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Disney has been around for a century, with a line of princesses being its defining feature. Each princess, all the way from Snow White in 1937 to Moana in 2016, has her own distinct personality and unique story. The princesses have garnered much love and attention from fans of all age ranges, but what about the princes?
The Disney princes don’t seem to get much attention, which makes sense because most of the stories aren’t about them. However, this doesn’t mean that their characters aren’t refined with each movie. There are significant changes that have occurred from the nameless prince in Snow White (1937) to Kristoff from Frozen (2013), and these changes illustrate the culture of the movie’s time period as well.
In Snow White, the prince is a strong, save-the-day, charming, handsome, capable young man, whose sole purpose in the story is to woo the princess and save her from any trouble. Additionally, he doesn’t even have a name, therefore implying who he is doesn’t matter as long as he carries out his “manly duties.”
Many people argue that the older Disney movies portray women in a way that is unrealistic, old-fashioned, and uninspiring. For example, Aurora only has 18 lines and 18 minutes of screen time in her movie. Cinderella is passive and does all the cooking and cleaning of the household because she was ordered to, dreaming for a handsome prince to come and rescue her from her misery. The song A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes from Cinderella (1959) have the lyrics
Have faith in your dreams and someday
Your rainbow will come smiling through
No matter how your heart is grieving
If you keep on believing
The dream that you wish will come true
These lyrics are a stark contrast from the song in The Princess and the Frog (2009), Almost There, in which Princess Tiana sings
Fairy tales can come true
You gotta make 'em happen
It all depends on you
So I work real hard each and every day
This shows that society's perceptions about gender roles and stereotypes have significantly changed for women in the past century. These gender roles for men, appear to largely be the same. In most of the Disney princess movies the sole purpose of the prince was to be a sidekick, to make the princess—the star of the movie—look good. In The Little Mermaid (1989), Ariel is a curious, imaginative, rebellious, and fun-loving character. Prince Eric is, well, what is he? We don’t know because he doesn’t have much of a personality. The princess, throughout the decades, has become is a 3-dimensional, dynamic character with her own personality, dreams, ambitions, fears, insecurities, struggles, mistakes, and adventures. The prince is yet again the flat, static, stereotypical handsome, charming, and strong man who doesn’t seem to have any personality, quirks, emotions, insecurities, or personal growth throughout the movie. What does this say about how society perceives men?
Men have always had to undergo the pressure of supporting the entire family without it being socially acceptable to ask for help, been told that they can’t cry and to hide their emotions and “man up,” and to be the one to “save the day,” making everything right in the end, and it is apparent in many of the older Disney movies.
As mentioned earlier, the older Disney princes don’t show any emotion, growth, or weakness, which sets an example for all the children who watch these movies growing up. Men are portrayed as emotionless robots whose only meaning in life is to impress a girl and save or protect her from any trouble. They don’t seem to have much of a purpose outside of that—his whole life seems to revolve around around the princess. This subliminally tells the boys watching that they have to spend their life pursuing a girl, his value comes from how many women he can attract, and that the only emotions they are allowed to feel are lust and anger. Similarly, it tells the girls that it is the man’s duty to get her out of any trouble and that she is incapable or not responsible of doing so herself, and that men don’t feel emotions, cry, or get their feelings hurt. These false messages impact the way women perceive and behave towards men, such as telling them to “man up” when they are down—as if crying makes someone less of a man, making fun of their appearance since people tend to forget men have physical insecurities as well, or playing mind games when dating—such as “hard to get”—thinking the man will keep 100% of the effort into pursuing her, since it’s apparently his “job” to do so.
Only recently, Disney has recognized the complexity of their male characters, making them more realistic and human. The first hero to experience this change is Flynn Rider from Tangled (2010). He is the first prince to not be born into royalty—he married into royalty, thus breaking the stereotype that men have to be the provider and can be taken care of instead. He is a criminal, disregarding the previous heroic and flawless Disney prince character archetype. He questions why characters in the movie are randomly singing, is the first prince to have a sense of humor, and shows personal growth throughout the movie.
Instead of coming along at the end of the movie to save and marry the princess, Flynn and Rapunzel meet in the beginning and go through the adventure together, both of them saving each other. They become friends first before falling in love as opposed to the classic “love-at-first-sight” shown in the previous movies.
The most groundbreaking prince Kristoff from Frozen (2013) is dorky, antisocial, and lazy, but he is also kind, caring, and loyal. The trolls who raised him make describe Kristoff for in the song Fixer Upper:
"Is it the clumpy way he walks?
Or the grumpy way he talks?
Or the pear-shaped, square-shaped weirdness of his feet?"
"He always ends up sorta smelly
But you'll never meet a fella who's as sensitive and sweet
So, he's a bit of a fixer upper
So, he's got a few flaws
Like his peculiar brain, dear
His thing with the reindeer
That's a little outside of nature's laws"
"Is it the way that he runs scared? Or that he's socially impaired? Or that he only likes to tinkle in the woods?" "Due to his unmanly blondness?" "He's got a couple of bugs His isolation is confirmation Of his desperation for healing hugs"
He has no human friends, family, or contact in general until he meets Anna later in the story. His character is more of a follower than a leader, and he usually does what Anna tells him, defying the stereotype that men always have to be in control. Additionally, he is sensitive, sweet, and shows emotions such as fear and love, and is shown to be unconfident at times.
Both these revolutionary princes are anything but the “Prince Charming” archetype. They are imperfect, with their own distinct personalities, problems, flaws, and insecurities, showing change throughout the movie. These princes are more human than ever, conveying the message that men are allowed to have fears,, cry, and be vulnerable dependent on the princess at times.
Kudos to Disney for creating 3-dimensional, complex, and human characters that will inspire the future generation to break free from constraining gender roles.