Disney has released a short on its platform Disney+ that centers around a plus-sized girl. As part of a collection of shorts, Reflect has been taken to many people’s hearts and received lots of wonderful comments.
What Is Reflect?
The animation, titled Reflect, follows a young ballet dancer, Bianca who “battles her own reflection, overcoming doubt and fear by channelling her inner strength, grace and power.”
A clip of Reflect was released by Disney, which sees Bianca practising in front of a mirror which begins to break apart her reflected image. As she battles with her confidence, she eventually feels comfortable within herself and dances while the mirror fades away.
Although it is only six-minutes long, the short has been hailed for creating a positive look at different body types as well as exploring self-doubt and body dysmorphia.
The short is one of a collection of pieces created as part of the stuido’s Short Circuit Experimental Film Series added to Disney+ in September 2022.
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Reflect has been spearheaded by animation artist turned director Hillary Bradfield. She has worked on the likes of Frozen 2, Encanto and Avatar: The Way of Water.
In an interview that is aired as part of the short, Bradfield says that she hopes people can “feel more positively about themselves and how they look” once seeing Reflect.
“Sometimes you go to the dark place to get to the good place. And that just makes the good place that much more beautiful.”
Reactions to Reflect
Many people have taken to Twitter to support the short and detail their experiences and relationships with their own bodies.
Some other people have reservations about it. Author of the Marvel Studios Visual Dictionary, Adam Bray, said that it “isn’t long enough to parse nuances of the message.”
Another person made note of the fatphobia and negative stereotypes that was present in Wall-e and accused Disney of using ‘movements such as the body positivity moment to capitalise.’
The Stories Matter initiative was launched in 2020, which sees Disney pledge to “consciously, purposefully and relentlessly champion the spectrum of voices and perspectives in our world.”
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