The Doily Torygraph is reporting this morning that The Mouse is working on an animated movie called "Prince Charming", with someone called Paul King overseeing the project. I saw this in the newspaper and immediately wanted to ask the classic question of "why?"
Why does this need to exist? Who is this for? Who is their intended audience?
Just like the world does not need another Joker movie, or The Penguin or Batman TV series, it does not need a Frozen 2, a Moana 2, or what this film is supposed to be; which is either a Sleeping Beauty 2 or Sleeping Beauty -1.
If we start out with the critique that the male gaze frames movies though the eyes of the heterosexual male viewer, and the lead male character, and the male creator of the film, then it logically follows that a "female gaze" is going to do the same job through the eyes of a heterosexual female viewer, lead female character, and female creator of the film.
The female gaze is about trying to represent women as subjects having agency; which is going to be in contrast to what is assumed to be the default position of a male character in that lead role. It will absolutely be true that a female filmmaker, or screenwriter, or director, is going to bring a different perspective and set of framing devices which are going to be different from a male view on that same subject and while that is good and proper, I kind of feel that the existence of a Prince Charming film is utterly pointless.
Why? Because of that very same question of "why?"
The three classic Disney Princesses of Snow White, Aurora and Cinderella, essentially exist to have something done to them in the story; with limited agency of their own, and the prince at the end comes along and saves them. Even as a man I can see that that is a rather vapid existence because it says that the women are not complete until they find a husband. It is as if they get one last semi-interesting story and then that's it: the story ends happily ever after.
While it is reasonable that a feminist critique should rage against this kind of story telling, it still doesn't explain why we need a Prince Charming movie. In a story such as Snow White, Sleeping and Cinderella, the Prince is basically an empty shell with no inner life whatsoever. He's so incredibly anonymous that he doesn't even have a proper name. What kind of name is "Prince Charming" anyway? It is the name that one would give to either an extremely fluffy or elegant cat. If the women in the classic Disney movies lead a vapid existence then the Princes in the movies lead so much a vapid existence that we can't even be bothered to name them. They exist purely as McGuffins.
Perhaps the entire appeal of Prince Charming is precisely because he is a brick. He is a blank slate upon which people are supposed to mentally write in their own wishes and desires. Here's the problem though. Yet again we come back to that very same question of "why?"
If Prince Charming is given a story where he goes out and does something amazing, then the film does not need to exist because that story has already been told. If Prince Charming is given a story where he is an idiot and needs to be saved by a competent woman, then the film does not need to exist because that story has already been told. If Prince Charming is given a story where he is broken and sad and can only be repaired by a kind woman, then the film does not need to exist because that story has already been told. Swap the genders, make it male, make it female, make it gay, make it asexual, I don't care, the film does not need to exist because that story has already been told.
Then the question becomes one of who the intended audience is: Who is this for? Do girls want to see a film about Prince Charming? Likely not. They want to see girls going out and doing amazing things. Do girls want to see a film about Prince Charming? Likely not, and even if they did, then that film does not need to exist because that story has already been told.
At the kernel of my confusion and complaint about why there even needs to be a Prince Charming movie, is the unavoidable fact that he is ultimately not a character, or if he is one then he is at best an NPC in an RPG. Prince Charming does not exist to bring anything to the plot other than the golden winning "You Win" screen at the end of the film. He is the Jules Rimet trophy in the Football World Cup and nothing more. He is not. He does not need a film.
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