Disney Princess/Characters
The official girls of the Disney Princess line.
Princess by birth
Snow White
Considered the "fairest in all the land" in her movie, she incites the jealousy of her vain stepmother, Queen Grimhilde. She later runs away with the help of her would-be murderer sent by the queen and befriends the seven dwaves in the woods. Her prince is unnamed, though early production notes had him named Ferdinand, which is good enough as far as the fans are concerned.
- And Zoidberg: Because of her different singing voice, appearance, and lack of personal activity in her movie, Snow White tends to get hidden somewhat in merchandise. Most notably in their song "If You Can Dream", where they had all the voice actresses singing, plus replacements for Cinderella and Aurora, but Snow White wasn't there, and only appeared in one clip in the music video.
- Cinderella Circumstances: Although it's never seen quite how the Queen behaved to seduce the king, the Evil Queen certainly follows through with the latter part of the trope, putting her husband's daughter to work, and dressing her in filthy rags to cover her beauty.
- Damsel in Distress: Like the other two original princesses, Snow White is generally not helpless out of choice, but nonetheless fits this role—when the Huntsmen tries to kill her, he spares her out of pity and shame, and so she needed no rescuing. In the forest scene, the only thing she seemed to be running from was her fear. And when she was offered the poisoned apple, she simply didn't know any better.
- The Ditz: Toned down from the original fairy tale, where the Evil Queen in crone form comes no less than three times to try and kill Snow White, and Snow White falling for it every time. In this case, Snow White's acceptance of the fruit is a result of her complete innocence.
- Faux Death/Back from the Dead
- Friend to All Living Things: Unlike the other princesses, save Tiana in frog form and Aurora (as Briar Rose) in the forest, the audience gets to watch her befriend the animals of the forest.
- Hot Mom: She has a son in the comics.
- "I Want" Song: "I'm Wishing", "Someday My Prince Will Come".
- Official Couple: With Prince Ferdinand.
- Parental Abandonment
- Pimped-Out Dress: Like all of the princesses.
- Princess Classic
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: "Lips red as the rose. Hair black as ebony. Skin white as snow." Snow White is probably at least a contender for Trope Codifier.
- Shallow Love Interest: The prince with no name (later named Ferdinand), Alternative Character Interpretation aside.
- Shiny Midnight Black: As discussed two tropes earlier and the same is likely true for the Evil Queen.
- So Beautiful It's a Curse: Despite the Evil Queen's efforts to make her uglier by dressing her in rags and making her work, Snow White still becomes the fairest in the land by thirteen, so the Queen demands her death.
- Supreme Chef: Suggested. She's iconically associated with the pie she makes for Grumpy, but it's never actually tasted.
- True-Blue Femininity
- True Love's Kiss
- Younger Than She Looks: Walt Disney was aiming to make her look to be around 14 years old, though she still seems a tad older than that.
- She still does look younger than most of the other Disney princesses, though.
Aurora
She was betrothed to Prince Phillip, a prince of a neighboring kingdom in hopes that both hers and his would be united. She was given the gifts of beauty and song from the fairies Flora and Fauna, but the evil Maleficent cursed her to die on contact with the spindle of a spinning wheel. The third fairy Merryweather mitigated the curse somewhat, changing its effect from death to an enchanted sleep that could be broken by True Love's Kiss, but the fairies took her away to live as a peasant for her safety.
- Everyone Loves Blondes
- Dangerous Sixteenth Birthday: While the curse in Disney's adaptation of Sleeping Beauty has a 16-year time period to be fulfilled instead of a certain day, the curse was fulfilled on Aurora's 16th birthday, just moments before its time was up.
- Damsel in Distress: Although one usually doesn't suggest comatose people help fight in battle, she still ends up as a princess needing to be saved.
- Friend to All Living Things: It seems the woodland creatures were her only companions outside of her "aunts".
- Hair of Gold
- Has Two Mommies: Aurora has three, not counting her birth mother. Although it's not nearly as sexy as it sounds (they were aging fairy foster-mothers).
- Hypnotize the Princess: Maleficent hypnotizes her with a green ball of light, in order to make her prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel.
- The Ingenue: Her most prominent character traits are her romanticism and innocence.
- "I Want" Song: "I Wonder".
- Locked Out of the Loop: The only people she can remember knowing have been hiding a large secret from her for sixteen years.
- Official Couple: With Prince Phillip.
- Perfectly Arranged Marriage: They even met before they knew they were to be wed.
- Pimped-Out Dress
- Princess Classic
- Princesses Prefer Pink: Aurora herself never chooses the color of her dress. Flora and Merryweather got in a fight over the color of the dress - pink or blue. It's mostly blue throughout the movie. In the merchandise, it's usually pink. Older fans of the princesses generally prefer blue, but there can be some fighting over which color is better. Occasionally Disney puts her in a violet dress as a compromise.
- Shallow Love Interest: Phillip has more personality than previous princes (he's the first one to have a name, for starters), but since the good fairies move most of the plot, he and Aurora exist mostly to fall in love with each other and get menaced by Maleficent.
- True-Blue Femininity
- True Love's Kiss: Rather than a condition of the spell, like in Snow White, True Love's Kiss being a cure was added by Merryweather.
- Violet Eyes
- Younger Than She Looks: Some fans have a hard time believing that Aurora is meant to be sixteen, with some going as far to say that she looks to be in her twenties. She's drawn somewhat taller than the other princesses and much like her successor Pocahontas, this just makes her seem older.
Ariel
A rebellious mermaid princess, she desired most to live above the sea, despite her father's wishes. After rescuing Prince Eric, prince of a dry land kingdom, and falling in love with him, she became even more determined to live out of the water.
- Action Girl: Mainly in her animated series, and her turn as a party member in Kingdom Hearts.
- Almost Kiss: With Eric.
- Bare Your Midriff: Wears only a seashell bra for the first half of the movie.
- Birds of a Feather: She wanted to escape her underwater life to live above ground. Eric wanted to escape his landlocked life to go out to sea. They are very much meant for each other.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Seen this way by other merpeople due to her obsession with human things.
- Collector of the Strange: She has a grotto full of... Stuff.
- Deal with the Devil
- Eighties Hair: Doubly impressive in that her hair is like that when she's out of the water and sopping wet. Not even the power of the ocean can defeat THAT volume. Underwater... well, hair spreads out underwater. The film came out in 1989.
- Fairytale Wedding Dress: Gets a big, poofy '80s version in her wedding with Eric.
- Fiery Redhead: More rebellious than angry, though.
- Foot Focus: When she first gets her legs, she gives her own bare feet attention.
- Generation Xerox: She's got it from her mother, Athena.
- Giant Poofy Sleeves
- Graceful Ladies Like Purple: Her seashell bra, and her dress in the sequel.
- Heroes Want Redheads: Inverted, then played straight.
- Hot Mom: In the sequel.
- Innocent Blue Eyes
- "I Want" Song: "Part Of Your World".
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Implied that she is this to Eric; in the dinner scene, his housekeeper mentions that he rarely laughed before he met Ariel.
- Missing Mom: Athena, who's role is filled out in a prequel movie.
- Official Couple: With Prince Eric.
- Our Mermaids Are Different
- Pimped-Out Dress
- Pinocchio Syndrome: The main plot point of the movie is Ariel becoming human.
- Plucky Girl
- Princesses Prefer Pink: The first dress she's seen wearing, and often used as her most iconic dress in the merchandise.
- Rebellious Princess: Although it's never expressed whether she had any royal duties, she's probably the most rebellious of the princesses.
- Red Headed Heroine
- Rescue Romance: Ariel rescues Eric, and Eric rescues Ariel.
- Seashell Bra: Most likely the Trope Codifier, but not the Trope Maker—the mermaids in Peter Pan had them first.
- Spared by the Adaptation: She turns into sea form at the end of the fairy tale, and must work to regain her soul.
- Spirited Young Lady
- Static Character: She was the first fully rounded Disney female lead, but her personality never undergoes any changes.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: In the animated series, she's the tomboy and all her sisters are girly girls. Not that she's averse to putting on pretty clothes.
- Tomboy Princess
- Took a Level in Badass: In a lot of works other than the movie, she does this, notably the animated series, the first sequel, and some of the Kingdom Hearts games.
- True-Blue Femininity
- True Love's Kiss: The only princess to proactively seek it.
Jasmine
Jasmine is the Princess of Agrabah. Rebellious much like Ariel, she refuses to marry of the princes that her father, the Sultan wants her to, and will only marry for love. She later falls in love with a peasant named Aladdin, who later becomes Prince Ali with the Genie's help, unbeknownst to her.
- Action Girl: Like Ariel, mostly in the animated series, though she was always quite strong.
- Bare Your Midriff
- Hotter and Sexier: The original Aladdin movie has an in-universe example when Jafar puts Jasmine in Go-Go Enslavement. Amazingly, her slave girl outfit manages to look sexier than her normal clothes even though it isn't really any more revealing. It must be the red color.
- Hourglass Hottie
- Hypnotize the Princess: Faked it for a distraction.
- Marry for Love
- Ms. Fanservice: Her royal outfits are very revealing, save for the purple dress she wears to announce her engagement and the white dress she wears to her wedding in The King Of Thieves.
- Missing Mom
- Official Couple: With Aladdin.
- Plucky Girl
- Rapunzel Hair: Notably until 2010's Rapunzel, she had the longest hair of any Disney Princess.
- Rebellious Princess
- Runaway Fiance
- Show Some Leg
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Doesn't give one flying rat's ass about all the rich, snobby princes trying to woo her, and instead goes for the poor, good-hearted Aladdin. The whole film even gives the message Be Yourself.
- Took a Level in Badass / Xenafication: In the TV series.
- True-Blue Femininity
- Well, Excuse Me, Princess!
Pocahontas
The daughter of the chief of the Powhatan tribe in Virginia, she's not xenophobic toward the white colonists, unlike the rest of her tribe. She eventually falls in love with John Smith, one of the settlers, but had to part ways with him. She later falls in love with John Rolfe.
- Action Girl: Sort of.
- And Zoidberg: Because of her being in Braids, Beads, and Buckskins, she sort of has a hard time blending in well with the other princesses with their pimped out dresses. As such she is almost always the one who gets cut out of merchandise.
- The sequel does give her a reasonably pimped out dress when she first arrives in England, this is almost always the outfit used in accessories.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished
- The Chief's Daughter
- Daddy's Girl
- Does Not Like Shoes
- Dramatic Wind: With her army of leaves at the ready.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: She was the only one who could prevent the plot from going into a bloody massacre.
- Friend to All Living Things: She's shown communing with several different types of animals, but her animal sidekicks are Flit, the hummingbird, and Meeko, the raccoon. Later Percy, the pug, is added.
- Generation Xerox: According to her father, she takes after her mother.
- Indian Maiden
- Inexplicably Awesome: Her shamanic powers go unnoticed for most of the characters, but she actually accomplishes quite the feats with them; she talks to trees, summons up spirits, leaps over ravines through neigh levitating, survives crashing down in the water from a cliff, and.. learns English within three seconds.
- "I Want" Song: "Just Around The Riverbend".
- Missing Mom: DVD commentary states that the wind that travels around her is meant to be the spirit of her mother.
- Ms. Fanservice
- Official Couple: With John Smith.
- She did in fact get together with John Rolfe at the end of the DTV sequel, but Disney merchandising (as well as a disproportionate amount of the fans) keeps her with Smith.
- Rebellious Princess: She laughs at her father's assumption that the river is steady.
- Shiny Midnight Black
- Star-Crossed Lovers: With John Smith, until she marries John Rolfe.
- Statuesque Stunner: And how. Definitely (alongside Aurora of Sleeping Beauty), the tallest of the Disney Princesses.
- Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
- The Power of Love: Utilizes it to stop a genocidal war.
- Tempting Fate: "Should I choose the smoothest course?" She should not.
- Took a Level in Badass: Under the guidance of Grandmother Willow, she goes from whining about her problems and sitting around, to taking action and defying her (very!) authorative father.
- Tragic Keepsake: Her deceased mother's necklace. Even more so after Kocoum destroys it while falling to his death.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: The only person in the entire movie, besides Grandmother Willow, to understand that war is not a plausible option, as it will leave both sides devastated and even farther away from a peaceful resolve. Her father comes close to saying this trope word for word describing her. "My daughter speaks with wisdom beyond her years."
- Unexpected Successor: It's implied that she is taking Kocoum's place as her father's successor, especially in the closing scene.
- Younger Than She Looks: Many fans indicate her age as 25 years old, enabling her romance with Smith (close to his thirties in this adaption) furthermore. In actuality, the fact that she was still unmarried makes her 17–19 years old at best.
- Ironically, the real life figure she was based on was 9–11 years old at the time this story (allegedly) took place.
Rapunzel
The Princess of Corona. Born of a queen who was healed with the power of a flower born from a drop of sunlight, her hair was infused with its healing powers. She was kidnapped as a baby by a wicked woman named Mother Gothel who desired to use the healing powers to keep herself young forever, and was locked up in a tall tower to keep the kingdom from finding her for eighteen years. However, she manages to convince a Lovable Rogue who hid in the tower named Flynn Rider whose birth name is Eugene Fitzherbert to show her the outside world, particularly the floating lights that seem to appear every time on her birthday.
- Action Girl: The first sign of her, in the original trailers, is her beating someone up with Prehensile Hair. Although this didn't make it into the film, she remains a pretty mean hand with a frying pan and saves Flynn's bacon on more than one occasion.
- Badass Adorable: Cute as a button, but not even the least afraid to talk down angry thugs and angry horses.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished
- Blithe Spirit
- Cute Clumsy Girl
- Ditzy Genius
- Does Not Like Shoes
- Fairytale Wedding Dress: In the follow-up short.
- Fantastic Light Source: She uses her magic hair to find the way out of a flooded cave.
- Frying Pan of Doom
- Genki Girl
- Girl in the Tower
- Graceful Ladies Like Purple: Her main outfit is a purple and lavender dress.
- Green Eyes
- Hair of Gold: Magically induced; she's a natural brunette.
- Healing Hair
- I Gave My Word
- I Just Want to Be Free
- Important Haircut: Done to her hair by Flynn, to stop Gothel from using Rapuzel anymore.
- "I Want" Song: "When Will My Life Begin?"
- Living MacGuffin/MacGuffin Girl
- Magic Hair
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl
- Mood Swinger: In one memorable scene when she goes out to the world for the first time in 18 years.
- No Infantile Amnesia
- Official Couple: With Flynn Rider aka Eugene Fitzherbert.
- Princesses Prefer Pink: At the end of the movie, she wears a rosy-pink dress.
- Rapunzel Hair: Being a retelling of the Trope Namer, she couldn't do without it, but some magic justifies it here.
- Spirited Young Lady
- Swiss Army Tears
- The Power of the Sun: This is what her hair is infused with until Flynn/Eugene gets rid of it by cutting it.
- Took a Level in Badass: She's pretty Badass from the moment she meets Flynn and just keeps on going from there.
- You Are Grounded
- Youthful Freckles
Princess by marriage
Cinderella
Born to a wealthy rich man who was later widowed, her stepmother, Lady Tremaine, was jealous of her beauty in comparison to her own daughters. She was forced to work as a maid under her care after her father died, and she wanted to go to the royal ball that was to be held by Prince Charming. With the help of her Fairy Godmother, she was able to meet and fall in love with the Prince, but not without leaving behind a glass slipper.
- Almost Kiss: With Prince Charming.
- Cinderella Circumstances: Obviously.
- Disappeared Dad: We actually get a good look at him in the movie's Storybook Opening, but that's about it.
- Damsel in Distress: She is never put in any sort of mortal peril, however. However, in order to get to the ball, first she needs the help of the mice, and then the fairy godmother. While not weak-willed, she's never seen helping herself.
- She did, at least, come up with the idea of getting Bruno to get rid of Lucifier at the end, so she played a small part in freeing herself from her room.
- Everything's Better with Sparkles: Her magical dress does this sometimes.
- Fairytale Wedding Dress
- Friend to All Living Things: Specifically to her legion of mice, but she also is friends with birds, a dog, and a horse.
- The Girl Who Fits This Slipper: Subverted; the slipper breaks before she can try it on. Fortunately, however, she's able to produce its match, which does more to prove her identity than just fitting the slipper would have done (although the Grand Duke tries it on her anyhow just to make it official).
- Gorgeous Garment Generation
- Hair Decorations: Most of her outfits in the film include them.
- Hot Consort
- Innocent Blue Eyes
- "I Want" Song: "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes".
- Nice Shoes: Her glass slippers.
- Not So Stoic: For most of her movie, she manages to be stoically cheerful while being treated as a slave in her own home. She finally breaks down when the stepsisters ruin her dress and, with it, her chance to go to the ball.
- Official Couple: With Prince Charming.
- Opera Gloves: Along with the other two Disney Princesses who became a princess by marriage.
- Parental Abandonment
- Pimped-Out Dress
- Plucky Girl
- Princesses Prefer Pink: Although she wasn't a princess when that dress was made, and it crossed with Doomed New Clothes. And in the sequel, she wore a pink version of her iconic ball gown.
- Rags to Riches
- Shallow Love Interest: "Prince Charming", minus the third movie, anyway.
- Spoiled Sweet: When her father was still alive.
- Took a Level in Badass / Xenafication: In Cinderella III.
- True-Blue Femininity
- The Unfavorite
- When the Clock Strikes Twelve
Belle
Born a young French peasant woman who has a thing for reading, her father, Maurice, gets into trouble with a Beast who is a cursed Prince, named Adam. The Beast only releases him when she agrees to stay with him forever. The two later form a bond after the Beast starts to treat her better.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Regarded as odd by the other townspeople for her love of reading and for being the daydreamer that she is; Belle herself has a hard time finding someone other than her father to befriend.
- Ascended Fangirl
- Beast and Beauty: Her name in this films is just "Beauty" in French.
- Bookworm
- Brainy Brunette
- Daddy's Girl
- Gold Makes Everything Shiny: Her gold ensemble in the famous ballroom scene.
- "Happy Holidays" Dress: The only princess who gets one during the course of an actual movie, appropriately Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas.
- Hot Consort
- "I Am" Song: More like a 'She Is' Song, since it's mostly sung by the townspeople.
- "I Want" Song: "Belle (reprise)".
- Love Epiphany "There's Something There" has a moment where she realizes she is getting feelings for Beast.
- Meaningful Name
- Missing Mom
- Official Couple: With the Beast (Adam).
- Opera Gloves: Along with the other two Disney Princesses who became a princess by marriage.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Several. Even the simple green and pink dresses she wears would have been made of expensive fabrics.
- The Power of Love
- Pretty in Mink: Belle's wine-colored winter cape with white fur trim. In the Direct to Video sequel, she is also seen in a scarlet jacket with white fur trim, and a matching cape and skirt for when she goes out into the woods. They seem to like putting her in furs.
- Princesses Prefer Pink: Her pink dress she wears with her fur cape.
- Scarpia Ultimatum
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She's polite, but completely disinterested in the obnoxious, cocky Casanova Gaston, and falls for the Beast because she realizes that True Beauty Is on the Inside.
- Although, she ain't so polite in turning Gaston down towards the end. "He's no monster, Gaston! YOU ARE!"
- Spirited Young Lady
- True-Blue Femininity
- Tsundere: A light Type B given some of her interactions with the Beast and Gaston.
Tiana
Famous for being the first black Disney Princess, she was born in New Orleans in an all-black neighborhood. She has had a talent for cooking since she was younger, and she aspires to own a restaurant. She meets the exiled Prince Naveen, turned into a frog by voodoo magic, but she too is turned into a frog herself. The two then try to get out of the bayou back to New Orleans.
- Baleful Polymorph
- Brainy Brunette
- Daddy's Girl
- Disappeared Dad: He died in World War I.
- Dish Dash
- Earn Your Happy Ending: A staunch believer of this.
- Fairytale Wedding Dress
- The Final Temptation
- Gorgeous Garment Generation
- Hot Consort: An important plot point, as when she becomes a princess through marriage to Naveen, she's able to break the curse upon them both.
- "I Want" Song: "Almost There", though it's been noted that unlike the others, she wants something specific (a restaurant) and has already worked hard to get it by the time she bursts into song.
- Official Couple: With Prince Naveen.
- Opera Gloves: Along with the other two Disney Princesses who became a princess by marriage.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Has the most dresses out of all the princesses in their main movies, despite being out-pimped by her best friend.
- Plucky Girl
- Self-Made Woman
- Sexy Backless Outfit
- Slap Slap Kiss
- Supreme Chef: Her favorite condiment, as it turns out, is Tabasco Sauce.
- True-Blue Femininity
- Workaholic: Perhaps her Fatal Flaw as she got close to running herself into the ground with little regard for friends or fun.
Not-actually-a-princess-but-still-in-the-line-anyway
Mulan
A flighty girl who is the daughter of a retired soldier, and the black sheep of her ancestors. When her father is enlisted for an oncoming war, she secretly takes his place in the field of battle.
- Action Girl: Enough so that it's probably the main reason for her inclusion in the princess line despite neither being nor marrying royalty.
- Badass
- Curtains Match the Window
- Daddy's Girl: One of the few Disney heroines with a complete family (she even has a grandmother) -- but it's clear that she's closest of all to her father.
- Guile Heroine
- Heroic Spirit: From finishing training, to stopping the invading horde, to still insisting on helping even after her gender is revealed.
- "I Am" Song: Almost an inversion.
- Important Haircut
- Journey to Find Oneself: Happens along the way, but she initially leaves to save her father.
- Lady of War
- Official Couple: With Li Shang, although their romance is probably the most understated of all the Disney Princess romances.
- Plucky Girl
- Sarashi: And yes, it's relevant.
- Sweet Polly Oliver
- Took a Level in Badass
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Played with. She tries to be a perfect bride in the beginning, but it didn't suit her. However, she has more Proper Lady traits than you see at first sight. While she's not super ladylike and demure, she fits the inner "core of steel" and "devotion to her family" parts almost perfectly - after all, the reason why she went to war as a Sweet Polly Oliver was not to get glory or escape her family situation, but to save her aging father from sure death.