Animated Classic vs. Live-Action Adaptation: A Comparison of Romantic Relationships in Disney Movies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58445/rars.3852Keywords:
Disney, live-action adaptations, comparison, romance, romantic relationshipsAbstract
The purpose of this study was to analyze the improvements made to romantic relationships in Disney princess movies’ live-actions remakes. Prior research shows how Disney has improved the portrayal of gender roles in their live-action remakes, and how Disney has improved romantic relationships across their animated films. However, there is no study that focuses on the improvements in live-action remakes in regards to romantic relationships. Data was collected through comparative content analysis, in which all existing princess movies with a live-action counterpart (14 in total) were watched and documented, and these notes were then highlighted with my coding dictionary and compared. Even though this study did not include human subjects, part of this research aims to deduce which version of the Disney movie is better for younger audiences. Initial results showed that the animated originals had very high levels of unhealthy characteristics and low levels of healthy characteristics, while the live-actions displayed the opposite. This means that the live-actions are greatly improving on the aspects reflected in the coding dictionary. Therefore, the conclusion can be made that live-actions are improving the portrayal of romantic relationships in terms of time spent together, consent, positive interactions, physical violence, male emotions, and more. However, this is limited to only current adaptations and only Disney princess movies. Future research should expand to other live-actions in Disney’s domain, as well as other companies’ adaptations.
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