Did you know that there are requirements for becoming an official Disney Princess?
The Disney Princess franchise was created in January 2000 by Andy Mooney, the appointed chairman for the Disney Consumer Products division. The original line-up was Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, and Tinker Bell. Tinker Bell was removed shortly afterwards to create her own franchise and would never be an official princess. Now, there are eleven princesses on the list: Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Rapunzel, and Merida.
But there is a list of requirements that each Disney princess has to get through to become an official princess. Because of this list, there have been some princesses that are not considered official.
- Have a primary role in an animated movie
This means that the princess has to be one of the main characters in their movie. Princess Jasmine was not the protagonist of her movie “Aladdin,” but she was in the movie enough to check this requirement off. This one is pretty straight forward but does kick some princesses off of the list.
- Be human, or become human like Ariel
This might seem like a no-brainer, but princesses like Nala from “The Lion King” will never be an official princess because of this rule. She checks off the other requirements but just misses it because she was never human. It would be hard to have someone play Nala at the parks because she does walk on all four legs, and the cast members wouldn’t be able stand up, so there is that problem.
- Don’t be the primary star in the sequel
To be an official Disney princess, the princess can’t introduce in a Disney sequel. A good example of this is “The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea.” Melody will never be an official Disney princess because she was introduced in a sequel to her mother’s movie.
- Be royal, marry royal, or perform an act of heroism
The princesses don’t have to do all three of these, just one. The act of heroism was added in so that Mulan can be considered an official princess.
Those four requirements are the only spoken rules for becoming an official Disney princess, but there is one other requirement that no one says out loud.
- Be a box office hit
The last requirement is that the movie that the princess stars in has to be success in box office. This rule actually kicks a lot of princess off the list to becoming official, such as Kida and Eilonwy. Their movies did not have success in the box office, so they likely won’t ever be considered real Disney princess.
Now you might be thinking, why aren’t Anna and Elsa on the list of official Disney princesses? Have they not been crowned (which is how a princess gets on the official list)?
The answers to these questions are that they will never be official Disney princesses, and there will never be a coronation for these two. With the last unspoken requirement to becoming an official Disney princess, there is also another side of that coin. Movies can’t be unsuccessful, but they also can’t be too successful. The Frozen movies did so well in the box office that they became their own franchise, just like Tinker Bell.
With the one-year mark of Moana coming up, people are wondering if Moana will become an official Disney princess. She does check off every spoken requirement to becoming official, and she did well in the box office, but did she do too well? Frozen made 1.287 billion in the box office, while Moana only made 643 million. Will this be too high or just right? We’ll likely find out in the coming years.