(Photo: WWD/Barney’s/Courtesy Photo)

Ut oh.  The people that wrote the books, the movies, and the cartoons on fantasies has apparently stepped in a big pile of make believe.

Barney’s New York has created an ad campaign that The Walt Disney Company has signed off on and it includes a dream sequence where Minnie Mouse is skinny.

Stop the tea cups!

Rene said, this is much ado about nothing.  I agree.  First, let’s just get real here.  Minnie Mouse and her compatriots, who were also transformed into much thinner versions of themselves, are fictional characters.  They exist only because one man brought them to life, and it was Walt Disney’s idea to make them what they are.  We as a society have embraced these lovable creatures in their current, cuddly forms, yes, but does that mean that they can’t ever change?  What does that say about us?  Aren’t we stifling what the Walt Disney experience  is all about: dreaming?

Body image.  Deep sigh.  I love the fact that parents want to protect how their children see themselves, and I get it. Minnie is impossibly thin in the dream sequence, but she’s a talking mouse.  I would hope that in and of itself would help Joelle realize that Minnie can be whatever she wants to be.  She’s a famous, talking, singing, mouse, People.  And I don’t know how many little girls go out as Minnie for Halloween, walk the streets of Disney properties with their Minnie Mouse ears on, or even impersonate some characteristic of Minnie, but guess what.  They do not want to be a mouse.  There’s a very fine line between reality and fiction and this doesn’t cross that line.  It stays right there in fiction.  Yes, this Minnie has got her skinny on, but little girls always want to be something they aren’t; they want to be taller with their mom’s heels, prettier with their mom’s makeup, more grown up with their moms clothes, cell phone, and mannerisms.  Are we really saying that in a land of make believe that they won’t see Minnie as just seeing herself playing dress up?  Where’s the credit for little minds that make up worlds where tea is imaginary and mud pies are tasty?

I love that people can tell other people what to do with their fantasies.  This is America after all, but now they are stepping on the people who created dreams, and I just don’t get that.  Disney has created worlds that teach our children such valuable things.  It’s a world where mice reign supreme and kids young and old flock to see them every day.  Minnie has given our kids so much to dream about already, can’t we let her have a dream or two now and then?

And what about you?  Are you more of a traditionalist who says Minnie shouldn’t be touched?  Or do you love the mini Minnie?  Let us know!

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