Why My Day The Series is a Disney Fairy Tale

Mabuhay! That’s how they say cheers in Tagalog, a fitting way to start this blog about the Pinoy BL series My Day (#MyDayTheSeries).

When the My Day trailer first came out, we all noticed the Disney-esque vibe of the show. After finishing the series, I decided to write a blog about how the show adopts many of the elements of a Disney movie or fairy tale and YAOIzes them. Instead of presenting it in paragraph form, I will present them in a list form. Here we go!

1) The Music is all Disney. The music uses some of the common motifs seen in Disney movie songs (if you don’t believe me, listen to the orchestral version of the OST).

2) The rooftop kiss scene was a Disney fairy tale come to life. Fireworks are used in a lot of the Disney movies to mark a celebration, cue in the music and dancing. I think this entire scene was a call back to Disney fairy tales and Disney movie endings.

3) Moira, the evil witch, talks to the mirror. I think this happened in Episode 4 or 5. Moira looks at the mirror while talking about her plans to avenge what Sky did to her (break her heart).

4) Moira poisons the apple. Like in Snowhite, which I believe this story takes the most elements from, Moira poisons Sky’s food by tricking the butler, just like the witch in Snowhite uses trickery and deception to get Snowhite to bite the apple.

5) …and just like in Snowhite, Sky falls into a stupor and seems to be in a comma of sorts because of the “poisoned apple” he ate. I was half expecting him to wake up only after true loves kiss. Meh, that didn’t happen. 😦

6) Miss Becky is the magic teapot. She is the magical maid who dances and prances around in her flowing dress and who does the little courtesy thing they always seem to do in Disney movies.

7) Animals play a major role here. No true Disney movie is without animals. Chukchuk is introduced as Ace only family. In Disney classics such as Snowhite, the main character talks to animals and is friends with them, just like Ace seems to talk to his dogs.

8) The Seven dwarfs. It took me a while to realize why so many dogs in this show!? Well, it turns out there are 7 dogs, just like the seven dwarfs, who live with Snowhite. (I say this and suspect someone will point out that there are 7 plus Chuckchuck. I counted them. Seven including Chuckchuck. If you count 8, let me know) 

9) Distant parents or dead parents. You also have the distant parent trope, with Ace mother absent and Ace father being a major pain in the neck. Most Disney characters have an absent mother or father (In Disney it is usually dead parents). Later in the show we also learned that Sky’s brother is his half-brother. I had say that is another Disney trope.

10) The trapped prince. Another trope we see in common with other Disney films is the “trapped prince”. Ace feels trapped in his mansion, lonely and sad. He feels distant from the rest of the world. That is until his knight in shining armor (not really, more like a peasant in recycled armor) rescues him with the promise of forever love.

11) The commoner. Sky is the “commoner” who will “rescue” the prince from his “prison”. Is it a coincidence he is a cook and part of Ace’s company? IDK It is like the commoner who falls in love with the Prince of the castle, isn’t it?

12) Lesson about self-esteem. Lastly, in common with many Disney movies, the leads here will learn that being themselves is the most important thing. In the trailer we hear a character say to Ace (our trapped prince!): “You have to love yourself”. Typical Disney lesson.

13) Disney princess. If you blink, you miss it, but Sky’s brother dresses as a Disney princess for Sky’s graduation. I would call that an Easter egg.

14) The great dance. Don’t tell me that Ace’s birthday party did not look right out of a Disney movie?! I rest my case!

Now these last ones are a bit more of a stretch I guess, but given how the show has consistently followed Disney, I think it is worth mentioning.

15) Symbolic names. In Disney, names often carry a certain symbolism. Snowhite is pure and innocent. Belle is pretty. Goldie Locks has blonde hair. I think Sky represents someone with his head in the clouds, someone who is idealistic. He is someone who believes in love and doesn’t care what others think. What about Ace? The Ace card is the highest card in a regular deck of cards. It is higher than the King and Queen. Also, an ace is someone who excels at everything. I think Ace is a guy who is successful in his professional life. He is more grounded in real life than Sky.

16) Themes of redemption and forgiveness. Many Disney movies have characters be forgiven for terrible things they did in the past. Here in My Day, the evil characters get a second chance. Whether we like it or not and whether it is more cultural than a callback to Disney, I don’t know.

17) The Great Speech. Now, I personally thought the speech by Sky at his graduation was a little over the top and extremely selfish. A graduation speech should be about the class and what issues they will face. It should be inspirational and focus on the class and the challenges that lie ahead for them. However, this list would not be complete without a mention of the Great Speech trope. In so many modern Disney movies (and in general, in many American movies!), a character will often give a very inspirational speech and do this grandiose act to show his love for his partner. Here we get both as Sky’s speech is inspirational (“I am gay”) and shows his love for Ace (thanking him specifically).

18) The dognapping. I tried to find references to this in Disney movies but wasn’t very successful. The most famous dognapper Disney villain is Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians. Like Moira, she is greedy, vane and despises dogs. Moira and her accomplice are the stereotypical inept Disney villains. Also, they fight among themselves, as many Disney villains do. Finally, the one villain redeems herself by doing the right thing and betraying her accomplice. I feel this is very Disney-esque but I need to find more evidence of it! (Note: Thanks to Edward Sebesta for reminding be about Cruella!)

So there you go. These are all the reasons why I think My Day is pretty much a node to Disney. I wish I had the time to watch it again (and skip the bad parts!) but alas, there is so much BL nowadays that it is hard to keep up. I will watch it again for sure next year to try to find more Eastern eggs, but these are the ones I can think of for now. If you know of more, contact me and I will happily include them in this list.

Kita-kits! (That is see you later in Tagalog)