to think "frozen" is a really bad example in terms of body shape

[Lauranda]

Currently watching frozen with dn. Can't believe the shape of the two main women in it, they make barbie look like a normal woman and posh spice like she has a huge waist and wrists.

Bit worried the impression this gives to young children. No wonder anorexia and bulimia are getting more common.

You can be skinny and healthy you know. People are so quick to slate skinny people yet wouldn't dare insult an overweight person.

I've had 3 DCs and am a size 6. I think Elsa and Anna look fine. There's fuck all wrong with showing healthy skinny people and if Anna wasn't healthy her punch at the end wouldn't have done anything to Hans!

Thats what I said no Lucy is tiny

I agree op. I love the story and the music especially when both DSs are singing it!
But they portray a completely unrealistic image of a woman's body. It worries me that this is what girls are aspiring to be, and that this may be influencing my DSs perspective of what an 'ideal woman' should look like.
That said my view is probably influenced by the fact I not a 'girly' person, and the way I look isn't high on my list of priorities.

nice stats work icebeing

The point is, the proportions shown do not tend to exist in nature. Even very thin people do not have heads that are wider than their torsos. Yes it's a cartoon but it's also insidious and embeds the Bratz physique into our culture.

We are always hearing that "we can't tell what a normal child looks like any more" because apparently our eyes have adjusted to a fatter world. On this thread it looks like we can no longer read a human body because our eyes have adjusted to these Barbie measurements. Which is why we can now get such ridiculously photoshopped images and people can't see it because they think people really can have legs this long
blog.blackmilkclothing.com/toomanytights/2010/05/you-are-a-fever-you-aint-born-typical.html (awaits people on the thread saying "I'm that thin and my legs are that long..."

the night Elsa is far FAR smaller than size zero...I wouldn't have any problem with her being size 6.

awaits people on the thread saying "I'm that thin and my legs are that long..."

I suspect they'd have to be part giraffe/praying mantis

But some people are naturally skinny. I have not once looked at a Disney princess and thought fuck my head is far too small for my body. I like frozen. I like that the girls aren't conventionally beautiful and that Kristoff isn't the typical handsome love interest. Any cartoon portraying a normal weight (If there is such thing) would look huge in proportion to the rest of the scenery etc and would then have people clutching their pearls that their children may think they need to be huge.

Ok- all the representations of Disney princesses fitting the well-known Western idealised version of beauty which is to be very thin are just like that because they are naturally skinny. It's just coincidence that no naturally larger women ever appear.

Perhaps The Beauty Myth should be compulsory reading in schools!

I like that the girls aren't conventionally beautiful- um, yes they are. They are thin, big childlike eyes, and Elsa is obviously sexy as she transforms.

It's like saying Bond girls reflect all shapes and sizes because once Halle Berry was in it and had slightly wider hips!

I like that the girls aren't conventionally beautiful and that Kristoff isn't the typical handsome love interest

errr, yes they are and the whole point is that Kristoff doesn't have to be particularly anything. He's not particularly thin or with ginormous eyes that pop out of his head. He's actually portrayed with an almost normal body - possibly even slightly chunky. Men don't have to be particularly anything. Women have to have a literally physically impossible body. 15 inch waists tend not to co-exist with the ability to breathe and digest food.

I thought the whole point was that Anna would even count him as a potential 'handsome prince' because she thought she knew what a 'proper' prince should look like.

Sorry, wouldn't even consider even!

Don't you think that cartoon male heroes are portrayed as impossibly square jawed and muscly?

The problem is, this is the ONE kids film that passes a test, I forget the name, where there is not one scene in the movie where two women's conversation is not dominated by their interest in men, which can only be a good thing.
I think the teen mags 'PAGE OF SHAME' crap circling tiny skinny women's cellulite in big red circles make more of an impact than an animated character. I'd concentrate your concerns on those first :/

The females don't really have many conversations though do they? :)

It's the Bechdel test.

my son's head appears to be the same width as his body. he looks like a lollipop. I realise I've missed the point here.

Why a particularly bad example of body image though OP? I get that the girls are super skinny with eyes like plates, but that's all Disney heroines surely, and Barbies, and most dolls I can think of. Its pernicious and damaging, but surely Frozen is not doing more damage than say Tangled or a Barbie doll? My DD got a little veterinary playset with super life-like animals, barns, etc, and the vet had enormous boobs, no waist, and and arms and legs so stick thin she literally cannot stand by herself. How is Frozen particularly bad when compared to all these toys, books, mags? At least the message is mostly good.

Two words: Jessica Rabbit

vamp do we have the same child

Look at doc McStuffin and Dora. They have massive heads

Elsa's stats made me splutter. Her chest is smaller than my waist and I am a size 8!

Lego Friends. Equally bambi eyes and twiglet armed.

I want to see Frozen now for the plot. That has to be a first for a Disny movie.
As for those teenage boys, I can recall having a soft spot for Aladdin many years ago.

I think some of you are overthinking Disney cartoons far too much.

I find all this incredibly tiresome, coming from the perspective of someone who has been quite unwell die to eating disorders in the past.

They are cartoons. Media has very little bearing on encouraging eating disorders. Particularly not the catwalk models everyone bangs on about. Rarely seen outside of Vogue. Rare is the young girl who buys it.

Eating disorders are not caused by some people being unable to cope with people being thinner than they are. As I said upthread, it is a woeful misunderstanding. Well meaning but insulting.

Obesity is the issue in the UK, as is normalising it.

Anna is so many things a friend but not a friend. Its about control feeling empowered when it strips you if everything.

Its not about skinny Disney Princesses.

I'm gonna ex-animation student all over this debate for a bit, if I may.

There's an effect at play in just about all animation right now, called the 'Uncanny Valley.' That's when a character is too realistic for the audience to connect to, they feel alienated by them visually and are put off for the entire film. It's why FF: The Spirits Within was such a huge box office flop, the characters looked very realistic but instinctually the viewers could tell something was off, because animating every single muscle in the human body is impossible and the human eye picks up subconciously the ones that have been left out.

So, for animation, you use simplistic visual cues to build up a character's personality before they even have their first lines. Anna's eyes are as big as they are for greater expression, if they were normal-sized she would look stiff. The hand-and-waist disparity is to highlight fragility (to inspire sympathy) and awkwardness (to make her relatable, Disney did the same thing with Hercules years ago). She's not that much different from Betty Boop or even Bugs Bunny in that respect, you don't want them to look realistic. Compare as well to Amalthea from the Last Unicorn, she's thin as a rake because that's how Rankin-Bass draws all its characters.

As far as realism goes, one of the most realistic animated films out there is Watership Down and it's well-regarded as being quite terrifying as a result.