1. 7
    Apr

    Disney Princess Origin Fail, now with corrections by Lindsey and Kat

    Alright.  Being the geography freak I am, let me point out some gross misplacements here: Alice is from England, not NeverNeverLand.   England can be a very magical place if you ask me - Secret Garden yo! Ariel did not live out in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.  Clearly, she resides in the Caribbean, most likely around the islands of St. Thomas, St. Jan and St. Croix (former Danish West Indies, now known as the US Virgin Islands).  Prince Eric is a Nordic name folks. Snow White was probably German, this is befitting.  But where the hell is Cinderella from?  NOT EAST GERMANY/POLAND.  She is French.  I don’t know how they could have gotten that wrong.  All of the mice have French names! I didn’t realize Simba came from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  But as the Serengeti plains do not begin until Tanzania, again, wrong locale.  Simba is most likely from Kenya, or even possibly parts of Southern Africa. Jasmin is a bit tricky, but due to the Arab nature of the architecture and political system (does anyone remember the Sultan?), she most likely isn’t from India.  I’d pin her down to somewhere more like Saudi Arabia, or even Morocco, places with deserts and camels.  The only puzzling aspect is that she owns a tiger, which is not a native animal to the Middle East.  But being as rich as she is, and being that Persian empires stretched to all corners of Asia, it was probably an exotic imported pet.  Sorry to be a stickler, folks.  But I gots to bring down the hammer when it comes to misconceptions. 

    Kat got to the first part before I could, because she’s awesome.  See my comments at the bottom.
    ———————————————————————

    Alright.  Being the geography freak I am, let me point out some gross misplacements here:

    • Alice is from England, not NeverNeverLand.   England can be a very magical place if you ask me - Secret Garden yo!
    • Ariel did not live out in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.  Clearly, she resides in the Caribbean, most likely around the islands of St. Thomas, St. Jan and St. Croix (former Danish West Indies, now known as the US Virgin Islands).  Prince Eric is a Nordic name folks.
    • Snow White was probably German, this is befitting.  But where the hell is Cinderella from?  NOT EAST GERMANY/POLAND.  She is French.  I don’t know how they could have gotten that wrong.  All of the mice have French names!
    • I didn’t realize Simba came from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  But as the Serengeti plains do not begin until Tanzania, again, wrong locale.  Simba is most likely from Kenya, or even possibly parts of Southern Africa.
    • Jasmine is a bit tricky, but due to the Arab nature of the architecture and political system (does anyone remember the Sultan?), she most likely isn’t from India.  I’d pin her down to somewhere more like Saudi Arabia, or even Morocco, places with deserts and camels.  The only puzzling aspect is that she owns a tiger, which is not a native animal to the Middle East.  But being as rich as she is, and being that Persian empires stretched to all corners of Asia, it was probably an exotic imported pet. 

    Sorry to be a stickler, folks.  But I gots to bring down the hammer when it comes to misconceptions. 

    ———————————————————————————

    Let us not forget that most modern versions of fairy tales tend to mirror their geographical origins.  Snow White was orginally a tale of German folklore.  Aladdin and other stories such as Ali Baba and the Forty Theives are of Middle Eastern descent — the way that Aladdin is constructed in the Disney format, I think Saudi Arabia is a good guess, or even the blanket statement of “somewhere in the former Persian empire.”

    Alice in Wonderland is DEFINITELY of English origin, as it was written by Charles Dodgson (nom de plume: Lewis Caroll), and used certain references to the Oxford University campus, as well as other places Alice Lidell (whom the book is written for/about) used to frequent with her father (a dean at Oxford).  The rabbithole is acutally a reference to a staircase that Alice’s father would disappear down as he was called to one of his important meetings.

    Even if Alice’s picture was switched to show Wendy (from Peter Pan), it would still be incorrect, since Wendy was not from Neverland, but Bloomsbury, which is part of the old publishing district of London, and also where J.M. Barrie (the author of the original Peter Pan story) kept a residence.

    By the way, it is incorrect to say that Neverland is even on this planet, since it is located “second (star) to the right, and straight on til morning.”  I suppose the best way to put it is that it is an alternate universe, or something akin to Imagination Land (hah!).

    The oldest known version of the story of Cinderella (of which, like most fairy tales, there are several versions) actually dates back to ancient Greek times, and was later embraced by the Italians.  However, saying France is the origin of the Cinderella tale could be accurate, since the most popular version, although printed after the Italian version, is written by French author Charles Perrault, who added the fairy godmother, pumpkin carriage, and glass slipper to the story.

    Let me point out that Pocahantas’ bubble is way off the mark as well, since she was part of the Powhatan tribe, which was mostly (but not entirely) contained to the current borders of the state of Virginia.  I won’t go in to the rampant historical inaccuracies of the movie (it is doubtful that Pocahantas and John Smith ever met, and, if they did, it was quite briefly — she later married John Rolfe).  However, this story INDENIABLY takes place in the colony of Jamestown, the first English settlement in America.  Jamestown is located in southern Virginia, and is situated on a tributary of the James River, not far from the mouth of the Atlantic Ocean.  I’m not sure what this map is pointing to (Ohio, maybe?), but it certainly isn’t Jamestown.

    I’ve ranted enough.  This map needs to be remade.  At least Kat understands.

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"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes." - Walt Whitman

Hi, I'm Lindsey.
I'm in love with life.
I have a lot of fun.
Literature enthusiast with a degree to prove it.
Music feeds my life.
I like deceased writers, dark liquor, tattoos, good friends, literary affiliations, vintage clothing, video games, and awesome shenanigans.

And, most importantly, world travel.

Always a traveler, never a tourist. The world can teach us so much about ourselves if we are open to new experiences. I want to see the whole world.
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