There’s also a possibility this is group work for an assignment or extra credit for some media or communications class. I’ve had similar assignments in college (watch <…> and note <…> and write up a <…> about <…>)
That’s certainly true. I took an honors seminar called “America in the 1960s”, and one of the class assignments was to watch a movie that was either made or set in the 1960s and write a one-page paper about it.
I’d a friend who had a toddler and a collection of Disney videos, when we heard about the “erection” in The Little Mermaid and the “sex in the dust” in The Lion King we watched both. We didn’t see anything in The Little Mermaid, but we did see the word SEX in the cloud of dust in The Lion King
This went on when I was in school. I’m 38. Someone charged a buck or two per head to offset basic costs (projector and bulbs, film, etc)and one girl’s lawyer daddy shut us down (can’t charge…read the fine print).
I watched Cinderella this way. The girls chose it, but let me tell you this: I really was stunned to find myseld liking the movie. Sure, I fantasized about a real Cinderella, but in the end I am very normal. Their is something cool/erotic about makeovers – in case Howard Stern or national TV doesn’t convince you. But forget that – the mice alone were worth the price of admission.
And when Cindy-rella pulled out the spare glass slipper after the evil stepmother tripped one of the King’s men resulting in a broken test slipper…well, let me tell you…that was one of my favorite movie moments right there. I’m not ashamed to like that movie, and when my kids fire up the VCR, I am quite happy to pop that in.
There is my $.02
It’s a great moment. And the flipside is when the stepsisters destroy the first dress that Cinderella makes from her mother’s old gown. It’s one of the purest depictions of selfishness and evil I’ve ever seen on the screen. It’s really an amazing movie.
College guys watching The Little Mermaid just for fun? I’m a little skeptical of that. Girls, sure. I just find it hard to believe there are many college guys that would care to see it. Don’t get me wrong, if The Transformers Movie was playing in a nearby cinema, I wouldn’t be typing this right now. But The Little Mermaid? Come on…
psssst…*The Little Mermaid *gets the chicks. They watch the movie, you watch them. Everyone wins - it’s like free drinks for ladies to draw men to a bar.
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Moved to Cafe Society.
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He and the Little Mermaid can go fuck themselves.
Whenever we drove down the shore, my friend would pop in The Little Mermaid soundtrack and sing the entire way. He also dressed up as Ariel for a talent competition at some drunken backyard festival a few months back and sang the theme song.
He’s a weird cat.
A bunch of my friends (we’re all grad students) were actually planning to do this (get together and watch Disney movies) one weekend. Nostalgia + noticing and laughing like idiots over sexual innuendoes. Probably drinking games as well. No ulterior motives. I wouldn’t read too much into it.
Hey, Ariel was hot.
BTW, does anyone know why mermaids wear seashells?
Because B-shells would be too small, and D-shells too large. Works better when you’re telling it as opposed to typing it.
If they’re using the just-released 2-disk DVD they’ll be disappointed. Knee, phallus, whichever it was, it’s gone.
I couldn’t help but notice, though, that when Ursula turned Ariel human, she (Ariel) was naked. When her Pop did the same, he threw in a set of clothes. Above or below the surface, fathers are the same.
Hm, you know, as soon as “Little Mermaid” came out on DVD, my housemate and I rushed out to buy it. And when we got back, we watched it with some friends, mostly guys. Not to point out any sexual innuendos, not to play a drinking game, just to watch it because it’s a really great movie and lots of fun. We sang along with the songs, made fun of some of the sillier parts a la Mystery Science Theatre, and reminisced about when we first saw it as wee children.
College guys aren’t all drunken frat boys. I hate alcohol, personally, and while most of my friends drink, we’ve gotten past that rush of freshman independence and are usually too busy with school to party all the time, if at all. And yes, this is speaking from UC Santa Cruz, commonly seen as a party school (or at least a stoner school). Unfortunately, stereotypes die hard.
And I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Transformers movie, nor do I have any interest in doing so. “Ghostbusters” was more my thing.
That sounds about right. If your daughter is in her late teens/early 20s, I guarantee she and all her friends can sing every line of ‘Part of Your World’ (or whatever it’s called). And as far as fairytales go, this one’s pretty guy-friendly, as are most Disney flicks.
This is the Straight Dope Message Board, right? Am I in the right place? This thread has gone on for over 30 posts, and no one has thought to look in the Archives?
Do you mean “subliminal”? That suggests intent. Ther are other ways of looking at a film’s semiotics that are not about the constructors’ conscious intent, but the ways in which unconscious cultural messages are embedded in the text or film.
If the former, it doesn’t seem unusual that college students would enjoy this activity. If the latter, there are entire departments that study this.
Speaking as a college male who is 4 weeks into his freshman year, so far I’ve watched Finding Nemo, Saw, Beauty and the Beast, Lagaan, Rent, Phantom of the Opera, Boondock Saints, and Butterfly Effect. Most of these have been floor activities (about 25 people, boys and girls) with no drugs, drinking, or sex.
I see nothing odd about a group of kids getting together to watch movies, of any kind, and getting to know each other. It is still possible to have good, clean fun these days.
`Brilharma
Hey, young people–clue this Boomer in: does college REALLY suck that bad these days?
Only UCSC students would think they’re seen as a “party school”. Everybody else in CA knows they’re seen as a Hippie School. Not the same thing. 