Word: anastasias
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...Anastasia and Pocahontas, however, fail to fall within the basic parameters of historical dialogues on their subject. Commenting on Pocahontas, Douglas B. Rand '98, one of Harvard's veteran Disney watchdogs and self-styled Disneyologist, has observed, "Pocahontas is not even revisionist history. It is not even debating the legitimacy of our current historical paradigm, because Disney is not even entering the realm of debate. Whereas we can have a scholarly discourse on what lens we use to view reality, Disney is going so far afield that they are concocting their own reality...
Here, though, the Fox studios did not approach the life of Anastasia with the primary intention of recasting history. Rather, they were only searching for the obligatory princess heroine that every animated flick features. Consider the vast range that have appeared in Disney's canon, from Snow White and Cinderella to Ariel, the princess under the sea, Pocahontas, the Indian princess, and Jasmine, the sultan's daughter, to name but a few. As Anya herself astutely observes, "I guess that every lonely girl hopes she's a princess." One can only imagine where this will lead--perhaps Disney's Diana...
...this simply a matter of artistic genre. While Pocahontas and Anastasia provide two of the most glaring cases in recent years, non-animated films, such as Mel Gibson's Braveheart or Kirk Douglas' classic Spartacus are strewn with the same sort of historical problems, if perhaps to a lesser degree. Notably, these movies are also, first and foremost, dramatic vehicles...
...tends to exacerbate the problem. Cinema is a particularly unique medium, in that it involves the collaborative creative efforts of large teams of people, not necessarily sharing the same artistic vision. What these disparate individuals can focus on, however, is a kernel of a story--a lost princess, in Anastasia, for example. When the emotional kernel of a story becomes the central, guiding principle, then historical veracity and the nuanced entirety of the story become disposable. This is unfortunate, as a true historical tale, with all its complexity and contradictions can be much more human, real and moving than...
...Hollywood studio productions for abusing both history and art. The discrepancy between artistic representation and historical veracity is not new, however. Is there any essential difference between a Shakespeare play involving historical figures, such as Julius Caesar or Henry V, and a Disney or Fox production like Pocahontas or Anastasia...