Okay, so here's a question. Which of the following gals do you think should be a Disney Princess?
- Jane Porter (Tarzan)
- Esmeralda (Hunchback of Notre Dame)
- Megara (Hercules)
- Kida (Atlantis: The Lost Empire)
P.S. Am I the only one who remembers a deaf mermaid girl named Gabriella?
Actually Kida
was technically a Princess. Wasn't she the daughter of the ruler of Atlantis (haven't seen it in forever)? She's every bit as much a Princess as Pocahontas, if that's the case. She's just not added because Disney wants to give the cold shoulder to Atlantis. Honestly, they should have greenlit the TV series. I think the concept would have worked
much better as a TV series than a movie.
Me too! And the reason I think Gabriella stood out to me is because I thought that she was really unique because she was deaf. I really liked that not every Disney character was perfect. In addition, she was one of Disney's few Latina characters…I kind of hope that they make Angelina or Inma from Giants a Latina. An accurate one this time (I'm looking at you, Honey Lemon), just so people will stop complaining about how there's like 10 white princesses. Although I have heard that they're making an actual Hispanic princess named Princess Elena. But she'll be on Disney Junior in a Sofia the First spinoff…but, the good news is, she's at least 16, so she's definitely a possible contender for the lineup!
Disney Princesses are white because Disney uses the European versions of fairy tales. In other words, they have white princesses because the stories they're from
are white. I give them credit for trying to branch out to other sources of Princesses. Aladdin is technically a European story, but it takes place
out of Europe in a romanticized Middle East. That's why they also used historical and legendary characters with Pocahontas and Mulan, respectively. I get what they tried with Princess and the Frog, but if they want a more diverse line of Princesses, they're going to need to dig deeper for fairy tales or, better yet, make their own up.