Why Disney's Quirky Heroes Don't Work Anymore

What Disney needs is a jerk as a main character for once, but someone that is still likeable such as Stitch, Kuzco, or Darkwing Duck.

It made sense for Rapunzel and Anna considering how they were basically isolated from people most of their lives and gradually they learned to open up and like being around people. But Disney keeps overusing that personality trait way too much and need to take a step back and examine their characters.

If you told me Wish was the first AI generated movie, created from being prompted by all the previous 3D characters, I would have believed you.

Something that annoys me about this 'quirky archetype' is that a lot of older Disney protagonists have been strange or weird relative to their peers - Ariel, Belle, Pocahontas, and even non-princess characters like Lilo, Hercules, or Milo - all characters that is some way are oddballs or 'quirky' in the sense of HAVING QUIRKS. Yet despite all of them sharing that, they are all completely different from each other. The problem with the Quirky Archetype is that it's a contradiction - they're 'weird' but all in the same way.

Quirkiness went from subverting expectations to becoming the grim norm

Honestly, I would love to see more feisty, badass and headstrong heroines like Jasmine and Esmeralda were. The "adorkable" feels so overdone at this point.

A reason why asha is so disappointing to me is because her character is TOLD to us. We don’t see her being generous through interactions we see the queen telling her that. We’re told she’s a good person we’re told how nice and amazing she is but we never really see much. Her interactions with both her family and friends are hollow. The king and her have an interesting dynamic solely because of the king. With previous protagonists you don’t be told what they’re like they show it. We see moana is headstrong based on how she reacts to people we also see how compassionate she is in the conversation with Maui. We see how Anna is naive in her first conversation with Hans we aren’t TOLD she’s naive. We see that mirabel is insecure because the movie communicates the characters feelings to the audience! We never get a scene that reveals more of asha. The whole movie I was waiting for her actual character to show up!

I’ll often see the justification of “uh well, teenagers are flawed, of course they’re gonna be awkward and be quirky” Yeah you know what other flaws teenagers exhibit? Moodiness, temperamental, reactionary, sarcastic, rude, being victim to & engaging in peer pressure/bullying, insecure about ultimately superficial things like social hierarchies and grades And yet, I have rarely seen any young Disney protagonists post Princess & The Frog that have exhibit this normal and realistic teenage flaws (except maybe w/ Hiro Hamada). I think Disney trying to make their protagonists “adorkable” is their safe bet of having characters with “flaws” who are still safe/endearing/not alienating to its audience members

My two cents is that the things that annoy people about modern disney(twist villians and quirky heros) aren't truely bad on their own, it's just that for some reason, disney likes to keep doing the same thing for multiple movies in a row, which make people tired and burned out on them. I don't know why they feel they need to follow a formula at all. They should just approach each movie as its own thing, bringing completely fresh ideas to each project.

When Asha did the cheek squishing thing, I found myself rolling my eyes. Adorkable troupes need to stop.

Disney forgot that 'quirky' is only one character trait, and an interesting character needs more than that in order to not suck. Rapunzel was quirky but also rebellious, curious, open-minded, and self-sufficient (esp with a skillet). Anna was quirky but also a shut in who probably resorted to her inner creativity to keep her from going completely insane, and she also is devoted, a go-getter, and a little big for her britches. Mirabel was quirky...but also lonely, sensitive, resourceful, encouraging, and the hardest damn worker ever who was brave enough to climb into the walls to search for help for her family. Asha was...quirky and nothing else. She learned nothing, she set off to do something...and she did it. The end. Where's the interesting character arc in that?

I would love to see more Disney heroines like Megara. Sarcastic and Pessimistic.

To be fair, I don't think Rapunzel, Moana, and Mirabel are quite as quirky as Anna and Asha, who have the same writer. That said, I'd LOVE more serious female leads!

One difference between Lilo’s quirkiness and that of the newer princesses is that Lilo was bullied and outcast because of her quirks, which is very realistic. It makes her more relatable than any of the recent princesses. I would say the same about Vanellope from Wreck it Ralph

What gets me is that Rapunzel and Moana have more than being adorkable and quirky! Rapunzel is creative, she's art-oriented and curious. Moana is raised to be a leader, and she shows that weight of responsibility and the willingness to carry it. Anna and Asha feel more "hehe adorkable ;9", and Mirabel is an in-between. Mirabel makes SENSE though, Mirabel is an outcast and overlooked so her being quirky is understandable. Asha is... eh.

Disney keeps forgetting to make their villains actually have a legitimate claim to their villainy and give them some sort of ambition. Magnifico would honestly wet his pants in the presence of villains like Jafar and Maleficent. They also don’t seem to think that their heroines don’t need any sort of “flaw” that can’t easily be made to be a strength. Asha’s “flaw” is that she supposedly cares too much but she (and the movie) doesn’t see it as a flaw but as a strength. Give the villains some ambition and let the protagonist be flawed.

I miss the days when they had female characters without the quirky persona. For example, Captain Amelia from Treasure Planet was a great character who had her own unique personality. She was courageous, sassy, and a competent leader, but she was also willing to crack jokes here and there. I love her so much. Great video btw❤

As much as I didn’t really like raya and the last dragon I liked that she was more of a jaded and cynical protagonist instead of the same adorkable protagonist that we were used to at that point from them

Something I find interesting is that Judy often isn't included in this conversation. I feel this is because despite being in this archetype she feels more natural. Not only does it make sense within the story the writers allow her to break the mold. Like when she proves she can be shrewd when she pries into Nick's criminal history to force him to assist her.

I didn’t see that much of a quirkiness when it comes to Moana, for me she was more curious and adventurous with maybe some hints of quirkiness. Mirabel acted a bit weird because she felt different and tried to play it cool and mask her feelings with her behaviour. Wich leads us exactly to what you were talking about. Character can be odd, quirky, funny etc., but there needs to be a reason for that and those treats shouldn’t be the center of their personalities. Why not to make some powerful characters like Esmeralda, Megara, Mulan or Pocahontas? They were strong, feminine, powerful, complicated in a way and just interesting.