TIANA, UMA PRINCESA ÀS AVESSAS?: A REPRESENTAÇÃO DA PERSONAGEM FEMININA NO FILME DE ANIMAÇÃO A PRINCESA E O SAPO DA WALT DISNEY

Abstract

This essay aims at investigating how is the construction and representation of the female protagonist in Disney s animated film "The Princess and the Frog" (2009). In order to accomplish the main objectives, I take as reference theoretical concepts from different areas of knowledge, emphasizing on the genres of speech, intertextuality and polyphony, in accordance with Bakhtin and his Circle, besides focusing on the notions of stereotype and gender as a cultural category linked to the feminist criticism critique. This work is divided into two chapters. In the first one I present the theoretical framework, a brief history of fairy tales and comments about their film adaptations, from the panorama of the movie production of the nine Disney Princesses. In the second chapter, I highlight the methodology employed in the linguistic analysis and imagery from the movie "The Princess and the Frog" on the basis of what I call contextual nucleus which include the following elements: 1) time / space / family constitution, 2) economy / true love / happy ending, 3) scenario / songs / colors and traces 4) fantastic / wonderful / mysticism. I also suggest at this stage a study of Tyana´s physical and behavioral characteristics in comparison with the tale "The Frog Prince by the Grimm Brothers and, three of the "Disney Princesses": Snow White, Cinderella and Aurora. I believe that animation films and adaptations of traditional fairy tales that are directed to children, broadcast standards, values and meanings bring a great influence on the formation and construction of gender identities. Throughout the approach to cinematic language (verbal and imagery), it is possible to unveil the ideology that pervades this midia due to social interchange whereas it is an intertextual discoursive space