Favorite Disney Protagonist (Female)

            I have not been posting nearly enough this year and I want to steer back from that.  To that end I have found a 30-day blog challenge and fluffed it out to 31 entries (since December has 31 days).  I have done a 30-day challenge before for movies, though that one was poorly executed (I started it in the middle of a month, at one point I posted 2 entries on one day, it is a mess).  I did another one just this year in August on Video Games, that one was better, go read it after this one, all of it.  Or don’t, no pressure.

            I am already feeling the fatigue of writing these.  What day is it?

            Today is day 2 and the topic is “Favorite Female Protagonist”.

            Damn.

            I have two favorite female protagonists and I don’t really want to pick between them.  Because they are both amazing and they both have similar personalities, though their character arcs are both the same and different in interesting ways.  I am not making as much sense as I would like to.

Anyway, my picks are between Joy from “Inside Out” and Officer Judy Hopps from “Zootopia”.  Needless to say, I have been impressed with the recent output of Disney Studios.

I had to take two images and put them side by side.  Sounds simple.
Having to put those images together in PAINT?  Not fun.

Let’s look at each of them and then see if one wins out over the other.

Joy is a metaphysical construct representing a young girl’s ability to feel joy.  Joy is played by Amy Poehler—who kind of proved to me that I will never find true love because Leslie Knope is not a real person—and Joy is possessed of the energy Poehler has brought to all of her performances.

The plot of the movie “Inside Out” goes as follows: Joy and Sadness, two of the five governing emotions of the little girl Riley, are lost inside the mind of the little girl along with several core memories—this movie is deeply metaphysical in a strangely literal sense—these core memories and emotions are necessary for Riley to behave in a healthy and “normal” fashion.  Joy and Sadness must get back to the main control center of Riley’s mind before she does something rash or dangerous without her full spectrum of emotions and memories to guide her.

This movie will likely make another appearance this month.

Along the way the movie teaches a complex lesson on the nature of emotional complexity and how it is necessary to let yourself feel emotions along a spectrum, a blending of ideas that make you a deeper and more mature person.  Joy learns to understand and appreciate her role as part of that spectrum rather than the only emotion that matters.

It will also rip out your living guts and make you cry like a bitch.  It is also hilarious.

Officer Hopps is a young bunny from the country trying to make it in the big city as a police officer.  She is played by Ginnifer Goodwin whom you might know as Snow White from “Once Upon a Time”, but I only know her from muttering, “Who spells their child’s name like that?  Must be a Screen Actors’ Guild thing,” to myself while looking at imdb.

The plot of the movie “Zootopia” goes as follows: Officer Hopps must enlist the help of a conman in her search for several missing people tied to mysterious incidents of violence.  Along the way she must face off against the lack of respect she gets from being the only small mammal in a police force where most of her comrades are multi-ton weighing giant mammals like Rhinos and Water Buffalo who feel she lacks the muscle to get things done.

This movie will likely make another appearance this month.

Over the course of the movie she and the audience learn a complex lesson about bigotry in numerous forms.  Guising the whole thing behind animals allows them to touch on multiple issues without making any 1-to-1 racial stand ins, which would have instantly killed the movie’s value and turn it into racist trash.  Instead it deftly handles stereotyping and all of the characters see a larger more complex picture of society by the end.

This movie will also rip your guts out, but more with the sentiments of, “Aww… They’re friends! … Why am I so happy about this?”

Can you see the tension I have in choosing between the two?  One deals with coming to terms with yourself as part of a system, the other deals with coming to terms with yourself as part of a system.  Albeit one system is a healthy growing mind and the other is a complex multi-ethnic city, but it is still about finding one’s part in it.

I guess if I had to pick one, I will have to go with Officer Judy Hopps.  I wanted to be a police officer growing up so I understand that drive, and I fully understand not enjoying it once I got to be one.  I can’t really identify with Joy as much as I am not a metaphor, so even though I like the character, the existential nature of her keeps me from seeing her as superior.

These movies are also buddy comedies with two strongly contrasting leads.
Judy and Joy are the main protagonists of each.

I should also point out something you would not expect.  I did not do movie reviews for movies I saw in 2015 this year, I was burnt out and feeling on the ropes so I just let the whole thing slide, and I probably won’t do them for 2016 either.  With that in mind, “Inside Out” was my favorite movie of 2015 and “Zootopia” is probably going to be my number one for 2016.  So take that to whatever opinion bank you use.

I would also like to note the original prompt for today was “Prettiest Disney Princess”.  So, I shit canned that crap immediately.

 

Although if you want to read a lame article on the subject, here is one from the nadir-of-human-sexuality, Cosmopolitan.
The format of this thing makes me want to slap the editor.  You don't start a ranked list on the #1 slot.
Has VH-1 taught you nothing?  YOU COUNT DOWN TO THE #1!  Idiots.

            Share your own thoughts on this in the comments.  I know I am not the only person out there who is nostalgic for Disney products, and I am sure many people disagree with my selection for today’s entry.  There are probably people who would prefer me to talk about who I think the prettiest princess is, those people are odd but they probably think I would be funny about the whole thing… I hope, I can’t otherwise imagine why they would want me to rate the bang-ability of Disney Princesses.

I picked Disney stuff just because I knew there was so much of it to talk about and it lends itself to discussion in the comments.  So please, tell me how my opinion about cartoon movies is biased and how your opinion on cartoon movies is objectively right.  Who is your favorite female protagonist in Disney?

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