Facts About the Princesses

During the movie-making process, characters are created from scratch, causing animators and writers to look for inspiration from people, stories, and either other characters. The process is hard and most is not revealed, the animators and writers tell us years later. I learned only two years ago why Ariel's hair is red! Here are little-known facts about these leading ladies.

Snow White

Snow White. Not only is she the first Disney Princess, but the oldest Disney Princess, which is funny because in the movie, her age is 14. Snow White's design was supervised by Grim Natwick, an animator who had previously developed and worked on the Betty Boop cartoon at Fleischer Studio, hence the reason why, in early concept art, she has traits of Betty Boop. Walt Disney himself noticed that it was more caricature-like then realistic. So Snow White got changes made to make her look more realistic (that's funny cause it's a cartoon movie). The voice actress Adriana Caselotti was the voice actress, singing voice, and model for the animated version of Snow White. But for all that hard work, she only got paid $970 and she didn't really get that much credit for the role, making it harder to get work later.

Cinderella

Cinderella is one of the many characters you think of when someone says "Princess," and it's all for good reasons, too. In the 1950s, the Walt Disney company was $4 million in debt and was going to be bankrupt. Cinderella was released and was a box office hit. Cinderella legit saved the company! The American film institute called Cinderella one of the best American films ever made. The moment when the Fairy Godmother transforms Cinderella's torn dress into a beautiful gown fit for a princess is said to be Walt Disney's favorite piece of animation ever. Cinderella is played by Ilene Woods, who actually got her start on radio.

Princess Aurora

Sleeping Beauty. Aurora. Briar Rose. She's the only Princess with three names. The original design for Aurora was developed by Tom Oreb, who based her figure of Aurora on Audrey Hepburn's thin frame and graceful demeanor. Like many of Disney's early films, animators have used live action reference models to make their characters more lifelike. Helene Stanley, who was also the reference for Cinderella, was once again called into the studio to be the reference model for this dancing in the woods princess. This princess is considered the "last traditional princess" since Sleeping Beauty was inked by hand before the xerography process. Out of all Disney Princesses, Aurora has the least screen time, 18 minutes to be exact. During those 18 minutes, she said only 18 lines, which makes her the princess to have the least amount of lines. It was also the last film to be produced by Walt Disney himself, not the company. The voice of our sleeping princess is Mary Costa. Mary Costa auditioned for the role and then, hours later, Walt Disney himself called to tell her she got the role. And at age 88, she is alive and is the oldest living voice of a princess.

Ariel

Ariel, the red-haired mermaid of the hit film The Little Mermaid is one of the front-runners of the princesses. Now, the big question is, why is our favorite mermaid a red head? Five years before The Little Mermaid was released, another movie called Splash featured a mermaid with blonde hair and an orange tail, so the company wanted to differentiate Ariel from Madison (the mermaid in Splash). Disney also created an original color for her tail and named the color Ariel. One of the biggest challenges animators had to face was the movements of a mermaid swimming underwater. Many videos of Sally Rider in space, along with Sherri Stoner in and out of water, were used as reference to get that mermaid movement. The voice (both talking and singing) of Ariel is Jodi Benson. Jodi got her start on Broadway and worked with Howard Ashman (lyricist on the movie). During the recording process for the hit song "Part of Your World," Ashman told Jodi to not sing, but tell a story. To help Jodi, Ashman dimmed the lights to make it seem like she was singing in Ariel's grotto. In 2011, she was inducted into the Disney Legend hall of fame (along with three other voices of princesses that you're going to have to keep reading to find out about). 23 years after Walt Disney's death, The Little Mermaid became a huge hit! This movie is considered to be the movie that started the "renaissance era" of Disney.

Belle

Belle, her name means beauty. Belle is another frontrunner for the Disney Princesses. Belle is the only main character in her village who wears blue. The animators wanted to accentuate how out of place she seems, so they paid extra close attention to her wardrobe, making sure that Belle would be the only member of the town to wore blue while the rest of the people in the town wear earthy colors such as red, green, orange, gray, and brown. Animators used Katharine Hepburn and Judy Garland as inspiration for Belle and her fighting spirit. Belle is voiced (both talking and singing) by Paige O'Hara, who started on Broadway (just like Jodi Benson). During the recording session of the scene where the beast "dies," she was actually crying (method acting), and when the director went inside the booth to check on her, she jumped up with a huge smile on her face and screamed, "ACTING!!!" Paige was inducted into the Disney Legends hall of fame (along with Jodi Benson and two other leading ladies that you need to keep on reading to find out about).

Jasmine

Jasmine, the leading lady of the film Aladdin, and with her darker complexion, the first Princess of color. For the other Princesses, the creators had an entire story just about the princess, but for Jasmine, it was different. Aladdin and the Magic Lamp is just one of the stories in 1001 Arabian Nights. She is loosely based off of Princess Badroulbadour in the tale and there is little information about her. Animators had to sort of start from scratch with Jasmine's appearance, attitude, and backstory. One of the biggest changes is her ethnicity. The original story of Aladdin takes place in China, and Disney changed her to be an Arabian princess in an Arabian-inspired world. Jasmine's animator Mark Henn used a picture of his sister when coming up with the face of Jasmine (umm best brother ever!). Linda Lark was the voice actress for Jasmine. When the animators asked if she could sing, she responded with "Yes... but not like a princess." So the animators found a singer to match the Linda. That actress is Broadway's Lea Salonga, who was only 21 when she recorded a "A Whole New World." Both Linda and Lea got inducted into Disney's Legends hall of fame (along with Jodi Benson, Paige O'Hara, and one more princess) in 2011.

Pocahontas

Pocahontas. The first Princess to inspired by a real, historical figure. Pocahontas's style is different than all the other princesses. Glen Keane (animator for the Beast and Ariel) said that Ariel and Pocahontas were opposites in design. While Ariel has big eyes, an upturned nose, and thinner lip, Pocahontas has smaller eyes, stronger cheek bones, and bigger lips (you bet Naomi Campbell was an inspiration). Now, the real story of Pocahontas is very different than the Disney version. The given name of Pocahontas was Matoaka in real life, which means "Bright Stream Between the Hills," while Pocahontas was her nickname. The name Matoaka was never mentioned in the first movie (yes, there was a sequel). The writers had to use the real story as a loose template, to give it that Disney magic. When John Smith came to America, she was 10-13 (rough estimate). So yes, it's romanticized. Irene Bedard is the speaking voice of Pocahontas. She also played Pocahontas's mother in the film The New World. And for her singing voice, Disney hired Judy Kuhn, who later was the singing voice of Princess Ting Ting in Mulan 2.

Mulan

Fa Mulan. Similar to Jasmine, Mulan is inspired by a poem called The Ballad of Hua Mulan. It was written in the 6th century and is better known as a legend, but unlike Jasmine's story, it had much more information. BUT, writers did leave some info out for the sake of that Disney magic (after actually reading it, I understand why). While her name is "Fa Mulan" in the film, in the actual Chinese legend, her name is "Hua Mulan," though they are both pronounced similarly (Fa being Cantonese). Another name fact is, in the legend, she takes her father's name "Hu," while in the movie, it's "Fa Ping," which is a pun on the Chinese term for "eye candy." Mulan is considered the last princess of the Renaissance era of Disney. Unlike all the other princesses, she never got married into royalty (Li Shang is a captain, not a prince). Like Belle, Rapunzel, and Merida, she has a horse, named Khan. Also, both of her parents are alive, just like Aurora, Merida, Rapunzel, and Moana. Mulan's voice was going to be done by Tia Carrere, who later voiced Nani in Lilo & Stitch. Lea Salonga (her singing voice) was considered, but her voice wasn't low enough for Ping, before they found Ming-Na Wen. Mulan is the last film where a character has both a speaking and singing voice. The rest of the princesses have a single actress who speaks and sings.

Tiana

Tiana. Disney's first African American princess and the last princess (also movie) that was hand drawn. Disney didn't make a princess film for 11 years, with Mulan being the last in 1998. The story is loosely based on The Princess and the Frog by the Brothers Grimm and another book called The Frog Prince by E.D. Baker. Speaking of inspiration, Tiana is based off of Leah Chase, the famous chef who also helped write recipes for a cookbook that was released with the film. Now for Tiana, Disney asked to audition Tyra Banks, Anika Noni Rose, Beyoncé, and Jennifer Hudson. Beyoncé didn't want to go through the audition process and Jennifer Hudson went through with the process, also posing as Tiana for the Disney Dream Portrait series. But Disney decided to go with the other star from the movie Dream Girls, Anika Noni Rose. Anika Noni Rose actually asked the animators if she could be left handed just like her. She did a lot of research to get the Louisiana accent right, she told The Root, "I called people in New Orleans... listened to their voices to hear what they sounded like... did a lot of reading up on the city, and listened to a lot of music in the jazz era." Anika Noni Rose also got the Disney Legend award (along with Jodi Benson, Lea Salonga, Paige O'Hara, and Linda Larkin).

Rapunzel

Rapunzel. Disney's first CGI princess. The story of Tangled is based off of a Brothers Grimm story. And yes, it was changed; it keep that Disney magic (cause like many of the original stories, there are some gory parts, like the prince getting pushed out of the tower...). Other then the description of Rapunzel, inspiration was drawn from one of the animators, Claire Keane. Since Disney chose Rapunzel to be the first CGI princess, they had to include the biggest feature on Rapunzel... the hair!!!! Disney animators had to use special software to animate 70 feet of hair. The whole art style was inspired by The Swing, a painting by the French Rococo artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Originally, Rapunzel was going to be voiced by Broadway's Kristen Chenowith, but got replaced by actress and former pop singer Mandy Moore.

Merida

Merida. Pixar's first (human) princess. The movie Brave isn't actually based on a fairy tale like all the other princesses. Brenda Chapman (director and writer of Brave) combined stories of Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm, as well as a reflection on raising her daughter. The story of Brave takes place in 10th to 12th centuries CE in Scotland. Now, animator's had to take lessons in various weapons and archery to animate it right. They also had to learn, from scratch, how to animate fabric ripping (for the scene where Merida takes a sword to the tapestry) with various weapons. Animators had a little easier time animating Merida's hair (thanks to Rapunzel), Merida has 1,500 individually sculpted, red strands that generate about 111,700 total hairs. Now, Merida is very different from all of the other princesses by one key thing... she doesn't sing. The movie is actually the first princess movie to not be a musical. She does have a song (that's not sung from Merida's mouth) is "Touch the Sky," sung by Julie Fowlis. Reese Witherspoon was originally cast to voice Merida, but due to scheduling conflicts, the role went to Kelly Macdonald of HBO's Boardwalk Empire.

Elsa

Elsa. The Queen among the princesses (I mean, she was a princess before her parents died). Frozen is based off of the story The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson (who wrote The Little Mermaid). Now, Elsa was originally portrayed as a villain; hence, in the concept art, not looking ANYTHING LIKE like an ice queen and more like a villain. Songwriter Kristen Anderson-Lopez stated in a 2014 interview, that Elsa's original motivation throughout the film was to freeze Anna's heart to take over the kingdom. But after a couple hours playing the piano with her husband (who also worked on the movie) came up with the Academy Award winning song "Let it Go." After playing it for the writers and creative team, they changed the entire movie. They changed Elsa's motivation and relationship with her sister Anna, and also her appearance. Now, when it comes to Elsa's inspiration, animators chose to take major inspiration from one character from the musical Wicked, and funny enough Idina Menzel (voice of Elsa) played that character. That character is Elphabia. Idina Menzel (who also was a top choice for Rapunzel along with Kristen Bell) has said in multiple interviews that Elsa and Elphabia are very similar, she mentioned they were both very powerful and misunderstood individuals, and she, herself, could relate to the characters, having to hide her singing talent from her peers at school.

Anna

Anna. The other princess of the movie Frozen. Now, in the original script of Frozen, Anna was actually a peasant in the village, and was going to be named Greta; but after the change to Elsa, the creative team made Anna and Elsa's relationship different. Anna is the most awkward of all the princesses (and she owns it), while Elsa is more graceful. Also, Anna actually sings the most out of any character in Frozen. The voice of Anna is Kristen Bell (who also was a top choice for Rapunzel). Often, animators are in the recording studio and Becky Bresee, noted she took much of Anna's animated movement from Bell's facial expressions and rhythm when she recorded the lines.

Now, Disney has not actually given Anna and Elsa the title of "Disney Princess." Yes, there are many theories about why, but Disney hasn't made any statements.

Moana

Moana. The sailing daughter of the chief. Ron Clement and John Musker (directors, animators, writers, and producers, and have worked on SEVERAL princess movies) pitched an idea about a movie in South Pacific. During a two week research trip across many islands, the filmmakers learned that voyages across the South Pacific ceased for a thousand years. Disney said that Moana is meant to act as Disney's interpretation of an explanation of way finding, and how people sailed from island to island without maps. Moana is different from the other Disney princesses; in appearance, Moana has more of an active body rather than having a slim waist. And Moana's signature item? A Culacula!!! It's a weapon from Fuji that can be used as a weapon or an ore. But she is like the other princesses, too. She doesn't have a love interest (like Merida) and is the Daughter of the chief (like Pocahontas). The search for the voice of Moana was not something as easy as picking a celebrity. Disney made an open call, asking for videos auditions of girls that were Hawaiian, or South East Asian. After thousands of submissions and some callbacks, Disney found 14 (her age at the time) year old Auli'i Cravalho from Hawaii. Auli'i Cravalho didn't actually have any experience, the creative team was impressed at her acting and singing chops. Also, she is fluent in Hawaiian, which was useful because she reprised her role as Moana in Moana dubbed in the Hawaiian language.

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