This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
comment


As another of her childhood favourites bites the dust, MM's editor recalls the day she met Prince charming, and wonders what has happened to the days of Disney innocence


Mickey Walt Disney!


Don’t take the out of


Jungle Book. OK, so it's voiced by Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley and Idris Elba and it probably will be good enough, but what exactly was wrong with 'Ooby doo, I wanna be like you-oo-oo'? (yes, I can hear you all singing along already..!) Te Jungle Book isn't the only classic to be


N


remade though. Pinocchio is currently being turned into a 'live action film', while Tim Burton is also directing the live-action remake of Dumbo, who'll probably be on drugs and carrying a flick knife... Is nothing sacred any more? Yes, I love to see that Disney's female


characters have gained a backbone and are pretty able to look aſter themselves, but who didn't picture themselves being swept off their feet by the Prince from Snow White....? What's not to love about the three fairies singing 'Bibbity Bobbity Boo' as they continually changed the colour of Sleeping Beauty's dress? I'll tell you what's not to love... or at least


my daughter and her friends could tell you. Tey certainly told me when I put the DVD on for a laugh (well, that's what I told them....work with me people lol!). Tey literally tore the film apart - 'long dresses - Ughhhh!', 'pathetic girl', 'ooohhh check out the Prince - not much chance of him going


80MODERNMUM Spring 2016


ext month, another of my childhood favourite movies bites the dust with the release of the 2016 version of Te


out with a girl....'. On and on it went. As I hummed along to 'I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream', imagining myself being swept around - in my long dress - by my Prince (mine always looked like Donny Osmond), they were squealing with laughter at how they wouldn't want to 'ship' the Prince and Sleeping Beauty! Let's face it, if anybody should have a


beef with what Disney stood for, it should be me. Aſter all, I was once told by Prince Charming himself that I wasn't 'Disney material'! He and I met up when I applied for a job


with the Disney Corporation in my twenties. I breezed in suitably - and modestly - dressed in a suit, high heels, discreet and nicely-applied make-up, and leſt a shattered, disillusioned shadow of my former self, with the words 'not Disney material' ringing in my - I'd been informed - 'non-Disney ringed' ears. (Tey were small gold hoops by the way!) It had all started off so well too. I'd filled


in my forms for the as-yet-unspecified job in Paris and skipped off to the interview confident in my qualifications - French degree, experience of working with the public, and a pleasant (I'd asked my friends!) personality. Te first two parts of the interview went


well. But it was when I met the 'Mr Disney' rep that everything fall apart. I don't know where they got this guy from, but he made


Donny Osmond look like Mickey Rourke - jet black hair, baby smooth skin, dancing electric blue eyes, dressed completely in pristine white. I wanted to reach over and pinch him just to make sure I wasn't being interviewed by a hologram. As he read the list of 'must dos' from the


Disney Corporation - 'one ring' (I was wearing two), 'earrings no bigger than a sixpence' (quick glance at my ears), 'constant eye contact' (I had been doing this, but once he mentioned it I turned into Shiſty Orme), and 'subtle foundation' (another quick glance - I could literally feel my 'flawless finish foundation' thicken to panstick'), I knew that I was out. 'I'm sorry,' he said, 'but we don't think you're Disney material.' I leſt the office in my beige suit and


black top, which now felt like a red leather all-in-one with strategically placed holes, totally crushed. Maybe today's girls are better off in


realising that the world isn't as 'squeaky clean' as Disney would have had us believe. Aſter all, the only 'scandal' to ever hit the corporation was the rumour that Walt Disney may have been the son of a Spanish washerwoman! But, apart from the fact that we could have ended up with Snow White and the Siete Enanitos, it's hardly controversial in comparison to the amount of joy that the man brought to millions around the world. He certainly did to me. Prince Charming was another matter... „


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84