In literature, postmodernism is when an author invites the reader into the main character’s head, sometimes more than he describes what is going on outside it. For example, modern authors like James Joyce and Charles Dickens do an incredible job of describing action and scenery in lengthy detail, whereas postmodern authors like Vladimir Nabokov and David Foster Wallace place more importance on the psychological aspects of the main character or even the narrator. This sometimes encourages the reader to reflect on why characters make decisions from an outside perspective and allow personal interpretations of reality.
Recently, Disney's princesses are actually thinking out loud and prioritizing goals. Princes are becoming clumsier and more human. Body shapes are becoming less Barbie-doll-like. Talking animal sidekicks are becoming, to put it lightly, more stupid. Humor is being rewritten to appeal to today's young audience. Plots are getting more complex to keep the interest of people with short attention spans. Disney movies are becoming postmodern.
Disney’s older movies, such as “Sleeping Beauty,” “Snow White,” and “Cinderella,” have limited humor and character reflection. These movies have a dream-like quality because they transport viewers, especially children, into a completely alternate universe with little connection to reality, but today's Disney seems to be taking a different approach. As the mindsets of Disney's young audience evolved with changing times, there was a shift in which details needed to be removed and which needed to be emphasized to keep their interest and attention.
Humor evolves. In “Mulan,” which was released in 1998 (feel old yet?), Mushu adds contemporary humor and a lot of complaining to an otherwise serious story; something we don’t see in older Disney movies. Mulan’s character also reflects (literally) more on her decisions than Aurora, Snow White, and Cinderella ever did, perhaps because the storylines also changed. Mulan is not simply finding her way to a man’s heart—she is trying to save her country and earn her family’s respect while simultaneously winning over warrior Li Shang. Mulan has priorities.
Disney’s youngest princesses, Elsa, Ana, and Moana, dive further into the realm of postmodern Disney. The love story is becoming less important, and in Moana's case, nonexistent. In "Moana", the plot focuses solely on her journey to save her island from the deadly destruction of an ancient curse. Moana’s character has a ton of self-reflection and contradiction, from courage to fear to courage again. Her sidekick, a brain-dead chicken, interrupts serious moments with childish humor and complicates the plot up until the very end when it unknowingly saves Moana.
Not only that, but Disney takes the audience outside the story with subtle, humorous lines that today’s children might not fully understand, thus making it a perfect example of postmodern children’s films. PBS defines postmodernism as “a reaction to the assumed certainty of scientific, or objective, efforts to explain reality. In essence, it stems from a recognition that reality is not simply mirrored in human understanding of it, but rather, is constructed as the mind tries to understand its own particular and personal reality.”
Self-reflexivity is another postmodern trait that is particularly obvious in “Moana” when the princess, who does not like being referred to as a princess but the chief's daughter, is standing at the top of a mountain and her partner-in-crime Maui says something like, “If you sing, I’m gonna throw up.” Later, on their journey back from the mountain, Maui says, “If you wear a dress and have an animal sidekick, you’re a princess.” In "Frozen," Elsa tells Ana she "can't marry a man [she's] never met," which is literally the plot of almost every other Disney princess movie. In "Shrek" (the first one), Shrek gives a cinematic cue: "This is the part where you run away." These quick, humorous snippets transport older audience members out of the story and into the reality of the construction of a Disney princess movie. It encourages the viewer’s minds to “try to understand its own particular and personal reality," thus creating a postmodern effect.
