Calling All Disney Stans: A Buncha Facts About Disney Princesses

As you can probably guess, Princess Tiana’s character in The Princess and the Frog is loosely inspired by the main character from the novel The Frog Princess and also by the princess from the Grimm fairy tale The Frog Prince.

But what you may not have known is that her character is also modeled after Leah Chase, aka the Queen of Creole Cuisine. Chase, who passed away in June 2019, was the executive chef and co-owner of the legendary Dooky Chase’s Restaurant. During her time at the restaurant, Chase fed everyone from Quincy Jones to President Barack Obama. So, yeah, she’s pretty impressive.

Notice anything different about Belle when comparing her with the rest of the townspeople in their chic French village? Aside from the fact that her nose is always stuck in a book (which you knew, obvs), Belle is the only one wearing the color blue. This symbolizes the fact that she’s an outsider. And pay attention later on in the film as well: The Beast wears blue too. Aw! They were truly made for each other! Or something!

If you’re thinking, Um, excuse me, Tinkerbell is not a princess, then you’re right. But the sassy fairy from Peter Pan was actually supposed to be included in the official princess lineup, before executives decided she just didn’t fit the bill. Instead, they used her to launch the Disney Fairy franchise in 2005.

Disney Princesses might run around like they’re adults with their quests to find their one true love, but they’re actually just teenagers (who probably could have slowed it down on the marriages, you know?). Snow White is the baby of the group at 14 years old, while Jasmine follows at 15 years old (which, excuse me?). Ariel, Aurora, Merida, and Mulan are all 16 years old, Pocahontas is 17 years old, Rapunzel is 18 years old, and Cinderella and Tiana come in as the oldies at 19 years old.

You don’t even have to be a fan of Brave to know that Merida’s bouncy red curls are gorgeous. And like any perfect hairstyle, it took some effort. According to the Wall Street Journal, Pixar had to create an entirely new software program just so they could create hair that would “react more realistically to the character’s movements and surroundings.” Her glossy ringlets were created using “1,500 individually sculpted curves” so that they would look as legit as possible.

Is Mulan always referred to as one of the Disney Princesses? Yes. Is she legitimately a “princess”? No. She wasn’t born into royalty and didn’t marry a prince, making her your basic nonroyal person. Is she hella badass? Yep!

Apparently, Walt Disney told Ilene Woods (aka the voice of Cinderella in the OG film) that Cinderella was his favorite. She said she remembered him saying there was something about the story he associated with and added that his favorite piece of animation was the transformation scene where she goes from rags to a ball gown. And can you blame him? The original TikTok glam video.

Is there something about Belle that maybe seems a little familiar but you just can’t put your finger on it? The inspiration for Belle’s character was partly based on Katharine Hepburn’s portrayal of Jo March in Little Women.

Her physical appearance, on the other hand, was inspired by both Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music and Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz. You can totally see it now, right?

Well, this is kind of The Worst: A 2016 study found that even though Disney had been working harder to make the princesses more bold and independent, they still gave the princesses less dialogue than male characters. The research found that princesses speak 40 percent less than their male counterparts. That even goes for Frozen, which had 59 percent male dialogue. BRB, screaming into the void!!!!

Picture Princess Jasmine from Aladdin: You see the iconic blue crop top and matching harem pants, right? Right. But that outfit was almost pink instead of blue, because the studio thought putting her in pink would help sell more toys. The directors decided to stick with blue though. To which I say: Duuuh! Good call, ppl!

The original Disney Princesses (think Aurora, Snow White, and Cinderella) were basically picture perfect: They always looked v, v put together, not a hair out of place. Belle is a different story, running around town with that little strand of hair constantly falling in her eyes. That wisp of hair is there for a reason, mmkay? According to screenwriter Linda Woolverton, the old princesses were criticized for being too perfect, so Disney tried to make Belle a bit more relatable by making her, well, not so perfect. Hence the hair.

Have you ever wondered why in most of the group photos of the princesses, none of them are acknowledging each other? Like, can’t they just be a bunch of royal friends instead of ignoring each other? In 2006, the New York Times reported that having them not look at each other is purposeful, saying, “To ensure the sanctity of what [Andy] Mooney called their individual ‘mythologies,’ the princesses never make eye contact when they’re grouped. Each stares off in a slightly different direction as if unaware of the others’ presence.” Cool-cool-cool.

Ariel’s fiery red hair is pretty much her defining feature (if you ignore the whole fish tail, of course). But apparently, she was almost a blonde. What happened? The movie Splash, featuring a very blonde Daryl Hannah playing a mermaid, had recently been released, and Disney wanted Ariel to stand out, so they made her a redhead instead.

It was also a technical thing: It was easier and more aesthetically pleasing to see the darker shades of red instead of dark yellows when Ariel was in shaded spots.

Snow White’s fairest of ’em all lewk was inspired in part by Mary Pickford, a movie star once known as “America’s sweetheart.” Betty Boop also offered some inspiration for Snow White, which explains her giggly, bashful-but-not-too-bashful side.

The badass story of Mulan was actually based on the badass ancient Chinese legend of Hua Mulan. She was a female warrior who secretly takes her father’s place in war when he’s too sick to go. Her story is told in the poem “The Ballad of Mulan.”

Each princess is unique with her own little set of personality quirks, especially Merida. But one thing really stands out: She’s the only Disney Princess who doesn’t sing in her movie. Relatable!

You know how no one can fit in Cinderella’s glass slippers except for Cinderella? That’s because her feet were impossibly small. Supposedly, Cinderella’s shoe size was a 4½, which seems like a stretch, but okay!

In the early days of creating Aladdin, the sketches showed him as a lot younger than he ended up looking. Once they saw sketches of Jasmine, though, they were basically like, “Oh, no one is going to believe SHE fell for someone like HIM.” Animators changed Aladdin’s look specifically for Jasmine.

Belle’s yellow gown is, hmm, how do I put this…iconique!!!! That beautiful dress was actually inspired by Audrey Hepburn’s gown in Roman Holiday, which is shown to be yellow in publicity photos.

According to visual development artist Neysa Bové, a bunch of real-world research went into Moana’s look as it was designed. “With Moana, we did so much research with the Pacific Islands as far as what materials they had at that time,” explained Bové. “This is supposed to be taking place 2,000 years ago, so we didn’t really have any photo reference of what they were at the time, but we did get some material reference from our Oceanic Trust.” *the more you know*