Disney is perhaps best known for their many, many princesses.
Recently, we tackled the subject of which of these princesses was the most good and
which was the least good, but today we'll be discussing them in a different light.
Of all the Disney’s princesses we originally ranked, who reigns supreme as the most powerful
and who is the weakest?
I'm Brad with WickeBinge and this is Disney Princesses: Weak to Powerful.
Before we begin, we want to once again state the rules of what makes an official Disney
Princess.
As we prefaced in our first video, we don’t make the rules.
This criteria comes from The Big Mouse himself.
#1: They have to be introduced in an official movie that isn't a sequel.
#2: They must be royalty or the equivalent of it either by birth or by marriage or they
must perform a grand heroic feat.
(For instance Mulan saving China).
#3: The movie must have been a blockbuster hit.
#4: The feature must be completely animated since that is what Disney started out as and
is what the company is known best for.
#5: And finally, they cannot be bought properties such as Fox Animation, Star Wars, or the MCU.
With all that said, we threw in a few princesses who almost meet the criteria, but don’t
by technicality…
We also want to make clear what we mean when we measure weakness and strengths.
We’re going to take any magical ability into account, as well as how it’s used.
We're also going to go on physical strength and training; reviewing if they were giving
the skills needed to fight either with weapons or hand to hand combat.
Finally we will see how they used their skills and background to face the conflict in their
film.
It's important to note that intention is a large part of it.
Seeing who is willing to fight and who isn't and how they go about doing so.
So bravery is something we considered.
Okay, with all that established…
Let’s get started....
Starting out with the weakest...
We have to place Aurora.
Despite being given several gifts by the fairies...
She's not given anything to really resist Maleficent's power.
She easily falls under the spell to have her finger pricked and spends the majority of
the film... asleep.
I mean, I know ranking as the weakest princess on the list kind of sucks for Aurora, but
you can’t really expect otherwise when you spend this much of your own story catching
Z’s.
She not only doesn't perform any heroics, she also doesn't really have the ability to
do anything brave even if she wanted to.
She's a sweet person, but not all that useful.
Sorry Aurora.
Next is Ariel.
Now, while she does save Eric from drowning...
She is also a sixteen-year-old who is easily tricked by Ursula.
I mean, how are you going to sign a contract that easily with a literal sea witch?
What the heck is wrong with you?
She needs constant help from Sebastien and Flounder; and the most she was able to do
in the climax of the first movie was pull Ursula's hair.
Though she is a mythical creature, she doesn't seem to be able to do much if the task at
hand is something other than performing a concert.
I guess, if we dropped all the Disney Princesses in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean to see
who survived longest, Ariel would win the title of Most Powerful, but otherwise…
Not so much.
Moving onto Snow White.
Her only real ability is that she tends to draw others to her.
She has a charm about her that is pleasing to the prince, to the dwarves, and to the
animals she comes into contact with.
Which is kind of a magical ability of some sort, right?
She isn't strong herself, exactly, but she inspires loyalty...
And being of royal blood and marrying into another royal family, that is a trait that
is definitely useful.
She was even able to inspire sympathy from the huntsman, ultimately having her life saved
through the kindness she radiates.
Again, as helpless as she seems at times, there is some level of power to this natural
authority she has…
And it doesn’t seem to stem primarily from royalty but just natural respect.
I mean who else can say that they inspired an entire forest of animals and dwarves to
take up arms against an Evil Queen and run her off a cliff?
Jasmine is next.
She is cunning and unafraid to use her status to her advantage.
She faces the guards when they're arresting Aladdin and challenges Jafar head-on.
Not many young women are able to befriend full-grown tigers or take on as many pompous
princes as she has.
She sticks by Alladin through thick and thin and her adventurous nature has helped her
overcome her fear in every situation.
She doesn't have special powers, but her status is what makes her strong and she obviously
knows it.
Next is Anna.
First off, what other princesses can bat away a wolf with little to no effort?
This royal young woman faced having her heart frozen, navigating her way through storms,
and following her sister to the ends of the earth.
She's not only loyal but incredibly capable.
While she doesn't have ice powers like Elsa, she does have her big heart and optimism.
We're placing Belle next.
She couldn't beat off wolves like Anna, but she faced the Beast without knowing what it
meant for her, only concerned with saving her father.
She faced a whole mob, calling out Gaston, and risked being holed up in an asylum to
save her father and the Beast she fell for.
Really, she’s pretty tough as she’s willing to go up against anyone or even society at
times.
Next is Megara.
Or Meg as her friends call her.
This honorary princess has some guts.
Giving her soul over to Hades to save the love of her life was no easy task.
She became jaded, but as her love for Hercules grew, she overcame her insecurities.
She took on her fear of heights to use Pegasus to hunt down Phil and she ultimately died
to save Hercules from being crushed.
Not many princesses can say they faced their demise for the greater good.
Tiana is up next.
She’s struggled a lot.
She was actually told that a woman of her background should lower their expectations
and give up on being a success.
Though she was met with a lot of conflicts and was forced into the situation with the
Shadow Man, she stood up for her friends and for the man she fell for...
She learned to use her experiences to make her a better person rather than admit defeat.
Cinderella is next on our list.
Much like Tiana, she was constantly met with cruel words and ungrateful people.
Her strength came from compassion and understanding, gaining friends in the mice and birds around
her home and having them help with her problems.
She pummels her way out of a runaway pumpkin carriage, fights to get her sister Anastasia
from her stepmother's control, and uses her charm to sneak her way into the palace when
her family tries to steal her happy ending.
She's smart, resourceful and determined.
And having a fairy godmother in the wings always helps.
Pocahontas is up next.
Her abilities aren't anything that's explained in depth.
She uses her connection with nature to be able to communicate with John Smith and reach
out to her father during the final conflict.
She had a way of inspiring others that fit into her role as a leader, and used it to
prevent a war.
Definitely a commanding presence that has the ability to lead and change minds…
Which is absolutely an example of power.
Moving onto Merida...
Though selfish, she’s also a trained warrior princess.
She's trained in sword fighting and archery…
These skills clearly prove to be effective throughout the movie.
She's able to break free of another lord and takes her own mass of a father down as she
fights to protect her mother.
She also proves to have survival skills, knowing how to fish with both her arrow and bare hands...
and where to find clean water.
Skills that would certainly help if she had to go out onto a battlefield.
Merida isn’t the most “good” princess, as we’ve discussed in the past…
But she’s definitely one of the stronger ones.
The royal gal with the glitch, Vanellope is next.
Now, we have to contextualize her ranking to the digital world…
She’s able to basically teleport through walls and make whatever she’s in contact
with glitch…
Which gives her a pretty powerful advantage.
Though she uses this mainly for racing, she also uses it to save Ralph a couple of different
times throughout the first and second movie.
It is an ability that can backfire, as seen with the virus in the second film, but she
gets more and more capable with every use.
Seems like a power that comes with great responsibility.
Rapunzel is next.
Gifted with healing from the magick flower, she uses her power to help anyone she can.
She's also very intelligent, able to read and track the stars.
Like many on this list, she has a way of connecting with all those around her from thieves to
guards.
She even harnesses her power through tears to save Eugene's life, even if she wasn't
exactly intending to...But all things considered, this is a pretty powerful magical power.
Moving onto a fan favorite, we have Mulan.
While ranked as most good on our other list…
She is, unfortunately, not going to receive the Gold Medal for Strongest princess.
Still, we have to place her close to the top.
Inspiring her fellow troops, her strength is more than that of a physical feat.
She took on the role of a defender of China and her family.
Surviving being attacked by the leader of the Hun army and fighting against an avalanche
with a huge gash in her side, Mulan is a woman you do not want to be on the wrong side of...
All the leadership qualities aside, we can’t overlook how skilled she is as a warrior as
well.
What other Disney Princess gets a Rocky-style training montage?
Not to mention the speed she had saving Shane and herself from falling to their deaths was
quite impressive.
Truth be told, Mulan only gets beaten on the “powerful” ranking by princesses who had
a little more Disney magic up their sleeve.
If this all came down to a physical fight, bare-hands or blades with fairy dust, our
money would be on Mulan.
Now we arrive at Moana.
Moana is friends with a demigod, she can call upon the ocean and can survive on the open
water using a simple raft.
Moana is undeniably one of the most impressive Disney princesses to date.
She took on various monsters and ordeals to save not only her island but others.
She braved the ruthless waves and faced a feared lava monster.
By the end of her journey, there wasn't anything this girl wouldn't be able to take on.
Taking second place as strongest is going to have to be Kida from Atlantis.
She faced the same force that took the life of her mother and fought against the extinction
of her people and their way of life...
Kida's battle was uphill from the start and never once does she give up.
She allows herself to be caged after absorbing the crystal's power, trusting Milo to aid
her, and used her gift to preserve Atlantis and summon the guardians.
Frankly, that is a lot of power.
Why she isn't an official princess is hard to say, because that feat was downright intimidating.
Now we finally arrive at The Gold Medal of Most Powerful Disney Princess…
Which we have to give to Elsa.
While she didn’t even really come close to topping “The Most Good Princess: list...
she is a force to be reckoned with.
With her ice ability, she can put a halt on any nation she chooses.
She's able to summon blizzards from nowhere, create sentient snow armies, freeze harbours
to cease trade and take out crops and farmland.
In all seriousness, I think everyone should be thankful she decided to run off into the
wilderness and build herself an ice castle because if she wanted to use these powers
for selfish reasons, she probably could have taken over kingdoms and countries.
Unleashing armies of frozen monsters to attack frigidly cold cities blasted with blizzards
she manufactured herself.
No other army could defend against that…
Maybe the Russians, but nobody else.
She would be a horrifying leader to go up against and we're glad that she's a much kinder
leader once she gains more control of her powers.
But what do you think?
Of all of Disney Princesses, who is the most powerful?
Who’s the weakest?
Let us know.
Don’t forget to hit that notification bell and binge our full Good to Evil playlist…
Where we break down the morality of the characters in your favorite cartoons, movies and shows…
But most importantly…
Stay wicked!