To start with, I have placed the proper nouns into different groups of similar titles.
The first group is titles beginning with 'The', such as:
'The Little Mermaid' and 'The Lion King'.
Using 'The' as a determiner at the beginning of the title makes the title flow better as it sounds less aggressive than just saying 'Lion King'. It also makes the titles stand out as it emphasises the main focus of the film. For example, in the title 'The Little Mermaid', using a 'The' accentuates that the movie is about a mermaid.
The second group is movies which are names after it's main character, such as:
'Aladdin', 'Pocahontas', 'Mulan', 'Tarzan', 'Cinderella', 'Alice in Wonderland', 'Peter Pan', 'Pinocchio', 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves', 'Bambi', 'Dumbo'.
Naming a movie after it's main character often makes it very difficult to know what the film is about from just the title. This often means that a sense of mysteriousness is sometimes added to a title, which makes the movie seem more intriguing and makes people want to see it purely to see what the movie is about.
But, in some cases the name of the main character may also give off clues to what cultural background the movie has, for example, the name 'Aladdin' is Arabic, and it's movie is set in Arabia. Another example is that the name 'Mulan' is Chinese, and it's movie is set in China.
The third group is movies with titles including mythical/magical related words, such as:
'The Little Mermaid', 'Beauty and the Beast', 'Alice in Wonderland', 'Enchanted' and 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves'.
Including a mythical/magical related word makes the movie seem like its going to be intriguing and mysterious. This makes people want to see the movie because they want to know what it is about. Movies with magical words in their titles also draw in the attention of children because of their fascination with fairy tails.
The fourth group is movies with one word titles, such as:
'Aladdin', 'Pocahontas', 'Mulan', 'Tarzan', 'Cinderella', 'Bambi', 'Dumbo', 'Enchanted', 'Tangled', 'Pinocchio', 'Brave' and 'Frozen'.
These short and snappy titles make the movie very easy to remember and so people are more likely to remember the movie for longer and increase it's popularity, and also people are more likely to remember to go and see the movie at the cinema. These one word titles are also very vague as to what the movie is actually about, much like the movies named after their main character. Also, these vaguely titled movies are also often coupled with an equally mysterious trailer, such as the trailer for 'Frozen' which gave no indication that the movie was based of 'The Snow Queen' by Christian Anderson.
The last group is titles that are made up of a single adjective, such as:
'Tangled', 'Enchanted', 'Brave' and 'Frozen'.
These adjectives provide a short, snappy and easy to remember title for their movies. They also give a more appealing, modern and unique title to a movie which normally would've had a more long winded name, much like 'Tangled' replaced 'Rapunzel', and 'Frozen' replaced 'The Snow Queen'.
The first movie title I'm analysing individually is 'Aladdin'. It's etymology gives a lot of insight to what the movie is about and where it is set. The origin of the name 'Aladdin' is Arabic, and so we know that the movie is set in Arabia. This origin also gives off a sense of mysteriousness and magic to the buyer when they read the hear the title of the movie, which could draw them into buying the movie or paying to see it at the cinema.
The title, 'Beauty and the Beast' immediately gives off a mythical essence from the noun 'beast'. But the title also could attract younger girls who have developed positive and wishful connotations towards the adjective 'beauty'. The etymology of the word 'beauty' and 'beast' also give us an idea of where the movie is set, as both words originally come from Latin and old French, suggesting that the movie is set in France (which it is). Although the conjunctions and determiners in the title make is flow nicely and make sense, it also drags out the title and could possible be seen as long-winded. Lastly, the title creates an oxymoron by using two words which are commonly seen as the opposite to each other.
Another movie title is 'The Little Mermaid', which sounds mythical and mysterious because of the word 'mermaid'. Mermaids are mythical creatures that we only hear about in fairy tails, and so this magical element of the title could draw in the younger generation, especially those who love all things magical! But the title is also quite vague, and makes us think 'who is this mermaid and why is she 'little'?', which makes us what to see the movie to find out. Lastly, using the determiner 'the' adds clarity to the title by emphasising the main focus of the movie.
'The Lion King' also uses a determiner at the beginning of it's titles, making the title stand out more. Also, both 'lion' and 'king' and both nouns, so when put together they sound more powerful. The word 'King' aslo has very powerful connotations as we associate the word with someone in charge of a country.
The movie title 'Tarzan' is very vague, as unless you know the story of the real Tarzan, then it gives off no signs of what the film is going to be about, but this could lead to more people wanting to see it so they could find out what the movie is about. The same goes for the title 'Mulan'. Both titles are also short and snappy, and so makes it easy to remember them and more convenient than a longer title.
The etymology of the name 'Pocahontas' is that it comes from a Native American background, and so we can gather that the movie will be about Native Americans. The title is also short and unique, and although a unique name may be hard to remember at first, once it is stuck in your head it will be very hard to forget. Also, as it is such a unique name, the movie is most likely to be the only thing you associate with the word in the title.
The title 'Frozen' is made up of an adjective, which has many different personal connotations depending on who the person reading the title is. To many people, the word 'frozen' simply means that your food been in the freezer, or that you are extremely cold. So it is hard to know anything from just the title about the movie except that it is about something cold. Whereas titles like 'Brave', 'Enchanted' and 'Tangled' all give some ideas as to what their movies are about or are based on.
The movie title 'Cinderella' gives off connotations of cinders and dirt, as the word 'cinder' is in the title. We can guess that the title is a name, but other than that is is quite vague, as it doesn't give any other hints as to what the movie is about other than maybe some cleaning or housework is involved from the word 'cinder'. The same goes for the title 'Peter Pan', as we can guess that it is a name but there aren't many other connotations as to what the movie could actually be about just from the title.
Both 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' include a name and a word with a magical connotation. These enchanting words draw the attention of younger people who love all things magical and fascinating. The titles also include conjunctions and determiners which make the titles flow and make sense, but could also make them seem dragged out.
The title 'Sleeping Beauty' is a classic old title that gives away the whole essence of the movie, the title is quite self-explanatory to what the movie is actually about. (There's a beauty, and she's sleeping, in case you hadn't guessed)
Another movie title is 'Lady and the Tramp', which creates another oxymoron, very similar to 'Beauty and the Beast'. The oxymoron was created by the fact the the word 'lady' is very feminine and clean, but is it paired with the word 'tramp' which reminds us of all things dirty and is not at all feminine.
Lastly, the titles 'Bambi', 'Dumbo', and 'Pinocchio' are all short and snappy titles named after the main character of the movie. As I have said before, these short titles are very vague and don't give away much of what the movie is about, which makes people want to go and see it purely to find out what it is about.
Overall, I think that over time Disney has managed to change their titles of their movies to suit the time periods that the came out in. For example, the first movie that they released was 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' which is very traditional and tells you plain and simple what the movie will be about. This is because in the time period it was released in, people would only go and see a movie if they knew what it was about, and they often had no trailers to tell them any information. Whereas the most recent movie on my list that Disney have brought out is 'Frozen', which is short and snappy, suiting a modern era where there is little patience and time in anyone's lives. It also is very vague, which helps to draw in people who get intrigued and curious very easily.
