Princess Merida became one of many hot viral topics in 2013. However, it could not make a bomb as the other viral things because most of Princess Merida’s fans are children, mothers or fathers or young adults who love Disney productions. after Disney had plan to makeover Merida which will change her style to be more sexy and attractive as the other previous princesses, there are a lot of Princesses Merida’s fans showed their feels and angry about the new style of Merida by comics, twitter, and so on .
there are so many you tube viewers who are getting interested in Princess Merida when all news about her new styles came out:
the video Merida From ‘Brave’ Gets An Unnecessary Makeover, Sparks Change.org Petition’ has number of viewers is over 64,000 and still going up
IGN News, a television channel about games, tv shows, Comics, technology, Movies and so on, always update any news of Princess Merida and receive many viewers which has a number nearly 35,000 viewers.
Also, it is no lack of discussions with a huge social network like Twitter
with a lot of criticisms from Princess Merida’s fans and the other, “Disney retreats from Princess Merida makeover after widespread criticism…’Glam’ version of character from Pixar animation Brave removed from Disney website after creator describes it as ‘horrible’ “( Ben Child 2013). That is also a cool news to everyone but hopefully they still keep the Princess Merida model for the next version of Brave.
References:
Ben C, 2013,’Disney retreats from Princess Merida makeover after widespread criticism’, viewed 17 Jun 2013,
Walt Disnep Pictures is a famous company in entertainment market that has released many great and wonderful movies in the world with a huge number of viewers (The Walt Disnep Company 2013). That is the only reason that let Princess Merida and her movie Brave to go to viral easily. Also, it is not only of experiences of Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios companies but it also depends on how lovely and tomboyish Princess Merida is.
This is the song named ‘touch the sky’ which was used in Movie Brave and some short scenes about Princess Merida. Let’s watch to see who she is:
Remember on Saturday May 11, 2013, Princess Merida was chosen to be Disney’s 11th Princess at Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom Park with attendance of Gymnastics Gold Medalist, Gabby Douglas and her mom, Natalie Hawkins (tara met blog 2013).
The Royal Celebration’s atmosphere was also became very hot with two little angels who are Sophia Grace and Rosie of the “The Ellen Show” and their original rap before Merida’s Mother, Queen Elinor appeared and give the Royal Crown to her daughter (Disney Store 2013).
Beside, the celebration is also very grave when the ten legend Disney Princesses, who are: Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana and Rapunzel, joined and shared the happiness with Merida.
The Royal Celebration of Princess Merida has organized at the day before the Mother’s day, which is on Saturday May 12, 2013 so that should be very excited and significant when Princess Merida and her mom, Queen Elinor, stay together in the Celebration. Furthermore, hundreds of people, who are children and parents and many troops of Scottish dancers, are around the castle to congratulate with her (Disney Store 2013).
Gabby Douglas stated that ”I admire Merida for being determined and courageous as these are qualities that have had a big impact on my own life and helped me achieve my goals as an athlete…And like Merida, I have a strong relationship with my mom, whose support and belief in me has helped me recognize my own inner princess qualities. It’s really special for us to be here and share in Merida’s celebration, especially on Mother’s Day weekend.”(tara met blog 2013).
On the other hand, Princess Merida became very hot topic when Disney had plans to redesign Merida character to be more completely sexy than the original (Chris Heller 2013). However, there are a lot of fan of Princess Merida did not accept the new makeover Princess because those changes made Princess Merida so different and against of children’s love for Merida.
The Original Merida (left) and The new Merida (Right).
In fact, Janani Ravikumar (2013) mentioned that ”Merida got a makeover, and her new design is a bit slimmer and sexier, complete with the same gratuitous sparkles that bedazzle all other princesses in the lineup.” Which are the new slim dress, a bit smooth and red in her face and so on.
Indeed, there are more than 244,940 people signed into a web page named change.org to vote and Disney do not change any Princess Merida and keep her to be normal (Ben Child 2013). Ben Child (2013) argue that “ When little girls say they like it because it’s more sparkly, that’s all fine and good but, subconsciously, they are soaking in the sexy ‘come-hither’ look and the skinny aspect of the new version… It’s horrible. Merida was created to break that mould…to give young girls a better, stronger role model, a more attainable role model; something of substance, not just a pretty face that waits around for romance”.
Princess Merida become a princess of every young girl to be more confident in their life because(The Sydney Morning Herald 2013):
Not need blonde hair to wear a crown.
Not need a prince to get things done.
Redheads can rule the world.
Nonetheless, New style of Princess Merida has destroyed the happy dreams of all children that made them very angry and disappointed (The Sydney Morning Herald 2013). Moreover, Brenda Chapman, a character’s creator, argued “I will stay dubious until they give an official statement about changing the image to match the original version of Merida,” she said. Chapman had earlier given a stinging rebuke about the makeover, calling it a “blatantly sexist marketing move based on money” (Aimee Picchi 2013).
After the release date of Brave, Princess Merida became very popular and well known with every families and children around the world. So, Princess Merida and her Story also became the great idea when game companies took them and created many different styles of video game in game market such as 3D platformer, LEGO games, coin collection, puzzles, attack enemies by bow and arrow and so on (every body plays 2012).
In fact, every body plays (2012) provides information about a interview with Kelly MacDonald about the character’s voice of Princess Merida in the games and the movie Brave.
The story of video game named ‘Brave: the Video Game’ is not only base on the story of movie Brave, but it also gives players a lot of complex quests for players to solve. The enemies are wolves, golems, walking trees, mandrakes and the other magic monsters, which make the game more interested and attractive. In addition, players have to control Princess Merida to finish the game and using the princess’s bow to destroy the enemies and protect them away dangerous.
The control of the game is very basic and logic which is suitable with some modern consoles such as PlayStation 3, PC, Wii, DS, and so on. Moreover, there are four elemental powers, which are – Earth, Fire, Wind and Ice, were used to make some power attacks or dodge ability (William Martin 2012). With the Character voice of Kelly Macdonald, the players have opportunities to live in the game as they are travel to the movie, but the players are people who control and decide Princess’s fate, not just sit down in front of their television and watch.
this is a short example of the video game of Brave:
In deed, Rick Station (2012) acknowledge that “ No movie studio in the world makes films that bridge generations quite as Pixar does, that mix of wisdom and wonder that can entrance adult and child alike. Perhaps the only interactive equivalent is something as magical as Mario…As a piece of merchandise, this does the job it needs to. As a video game, it’s anything but Brave.”
To sum up, with a short time after the release date of Brave, Princess Merida is very soon going viral and very popular with every children, especially are young girls. The reason to make Princess Merida famous is her story and her personality, which are very cute and significant lesson about the love between mothers and daughters.
References:
Aimee P, 2013, Parents score as Disney pulls sexy new Merida, viewed on 14 Fri Jun 2013,
“I am Merida. Firstborn descendant of Clan DunBroch. And I’ll be shooting for my own hand!”
Princess Merida is a 16 year old young girl who is daughter of Queen Elinor in the Scottish highlands called kingdom of DunBroch. Princess Merida is a main character in film Brave, which was produced by Pixar Animation Studio and was distributed by Walt Disney Pictures in 2012 (IMDb 2012).
In movie Brave, Macdonald Kelly, who is a Scottish actress from Glasgow, Scotland, voiced Princess Merida and she is also well known in many famous movies such as Boardwalk Empire in 2010, Finding Neverland in 2004 and Brave in 2012(Rotten Tomatoes 2011).
Princess Merida is very beautiful with a girl with fair skin, round face, light freckles, blue eyes and long curly red hair in a dark green cotton dress.
A shoot in Brave when Merida shoot 3 arrow in the competition.
In addition, her personality is very braved adventurous but sometimes she is quite tomboyish and headstrong. For example Merida does not want to be a royal lady, she against her mother’s rule when the Queen Elinor prepares a marriage for her with one of three princes from the other lands. As Merida said “I don’t want my life to be over, I want my freedom!”, she dislikes to follow her family’s tradition.
Merida has a best friend named Angus, a Scottish Clydesdale horse which is a beautiful horse with a long neck, black skin, muscle and long white hair on its legs (Ride at Raspberry Ridge Farms 2011). With Angus, Merida can travel to everywhere she wants and trains her skilled archery outside the castle.
By the short interview of cast and drew of movie Brave about princess Merida, we will understand more her life style, personality and the story of Brave.
On May 11, 2013, Merida has chosen to become the 11th Disney Princess in the franchise and stands side by side with the other previous famous Disney Princesses who are Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana and Rapunzel. However, Merida is very different with the other Princesses.
Firstly, Merida is the first princess who never has a musical style in her movie. In fact, there is only one times when Merida and her mother sing a Gaelic song together when she was young at the beginning of the movie (the Disney wiki 2012). In the contract, if you have ever watched the other Disney’s movie which talk about the other princesses such as Mulan (1998), beauty and the Beas (1991) or Tangled (2010), those movies was created as a musical cartoon which the princess could show their thinking by many songs with different emotions.
Secondly, Merida does not look like a typical Princess and she was created base on unreal story or life events (The Disney wiki 2012). For example, her voice is not an American accent as the other princesses because she is living in the Scottish highlands. Moreover, she has totally 22 different costumes and 5 hairstyles in movie Brave which the other princess just have only one clothes as snow white or two as Cinderella (the Disney wiki 2012).
Finally, Merida’s personality is very similar to modern young girls. She loves a freedom life without any heavy and old rules from her family and to be free to find out her true love without any forced marriage from her mother.
Those are some reasons that made Princess Merida become very different from the other princesses and go viral.
References:
The Disney wiki 2012, ‘Princess Merida’, viewed 9 June 2013,
Nowadays the marketing seems like more and more important . Even a low budget film like “Cloverfield“ , as long as you have successful marketing and be able grab audience attention . Then your film would go viral.
The impact of film “Pacific Rim“ marketing would lead film with robot or monster genre into interactive marketing . The most successful elements of film “Pacific Rim“ are interactive stuff. such as Recruitment Center , Custom design robot, Pacific Rim wall paper generator . A series of interactive stuff can really bring lots of fans coming to pay attention . It is not only good for currently film sales also target to future sequal . I just checked what is news on “Pacific Rim“Marketing . There is newly Pacific Rim mobile game that is in progress . Plus online virtual game and Comic book that is now drawing . Marketing group not only focus promote film in one way but also spread their film elements to every fields to make as expansive as they can . This could make all future film follow . Movie marketing would be not only making poster and good trailer . It would become multi-marketing which spread movie information into all kind different field meanwhile make other field flurished such as action figure or game industry .
what could have been done better?
Comparing with movie “Cloverfield“ , Pacific Rim seems a little mysterious less. The success point of the movie like “Cloverfield“ and “Paranormal Activity“ is that they never show the truth . Through the trailer and online post stuff, you only know what the genre of this movie , about what happed ? you don have anyidea before going to Cinema watching it . This is how Mysterious part lead successful market. “Pacific Rim“ is trying to make the monster “Kaiju” mysterious , but in the trailer or post they already shown totally no matter looking and background of monster . Before watching it , potential audience probably know what is gonna happen and also the whole general story . It is kind of less attractive because of we already known storyline through it’s marketing .
Another thing that could have been done better is that “Pacific Rim“ marketer seems didn’s spend time and people to stick their warning poster series , They created a lot of poster like below , but i didn’t see a lot on the street and bus station . Comparing with “District 9“ Marketing group . They actually spend effort to put their mysterious poster into real life to make bigger gate for people to start to know this film . If “Pacific Rim“ marketing group don’t . Then the poster like below would not make people curious about what is that , because if they see online , they would not think it relates to real life as i feel .
Now we going to take a look at the similar trend that gone viral as well. The Harlem Shake, that has been reached 1 billion view mark on March 24 2013 just 40 days first after its upload is always being compared to the phenomenal Gangnam style . But Harlem Shake is more like a meme, because there are huge variety group of people that have uploaded different version of the dance. When we break it down why the Harlem Shake gain much faster viewer compared to the gangnam style or even gentleman, there are several aspect.
The first one is that Harlem Shake is just about beat and dancing, that means there are no lyrics. Which in gentleman, which Psy as the singer was in Korean. This bring an issue about language barrier. What I think to make the gentleman even more viral is to maybe make the other language version, or even to as simple as to put subtitle so the people who are not from Korea could understand the meaning of its lyrics. Also when we look other similar video for example Baby by Justin Bieber
, he use the leverage of Ludacris. We all know that Ludacris is a big name in the industry and by featuring him it will most certainly boost up Bieber popularity quite significant . The most recent video that just gone viral , the Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke.
He is just nobody before the video itself gone viral. This guy he wants to become famous so bad that he did anything in his video start to featuring T.I and Pharrell to even put up a topless woman up in his video. Compare it to Psy, Where in his video either Gangnam Style or Gentleman, he didn’t use any leverage in form of famous superstar but he did put up lots of scene where there were girls with bikinis and stuff. Because in my opinion nowadays, in order to make people fascinated you need to include either money, girls and sex element into your stuff otherwise people will just like take it lightly and don’t really care at all.The Gentleman and also Gangnam Style definitely puts Psy into a worldwide superstar.
Though Psy itself long before Gangnam style become viral like it is now, he is already famous in his own country, South Korea. But the journey of Psy from just a Korean star to become a well known worldwide superstar is purely by his originality and he wisely use the leverage of the social network. Because Gangnam style became famous virtually because of youtube. Psy uploaded it and made people from all around the world watch it and yeah Psy made people aware of its song with the help of social media, which is in this case youtube. From there Psy become really famous across the country and he is being called to perform in numerous music event. He appeared in MTV Europe music award. He appeared in the future music festival Sydney as well. He performed the Gentleman on the final American Idol season 12.
So in sum, I want to point out several things in order to become famous, viral , and also big. The most important thing is that you need to be original. It means that you need to created something that has never be done before. Because There is no point to just follow what is already previously been done. Well you could do that but you won’t be as big as the original version ever.The second is that you need to be wise and also diligent to use the power of social media. Nowadays news spread like wildfire. In just a matter of second all the info could travel across the globe. That is why using the leverage of social media is the smartest way to make yourself famous. Take example of Psy. Gangnam style is the concrete evidence what originality and social media power are capable of. That is why we need to follow the trend of the social media now because like it or not we are all now live in the era of information, which is pretty much everything that we want to know are available in the internet and there are no barrier.
Psy, the most famous Korean artist at the moment has definitely become the lead pop superstars Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen atop the list of YouTube’s current most popular music videos. It is just so phenomenal that makes it all over the online society. Psy got a distinct style that makes it different from another guy. The newest video, the Gentleman does possess an undeniable odd appeal that most people are not familiar with the unique characteristics on the ears and eyes.
The impact towards the online world is so huge, and of course there will be always someone who likes it and someone who are against with it. Billie Joe Armstrong, the Green Day frontman described him as “The Herpes of Music”. That could be considered bold claim, as people who suffer from that particular genital infection could find it offensive. The amusing part is that Psy responds Billie’s comment by thanking him . Whether he is genuinely grateful for being compared to herpes or he is just simply misunderstood, He make sure that it is not any feud.
Not all of those people who reside at the top level of popular music think that way though. Liam Gallagher has already said that he is a big fan of the Korean superstar. He said that it is an absolute classic, he loved it. His kid dances and listening to his song every single morning and it really made him giggle. Gentleman reach over 365 million views which make it on the top of the youtube chart. Lots of parody being made. One is come from the Bart Baker. He put his own interpretation about the video as the song is in Korean, and made it a wacky ridiculous music video. Another one came from the well known Singaporean boy stars, Ah Boys. Since the video was uploaded two weeks ago, it has gone quite viral on youtube. Hits over 380.000 views and roughly about 4.900 likes.
Technically speaking, Gentleman is already one of the most-watched videos Of all time
. Because within in the timeframe of ten days, the number of people who watched it are already over 200.000.000 . For just comparison, on the first week of its premiere, it just around 50.000.000 viewers. Which means this video Gentleman will soon axing other massive videos including Gangnam Style itself. Considering Gangnam Style has been debuted since 9 months ago and it reached around 1 billion viewers.
The video itself convey a extravagant lifestyle and attitude of the rich. Psy, himself represent a rich and a arrogant rich man. Walks and do whatever things he likes. With his hefty reserves of money, he thinks that he could afford anything literally. Cars, Houses, girls, and anything that you could think of. Further about this, he thinks that he can do anything he likes and treat other people abusively. That could be seen through his childish prank that he did to the other people around him. But even though the pranked people were angry because of Psy’s cheeky prank, they do nothing to rebuke him for what he has done. Well the possibly reason is because due to Psy’s money and popularity, they are all just bear with it and do nothing about it. However there is one girl who doesn’t let Psy do whatever he wants to her. In return, she pulls a prank back to Psy himself. This causes Psy to relentlessly chase her because he think she is different from the rest. So in sum, this music video shows how the rich people are selfish and also fake. What they say are contradicts to what they actually do. This can actually seen when Psy do his signature dancing move, it is actually a concrete example of how the rich people can behave whatever they want and spoiled other people around them.