Disney Princess

**Disney Princess** is a media franchise created by Andy Mooney, the chairman of Disney Consumer Products. The franchise features a line-up of female protagonists who have appeared in various Disney franchises.

## History

### Conception

Former Nike, Inc. executive Andy Mooney was appointed president of The Walt Disney Company's Disney Consumer Products division in December 1999. While attending his first Disney on Ice show, Mooney noticed that several young girls attending the show were dressed in princess attire—though not authentic Disney merchandise. "They were generic princess products they’d appended to a Halloween costume," Mooney told The New York Times. Concerned by this, Mooney addressed the company the following morning and encouraged them to commence work on a legitimate Disney Princess franchise in January 2000. Walt's nephew, Roy E. Disney, objected to the creation of the line, as the company has long "avoided mingling characters from its classic fairy tales in other narratives, worrying that it would weaken the individual mythologies."

The original line-up consisted of princesses Snow White, Cinderella, Tinker Bell, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Esmeralda, and Mulan. Tinker Bell was removed soon after; she would go on to headline the sister franchise Disney Fairies. Esmeralda was also removed. This was the first time the characters would be marketed in a separate franchise to their original films. Mooney decided that, when featured on marketing advertisements such as posters, the princesses should never make eye contact with each other in an attempt to keep their individual "mythologies" intact. "[Each] stares off in a slightly different direction as if unaware of the others' presence."

In an unconventional manner, Mooney and his team launched the Disney Princess line without utilizing any focus groups and with minimal marketing. By 2001, Disney Consumer Products (DCP) had generated about $300 million, but by 2012, the division had increased revenue to $3 billion, making it the top seller of consumer entertainment products globally. DCP issued princess product licenses to Hasbro for games, Mattel for dolls, and Fisher-Price for plastic figurines in 2000, allowing the franchise to meet the $1 billion mark in revenue in three years.

### Expansions

Tiana became the first additional character to the Princess franchise officially on March 14, 2010, taking Tinker Bell's short-lived place as the ninth member. Her "coronation" took place at the New York Palace. Tinker Bell was already heading up another franchise starting in 2005, Disney Fairies. Rapunzel was crowned and inducted into the Disney Princess franchise as the tenth member on October 2, 2011, at Kensington Palace in London, England, United Kingdom. On May 11, 2013, Disney added the first Pixar character Merida as the eleventh member to the franchise in a coronation ceremony in front of Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. By March 2019, Moana was added to the line-up as the twelfth member in the franchise without having a coronation ceremony, but rather being included in future merchandise.

A line of Disney Fairy Tale Wedding gowns were designed by Kirstie Kelly, based on the Princesses and available in January 2008.

In 2012, the princesses were given modern redesigns. While some like Tiana and Rapunzel just had added glitter on their outfits, others like Belle and Jasmine received new hairstyles and modified outfits. The most drastic of these was Cinderella, who was given side-swept bangs and an outfit with sheer sleeves.

With Target Corporation as its marketing partner, Disney held the first National Princess Week the week of April 23, 2012. During the week, there was the release of The Princess Diaries Blu-ray and The Very Fairy Princess book. Harrods, already having a Disney Store within, followed with their Christmas theme being Disney Princess by having Oscar de la Renta designed dress for the Princess on display. In August, the dress were on display at D23 Expo before being auctioned on November 13 to benefit Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity.

Mattel added a Barbie princess-themed line in late 2010 and the fairy tale based Ever After High in 2013. With these competing lines and an expiration of the brand license at the end of 2015, Disney offered Hasbro a chance to gain the license given their work on Star Wars, which led to a Descendants license. DCP was also attempting to evolve the brand by marketing them less as damsels and more as heroines. In September 2014, Disney announced that Hasbro would be the licensed doll maker for the Disney Princess line starting on January 1, 2016.

The June 2013 release of the Disney Princess Palace Pets app from Disney Publishing, led DCP to turn Palace Pets into a Disney Princess franchise extension, with the release of the Palace Pets toy-line in August from licensee Blip Toys. The line was also selected by TimetoPlayMag.com for its Most Wanted List Holiday 2013. In 2015, Disney Publishing released animated shorts series Whisker Haven Tales with the Palace Pets. The shorts journey to a magical world of Whisker Haven, a secret realm deep in a fairy tale land between the Disney Princess kingdoms.

Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media launched the Princess Comics line, which was started with Princess Comics graphic novels by Joe Book, in August 2018 at Target with Hasbro figures and Hybrid Promotions apparel. This expansion featured Belle, Jasmine, Ariel, Rapunzel, and Pocahontas.

On April 27, 2021, Disney launched the Ultimate Princess Celebration. This year-long event brought back the princesses' classic designs and included many special events, products and performances. Despite not being official, Anna and Elsa were included in parts of the celebration, such as an e-book called Tales of Courage and Kindness. When the celebration launched in South Africa on April 29, 2021, Sofia from Sofia the First and Elena from Elena of Avalor were also included for its territory, though in a lesser capacity than the other princesses.

## Character Background

The characters themselves, despite appearing in separate films, have distinct similarities. The Princesses show good will towards all creatures, evidenced by the common ability to communicate with animals. The Princesses are known for their inner and outer beauty, as well as having beautiful singing voices, apart from Merida, who only sings a song with her mother when she is little in her film, Brave.

Each Princess, excluding Merida and Moana, has a romance that is resolved by the end of her debut film. These charismatic girls carry a similar personality in their eras.

At the beginning with the first three (Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora), their characteristics were well known as classy, graceful, and romantic daydreamers, who suffered from the actions caused by others. They held an inner strength through compassion, love, kindness and, particularly with Cinderella, a strong sense of resilience, without having to demonstrate the more masculine, proactive traits of the later Princesses.

Since the Renaissance Era, these popular heroines became more active than reactive with Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, and Mulan. Their characteristics were known to be much more strong-willed, adventurous, feisty, cunning, and determined. As well their goals focused more on adventure and freedom than love, and these girls were more fighters for their dreams than the first three. They also existed in worlds which were more self-aware of the traditional and changing role of women; particularly Ariel, with her villainess assuring her that women on land should keep silent, Belle, with her villain assuring her that "it's not right for a woman to read", and Mulan, with her peers extolling masculine traits in addition to those of the ideal wife. The most recent ones - Tiana, Rapunzel, Merida, and Moana - are in the modern era; Tiana, an original character, is much more a realist than the others, she does not need nor want magic to make a dream come true but with only hard work, whereas Rapunzel is much more like the idealistic ones than Tiana.

Snow White, Aurora, Ariel, Jasmine, Rapunzel, and Merida are born of royal heritage as daughters of kings and queens. Pocahontas can be considered as being of royal heritage, as she is the daughter of a chief and considered Native American royalty by the English, as well as being called a princess in her film's sequel. Cinderella, Belle, and Tiana become royalty by marriage. Mulan was neither royal by birth or marriage, but is still included in the line-up due to her high status by saving China and receiving grace from the Emperor. Moana, herself, states that she is not a princess, but as daughter to a chief, the roles are similar. And just like Mulan, she received grace from Te Fiti for saving the world from destruction.

In the 2016 film Moana, Maui states that princesses have animal sidekicks. This has been evidently shown to be a common characteristic among the official members.

## Members

### Unofficial Princesses

Disney heroines and actual princesses that are not part of the official line-up. Several of them have appeared in some official Disney Princess products or promotions or guest starred alongside the princesses above.

* Minnie Mouse
* Alice from Alice in Wonderland
* Wendy Darling from Peter Pan
* Tinker Bell from Peter Pan
* Tiger Lily from Peter Pan
* Maid Marian from Robin Hood
* Eilonwy from The Black Cauldron
* Queen Nala from The Lion King
* Nakoma from Pocahontas
* Esmeralda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame
* Megara from Hercules
* Princess Dot from A Bug's Life
* Jane Porter from Tarzan
* Jessie from Toy Story 2
* Princess Melody from The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea
* Empress Kida Nedakh from Atlantis: The Lost Empire
* Kairi from Kingdom Hearts
* Ting-Ting, Su and Mei from Mulan II
* Kilala Reno from Kilala Princess
* Giselle from Enchanted
* Charlotte La Bouff from The Princess and the Frog
* Princess Vanellope von Schweetz from Wreck-It Ralph
* Sofia from Sofia the First
* Princess Anna from Frozen
* Queen Elsa from Frozen
* Princess Elena from Elena of Avalor
* Clara Stahlbaum from The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

## Sub-franchises

### Royal Toddlers

This line features the Disney Princesses reimagined as young children.

Snow WhiteCinderellaAuroraArielBelleJasminePocahontasFa MulanTianaRapunzelMerida
### Palace Pets

In July 2013, the Princesses received a spin-off franchise called Palace Pets. Currently, 10 of the 12 Princesses have more than two Palace Pets.

## Disney Parks

### Disneyland Resort

Currently, all the princesses are available for meet-and-greets at Disneyland Resort in California. Additionally, In 2006, as part of the "Year of Million Dreams" celebration, the Fantasyland Theater began hosting the Disneyland Princess Fantasy Faire, a show featuring Lords and Ladies that taught young boys and girls the proper etiquette to be a Prince or Princess and featured appearances from the Disney Princesses. In 2010, Rapunzel was given a Tangled meet-and-greet location. The Carnation Plaza Gardens bandstand, adjacent to Sleeping Beauty Castle, was closed to be replaced by a new Fantasy Faire area in the Spring of 2013.

#### Fantasy Faire

The Fantasy Faire area at Disneyland officially opened on March 12, 2013, as the permanent home for the Disney Princesses; consisting of a Royal Hall, a Royal Theatre, Maurice's Treats food cart, and a Fairytale Treasures gift shop. The theatre features two small shows based on Beauty and the Beast and Tangled. The hall is used for meet and greets with the princesses, which have a rotation schedule with three princesses scheduled to appear at a time.

### Walt Disney World Resort

At Walt Disney World, the princesses are available for meet-and-greets in more specific locations. The Cinderella-based character dining and interaction, located at Cinderella's Royal Table in her Magic Kingdom castle, as well as "Cinderella's Happily Ever After Dinner" (formerly known as the "Cinderella's Gala Feast Dinner") at 1900 Park Fare in Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa are common places for Cinderella and other Disney characters to appear. The Princesses also can be found at the Princess Storybook meal at Epcot. On September 18, 2013, a new meet-and-greet attraction called Princess Fairytale Hall opened at the Magic Kingdom.

### Shanghai Disneyland

A Princess meet-and-greet location called Once Upon a Time was operational at Shanghai Disneyland's opening and is located at Storybook Castle.

## Reception

With such an impact on society, Disney often receives a lot of criticism for the potential harmful effects of their content on cultures. However, the development in the image of the Disney princesses shows that Disney company has tried to build their image consistent with the values of modern society. Maturity in the image of the Disney princesses is clearly manifested in three aspects.

First, there is a remarkable improvement in gender roles in Disney princess films. In early princess movies, the images of princesses associated with jobs that were supposed to be for women. There is a Cinderella who was always cleaning to serve her stepmother and her two stepsisters, a Snow White who cleaned the house while waiting for the dwarfs to come home from work. In the 1930s, Snow White, the first Disney princess, appeared on screen, showing the measure of society of a model woman at that time: worthy and dependent. This pattern has remained the same for almost 30 years while most of the following princesses still need a prince to help them. It was not until Pocahontas' time that the first signs of the influence of gender equality activities appeared. Pocahontas is considered the character with the biggest difference from previous princesses as she is less represented through romantic relationships, and she is the first princess who truly has a voice in the film. Mulan strongly followed this change. She is the first princess to truly escape the image of a sweet, feminine girl. Mulan was engaged in jobs that were supposed to be for men, she joined the army to defend the country. However, the film still received negative reviews from feminist critics. They consider the film to poke fun at gender roles when Mulan has to pretend to be a boy to get what she wants. Until 2012, Disney released Merida, a completely independent and powerful princess. Merida was very fond of archery and horse riding, and she beat all the other princes in archery competitions. Merida is said to have more masculine traits (62%) than other Disney Princesses. Merida's image marked a milestone in the development of gender roles in Disney princess films. Princesses are no longer just weak women waiting for help from the prince, they have become strong, empowered girls.

Second, the evolution of Disney Princesses is also reflected in ethnic diversity. Most of the early princesses were depicted as a white-skinned girl. It was not until 1992 that we saw racial diversity in Aladdin, starring Jasmine. Although this is considered a turning point in the cultural diversity of Disney princess films, the image of this character has been criticized that the character's personality has been westernized. Disney continues to expand the promotion of ethnic diversity by releasing three consecutive films in its princess franchise featuring the princesses of colour, Pocahontas (1995), Mulan (1998) and The Princess and the Frog (2009).

Last, the princesses are gradually portrayed with their own personalities and ideals. Early princesses were depicted primarily in terms of beauty. The common strengths of these princesses are innocence, kindness, tenderness, selflessness and beauty. These are all traits that are hailed as female standards. It is only a problem when it lacks diversity, misleads that girls are only appreciated when they are beautiful, kind and sweet. Strong and personality princesses are equally worthy of honour just as much as charming and feminine girls. More interesting developments in personality can be seen in modern princesses. They have the opinions, the desires and the purpose of life. Belle in Beauty and the Beast (1991) is an intellectual girl who loves to read, and she is not content to just live a peaceful life in the boring countryside. Tiana in The Princess and the Frog (2009) is a hardworking girl who dreams of opening her own restaurant. The princesses' ego is shown more clearly and vividly through each Disney Princess movie.

## Awards and Nominations

As of 2021, four Disney Princess films have been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant":

* Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937; added in 1989)
* Beauty and the Beast (1991; added in 2002)
* Cinderella (1950; added in 2018)
* Sleeping Beauty (1959; added in 2019)