129 - Disney Lied To Us (Respectfully)

What happens when childhood fairy tales grow up and realize rent is due every month? In this episode of Limitless Table Talk, Fern and Nat unpack the Disney-fueled expectations we didn’t know we were carrying: instant love, magical transformations, villain simplicity, and the idea that dreams follow a neat storyline.

It’s nostalgic, chaotic, and a little too real—like finding out Cinderella had a credit score.

Transcript

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Welcome to Limitless Table Talk, where sometimes magic is not exactly what you expect it to be. I'm Fern. I'm Nat, so grab your favorite cup of coffee, pull up a chair, and let's chat. Chatarooski. Alright. You know how everyone dreams of living their own fairy tale? Well, not everyone gets a castle, but you can get a tattoo that's magical enough to remember forever. Whether you're the hero of the story, the sidekick, or just trying not to lose your shoe at midnight, Sunset Tattoo Parlor can help bring your vision to life with custom ink you'll love. Ask for David and text 305-710-8413. And don't forget to mention Limitless for a special deal. No magic wand required, just great artists, great vibes, and a little imagination. Sunset Tattoo Parlor, making your story a little more unforgettable, one tattoo at a time. All right. Now here comes the music. I did. Awesome. Come on now. Mm-hmm. It's getting it's it's getting catchy though. It is. It's it really is. Alright. Okay. So I just want to start off with something important. Important? Okay. I tried cleaning up today. Dangerous, dangerous opening statement. Alrighty. And I genuinely paused for a second because I was like, where are the birds? What birds? We don't have any birds. Yeah. You know, the little ones that are supposed to help, like in the movies. You hum once and suddenly, pring. You've got a whole avian interior design team. Right. The unpaid forest labor force. Exactly. But I hummed nothing. I got anxious. Then I Googled if pigeons are supposed to respond to optimism. Okay, now that's just insane. And honestly, very, very disrespectful to those poor pigeons. I just feel like we're promised assistance. Not emotional, not financial, but like chore-based magic. Okay, so you mean like like the Disney movies? Like Disney really raised a generation expecting a synchronized cleaning montage. And instead we got trash bags and existential silence. No birds, no musical numbers, just you and your unsolved laundry. And that is the thesis of this episode. Disney lied to us. The wonderful world of Disney. All right. Let's start with the biggest scam first. Love at first sight. Oh, yeah, the most cinematic misunderstanding ever designed. Like you lock eyes across a ballroom, and suddenly your nervous system is like bing. This is your spouse. I don't know why it sounded like that. But let me try that again. Bing. This is your spouse. Okay. Alright, whatever. Meanwhile, in real life over here in reality, I lock eyes with someone and think, do I have spinach in my teeth? Or are they just staring at me like that? Like I do that when I look over at you. And you're staring at me. I'm like, do I have something on my face? Sometimes I just like staring at you. But growing up watching, you know, Disney movies and Disney shows and cartoons, you know, the people are like staring at each other from like even movies and all that. Lovingly. Yes. Like the prince is staring at her and they're like, ooh, lovingly. Like little music is playing and like a little Cupid is I'm in love already. Like, you know, I gotta find the girl that wears the slipper because I'm in love with her already. Like that's my spouse. While I'm like, do I have something in my teeth? Why are you staring at me, bro? We'll just say this the Disney version from the Walt Disney Company is basically instant orchestral certainty. So you look across and it's instant poo. Music plays, birds are flying, hearts are in the air. But in reality, it's like buffering. It's not love at first sight, I think. I think it's more like curiosity at best, whenever the buffering ends, finally, or dehydration, whichever one it could possibly be. The worst part is it taught us that confusion is wrong. But real attraction is mostly confusion with good lighting. And sometimes bad lighting. I don't know. And still confusion. You know? Because, like, I don't know. I I can dissect all these Disney movies. Don't get me wrong, I love these Disney movies. I I love the originals, Disney movies. I don't like the um listen, I'm partial to both. I kind of like the I I like the live actions for the most part. I like the originals and all that. They're not bad. But like, I don't know. I don't know. And yeah, um you see confusion. Right. So we internalize this idea that if it's real, it should feel immediate. So now people are out there discarding perfectly normal relationships because it didn't come with fireworks, acquire, and music. You mean nobody is breaking into song when they meet someone at Target? No, at Target, people are literally silently avoiding eye contact in the serial aisle. Except me. At least you said it. Because I'm the one going around going, Well, hi, how are you? Well, romance now I feel. Now, you know, obviously, we're out of the game, but from what we've heard. Very out of the game. Um what we've heard, it's more like, hey, hey, do you like taxes? I guess I do. Like, it's just weird. Um, from what I've heard, it's very hard and very weird, but it's not like the Disney stuff. Like, come on. It's not, and and somehow I'll tell you this that is healthier than a curse breaking via kiss. Honestly, yeah. So so this is what happens, right? People have this illusion, illusion that it's love at first sight, right? You meet someone, you fall in love aside. You like all those reality shows, I'm just telling you. In that show. Have they seen each other? No. No, it's love at first sight. They no, they have to talk through a wall before they see each other. Well, the whole point is the whole point is you're supposed to be in love with who the person is, not that's not love at first sight. But that's what the name of the show is. I didn't create the show in the classic Disney sense. Well, no, in the classic Disney sense, in the classic Disney sense, you're supposed to look across, run into someone at the laundromat. Oh. And you're supposed to lock eyes, right? Think, think, I'm gonna set the scene. Okay. You're in the laundromat. Mmm. Because it's always loud, right? Okay. It's always loud, right? The laundromat. And then you're sitting there and you're reading a newspaper because for some reason in laundromats, everybody reads a newspaper. Even though nobody reads newspapers anyway. You're reading a newspaper, and all of a sudden, you look over. And there she is. The beauty of my life. But she doesn't know yet because she's loading the loss the the washing machine. She's loading it. And now she drops a coin. And you step on the coin to stop it from rolling. Then you pick it up, you give it to her. She looks into your eyes. That's it. You're married. 45 kids. Fireworks, music. La birds, and the stars are flying around because for some reason stars always fly around. Right? There's a ribbon that a bird, one of the one of the birds brings a ribbon to like snowing twice together. All I'm saying is because I have mouse make mice making clothes for us at this point. All of this happened. And that's it. Your entire life is set because you stopped the coin from rolling. And you saw each other. Eyes. And then she says, I'm divorcing my husband because I fell in love with you. Because that's how it's supposed to work. Wow. We went to I'm divorcing my husband. I want to know what like novella you're watching or what soap opera are you watching. My imagination is crazy. So so here's the other thing that Disney teaches you. Okay. You've really, really thought about this. You have no idea. The glow-up pipeline. Okay. Because Disney conditioned us to believe that transformation equals resolution. Okay. That's that's right. I mean, I guess you go get a haircut, a dress, an outfit, some confidence lighting. And suddenly confidence lighting. Because you know, you need the lighting now. And suddenly your life has legal stability. Exactly. But I gotta bring my ring light with me. Everywhere. The emotional arc is just like this. You ready? Before, ugly. Doesn't matter. And all it is is that, you know, you had an ugly shirt on. After, pretty. Solution, problem solved. That's it. And then you have we can't forget the villains. Then you got the villains, then they're confused and they just give up. Is that what it is? Yes. That is the literal strategy. You see, I like the villains. I we'll get there. Okay. What happens is in reality, all I did was change my outfit once and still had the same email inbox. No fairy godmother, just Gmail. And the worst part is it trained us to think external change equals internal healing. Like if I just fix my appearance, my anxiety and all of my problems will file itself out of existence. That's called going to Disney or you know, going to the park. Facts. Meanwhile, anxiety is like, I live here now. And it pays rent in thoughts. The cruel, cruel irony of it all is Disney glow-ups look effortless, but real glow-ups are like sleep deprivation, trial and error, identity confusion, and one random Tuesday where you suddenly tolerate vegetables. That's the montage they cut. Alright? That's 17 months of uncertainty where nothing visually changes. Because, and I'm gonna tell you why. Nobody wants to watch someone slowly become emotionally stable over time. You can't buy that. It's not merchandisable, and you can't put it on a t-shirt. That's why. Okay. And that's the problem, right? People think, oh, listen, I'm all look you want to make a change. Right? You want to make a physical change. Do it. Right? Go for it. You wanna you wanna change the way you look, you wanna change the hair, you know, you wanna you wanna change the way the beard looks. Um you wanna change your style. Like, like, hey man, I wanna look like a vaquero now. Where's the translation? Vaquero. What? What did you say? I said vaquero. Cowboy. A vaquero? A vaquero is a cowboy. Oh, okay. Okay, so let me try. I didn't understand what you said. That's why I looked at you very puzzled. Let's say you want to go out there and you want to look like a vaquero. A cowboy. Go do it, man. Or cowgirl. You know, you wanna you wanna go and uh and look like you drive F1. Do it, right? What is that called? But know this, it's not gonna change what's going on internally. But that's not what Disney wants you to see. They just want you to change the way you look, and now you're a princess. You go from zero to hero. Oh, okay. In just one shot. Okay. I mean, if that's how you want to live, I guess. I mean, I just never thought of it like that, but okay. I'm more into the villains, so you know, whatever. You want to be the princess, you can be the princess. Well, what I'm saying is that making a superficial look change might make you feel great. And and I'm all for it. It might, yeah. But it doesn't fix issues that you may be having that you need deeper. It just hides it. What you're it's you're just trying to hide it. Yeah. You're trying to ma mask it. Mask it. That is it. I'm using my my words today. All right. The dream discourse. This one is mega layered. We were told follow your dreams. Like it's a straight hallway. But it's actually a maze, at least to me. It feels like it's a maze with missing walls and occasional fire alarms along the way. And 0.0 exit signs. That is very true. I find a lot of dead ends on mine. But Disney made it look like dream equals struggle montage with victory credits. But reality, it's dream, then confusion, then side quest, then builds, then temporary enthusiasm, then burnout, then slightly different dream at that point. I like my version. It was a lot shorter than yours. Well, because you've got to be able to do that. But I get it because mine wasn't this is the reality. But exactly, the dream evolves and it doesn't resolve. Oof. I'll repeat it. The dream evolves and it doesn't resolve. Nobody was prepared us for that. We thought passion was a compass, but sometimes it's just a flashlight with dying batteries. Ooh, that was very poetic, honey. Thank you. And also deeply depressing. Thanks. Yes. Okay, okay. Oh also, the idea that suffering means you're on the right path is very dangerous. I mean, we remote we we romanticize struggle montages. But in real life, struggle montages are just repeating the same thing on a Tuesday. And Googling, how to know if you're wasting your life at 2.14 in the morning, by the way. No soundtrack. Just ceiling fan noise. Dark and just a light from your phone. That's it. Just by yourself looking. How am I wasting my life? Pretty sad. Am I wasting my life? But instead. You're waiting for the birds to fly. That's exactly what it is. Because they're supposed to be helping us out. But I'll tell you this. The villains, that's where that's where you're at, right? You love the villains because Disney gave us a very clean conflict. Yes. Now we're in a topic I like. Like there's always someone who is obviously wrong, dramatically dressed, and musically motivated. Meanwhile, in real life, conflict is just systems and miscommunication and email threads and unread texts. My villain is my inbox and my unread text messages. And sometimes my own calendar. You singing about your intentions, but real problems just quietly accumulate. There is no I am evil song. It's more like I forget to respond, and now it's awkward forever. And no dramatic final battle, just recurring responsibilities. I think that we are trained to expect resolution through confrontation, right? But most adult problems resolve through actual maintenance. Alright, so that's the least enemet ever, by the way. Maintenance Maintenance. Nobody's making a theme park called a ride called Emotional Maintenance. The experience. We'll just say this. Are the villains really that bad, mostly speaking? Or are they just misunderstood? I think they're misunderstood. Um if I was to like see it as a metaphor. Yes. The villains in your little Disney movie, the villains are all the problems that are out there. And they're just looking for attention. They are and you the princess fern are giving it to them. If you think about it, if you really analyze Disney movies as a metaphor, the princess, the princess fern is a metaphor for the good. But here comes villainette. Seems like that's what it always is. The villainette is just a distraction in your life. Yes. It's a distraction. And I'm winning when I distract you. Like you are right now? Yes. But I'm making some sort of sense to me. I'm just saying you can see it that way. I mean, in all honesty. It's just the troubles and the things in your life could be the villains. If it goes back to our last episode about main character. Right. If I'm in my main character movie, the villains are all the problems I've had in my life. If you think about it like that, that's true. The villains are my congestive heart failure, my you know, struggles with surgeries and all that. Think about it. Think about it. It's like Sereno. Oh It will come and get you. I'll say this. Um It may or may not have made sense, but I that's how I think of it. Sometimes sometimes we create our own villains. Sometimes we are our own villain. And sometimes we are our own villains, right? So sometimes we are living in a certain way and we sabotage ourselves by our own actions. Because sometimes you are living that um, I I don't want to say princess life, but most of the Disney movies. Yeah, most of the Disney movies are princess lives. Or Hercules, you know, whatever. Zero to hero. Yeah, you're a hero. But then you, like you said, you sabotage yourself. Right. And then that becomes the villain. You see, you you realized my metaphor, didn't you? Just took a little and you got there. So did Disney lie to us, guys. So what's the verdict? I think it simplified things that are actually super complex, right? Not maliciously, just narratively, because stories need shape, like we were saying. Reality doesn't always have a shape, Fern. Reality is more like a texture. Messy, repetitive, oddly tender texture. I will say though, I will say, I don't think we lost magic. I think we we misplaced where it lives, where the magic lives. That was good. That was good. It's not a sudden transformation that you have, it's a small persistence, like doing the thing regardless, even when no birds show up. Still mad about the birds, huh? Of course. Maybe it's also the real version of magic is realizing you can still build a life without a montage, or you can have the montage in your head. And um without the castle? And without the talking animals. But if a raccoon ever helps me clean, I'm revising everything we just said right now. Fair enough. Like literally, I will welcome that raccoon or those mice. Really? Mice? If they are sewing something for me, by all means. You love Gus Gus. By all means. You love Gus Gus so much. I'm just saying, by all means. He's such a friendly mouse. I'm just saying. And Fern, what did we learn? Do not take apples from anyone. From from old hags. Stop. So in your if your life doesn't feel like a movie. It looks like it's gonna rain, by the way. It's probably not supposed to. Okay, I'm sorry. I got distracted with the it looks like it's gonna rain. Sorry. If you caught side when it rains, it could be like old Disney World. I can sing it away. What? Rain go away. Don't do that. Don't do that. No, no, no. Some other day. No. It is not for me. Oh look, I saw a bird. Oh, he's supposed to be helping me. He's not. Did you do that? Okay, whatever, dude. I don't know what to tell you. Anyways, um, alright. If your life also doesn't feel like it's a movie, check your stress levels, guys. Yeah, because you can make your own Disney movie happen whenever you want it to be. You just have to work hard, right? I this is what I take from Disney, which is you work hard. You never stop dreaming. Yeah, yeah. Like Disney gives you that. I feel like I'm not bad-mouthing the whole Disney movies. You best not. In that sense, I'm saying they give you the hope that life could be like that. And the only one that can make life like that is you. Correct. That's exactly what it is. But no one's coming to sing your chores into existence. They're not taking it away. Also, the only music that is happening around you is in your head. But you can still build something worth staying in, guys. You can. Don't let the reality of the life of the world mess with your dreams of what you want or what you believe in. Because you can accomplish whatever you actually go for. But if you can dream it, you can do it. And that is what I learned from Disney. More than more than the details. It's true. Okay, okay. I like that. I like that. Growing up watching Disney and all that helps. I mean, you know. But I like the way we broke I broke it down. Like the way we broke it down. Can your throat stop making noises? It never will. Okay. But I I like how we kind of broke it down, how reality is like your reality right now is like the princesses, the hero. Right. And how all the bad things that are happening and all that are the villains. So, you know, here's a life lesson from Fernand Nan. Uh, we may or may not have made sense to people, but hey, you know, that's how we break down and that's how our brain works. And you chose to listen to us. Yep. You chose to get uh a lesson from our chaotic stories, and I smell popcorn. The popcorn just just like stole my closure now. But, anyways, guys, so with that being said, since I do smell popcorn and I am getting hungry, um we are going to have to go. And maybe there are birds making the popcorn for us. I don't know. I don't know who's making it. It's probably Gus Gus. Yeah, Gus Gus is making it. But anyways, with that being said, don't forget, please like, share, subscribe, follow us on Instagram, Limitless Couple305. And I'm Nat. Vern, period.