About

Disney Princess is a multimedia franchise that consists of select female protagonists featured in Disney animated films. Launched in the late 1990s by The Walt Disney Company's Consumer Products subsidiary as a means of expanding its licensed merchandise sales, the current line-up consists of eleven iconic female heroines of both royal and common heritage. On the Internet, the Disney Princess characters are considered popular subjects of comedy sketches, parodies and fan art tributes.

History

Though the oldest Disney Princess, Snow White, was first introduced in the film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which was released in 1937, it wasn't until the late 1990s that the original eight Disney Princesses (Snow White, Cinderella, Belle, Aurora, Ariel, Mulan, Jasmine and Pocahontas) were named. In 2010, Tiana of The Princess and the Frog ^[4] was added, in 2011 Rapunzel of Tangled was added and in 2013 Merida of Brave was added.

List of Official Disney Princesses

Reception

Makeover Controversy

In May of 2013, Disney unveiled a made-over Merida, which featured her in a fancier gown and more made up face. The make-over sparked a wave of negative feedback focused on Merida,^[10] who was sort of tomboy in the film who was now uncharacteristically dressed up. The outrage spread to encompass the other princesses' make-overs. On May 18th, Merida's make-up was reversed.^[11]

Fandom

On April 20th, 2010, the fan run Tumblr blog thedisneyprincess^[6] was created. As of September 2014, a Facebook page^[2] for the Disney Princesses has gained over 6.8 million likes, and the subreddit /r/disneyprincess^[5] has gained over 1,000 readers. Fanfiction.net^[7] has over 500 fan fiction entries tagged over Disney Princesses.

Fan Art

As of September 2014, DeviantArt ^[3] has over 80,000 pieces of fan art tagged Disney Princesses. Fan artists often reimagine the princesses around certain themes such as hipster, high fashion and steampunk.

Related Memes

Hipster Mermaid / Hipster Ariel

Hipster Ariel (a.k.a Hipster Mermaid) is an Advice Animal image macro series, featuring a screenshot of Ariel from Disney’s 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid, and a superimposed caption poking fun at hipsterisms, in similar vein to Hipster Kitty.

The popularity of this macro has caused a number of other Disney heroines to undergo the same treatment, like in the AVbyte's "Hipster Disney Princess-The Musical" uploaded to Youtube on October 1st, 2012.

Disney Princess Snapchat Parody

The Official Princess Club^[3] is a story told through Snapchat and uploaded to Tumblr staring Disney Princess figurines. The first episode was uploaded on January 2nd, 2014 and the series currently contains seventeen episodes. Prince figurines such as Aladdin and Eric also appear in the series, which feature the princesses acting catty towards each other in the style of The Most Popular Girls in School.

Search Interest

External References