The ULTIMATE Ranking of the Disney Princesses
Hey!
Can you believe its Autumn already? Where has this year gone?
For those of you that listen to the podcast that I host with my friend Tash, ChatDisney, you may have heard that we recently did an episode ranking all of the Disney Princesses.
In this post, I have compiled this list together to give you...
The ULTIMATE ranking of the Disney Princesses
Enjoy! And please do check out the podcast episode here.
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| From left to right: Prince Naveen, Dan, Annika, Morgan, Steph, Mercedes, Jo, Princess Tiana Disneyland Paris, February 2016 |
If you tuned into the podcast episode, you'll know that for each Disney Princess, Tash and I ranked them from 1-5 in these 3 categories:
- Animation – including vocals
- Personality – including their character traits
- Story – including their motivations and accomplishments
It was important to us both that we compiled this list as fairly and as unbiasedly as we possibly could so, without further ado, here is the final, definitive ranking.
9th Place – Snow White
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| From left to right: Snow White, Me, Morgan, Prince Florian Auberge de Cendrillon, February 2016 |
Unsurprisingly, as the first Disney Princess, Snow White ranked pretty poorly for both personality and story. We also found that despite the glorious animation style, Snow White also ranked poorly on animation due to the shrill tone of Snow White's voice. Sorry Snow!
8th Place – Cinderella and Aurora
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| Princesses on Parade Tash's trip to Hong Kong Disneyland |
These two are the final of Walt's original three Disney Princesses and, the two are very similar, so it's unsurprising that we ranked them the same!
Where Aurora ranked highly on animation, her story let her down because she has such a small part within the movie! She's famous for being the Princess with the least amount of speaking, with just 18 lines in the entire movie.
For Cinderella, we ranked her very highly on animation due to the iconic nature of her rags to riches transformation, but her personality let her down a little – come on Cinders, stand up for yourself!
Where Aurora ranked highly on animation, her story let her down because she has such a small part within the movie! She's famous for being the Princess with the least amount of speaking, with just 18 lines in the entire movie.
For Cinderella, we ranked her very highly on animation due to the iconic nature of her rags to riches transformation, but her personality let her down a little – come on Cinders, stand up for yourself!
7th Place – Moana
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| Moana teaching me the wave from the movie Walt Disney Studios in Paris, January 2018 |
Strangely enough, when we went through and ranked all of the Princesses, we were surprised to see that after the three classic Princesses, the next was the newest!
We found Moana's animation to be uninspiring, due to its CGI nature, and were also unimpressed with her storyline as she is the main reason that things go wrong. We did however rate her highly for personality because she is a fantastic role model.
We found Moana's animation to be uninspiring, due to its CGI nature, and were also unimpressed with her storyline as she is the main reason that things go wrong. We did however rate her highly for personality because she is a fantastic role model.
6th Place – Ariel
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| Ariel on the Castle Stage Shanghai Disneyland, September 2016 |
Much to Tash's dismay, her favourite Princess ranked pretty averagely in 6th position. Despite Ariel achieving full marks for animation due to the fabulous artistry of Glen Keane, and the amazing vocal talents of Jodi Benson, the storyline of this little mermaid was just too problematic when viewed with a contemporary lens. Ariel needs a little feminism 101 before she can rank more highly.
5th place – Rapunzel
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| Rapunzel and I Auberge de Cendrillon, February 2016 |
Beloved by many fans worldwide, both Flynn Rider and "Punzie" have developed something of a cult following at Disney parks. But, when considering her animation, story and personality, poor Rapunzel did not reign victorious. The Princess ranked pretty well across all areas but it was ultimately her naivety (we know, we know – not her fault) and reliance on Flynn that bumper her down a few spaces.
4th place – Pocahontas and Tiana
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| Pocahontas carving that can be found inside Storybook Castle Shanghai Disneyland, September 2016 |
Both Tash and I were thrilled to see Pocahontas and Tiana rank so highly. We were both very positive about their story, personality and animation overall, but there were a few marks deducted for varying reasons:
- Tiana's hardworking nature is kind of all she has going for her...
- Pocahontas' red brows...
- Tiana spends pretty much the entire movie as a frog...
Not a perfect score for these two, but they are definitely some of our better role models!
3rd place – Merida
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| Merida mosaic inside Storybook Castle Shanghai Disneyland, September 2016 She is Merida, from Clan DunBroch, and she'll be shooting for her own hand! My sister's favourite Disney Princess made it into the top 3 – she will be pleased. Due to her bravery, fearlessness and love of her family, Merida ranked pretty highly. We did mark her down slightly due to the fact that much like Moana, Merida sort of causes the whole problem of changing her Mum into a bear in the first place! But overall, we love Merida and think that she is the progressive Princess that Disney needed! Thanks Pixar! 2nd place – Jasmine and Mulan  And now we reach peak Princess levels. I wasn't surprised to see Jasmine in second place at all because she is my absolute favourite Princess of all time! As the first non-caucasian Disney Princess, she is arguably one of the most progressive. I also love her challenging character and fight for what she believes in. Arguably, Naomi Scott's portrayal of Jasmine in the live action Aladdin means that when examining the animated version, we marked her down slightly for not living up to the new and improved version! Interestingly, Tash and I were a little more surprised to see Mulan in second place.  Mulan on horseback during the parade Shanghai Disneyland, September 2016 Neither of us particularly like or dislike Mulan as a character, but when we went through the categories we had created (story, animation and personality) Mulan rated really highly across the board. We couldn't argue with the system! The animation in Mulan is incredible – the way that the animators' encompass the femininity of Mulan with the masculinity of Ping is just brilliant. She also has awesome vocals, and her personality and story cannot be questioned – she saves China for crying out loud! She is bad ass! This was an unexpected one but a real delight for us to see – I am now even more excited for the live action movie.  And that means that in the top spot, we have our lovely Belle. And it's probably not a huge surprise! She is Tash's joint favourite (along with Ariel) and Mercedes' second favourite too. What's not to love? Paige O'Hara lends her voice to the beautiful, book smart Belle in the movie and the animation is simply gorgeous too. She didn't get a perfect score, but it was pretty close. We believe that Belle is an excellent role model for children and that's why she ranked so highly on the list. Do you agree with our ranking? We would love to hear how you would have scored each Princess! You can tweet us @chatdisneyuk - Mercedes |