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I realize I’ve been almost nothing but harsh on the Disney Princesses. Sure, I have an avowed love of the relevant movies from the late 1980s/early 90s, but I direct constant criticism at the fact that these characters are princesses.
However, the trend is getting better. Disney needs to finally let go of its penchant for royalty, but it hasn’t just been twiddling its thumbs about feminism in the meantime. Let’s look at the evolution of the princesses.
I don’t need to say much about the heroines from Disney Animation’s Golden Era. Their lives are basically on hold until they meet their princes, whether or not they know that’s the reason for the stagnation.
In fact, just about the first time we meet Snow White she’s singing about how she’s wishing for the one she loves (no one she’s met yet, mind you) to come find her. Cinderella and Aurora might not be active in their search, but their lives are at a stall, trapped in servitude and in forest cottages until their princes come into the picture (though Aurora also sings to an at-the-time-imaginary prince).
For decades Disney took a break from princesses. Then “The Little Mermaid” came around, and while I love that movie and think Ariel is fantastic, I need to be honest with myself. The epitome of her movie is her relationship with Eric.
Ariel does have more character depth than her predecessors. She’s captivated by humans due to her natural curiosity; her obsession with it does not, at first, have anything to do with Eric.
Were it not for Eric, however, Ariel likely would have never progressed beyond the point of fascination with the land; she probably would have ended her days as that beautiful but eccentric youngest princess who hoarded every dingle hopper that came floating down to the ocean’s floor.
Ariel’s main character trait becomes her life’s purpose when she meets Eric. She wouldn’t have risked her voice and given up her family under the sea just for curiosity. She does it for a man she’s never properly met.
Even the main action of the movie – Ursula’s plot against King Triton – is fueled by Eric and Ariel’s relationship. Adhering to classical tropes, the leading man’s impetus toward heroism is to save a damsel in distress; Ariel and King Triton, and indeed, all the denizens of the ocean look on helplessly while Eric is the one to defeat Ursula.
Triton may grant Ariel’s wish to become human out of love for her, but within this context it’s hard not to see Eric’s winning his bride as a reward for rescuing her. After all, if Eric hadn’t saved the ocean and gotten the triton back for his potential father-in-law, said FIL likely would never have approved of his future son and consented to the match, regardless of Ariel’s feelings.
Thus we see that the axes of these fairy tale movies still rotate around women finding their men, and it won’t change for the next two films. When I return to this subject, we’ll look at the further steps forward Disney took in the early 1990s.
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*(This image by smarthero is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
