AIBU to think that Disney films should have more male role models?

[Disneyeyes]

My DS is obsessed with Disney style movies. He loves Frozen, Tangled etc
He loves to dress up and play as Anna, Elsa and Rapunzel. I have no problem with this at all and I'm happy for him to wear dresses etc when playing but I think it's a shame that the male characters aren't as prominent for him to identify with. They seem to be either total drips, 'baddies' or just there to carry on the story for the female characters.
You can buy all sorts of 'costumes' for these films for the female characters but I've not seen any for the male characters.
AIBU to think that boys like to dress up and sing too and would be nice for them to have male characters to emulate as well as female?

Thanks Yonic that's exactly it

The lion king
Pinocchio

The Lion King, Pinocchio, Cars etc aren't human men characters though. They are animals/puppets/objects with male voices.

p.s having said that I love the Lion King

Same with Madagscar, Monsters Inc

Looks like it's Buzz and Woody for you!

I think another issue is that human male characters may be dressed in more "everyday" clothes anyway so it's harder to make it into dressing up outfits.

True Yonic the female characters have beautiful gowns in gorgeous colours and the boys have pretty ordinary clothes.

We haven't got into Disney princess movies yet, but both my two love Mary Poppins and JUngle Book, Mary Poppins has quite a good mix of male and female characters I think with an overall message that both men and women need to get their values right about spending time with the people they love.

DS loves dressing up and has some Monsters Inc, Toy Story dress up but he's been looking longingly at Frozen dresses but knows they're for girls. He'd love to be able to get a "proper" Disney Prince outfit.

YABU - the films with the 'human' characters, as opposed to monsters, cars etc. are in the main based on fairy tales, which don't have strong male characters. On the whole, the most interesting characters in fairy tales tend to be the wicked witch/stepmother and the lead female. Male characters are much more secondary and less developed. Blame brothers Grimm etc who wrote the tales in the first place!
FWIW I think Disney have done a good job in making the male characters fun and interesting. If you want a film where the soppy prince gets ditched for an alternative male who is also easy on the eye, watch Enchanted.

Nemo and his dad ?
The male mouse Bernard in the rescuers ?

But yes they could do better.

I know where you're coming from OP, and I felt the same when my boys were little. There are male Disney characters, but they're not the same because like you say, they're not human and there isn't really a boy equivalent of the princesses. My boys used to dress up in Peter Pan, Spider-Man and Balloo costumes, and it think it's just easier for girls to identify with princesses than it is for boys to identify with super heros and more mythical characters.

There is sadly a lot in society that isn't as good as for little boys as it is for little girls when they're growing up, despite the fact that overall women are the ones that have less power than men.

Peter pan
Aladdin
Hercules
Tarzan
And I'm still counting pinnochio because spoiler alert he does turn into a real boy in the end

Basil the great mouse detective? Brilliant film and could get your DS into Sherlock Holmes?

I was in Disneyland recently and there was hardly any dress up for boys, Peter Pan, woody and buzz and that's about it.

I actually have been irritated with the Pixar films for the opposite reason - almost entirely made up of male protagonists with male side kicks and helpers, with women / maternal characters often dying early on! Eg nemo (alright dory is a strong female character), toy story revolves around buzz and woody, up (wah!), monsters inc, planes, cars, a bugs life and so on. The women are usually reasonably well written and rounded out but they are often on the sidelines or short term 'helper' characters.

The exception I suppose being Brave but I watched it recently and was a bit disappointed at how domestic and small the 'adventure' is - where it revolves around her family, and the tiny kingdom she lives in. In comparison marlin crosses the pacific, car and cars 2 and planes cross cross the globe.

I really like the Pixar films. But I think that behind the fantastic aspects of them, that they quite often can be lazy about addressing these issues. How difficult would it have been for the captain in Wall-E to have been a woman? I doubt anyone would really have had any issues with this, or if some of the portraits of the previous captains had included women.

I know there are a lot of holes in this argument (eve is kickass), but having sat through many many viewing of Pixar (thanks ds, my own fault as I thought they'd be preferable to Disney!) these things start to grate...

Oh, dear that turned out long, I meant to just briefly bitch about gender issues inmpixar and then mention the wealth of fairy tales with male characters that oddly Disney has never animated, in preference to Princess focused tales. Eg there are a lot of the youngest brother/ prince tropes, the brave little tailor 'seven with one blow!', even something like the pied piper could be developed and expanded with children and parents more to the fore.

But Disney seems more than happy to follow the money stick with the princesses or twist stories so princesses and costumes and dolls are to the fore eg the ice queen is really different to frozen.

Also, the lion king has strong male characters (gets back on track)

No one has yet mentioned the best Disney film ever The Emperor's New Groove. Perhaps your DS could dress up as a llama?

Completely irrelevant, but Flynn Rider/Eugene is hot. As is the guy in Sprit: Stallion of the Cimarron. And don't get me started on Hans.

But anyway, yes - lots of Disney movies are even harder on the princes than they are on the princesses - they may be anti-feminist, but the princes are utterly characterless and pointless too - Snow White being the obvious example. And the homosexual but ignored prince in Cinderella.

The male characters are getting a bit more screen time lately (Frozen, Tangled, but nothing in the list of forthcoming Disney movies on Wikipedia gives any indication of continuing this trend.

Could we redress the 99% of culture that is slanted towards the male gaze, women as plot points, victims, sex objects and love interests before starting on the one area that has some movement towards women being in charge? Pretty please. Some Disney princess films probably wouldn't pass the Bechdel test or only just pass.

Treasure planet, atlantis, emporers new groove, peter pan, jungle book, pinochio, black cauldron, tangled (flyn rider) wreck it Ralph, alladin (genie and aladin), lilo and stitch, stitch the movie, Leroy and stitch, Mulan, sleeping beauty (yes you can get costumes)

Animal based: the early short cartoons (eg Mickey mouse, donald), all the Mickey films. Dumbo All dogs go to heaven rescuers, rescuers down under, aristocats, lady and the tramp, an American tale, stitch

Pixar: all of them from wall-E to Planes

Do I need to go on? Clearly you do not know your Disney