Episode 164: Will-o-the-Wisp | Pixar's Brave (2012), Fairy Tales & Feminism

If you could change your fate, would you? Step back with us into the misty Scottish Highlands through Pixar’s 2012 fairy tale Brave. Pixar’s first woman-led feature may look like a traditional fairy tale at first, but through clever meditations on destiny, free will, and community, it rings with truths that are incredibly modern. How do we restore women’s voices in patriarchal systems? How do we balance our desire to create our own destiny with our responsibilities to family and community? In this episode, we’ll explore how Brave embraces and evolves fairy tale traditions, incorporates new takes on medieval history and world folklore, and infuses Merida and Elinor’s feminist journey with magic and grace.

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Episode 115: Mirror Mirror | Snow White, Mythology & Religion

Mirror mirror on the wall, what’s the greatest podcast of all? After last week’s stimulating discussion of myth and fairy tale through the lens of Sleeping Beauty, we’re talking about the original Disney classic Snow White. We’ll deconstruct the iconic imagery of the poisoned apple and glass coffin, work through the uncomfortable implications of evil stepmothers, and spend some time with everyone’s favorite diminutive spirits, the seven dwarfs.

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Sources

If you enjoyed this episode, check out some of our sources and inspiration! Images are affiliate links, meaning if you purchase the item, a percentage goes to the podcast. Thank you for your support!

Episode 114: Briar Rose | Sleeping Beauty, Fairy Tales & Sexuality

Once upon a time… You know the story. King and Queen have a baby girl, evil fairy shows up to the celebration and curses the girl, girl is raised in the woods by good fairies, girl meets prince, girl falls into enchanted sleep, prince slays a dragon, true love’s kiss saves the day, happily ever after. But behind Disney’s 1959 classic Sleeping Beauty lies a dark and disturbing fairy tale tradition, one in which gender and sexual politics and questions of fate are as tangled as the thorny briars surrounding the castle. This week, Derek and Laurel explore the legacy of our most beloved fairy tales and their Disney adaptations. We’ll uncover corollaries to classical mythology, psychoanalytical interpretations, gender stereotypes and more in Sleeping Beauty.

CW: brief discussion of sexual assault

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If you enjoyed this episode, check out some of our sources and inspiration. Images are affiliate links, meaning if you purchase the item, a percentage will go to the podcast.

Midnight Myth Time Machine | Episode 2: Hey Princess | Star Wars, Fairy Tales & Princess Leia

It’s the Midnight Myth Time Machine y’all! We’re publishing our back catalog week by week to make it available on all platforms. This is Episode 2: Hey Princess, which aired in February of 2017. We discuss our hero, Princess Leia/General Organa from the Star Wars franchise and her legacy for the princess archetype in Hollywood. With an exploration of Central European fairy tales and Disney’s iconic princesses, we try to learn how to better craft women characters.

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Episode 76: Shame!

As we wait with bated breath for the final season(s?) of HBO’s Game of Thrones—another delay, ugh—the Midnight Myth is here to quench your thirst with another deep dive GoT character study. This week, we’re exploring one of the series’ most charismatic and manipulative monsters, Cersei Lannister. We’ll compare the ruthless queen of the seven kingdoms to the philosophy laid out by medieval author Niccolo Machiavelli, and introduce modern psychology’s dark triad. We’ll dig into feminist studies and examine how Cersei intersects with the monstrous feminine, and the long line of literary ladies who came before her, with ambition as her tragic flaw.

Episode 71: Of Eden

Season two of the Handmaids Tale concluded last week with an epic finale that saw our heroine, June, make a controversial decision. Expanding on the first-person limited world of Margaret Atwood’s novel, the Hulu series, and this season in particular, brought us into the minds and hearts of characters in every strata of Gileadian society. In this podcast, Derek and Laurel examine the effect that has on us as viewers, and how the vastness of the Handmaid’s Tale works to break down the boundaries imposed on women, and everyone in a fascist regime. Why does June make the choice she makes? We’ll answer that question and more as we seek to understand how a character—or a society—can change.

Episode 68: That's Incredible!

The arrival of Pixar’s long-awaited sequel to ‘The Incredibles’ has us itching to revisit the beloved family of superheroes. Turning a critical eye to the story of the Parr family and their secret identities, we’ll explore each character’s journey toward becoming fully actualized beings—with or without superpowers. For a kids’ movie, ‘The Incredibles’ digs into surprisingly mature subject matter, like suburban dissatisfaction, political ideologies, and gender roles. We’ll do our best to leave no stone unturned in this analysis. No capes!

Episode 64: Way Down Below the Ocean

Once upon a time, way down below the ocean, there lived a little mermaid who longed to be part of a different world. This week, Derek and Laurel deconstruct one of the most beloved stories of all time, from its ancient mythic inspiration to its 19th Century origins—all the way to the classic Disney animated movie. We’ll break apart tragic themes and what it means to give a happy ending to a heartbreaking fairy tale, and explore the social hierarchies and family dynamics that make The Little Mermaid a perfect allegory for some of our worst fears. And, most importantly, everything comes back… to Plato.