Symbolism of Wedding Shower Favors in Movies

By Aaron Hu

Do you remember as a small child, watching The Little Mermaid or even Beauty and the Beast? As enchanting as these childhood movies were and still are, they had some familiarities. Everyone knows that the Little Mermaid finds love, and of all places it is not under the sea, just like the main character in Beauty and the Beast.

Both of the main characters in these movies meet their very own personal prince charming. Now you know how the plots play out, they fall into forbidden love of sorts, and get married. Now since there are weddings in these two films, how come we never see any bridal shower favors or wedding shower favors? Were these two strikingly and breathtakingly beautiful princesses deprived of a bridal shower? It seems as though old Walt Disney over looked a couple of things while putting these films together.

With Mrs. Tea Pot and Sebastian's personalities alone, one would normally conclude that surely no stone was left unturned when it came to the timing and planning of the weddings. With movie characters so full of life and energy how could they possibly leave out a bridal shower for their key princesses? I suppose this is not something that children see, or rather don't see in these films. This is because as we grow older we tend to pay closer attention to the truths in film. I can honestly not think of one single children's film that has a wedding in it, that actually shows a bridal shower or even mentions one.

Surely if the old philosophy "life imitates art" is true then they should defiantly include something as simple as a bridal shower. I personally can not imagine how something as simple and yet monumental as a bridal shower, was completely left out by the greatest movie makers in all of history. As a child however, I simply did not pay attention to the detail, which is the reason why this little fact did not bother me back then. It is not so much that it bothers me or irritates me now in my adult years, but rather it irritates me by the fact that a company so akin to detail, overlooks and disregards an important one when it comes to fairy tale weddings.

It is not just the bridal showers which they missed. How many films from your childhood that had weddings in them also had bachelor parties in them? I'll tell you how many, absolutely none! The closest any of us as children ever got to see to bridal or bachelor parties, was in the old Popeye cartoons. Yup that's right, do you remember Olive being showered with gifts in the episode where Popeye proposed to her? Or how about in that same episode Popeye goes to a boxing match with his friends. These are not actually bachelor or bridal parties and showers; however they are as close as we ever got to seeing them as children.

If you could create your own cartoon with weddings with both bridal showers and bachelor parties in them, how would you go about doing it? Would you make these parties as fairytale like and majestic as the weddings themselves, or would you hint about them and not actually portray them like the Popeye cartoon did? I suppose it is true that some things are to be left to the imagination, especially when it comes to these pre wedding celebrations in childhood films.

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