Why Disney is getting male villains wrong.

Top to bottom: King Fergus in Brave,
Hans gets ready to kill Elsa in Frozen,
and Angelina Jolie as Maleficent.

Why Disney is getting male villains wrong...

In Brave...

Merida begs her father, King Fergus, "don't hurt my mother!" when her mother has assumed the form of a bear and Fergus is about to plunge a sword into her.

There's no indication prior to this that King Fergus is violent towards his family, nor is Merida at odds with her father. It simply emerges and subsides for no reason aside from a writer or producer wishing to cast Fergus briefly in an abusive light.

In Frozen…

Hans turns on Elsa with no warning, and in the climactic scene, as in Brave, is about to striker her down with a sword.

In Maleficent…

King Stefan brutally cuts the wings off Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) as she sleeps. When she awakens, she sobs alone and is metaphorically raped and naked.

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Disney men lately are either dimwits who don't know how they are being perceived by women, or they undergo out-of-character changes that have no subtext and can't be anticipated.

Disney had thousands of years of Western tradition to draw on for evil stepmoms, and only a generation or two to integrate male villains.

They'll get it right eventually, but in the mean time, Disney men are just mean for no reason.

[2014-06-15]

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