Examples
MPDGs are usually static characters who have eccentric personality quirks and are unabashedly girlish. They invariably serve as the romantic interest for a (most often brooding or depressed) male protagonist. An example is Natalie Portman's character in the movie Garden State, written and directed by Zach Braff.
Rabin points to Katharine Hepburn's character in Bringing Up Baby (1938) as one of the earliest examples of the archetype; later examples include Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's, Goldie Hawn's characters in Cactus Flower and Butterflies Are Free, and Barbra Streisand's in What's Up, Doc. Zooey Deschanel's roles in (500) Days of Summer and Yes Man have also typified the MPDG.
The Filmspotting podcast created a list of "Top Five Manic Pixie Dream Girls"; Nathan Rabin appeared as a guest and created his own, separate list of MPDGs. Among those included were Catherine (Jeanne Moreau) in Jules and Jim, Jean (Barbara Stanwyck) in The Lady Eve, Sugar (Marilyn Monroe) in Some Like It Hot, and Gerry Jeffers (Claudette Colbert) in The Palm Beach Story. Other examples of the MPDG the media has proposed include Jean Seberg's character in Breathless, Belle in Disney's animated Beauty and the Beast, Maude in Harold and Maude, and Penny Lane in Almost Famous.
Read more about this topic: Manic Pixie Dream Girl
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