Knights of Guinevere: Our Relationship To Childhood Magic
I adore this show. And I felt the need to make my very first post here after about 12 years (oh god) of Tumblr existence because I felt very strongly about the premise and I wanted maybe to inspire some other people as well!
Divided into 4 sections cuz video essays have rotted my brain.
Section 1: Childhood Magic
“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” —Walt Disney
Somewhere in my mother's basement, there is some rather incriminating evidence of 2-year-old Julian dancing in a diaper to Pocahontas and Anastasia on TV. It's rather difficult to describe what I remember from that age in that regard, because I largely don't remember anything at all, but I do remember how I felt. I do still have a pretty close connection to some of those movies from my childhood.
Pocahontas was the first. And even Anastasia snuck its way into my #1 spot for the longest time. Tragically, child Julian wasn't actually all that concerned with what was and was not a "Disney" movie. But there were many more that followed. Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Lilo & Stitch all had baby Julian by the throat for over a decade.
They changed how I saw the world.
I am not, by definition, a Disney adult. I look back on my time with the original classics fondly and I do still occasionally enjoy them, but Quasimodo, Herc, and Stitch aren't really a part of my day-to-day.
When you get older, you are encouraged to adopt a new way of thinking. You abandon the magical adolescent years and you attempt to develop something new. Something all your own. And, often, something more "real". You start to understand that people are more complicated than you originally thought. And, oftentimes, more cynical that you wanted to believe.
It's no secret that corporate conglomerates have been, largely, a terror to pretty much everyone beneath them. They get on top of art and squish the creative process down to numbers and binary code. The venture of art becomes the "business" of entertainment. The terrors of its owners become more apparent and all of us have to figure out what to do with that knowledge.
It's a betrayal! Stitch doesn't feel so cuddly when they wheel 'em back out for another uninspired live action movie, merchandise his face on everything from backpacks to toilet paper, and blatantly leverage your preexisting connection with them to get you to buy more things.
The crisis of dealing with these truths and juggling their meaning becomes a task we all have to deal with. Whether you're a die-hard fan and defend the decisions of the corporation or someone who moved on altogether, we still had to figure out what to do with the knowledge. We're all in the same boat. But, for me, I don't think anyone has given me an adequate answer to the million dollar question:
Section 2: In Mouse's Clothing
Knights of Guinevere is a very blatant and obvious parallel to Disney. People have noticed and noticed loudly. And further speculation about specifically what parts of the mega-mouse corporation are prevalent on my part isn't particularly productive.
My time on the internet has been spent relentlessly searching for any scrap of information I could find in relation to the show and its future, but, like all potentially dangerous searches, I found my way to Reddit.
Infamy aside, I did see a mixed bag of comments. I didn't find any reviews that matched my own experience with the show and I was confused as to why. I did more searching to see if this was the general consensus.
From what I could see, it was well received, but for a lot of the reasons that everyone had already pointed out. The Disney allegory. People were excited to see a thorough takedown of the house of mouse and watch such a talent like Dana Terrace be the first up with a hammer.
And there is merit to that! As I've said, we've all been made painfully aware of what corporate Mickey does to smaller entities. It's warranted.
But I don't think that's the end. I don't think that's all that's happening here and I'd like to strongly urge a "yes, and" to this conversation.
Knights of Guinevere is surrounded by dystopia. The park is a planet at the apparent whims of its creators, everyone works in service to the same bureaucrats, and the most devoted to "the magic" are left at the bottom of the barrel.
Frankie is an engineer and dreamer. She wants to move to a higher station, working a survival job as a laborer in the meanwhile. In spite of her rather dour existence, she still has the capacity to imagine a life better than her own. She is determined to repair the android as a means to her own ends, but still very clearly sees it as… Familiar. Her imaginary friends themselves are reminiscent of Princess Guinevere's court.
Ambitious, kind, and free-spirited. Not entirely dissimilar from a traditional Disney heroine herself at the start of her journey. In the hero's journey, the call to adventure.
Andi is another engineer on the other end of the spectrum. She still works for the same corporation, but as a cog in the machine. Her engineering skills have her working for the same system that produced her own childhood. But she is certainly not enriched by it. For however little money she's making, it clearly wears on her that her social standing is all but destroyed in the circles she calls home. She's worn down. And clearly less of a dreamer than Frankie.
Once ambitious, kind but worldly, desires freedom but accepts the reality she cannot be. Continuing with Frankie's Disney-coded origins, Andi is the hero that lost. Or, at the very least, has been brought down a peg. In the hero's journey, the abyss.
Guinevere. There have been hundreds of thousands of syndicated Guinveres that share her likeness… But she herself is not in a catalogue with the androids who share her features. She is, for all intents and purposes, unique. She does not see Frankie and Andi as the people they have become, but Francesca and Andrea; The children she met years ago. She defends them from danger and warns them about Sir Arthur (in a maybe not super productive way).
But she does not have her own agency. Guinevere has been in literal pieces while under the "care" of Orville and Olivia, being forced to flee and the few words she says as the android we're familiar with are seldom her own.
Section 4: Complicated Dreams
Knights of Guinevere is about our complicated relationship to formative media. It is dressed in capitalism and the terrors of executive oversight, but it is more than the sum of its parts.
What happens when we discover the things that made us are made by institutions that are also our oppressors? Does the "magic" still matter? It does to Frankie.
Frankie uses her imaginary friends to digest her unfortunate circumstances. She still has dreams and still wants to use her gifts for its betterment. Her goal is have what Andi does: To be a crownie. To become the person that makes magic for people like her.
"Remember when we snuck in the park to play that crane game? We didn't get the doll, but we met a real Gwen. That memory is still so vivid. And now, you make stuff that gives other people memories like that. I just think that's cool as shit, Dee." --Frankie.
She still dreams of bigger things. And Guinevere was a large part of shaping her worldview and ambition.
But Andi knows what happens to people who get too involved. What outward love she had for Guinevere seems to have all but vanished when she became employed by Park Planet. She dissuades Frankie from her dangerous dreams, she bargains with Sparky on a purely utilitarian level, and advocates for abandoning the android in the elevator.
All this with an unrecognizable Guinevere on their hip. Andi's profession, Frankie's dreams, an entire planet's worth of manufacturing all with her face on it. Impossible to untangle. There is no Guinevere without the toys and the merchandise just as their is no business without the princess.
What do we do with childhood magic? What becomes of the things that shaped us when we ourselves become complicit in their making?
“To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past—and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts that have created America—with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.”—Walt Disney
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