It’s just a fun thing to noodle Disney movies and story-telling tricks, especially where Disney’s concerned. Because Disney and Pixar are fantastic story-tellers. I’ve done it with The Little Mermaid (“Is Triton the protagonist of The Little Mermaid?“) a few times (actually I’ve made a lot of posts about Disney). This time I was thinking about Beauty and the Beast. Gonna do it the other way this time. So the movie frames Beast as the deuteragonist (or relationship character), Gaston as the antagonist, and Belle as the protagonist. She’s the first character we meet (if you don’t count the prologue). We spend the most time with her. She’s even dressed…
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Who is the Protagonist in The Little Mermaid? (Follow-up)
So I got my kids to watch “The Little Mermaid”, and honestly, I hadn’t seen the full film for quite some time. In the context of my last article about who the central figure of this movie is, I began to wonder, what if Prince Eric is the protagonist? Let’s think about this. For one, he’s the first person we see, usually a giveaway. Ariel doesn’t appear until eight minutes in, after two other scenes. Also, Eric is the one who finally defeats the antagonist, not Ariel. Even though he doesn’t know Ursula from Adam, maybe she represents the Mrs. Wrong he’s been trying to avoid — a bride with bad motivations.…
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Who is the Protagonist in Willy Wonka?
I’m listening to some classic Roald Dahl books in my car for my commute, and it got me wondering, who is the protagonist in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Does it even have one? Stop and think. Your first guess, of course, would be Charlie. He gains the most, he suffers the most. He started from the bottom and now he’s here. However, he doesn’t change. The protagonist is supposed to change via the story. Charlie starts with an optimistic and cheerful attitude and maintains that disposition throughout. He never accepts charity or complains about a thing. Even among the craziness and dying children left and right, his faith that Willy Wonka is the greatest thing…
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Is Ariel the Protagonist of The Little Mermaid?
During my Ursula analysis, I came upon this question (also posed by Lindsay Ellis and Doug Walker). Who is the protagonist of The Little Mermaid? Through my studies of narrative, I’ve learned that a protagonist is not necessarily the main character or the hero. Don Quixote is the main character, but Sancho Panza is the protagonist. A protagonist is the person who changes as a result of the story. The protagonist enters the story because of conflict with the antagonist. The protagonist is supposed to be the person the audience mostly identifies with. There are many different kinds. The hero protagonist is the most basic, most common. This is when…
