Once upon a time, in a faraway land, Disney made great fairytale films. Children emulated their princes and princesses through pretend play. They would dress up and twirl around their home, or pick up sticks outside to slay their dragons. They were inspired by the highest ideals. Goodness was shown, promoted, and given as a gift to the children that those stories and films were intended for.          The conversation surrounding children’s films arose recently with a friend. We discussed a film released earlier this year “Spellbound” and how it was such a tragedy. The voices were gorgeous, the music was lovable. The daughter taking on the emotional weight of the parents immaturity was despairingly realistic. However, the portrayal of divorce as simply a “part of life” was quite frankly, sad. The film had an opportunity to provide an example, an ideal, to show a reconciliation, to show that the parents would not allow their child to turn into a monster because of them. Rather, that they would work as a team, lay down their pride, and allow their child the wholeness that she deserved. Yet the film makers turned away from this possibility. It stuck to a horribly boring and hatefully “realistic” story. It omitted a potentially beautiful and weep-worthy ending, all for the sake of satiating our morally devoid moment in time, that so many producers have in recent years. I could not decide whether to laugh at its predictable, wearisome narrative, or descend into an utter rage.  The question that remained written on my heart after this discussion was simply, how did we get here?  How did we enter an age where children’s films attempt to meet what is material, rather than it setting a moral example of transcendent excellence? Why are we manipulating, what I call “Anti-Fairytales”, to fit an amoral and radical narrative, rather than setting a standard of beauty to strive for? I could come up with only one answer: our film makers have forgotten about their intended audience in an effort to provide politically charged adults with their so longed for excuses for their own sad stories.  Today’s movie making “grownups” fail in their duty to guide, to shepherd, to protect and defend, and to provide the innocent ones that they are supposedly creating for with beauty, hope, and goodness.     So when did this begin? When and where did this depressing materialism seep into so many of our children’s films?                                                                                                         2013-2014, Disney.               Not only has Disney driven their Cars away from goodness and higher ideals, but they have sprinted away from that which makes stories sparkle; that which is, ironically, a large part of their original slogan; imagination.               I understand  that the films I am about to mention have been ripped to shreds on so many platforms, that in discussing them I run the risk of sounding monotonous. I will take the risk regardless, as it is necessary in showing when Disney fell away from their own ideals. Or, when they began to set a poor example for all other animation Studio’s.               The years of 2013 and 2014 were absolutely pivotal to children’s movies and narratives, as we introduced a new ark to the Disney fairytale story: the Prince as a villain in Frozen, and the villain as protagonist in Maleficent. These films absolutely demolished, destroyed, and brought utter ruin to, the classic telling of fairytales.              Frozen ripped the ideal of a Prince completely out from under the feet of innocent little girls in the moment where Hans said to Anna: “oh Anna, if only there was someone who loved you”. This moment was solely for the adults that were creating the film who had their own hearts broken. It was for the hearts that had allowed their disappointment to shroud even their imaginations. The creators seemed to forget those that they were creating for.                     What’s more, in that same moment of the film, it left the boys who were forced to endure the film for sisters and cousins alike, in a state of confusion. The true “hero” was the silly man throughout the film who often forgot to bathe.                  I would like someone to explain to me how either of these two options, the lovable oaf or the princely villain, are ideals to strive for.              Now, as crooked as Frozen was for its audience, young boys and girls alike, how could I possibly consider Maleficent to be much, much more detrimental?           Maleficent turned an existing storyline on its head. I am a fan of a beautiful redemption ark. In fact, I relish the idea of a villain seeing the error of their ways, and in portraying forgiveness as an ideal. The Live Action Cinderella, as an example, allowed for a glimmer of the villains backstory, a profound forgiveness, and gave the viewer a deeper understanding of the story as a whole. It still allowed the story its integrity.           Maleficent does not merely give the back story to an evil villain, but it alters the entire story, making it a “what really happened” narrative. While it is not harmful to understand that each person has their own individual story, it is harmful to allow a villain excuses. Yes it is true that all have made mistakes, but a film, a story, that children are digesting which both encourages and makes fantastical a villain, is a dangerous business. It puts forth the notion that if one endures hardships, they are given permission to seek retribution and revenge. This type of film does not merely give this behavior permission, but it glamorizes it, makes it “cool”.             To take this further, it eradicates the idea that there is such a thing as “bad”. It promotes moral relativism, and in that, it crushes the actual purpose of a fairytale. The “imagineers” at Disney, unwittingly, threw away their “shield of virtue” and “sword of truth”. Instead, they decided to reside in the most boring, abhorrent version of our world, the worst of the “realistic”. ​ ​         Disney, since this depressing year, has come out with other films that were not classic fairytales that have been entertaining. Yes, I will give them that. Yet their typical fairytale films have flopped. There is no other word that I can conjure up that is more appropriate. The word “flop” has a beautifully hilarious connotation to it, and while the destruction of children’s stories is no laughing matter, watching the companies utter failure when putting forth such moral atrocities, has been. So many have already expounded on the disaster that was the Live Action Snow White that I see no need to waste my words, or your time, on it. ​             So why do I care? Why does this matter? Why did I feel the need to go on this small tirade on a public platform?  The answer to that is simple one. I love stories.             I do not simply mean that stories are some brief fleeting thing that I occasionally happen to pick up and put down again. I mean I love them. They are incredibly important, more so than we often realize. ​          Children’s films, children’s fairytales, are supposed to open a world of hope and love. Of purity and goodness in the midst of difficulty. So that, God willing, when suffering meets us in life, as it inevitably will, we have stories that have enriched, enlivened, and are planted deeply within our hearts and souls: and fill us to overflowing with examples of how to suffer well. We have all inevitably failed miserably when suffering at one moment or another. Yet, to have a story to witness perfection, to have an example of what to strive for as a directive, gives us hope, to we who have suffered or struggled. It gives us a path forward. In many ways, fairytales are the most, and best version of what is truly real, that we have access to on this Earth. If we allow fairytales to fall short of the beauty that they are intended to be, we will lose the hope and faith of an entire generation.