Date of Completion

2014

Document Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

Film & Television Studies

First Advisor

Sarah Nilsen

Second Advisor

Hilary Neroni

Third Advisor

Andrew Barnaby

Keywords

animated princess horses feminism

Abstract

This creative project will be an original screenplay for a feature length animated children’s film; a contemporary retelling of the fairy tale princess story that reflects today’s gender relations. The script will tell the story of a young princess, who finds her way in the world by taking on a male persona and competing in a jousting competition. Of equal importance is her horse, Trot, who due to his appearance, has been ostracized from his ilk and disallowed from competitions or the glamorous life of a warhorse. Together, they overcome the limitations of their positions. Annabella comes to successfully rule her kingdom and Trot finally achieves his potential as a valued warhorse and companion to the new Queen. By completing this script, I will accomplish three objectives. First, I will study the oeuvre of princess fairy tale films with the purpose of identifying and understanding its conventions. Second, I will compare the key films that I study to the original fairy tales on which they are based. This aim also includes researching feminist critiques of these tales. This research will allow me to use the generic conventions—revised conventions, that is, as they would be informed by the feminist critiques of them—in order to structure my own retelling of the Princess story. Thirdly, I will use fundamental skills for screenwriting and follow the classical narrative structure of the genre’s film. By completing this film, I will add to a growing oeuvre of films that promote modern and egalitarian gender roles.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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