Disney Princess Criticism - What's Your Opinion?

[Chernabog_Rocks]

I'm curious about what kids think. As adult fans, it's so easy to go down the rabbit hole in analyzing every little detail and find things that only adults would notice. Kids don't have as many years of experience, and may not even pick up on things. They see pretty princesses, and dashing princes rushing in to save them. From an adult perspective, we're automatically looking at it as leaning towards sexism, that women need to be saved, and can't save themselves.

(Late to the party, but wanting to jump in on the topic despite not having read everything yet.)

[Vlad]

Hi there! Welcome to the discussion! Your input is welcome. Feel free to elaborate your opinion.

[Disney Duster]

Yes, I agree that may be the case Chernabog_Rocks, but I know when I was a kid I never saw Disney's Cinderella as weak or needing to be saved. Now that I'm an adult I think she does need to be saved, but I don't see it as sexism. I just see a character that needs to be saved, simple as that.

[Chernabog_Rocks]

Something that occurred to me, is that the original trio of princesses has similarities to the renaissance trio. Perhaps a bit of a stretch, but worth considering?

Snow White - Ariel: Their voice was a large part of what attracted their prince. Their looks were also commented upon, Snow White was targeted by the villain because of her beauty, while Ariel was told not to underestimate the importance of body language/her looks. Both needed a True Love's kiss. Aurora also does, but there's always going to be some overlap with others.


Cinderella - Belle: Unhappy home life, feeling stuck. Both could be considered daydreamers, Cinderella had her entire A Dream Is A wish song, while Belle dreamed of having more than a provincial life, wanting something bigger than just her village.


Aurora - Jasmine: Both treated as prizes to be won in a way. Both were forced into situations where they had to marry Or Else, and neither were happy about it.



Obviously, due to the nature of princess-oriented stories, there's going to be some overlap with each other (Aurora also had the gifts of beauty and song). I'm not sure if this trend continues further considering the next three included Pocahontas and Mulan.

[Tristy]

I'm not exactly sure I would say Belle had an unhappy home life. I mean sure. She does call it "provincial" and the townspeople do stick their noses up at her. But compared to Cinderella, her life before she enters the castle is definitely better.

[Disney Duster]

That's pretty good comparing, Chernabog_Rocks!

[thedisneyspirit]

Something that occurred to me, is that the original trio of princesses has similarities to the renaissance trio. Perhaps a bit of a stretch, but worth considering?

Snow White - Ariel: Their voice was a large part of what attracted their prince. Their looks were also commented upon, Snow White was targeted by the villain because of her beauty, while Ariel was told not to underestimate the importance of body language/her looks. Both needed a True Love's kiss. Aurora also does, but there's always going to be some overlap with others.


Cinderella - Belle: Unhappy home life, feeling stuck. Both could be considered daydreamers, Cinderella had her entire A Dream Is A wish song, while Belle dreamed of having more than a provincial life, wanting something bigger than just her village.


Aurora - Jasmine: Both treated as prizes to be won in a way. Both were forced into situations where they had to marry Or Else, and neither were happy about it.



Obviously, due to the nature of princess-oriented stories, there's going to be some overlap with each other (Aurora also had the gifts of beauty and song). I'm not sure if this trend continues further considering the next three included Pocahontas and Mulan.

Hello, this is one of the most insightful pieces I've ever read! Some physical similarities as well:
Snow White and Ariel both are associated with red. Both wear multi-colored outfits (blue, red, yellow for Snow White and green and purple for Ariel).
Cinderella and Belle both become princesses from peasants. Both wear big ball gowns in super rich shades (gold or silver) with long opera glooves and earrings.
Aurora and Jasmine both have long hair and lotsa gold jewelry which I would totally borrow. Both wear shades of blue and purple.

[Mooky]

An interesting observation regarding criticism of Disney princesses getting married young:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CoqzGJGP ... M4ZDc5MmU=

[carolinakid]

“Woke” criticism of Disney Princesses or indeed, of ANYTHING, I consider to be horse pucky ...or as Alice would say, “Stuff and nonsense”!

[Thumper_93]

What I most hate about people who is criticisng Disney princess all the time is that they are only critic with the classic princesses just because they are not empowered. It seems that if you are not living adventures and fighting against something all the time you are not a good woman. These kind of people use to complain a lot about Snow White and Cinderella but they even do it with another modern characters like Pocahontas or even Jasmine!.

[Disney's Divinity]

You don't have to fight or have adventures to be considered empowered. Belle isn't a 'fighter' either, but she isn't a cypher or doormat. Those early Walt films are probably closer to "programming" and brainwash material than anything from the modern day. Only Cinderella out of those first three comes close to feeling like a real person at all.

[Sotiris]

An interesting observation regarding criticism of Disney princesses getting married young.

Well, that's kind of a cop-out because it's heavily implied that Snow White, Aurora, Jasmine, and Belle got married at the end of their respective films even though technically no wedding was showed. In the case of Aladdin in particular, the Whole New World reprise is meant to be a wedding celebration, especially since it's shown immediately after all the marriage talk. Them not being married was something ret-conned by the sequel.

You don't have to fight or have adventures to be considered empowered. Belle isn't a 'fighter' either, but she isn't a cypher or doormat.

And yet Belle has been heavily criticized by activists and academics. She's been called an anti-feminist for falling for an abusive man, that she's a victim suffering from Stockholm syndrome, that she's stuck-up because she rejects her own community, superficial because she only reads fairy tales and romance novels instead of serious literature, and that she's passive and domestic because despite claiming she wants adventure, at the end she stays in a castle with a man instead of travelling the world.

[Farerb]

Well, that's kind of a cop-out because it's heavily implied that Snow White, Aurora, Jasmine, and Belle got married at the end of their respective films even though technically no wedding was showed. In the case of Aladdin in particular, the Whole New World reprise is meant to be a wedding celebration, especially since it's shown immediately after all the marriage talk. Them not being married was something ret-conned by the sequel.

I think Aladdin and The King of Thieves is fine for what it is, but it bothers me how that movie just changed people's perception about the original movie - why do they think Aladdin and Jasmine wear festive clothes and that there are fireworks? They retconned that and that the peddler was in fact the Genie.

[Disney Duster]

The retconning of Jasmine and Aladdin's marriage in the second sequel always bothered me! But I think it's still a good sequel.

Belle is so a feminist. Lindsay Ellis explained why she never had Stockholm Syndrome, too.

[Mooky]

Regarding the video I posted, yes, I agree, the celebration at the end of Aladdin was supposed to be their wedding, and yes, it was retconned by The Return of Jafar/King of Thieves. But the thing I found interesting that hasn't occurred to me before I watched it is the use of fade-outs/montages/scene transitions to suggest a passage of time. Even in real life wedding preparations take time, so there really was no reason for anyone to think any Disney character got married after only knowing their partner for a few days. If we apply real-life logic to these scenes, there would have been weeks if not months in-between i.e. Ariel and Eric kissing on the beach and Ariel and Eric's wedding (the transition is there just for the artistic effect), during which time they would have gotten to know each other much better. Same with any other Disney couple.

[Disney's Divinity]

Belle is so a feminist. Lindsay Ellis explained why she never had Stockholm Syndrome, too.

I don't think of Pocahontas, Anna, Elsa, or Mirabel as "fighter" / action types either, but they're all empowered characters, too. (And that's leaving out non-princess characters like Megara, Jane, Esmeralda, Nani, etc. who are all non-fighters and what I'd consider empowered female characters as well.) Well, Elsa verges on being more of a fighter type in the sequel--the part where she struggles to tame the Nokk is probably the only scene that really crosses that threshold though, imo--but not in the first film.

Tbh, I don't really think of Moana as a fighter either, but I know there's more of a grey area there with her that you could argue either way.

[Disney Duster]

Mooky and Disney's Divinity, what you both said is so true!

[CielSomnus]

Kinda late to the discussion but I still feel the Classic Princesses specially Snow White are always unfairly treated. Cinderella at least got her Don´t blame the victim video which opened the eyes to a lot of people, but Snow is never going to get any of that, and while Aurora has also gotten hate she still doesn´t appear much plus she´s the prettiest Disney Princess so her hate has cooled down over the years.
But with Snow White people forget that for example the reason her face looks weird many times in the movie, or that her body doesn´t fit her face and looks too rotoscoped and realistic many times, it´s because she was an experimental character, there was no Disney style nor animation movie style in 1937 because it was literally the first movie, they have to cut her some slack, it´s not her fault she´s off model 70% of the movie.
And then personality wise, people run to defend characters like Rapunzel and Anna for being naive but they both were still adults, and while Rapunzel was isolated from the world, she still had books (knowledge) plus time to develop her hobbies, and with Anna some people exagerate when saying she grew up isolated as well....she didn´t, it´s just that her sister ignored her, in Do you want to build a snowman we don´t see her daily life, she still has her parents plus servants and people who loved her, the only thing she was missing was her sister.
And then we get to Snow White who basically was an orphan since childbirth, probably received only basic education, had literally no friends and no one to talk to (because at least Cinderella had her mice but Snow had like the pigeons and they couldn´t even talk), so the people that criticize her for wanting true love are nuts, in her situation who wouldn´t want to find love and someone who could take her out of there? The hipocrisy is crazy, she´s definitely been the most isolated along Rapunzel, just in a different way.
You can tell she´s barely gotten the chance to be outside the castle because of how scared she got in the forest, because people in 2023 still think that forest was cursed or something but it was all in Snow White´s mind, it´s a young girl who has just survived a knife, and who has to escape from the most powerful woman in the kingdom who´s also her stepmother, and she doesn´t even know where to go, she doesn´t have any friends to rely on, literally helpless and alone in the world, and she has that panic attack in the forest but she still never stops running and then after she scares the animals she apologizes.
Literally the people who criticize Snow White even if she´s a fictional character must have 0 empathy in real life, the classic princesses live in worlds where it´s much harder for a woman to live in but they still were super modern for their time, Snow White´s feminity prevailed over the dwarfs primitive masculinity, and Grumpy´s mysoginy. And also the people that criticize Snow White for not doing anything is like, do they think she´s been living privileged in her castle in a sparkly dress doing nothing all day? She has been working as a maid non stop for years and the poor girl is very well put for living so many years like that, she only knows how to do domestic stuff because that´s all she´s been taught, it´s not her fault she didn´t have time to develop more hobbies or have more freedom like the other princesses, and also she couldn´t do much either because precisely she had to hide, I swear classic princess haters are so annoying and biased....

[carolinakid]

Nice analysis, ciel!

You know, I’ve seen Snow White so many times over the years and she’s in my top 3 Disney Princesses of all time, but I never really noticed her being “off model” for so much of the film . Sometimes I’m not even sure what it means because I just don’t see it. In fact, the only Princesses where I really notice when the characters look fairly different in different sequences are Ariel and Belle. I think Snow White, Cinderella and Aurora look amazingly consistent during their films.

These are the sequences where I personally think these Princesses look their best:

Snow White: the Silly Song sequence and the finale with the Prince and the Dwarfs.

Cinderella: when the stepsisters destroy her dress and the Ball sequences.

Aurora: the whole I Wonder/Once Upon A Dream sequence which I understand was the first sequence animated and when Aurora returns to the cottage to tell her “aunts” about meeting the Stranger.

Those are the sequences where I feel these 3 look the most beautiful.
I’d love to hear the thoughts of those of you who particularly love these women.

[CielSomnus]

Hard to say because there some on model Snow Whites I like but some of them are just on model face wise but the body way too rotoscoped and similar to Marge Champion....
I´d say "child" Snow White looks her "best" in the bedroom sequence, and mature Snow White looks her "best" when she´s baking Grumpy´s pie, but just face wise because they relied on body rotoscope way too much there, they even defined the folds of her clothes which I think looks awful.
As for Cinderella my favourite one is after she finds she still has the glass slipper and thanks the fairy godmother.
Aurora has 2 models, her simplified model with black eyes and her complex model for closeups, she´s always on model so there isn´t really much to say about her, but she looks her best in the betrothed scene.