century boys, with diverse personalities, with their own goals, sharing the hardships with their lovers to fight against the enemy to achieve their own goals. Eric in The Little Mermaid jumped into the sea to save Ariel and piloted the ship to kill the witch. The Beast in Beauty and the Beast rushed into the forest to save Belle from the clutches of the wolves, changing himself, becoming a sympathetic and loving man. The young man Ly Tuong in the movie Hoa Mulan together with Mulan broke the enemy's plot, saved the king and the country and received her love. The hero Hercules in Hercules , accepting Meg's love, gave up the immortality of a god, to live with her in the life of a commoner. John Smith in the movie Pocahontas respected Pocahontas' love for her homeland and her choice, giving up the desire to live happily with her, the person he loved all his life...

As mentioned above, while the villains in Disney movies are scary,

In the classic Disney films, most of them are portrayed through the image of powerful, evil women who are capable of destroying everything on the way to conquer the dreams of young girls (the stepmother queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , the stepmother in Cinderella , the evil witch in Sleeping Beauty , etc.), then in the later stage of Disney, besides the female villains like the witch Ursula in The Little Mermaid , many male villains have appeared. Gaston in Beauty and the Beast , Ratcliffe in Pocahontas , Hades in Hercules , Jafar in Aladdin , Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame ... And these male villains are often powerful, rich, cunning, sinful, reflecting a more diverse and realistic society, leading the film stories to become more suspenseful and thrilling with many scenes similar to action or detective films.

In general, the change in the way the characters are built is appropriate to the times, helping viewers easily identify themselves, easily sympathize with the characters and understand the film more easily. To understand Disney's characters Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, viewers now have to put themselves in the cultural and social context of America and Europe in the 1920s and 1930s of the last century, to understand why those characters were so cynical that viewers of that period found true to themselves and their lives.

3.2.2. Building characters that diversify racially, culturally and socially

Since the 1960s, not only has the feminist movement grown strongly, but the issue of equality and anti-racism has also grown. In the era of technology and the development of the entertainment industry, cultural and racial diversity is also the goal that Walt Disney is aiming for, because its market is not only in the US but also globally.

The digital revolution that began in the late 20th century has brought many changes.