Despite Disney’s plethora of female characters, only eleven of them count as “official”
Disney Princesses.
And Cinderella, Ariel, Belle, Anna, and Elsa make up the big five, even though the last
two aren’t technically on the list.
The meticulous studio is notorious for their hidden details, and the internet is drowning
in theories about subliminal messaging corrupting children’s morals.
Wherever you stand, it’s worth pointing out that most of it is flying right over their
kid’s heads.
Just because they’re made with children in mind doesn’t mean adults can’t enjoy
them.
Before we get started on our list, can you guess what movie this is based on these emojis?
Stick with us and we’ll reveal the answer at the end of the video.
But first, let’s give you what you came for.
Here are 10 Disney Princess Secrets Only Adults Will Notice.
Rapunzel, Tangled The cover for 2010’s Tangled gives new meaning
to the term “sex hair”.
That is, if you believe Disney animators prey on youth with subliminal messaging.
Concerned parents were sure they spotted the word ‘sex’ in Rapunzel’s hair on the
movie’s cover.
See it?
Neither do we.
But others swear up and down that it’s written there, clear as day.
Considering it took 10 software engineers to work on just the characters’ hair, it
seems pretty far flung that they’d all band together to sneak a little innuendo on to
the cover.
But stranger things have happened, so we’ll let you be the judge.
Jasmine, Aladdin Ears intent on finding sexual innuendo will
hear it in everything.
And since many of the Disney conspiracies have to do with sex-type things, it’s understandable
that people get riled up about morality.
No parent wants their kids childhood to be marred by naughty, adult stuff.
So when a concerned citizen heard what they thought was dirty talk in Aladdin, it was
a big deal.
While most people heard the line as “good kitty take off and go” others swore he said
“good teenagers take off your clothes”.
We can argue about it all we want, but at the end of the day the only one who knows
for sure is Princess Jasmine.
Belle, Beauty and the Beast For better or for worse, Disney princesses
hold a lot of sway when it comes to teaching lessons to kids.
It turns out that the magic of song is a wonderful medium for transmitting messages of self-esteem
and kindness.
None of the ladies on this list take any crap from anyone, and that’s especially true
of Belle.
The team behind the character has said they wrote her to be someone their own daughters
could look up to.
“Feminist” is a big word, and people seem to understand it differently.
But when it comes to conversations about empowered female characters, her name is almost always
on the list.
Tiana, The Princess and the Frog Of all the criticisms that have been lobbed
at Disney over the decades, the issue of cultural representation is one of the heaviest.
Historically (and with very few exceptions) white characters have dominated the entertainment
industry, including animation.
The release of 2009’s The Princess and the Frog finally bucked the trend.. sort of.
Tiana is the first African-American princess to enter the Disney canon.
But considering she’s turned into a frog quickly and stays that way for most of the
movie, viewers have argued that it was a clever way for the studio to appear diverse without
actually having to follow through on it.
And while really little kids might not give it a second thought, older folks understand
the magnitude of that choice.
Merida, Brave Merida isn’t just Pixar’s first female
lead, she’s also has the honor of being their first princess.
An incredibly skilled archer with a headstrong attitude, she’d rather stomp around in the
forest than follow stuffy old customs.
And obviously, disaster ensues.
Sure, it’s technically a kids movie, but Pixar doesn’t forget about the adults.
There is one moment where Merida’s brothers turned bear cubs chase down a nursemaid to
find a key hidden in her cleavage.
And after one of them dives in headfirst, the other two have different reactions.
One of them is shocked, but the other is clearly having a flashback to the days when he was
breastfed.
Cinderella, Cinderella Perhaps the ultimate Disney princess, no discussion
of the studio’s royal lore would be complete without a nod to Cinderella.
Everyone knows the story: terrible living circumstances, slave labor, and snotty stepsisters
all fade away when the Fairy Godmother makes her over for a couple of hours.
The most iconic part of that makeover is also the key to Cinderella’s freedom, glass footwear.
It’s easy for the youngsters to get so swept up in the spectacle of it all that they never
even consider how horrendously impractical that would be.
If the fairy godmother really had Cinderella’s back, she’d have given her some sensible
shoes before sending her to a night of dancing.
Snow White, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs For most people, Snow White is the story of
a girl in unfortunate circumstances.
But not everybody sees it that way.
Conspiracy theorists hypothesize that the whole thing is actually a metaphor for substance
abuse, specifically cocaine.
This group posits that each dwarf corresponds to a symptom of withdrawal, the princess symbolizes
the drug itself, and Doc is, well, a doctor.
It’s an interesting mental exercise to imagine, but was debunked by the folks over at Snopes.
In addition, cocaine withdrawal is different for every user, and there isn’t an official
checklist of symptoms to cover everyone.
So for this analogy to work, there’d have to be, like, 50 more dwarves.
Ariel, The Little Mermaid Ariel is part of the Big Five princess group,
and has the best hair of them all.
But her accomodations are less than stellar.
If you own a copy of The Little Mermaid produced in the movie’s initial run, the front cover
is going to be different from the ones that came after it.
But you have to look very closely.
That’s right, friends, Ariel lives in a dick palace.
There’s some Michael Bay lens flare action happening to try and obscure it, but it’s
there.
In this case, we’re using the loose definition of “adult”, because dick jokes transcend
all traditional age boundaries.
It’s science.
Anna, Frozen In 2013, Disney released a movie that took
the world by storm and kicked everyone in the pants.
Frozen obliterated the box office and is one of the most successful, highest grossing films
of all time.
And the soundtrack was just as successful.
The movie’s charm lies in the relationship between the two princesses; Anna and her sister
Elsa.
No, they’re not technically on the official list of Disney royalty, but we can’t just
overlook them!
Most of the humor in Frozen is very family-friendly, but one conversation between Anna and Kristof
about a man’s shoe size is guaranteed to have the adults giggling.
It’s good to know the writers consider the grown-ups occasionally, except for when they’re
writing the music.
Mulan, Mulan Mulan is the story of one daughter’s profound
love for her father.
The lengths she goes to in order to protect him are truly heroic.
Disguising herself as a man, Mulan enlists in the army and gets away with it for a long
time.
All the while she’s been developing a crush on her teammate Shang, who thinks she’s
a dude.
Obviously she can’t keep it up forever, and Mulan’s true identity is discovered,
leading to some straight-up discrimination.
Some audience members have argued that the princess’ journey is a metaphor for gender
inequality in the workplace.
Something that, hopefully, kids have no first-hand experience with.
How’d we do?
Did we miss any obvious ones?
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