#and then trailing off into samefacesyndrome gnarring because like! THOSE ARE SUCH INTERESTING FACES!!

[serialreblogger]

ok but i think the thing that bugs me most about disney’s same-face syndrome is that it’s NOT because the artists are lazy. like

the sheer amount of face and body design in this screenshot from Tangled? INCREDIBLE. i am in AWE. it’s so fun to look at, i want to know the stories of each of these people because i believe! they are actual! people!! the amount of creativity in this one screenshot is downright contagious!

and it’s the same with Frozen, like

the design style of these people is a bit different from Tangled, and I’m not sure if that’s meant to denote a different geographical area or if it’s just a matter of different artists being involved, but still: you can clearly see the variety of faces in these shots. i’d even say there’s MORE variation in background female characters than male ones.

which means that THIS

is NOT a symptom of incompetence. and it’s not a sign of lazy design work. it’s a CHOICE.

and that shouldn’t be a surprise! that’s what disney DOES, these days; it finds a niche that makes some cash and pumps it until it runs dry. it owns the entertainment industry. it can afford to be tasteless and formulaic. it doesn’t HAVE any competitors to keep it honest.

but it drives me absolutely MAD to realize that the thing disney sees as a primary moneymaking asset, enough to impose THIS level of sameness for as long as they can get away with it, is the appearance of its female leads. It’s the face of their main character.

Because it works. This design is nonthreatening, attractive, and perfectly appealing to all audiences, children and adults alike. It’s white, and pretty, and thin, and young. it’s what we’re used to looking at, even as it catches the eye.

It’s a perfect face.

It’s a face that sells tickets, and a figure that sells toys.

They could create new characters with their own faces, but why would they? This face, this character, this body makes them money. They find actresses for live-action remakes that match the mold of thin-sweet-pretty as closely as they can, and filter out the rest.

They’ve bought out their competitors, and it’s not like they’re accountable to their audiences. There’s nowhere to go but Disney, these days.

They’ve found something low-effort and high-profit, and there’s nothing anyone can do that will make them let it go.

Why would they ever change this perfect face?

#i! need! to! be! doing! homework! #and instead i'm over here musing on the relative dearth of female characters in tangled #like the lack of poc could maybe be justified on a watsonian level (tho not a doylian one. do better disney) by like 'fantasy travel laws' #or whatever #but the lack of women in the rough-and-tumble pub and the circles of both lawkeeping and lawbreaking #while the village festival scenes are full of both men and women - perhaps even primarily centring women #it says a lot. about what the creators consider the 'default.' the people it does and does not occur to them to include #and then trailing off into samefacesyndrome gnarring because like! THOSE ARE SUCH INTERESTING FACES!! #i would LOVE to watch a movie about a snow princess with the slightly-hollow cheeks and pear-shaped fat distribution of her subjects #you CAN DRAW people that look normal!! don't lie to me!! it's RIGHT THERE this is not a barbie movie where every man is nalu #this is DELIBERATE #and i am FRUSTRATED. because the only logical conclusion is also the most obvious one #money #isn't it always the motive with disney these days? #but i wish... i wish artists weren't being USED like this. there is SO MUCH ART in these movies #and it's SUPPRESSED. it's forced to take a backseat in the name of cookie-cutter profit plots and pretty little faces #anyway. gonna do some homework and then take some refuge in fanfiction. where there are plenty of cookie-cutter plots #but they're created and repeated like permutations of a musical theme rather than a factory line. they're made for excess of love #not from its lack #there's a difference. there's a difference #art #disney #disney hate post #linden's originals