Can a Disney Death be well-executed?

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love_red28

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One of the oldest cliches in animated film history, the character dies, everyone mourns (even the cute little animal sidekicks *sniff*), only for the magic of the love interest's tears to bring our hero back to life.
Well, okay, it's not ALWAYS like that, but we almost always get a "fake death" scene at the climax of animated features, seen in both classic and modern ones.
But, can such a cliche be well-executed to where the reason why the hero doesn't die actually makes sense (Beast's fake death at the end of BATB makes a little sense, to cite an example, but shouldn't he have just come back as a dead human since he died as the Beast?), or to where the story wouldn't have worked if the character actually DID die?
What do you guys think? Can a Disney/fake death be well-executed to where it doesn't register a groan from the audience?
 
I think it's different for Disney's live action films as opposed to their animated projects, it seems that in their life action films like Pirates of the Caribbean they don't mind using death in a more mature way, but with their animated projects they seem to protect death scenes and make them in a way that leaves things open for speculation, it isn't always like this but usually it is. I can see where they are coming from though, their animated projects are geared toward children so they want to handle death in an easier light than they would a big budget live action production aimed toward the masses.
 
In tPatF, Ray just dies after being squished (, even though Naveen gets squished a couple of times, he always comes out fine for some reason).
 
I'm a little unclear on the question. Are you asking about how a "fake death" can NOT be corny? Or just how ANY Disney death is handled?

In general, "fake deaths" depend upon the degree to which the film sells the story. In a fairy tale, you have to be made to believe that miracles come true, and it has to work within the logic (or non-logic) of the world. You have to believe that the "love" of the the love interest is strong enough to revive the hero.

In this respect, I felt Beauty and the Beast's somewhat tepid romance leading up to the end wasn't sold strongly enough to the audience. While Beast's resurrection was about as well handled as you could expect, it had a fairly telegraphed quality about it still. I just didn't think Belle's love for him, at that point of the film, was high enough. One of the problems was that they had a very "modern" American courtship, and this kind of story absolutely depends on a more fairy tale approach.

Don't get me wrong though. Beauty and the Beast is the class of 90s Disney, IMO. But a lot of how an audience buys a film's individual elements depends on the whole.
 
The former. As in, if the cliche can be done well to where one does not groan at its use, or to where the way its done is good enough to overshadow how contrived the idea is on the surface.
 
Cartoons are supposed to have internal logic, you know.

Anyway, I haven't seen the movie, but I'd think it'd be kind of obvious that a frog would be a bit stronger than a fly.
 
True but still when compared to other Cartoon universe the Disneyverse is pretty realistic.

Anyway getting back on topic I think somtimes these kinds of scenes can be excicuted pretty well for example In How to Train Your Dragon Hiccup almost did this in the fight with the Dragon Queen, granted he lost his leg in the process but still.
 
Well, the only Disney ressurections that I've seen recently enough to remember in detail worked well enough. Meg from Hercules was saved through the use of magical superpowers, which was clearly possible within the rules of that universe. Snow White was also revived through magic, so again, that's acceptable.

And Mufasa from The Lion King only came back as a ghost/possible hallucination, so I guess that doesn't count...
 
How about when the hunter guy Slade from Tarzan died?

Ugh... it still haunts me to this day when I saw it in theaters. :ack:

I never quite looked at a game of hang man the same way, that's probably where the Disney movies went downhill (since it was in 1999) and where Pixar really took off with Toy Story 2 and Monsters INC. a few years later.
 
I think I understand the question well enough. And the answer is that I believe the Disney deaths have been well-executed many times particularly on the villains side. Dr. Facilier, Maleficent, and Jafar all had excellent ending sequences and those are just off the top of my head. As for the heroes, Ray from Princess and the Frog comes to mind. His death happened so quickly that it was powerful. But it wasn't the death itself that stole the show, it was the result. The moment that he became a star next to his love was one of the most beautiful scenes that I've ever seen in animation. So yes, I think that Disney deaths can and have been very well executed.
 
I the the "Beauty and the Beast" fake death was fine. Of course, I never interpreted it as him actually dying for real (although his heart probably stopped), so the magic didn't actually resurrect him so much as it healed his injuries.


Wall-E, on the other hand, really pushed it. This isn't magic, it's technology. The power of love should not have much influence here.
 
They can't really have a gruesome death on camera, otherwise the movie wouldn't be G rated, so that's why a lot of deaths aren't really seen. If they could find a way to have a well-executed death and keep the movie G rated, then it's possible.
 
So... I'm guessing the power of restoring love is to have sparks fly?

Looking at the title, 'well-executed', means only one thing... Scar. He hinted at it to Mufasa, plotted to kill the cubs first and then took even greater measures by staging a stampede... and, then he gives the eulogy for the murder he has commited. :shrug: Oh, he also makes Simba take the heat 'just between the two of them' and tries to do away with him one final time.

Sounds well-executed to me.
 
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