Enter the Castle: Reiterating Medievalism in the Framing of Disney’s Fantasyscapes

This article examines the castle as an icon signaling medievalism in Disney films, and through it, how Disney maintains a core aesthetic of whiteness across its brand, especially in the fairy-tale films. It specifically examines how the castle title cards root a sense of historicism in three live-action remediations of classic fairy-tale films: Maleficent (2014), Cinderella (2015), and Beauty and the Beast (2017). Each remediation reiterates classic Disney narratives to a new generation while simultaneously reiterating the medievalist constructs at the heart of Disney fairy-tale narratives, and privileging whiteness even as the corporation claims to be improving its representation.