On the way to daycare today December and I got in an
excellent discussion about character arc in movies.
She is four.
She loves princesses – Disney Princesses, of course.
So really we were analysing the princessinessitudeship of
the canon Disney princesses and comparing them to their peers.
What follows is a summary of our conclusions:
Snow White: Born a Princess. Has Princesshood stripped from
her. Regains it.
Cinderella: Not a Princess. Becomes a Princess through marriage.
Aurora (Sleeping Beauty to those of you not immersed in the Cult
of Princess.): Born a Princess. Not told she is a Princess. Returned to
Princesshood. (Though from her perspective she is like Cinderella in
Princess-arc, she is in fact more like Snow White.)
Ariel (“The Little Mermaid.”): Born a Princess. Sacrifices/Risks
Princesshood (depending on interpretation). Marries into an entirely different
Princesshood.
Jasmine (A rare non-titular Princess – from “Aladdin.”):
Born a Princess. Briefly pretends not to be a Princess. Stays a Princess – in fact
the Prince becomes a Prince because of her.
Pocahontas: Born a Princess. Stays a Princess. (Though it
bears mentioning that her title is never Princess – it is a cultural equivalent
of Chieftain’s Daughter. This is accepted in the canon without much question.)
Mulan: Technically never a Princess! Not even culturally
equivalent. But if we accept the general tropes of the Princesses and that she
is included as one of the Princesses in the canon by most measures and
subsequently re-align her arc with the parallel components then she progresses
as follows… Princess. Pretends to not be a Princess. Becomes a more Princessy
Princess than before.
Tiana (The Princess and the Frog): Not a Princess. Hooks up
with a Prince who has forsaken his Princehood… so really never becomes a Princess.
Rapunzel (You’ve probably heard of her though her film is
named the entirely unobvious “Tangled.”): Born a Princess. Taken away and not
told she is a Princess. Returned to Princesshood. (Basically the same as
Aurora, although in a much more progressive and watchable film.)
Princess Merida (From “Brave” – to the point where lots of
people mistakenly call her ‘Brave.’): The
first Disney/Pixar Princess,
incidentally. Born a Princess. Stays a Princess. Tells the Princes to sit and
spin.
Princess Anna (Perhaps you’ve heard of the indie-darling art-house
film “Frozen” – which actually gave us two Princesses.): Born a Princess. Stays
a Princess. Has an older sister and (SPOILER) hooks up with a commoner, so is
destined to remain a Princess.
Princess Elsa (also from “Frozen.”): Born a Princess.
Becomes a Queen (Basically a Princess who has levelled-up, so same thing but…
more.) Eschews Princess/Queenhood in favour of Ice-Queen/Princesshood (AKA
Being a Hermit.) Returns to regular Queen/Princesshood but is ‘out’ as an
Ice-Queen/Princess.
Anyway…
Not really any great insights there, but it was a lot of fun
to break it down with my kid.
