Disney movies and the royalty they portray have become a staple of childhoods worldwide. I know I fell in love with Aladdin, dressed up like Ariel, and still sing songs from the Lion King in my young adulthood. Here’s a guide to my top 10 Disney flicks with princes.
Sleeping Beauty
Women can be really nasty. For instance, one woman might be offended that she doesn’t get to go to your Christening, and try to kill you. Luckily, your friends help you out and just make you fall asleep. But the crazy broad still holds a grudge sixteen years later, and you’ll never see your true love again! Oh wait, you get your guy with a little help from your friends.
9. Cinderella
Women can be nasty. Sometimes your stepsisters and stepmom are so jealous of you that they turn you into a servent and won’t let you date the handsome prince. Luckily, you have magical friends who want to help you because you’re so beloved, but you’ve gotta do some work yourself. So you enchant Prince Charming and disappear. Luckily he’s a romantic with all the money in the kingdom and all the time in the world, so he will find you and make you his wife.
8. Snow White
If an evil woman puts a hit out on you because you’re prettier than her, sometimes you’ve gotta lay low as a house servent to some friendly workaholics. Not to be deterred, she insists on doing things herself, with poison, which sadly puts you into a coma. Luckily, love is like magic medicine, and your man wakes you with a sleep-kiss.
7. Tarzan
He’s a prince of the jungle, ok? Life can’t be easy growing up a human among apes, especially as a boy becomes a man and becomes curious as to the ways of the human and the ways of the woman. This thrilling adventure tackles issues of inter-species respect, and of course, love.
6. Hercules
If anyone can take often filthy Greek mythology and sanitize it for the pint-sized masses, it’s Disney. Hercules is the son of Zeus and Hera, but still has to constantly prove himself and save the world from the Titans. Plus its really cool that he’s super strong.
5. Mulan
Arguably, I think this movie has one the best message of any Disney movie. Out of duty to her family, Fa Mulan dresses as a man to fight in her aging father’s stead. She works to uphold the standards of all the men of her platoon under the very sexy Captain Li Shang, and eventually works hard and uses her wits to win his respect as a man, and his love as a woman. Mulan as the woman, not Li Shang.
4. Beauty and the Beast
The beautiful bookwork Belle is the town hottie, and attracts some real jerks. Her biggest duty is to her father, who is captured and held hostage by a beast. When she goes to rescue him, she comes to live with, and eventually fall in love with a handsome prince turned hideous beast. The pair fall in love, showing that beauty is more than just skin-deep, but luckily the beast becomes handsome again before Belle actually has to marry the ugly guy. The musical numbers and animation work seemlessly together.
3. The Little Mermaid
One of the great mysteries of the universe is why little girls love mermaids, but something about half-fish half women makes girls go ga-ga. The message is ostensibly extremely feminist: Ariel gives up a large part of herself for a guy (she gives up her voice, although singing is apparently one of her favorite activities), only to be put in a load of trouble for her ‘deal with the devil’. Prince Eric was no prize to anyone but Ariel, but her struggle to earn her man also earned her her legs and her voice back. I suppose the message here is that if you work hard enough, you can have it all.
2.The Lion King
It’s a coming of age story. A pre-pubescent wrestles with *ahem* puppy love with his best friend, but the added responsibility of being just a cub when his father his killed and his kingdom usurped by a plotting uncle. The story of a young prince burdened by his duty to avenge his father and reclaim the throne introduced many an unsuspecting child to the plot of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
1. Aladdin
Arguably, Aladdin was only a fake prince temporarily, but the movie makes a great point about how class restrictions stifle interpersonal relationships, and about how betraying yourself will ultimately only hurt you in the long run. On a side note, Robin Williams’s role as the Genie was arguably his best performance of the 1990s.
