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- Belle in The Beauty and the Beast (1991) Belle was Disney's first truly independent woman. She was somebody who didn't care what others thought of her and had no time for the macho neediness of men.
- Jasmine in Aladdin (1992) A complete firework of a princess, Jasmine's fight against Jafar was only part of her journey in Aladdin. She also fought the very law that said she must marry a suitor!
- Moana in Moana (2016) Moana's journey across the ocean to save Maui and restore the heart of Te Fiti is as good as any Disney film has been in the modern era, and its leading character has come to define what young women see on the screen now in Disney Princesses.
- Elsa in Frozen (2013) Elsa's story is of confinement and fear of what she can do—until her will finally breaks and she lets everybody know. She's a young woman struggling to be a Queen as she carries the burden of her parents' deaths and her magical abilities.
- Who's your favorite Disney princess?
- 10. Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)
- 9. Moana
- 8. Cinderella
- 7. Ariel (The Little Mermaid)
- 6. Tiana (The Princess and the Frog)
- Disney fans! Who are your favorite Disney Princesses?
- 5. Belle (Beauty and the Beast)
- 4. Rapunzel (Tangled)
- 3. Jasmine (Aladdin)
By Cristina Alexander
Updated: Nov 14, 2023 10:46 pm
Posted: Nov 12, 2023 1:45 am
For all you Disney fans out there, we’re giving you the best Disney Princesses of all time, each of whom have a special way of empowering girls and women — everyone, really — to dream of better futures for themselves and others around them. Although we're aware of some problematic messages and stereotypes behind Disney Princesses in the past to minimally address, Disney has made big strides over time to improve Disney Princess representation and messaging to let these characters and their cultures really shine.
For the majority of Sleeping Beauty, Princess Aurora lives in a forest cottage with the Three Good Fairies, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, who address her as Briar Rose to protect her against Maleficent, who curses her to die after pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel after the sun sets on her 16th birthday. Despite the fairies’ best efforts to keep her safe, once they returned Aurora to her castle, she was hypnotized by Maleficent to fulfill the curse anyhow, only to fall asleep until she’s woken up by true love’s kiss instead of dying per Merryweather’s blessing.
Aurora is considered one of the most iconic Disney Princesses known for her grace and beauty, but even more than that, she possesses a great imagination, dreaming of her future and sharing those dreams with her friends — even if they’re woodland animals. Still, her falling victim to a curse that could only be broken by true love’s kiss has been questioned in recent years by critics.
As the daughter of the chief of Motunui, Moana never dreamed of falling in love with a prince or any other guy, nor did she need saving from anyone. The ocean chose her to reunite a mystical heart with the Polynesian goddess of nature, Te Fiti, as an infant, and took on the initiative as a teenager when a blight struck her island as a result of Te Kā’s darkness poisoning the island and the ocean. She finds the shapeshifting demi-god Maui to accompany her to return the heart to Te Fiti since he stole it a thousand years ago to give humans the gift of creation. Moana figures out that Te Kā is the corrupt form of Te Fiti, and returning her heart turns Te Fiti back to her original form, saving the ocean and Motunui in the process.
Despite seeking the help of a demi-god, Moana is praised for her independence, bravery, and determination to get what she wants — all the traits of an empowered young woman. Her voice actor Auli‘i Cravalho even called Moana a role model for everyone, not just girls.
Abused by her stepmother and stepsisters into becoming a maidservant in her own château after her father’s untimely death, Cinderella remains humble and kind while tending to their whims and caring for the mice and birds that live there, especially Jaq and Gus, whom she protects from Lady Tremaine’s cat Lucifer. When Lady Tremaine forbids her from going to the ball to meet the Prince and her stepsisters rip her dress apart, Cinderella gets a glow-up from the Fairy Godmother, complete with a dazzling ballgown and glass slippers that disappear at the stroke of midnight, but not really because she still had one glass slipper on. The one shoe proved helpful when the Duke, upon reaching the château with the other shoe she left at the ball, accidentally breaks it and she pulls out the one in her possession, making her a match for the Prince.
Critics considered Cinderella too passive and one-dimensional when her movie first came out, but she’s not too helpless. She told her animal friends to rescue her from her confinement instead of relying on a prince to come save her. Her ballroom outfit, glass slippers and all, made her a fashion icon. Also, did you know? Disney changed the color of her dress from silver to baby blue for girls’ costumes so that little girls don’t look like child brides.
A poster child for teenage rebellion, Ariel dreams of being a part of the human world instead of spending the rest of her life under the sea. So much so that she disregards her father King Triton’s strict rules against visiting the surface and fills up an entire grotto with things either humans lose to the ocean or Scuttle gathers around on the surface for her (jewelry, silverware, artwork, books, etc.), and rescues Prince Eric from drowning in a shipwreck, falling in love with him in the process. She went to great lengths to become a human and be with him, signing away her voice to Ursula and gaining legs under the condition that she kiss him within three days lest she revert to mermaid form and become Ursula’s prisoner — only to find out later that Ursula was using her to steal Triton’s trident and rule the ocean. She got help from Eric, Sebastian, and Flounder to defeat the sea witch and married the man of her dreams.
In the sequel, The Little Mermaid: Return to the Sea, Ariel gave birth to a daughter named Melody, who dreamed of living life as a mermaid. This made Ariel the first and only Disney Princess to become a mother.
Hailing from Jazz Age-era New Orleans, Tiana is a no-nonsense woman who lives by the virtue of hard work, holding down two jobs to save up enough money to fulfill her promise to her father, who died in World War I, and to turn a rundown sugar mill into a restaurant. Her tireless work ethic leaves her with no time for rest or anything else — until she turns into a frog after kissing Prince Naveen, whom her wealthy best friend Charlotte was hosting a masquerade ball for, hoping to reverse the amphibian curse placed on him by the voodoo witch doctor, Dr. Facilier. During their journey to find a spell to help turn them back into humans, Tiana teaches Naveen how to be more responsible instead of expecting everyone to tend to his every whim, which is how his parents cut him off from the family fortune in the first place. True to her word, she rejected Dr. Facilier’s offer to magically make her dreams come true in exchange for the talisman with Naveen’s blood in it, breaking it and sending him to the underworld with his so-called friends on the other side in the process.
The Princess and the Frog installed Tiana as the first African American Disney Princess. She’s also considered a feminist business tycoon, not backing down from her dreams until she’s achieved them.
Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)
Moana
Cinderella
Ariel (The Little Mermaid)
Tiana (The Princess and the Frog)
Belle (Beauty and the Beast)
Belle is an intellectual and independent young woman who wanted more out of life than living in her French provincial village. She gets her chance when she finds out her inventor father, Maurice, gets imprisoned by the Beast in his enchanted castle. Not wanting to see her father suffer, Belle offers the Beast her freedom in exchange for his. After learning the curse placed on the Beast, who’s actually a prince, and his servants by an enchantress will be broken if he learns to love and be loved in return by the time the last petal from an enchanted rose falls, Belle gradually learns to love him despite his grotesque appearance, even professing her love for him as he lay dying in her arms and restoring his human form at the last possible moment.
Belle is one of the first modern Disney Princesses to break the stereotype of how princesses behave, preferring to read and gain knowledge of the outside world instead of pursuing a man for love and marriage — a vision her screenwriter Linda Woolverton accomplished during the making of Beauty and the Beast. Her constant rejection of Gaston’s request to marry her for her beauty alone (which she isn’t aware of) says as much, making her a feminist icon.
Rapunzel spent 18 years of her natural life locked away in a hidden tower by Mother Gothel, who kidnapped her from her castle as a baby so that she could use the magic of the golden flower flowing through 70 feet of her hair to keep herself young and beautiful forever (not to mention maintaining the appearance of Cher) under the guise of protecting her from the outside world. She saw her chance to leave the tower to see the floating lanterns the kingdom of Corona lights up on her birthday when Flynn Rider, who’s real name is Eugene, unknowingly intrudes the tower and gets knocked unconscious by her frying pan. After sending Mother Gothel on a three-day journey to get her paint as a birthday present, Rapunzel strikes a deal with Eugene to take her to see the lanterns in exchange for returning the crown he stole from the castle — not realizing until later that the crown is actually hers and that the lanterns are lit every year to guide her back to the kingdom.
Rapunzel from Tangled has grown to be one of the most popular Disney Princesses in the last decade and some change because of her ability to fend for herself, find creative pursuits, and use her hair for other purposes aside from healing injuries and reversing aging; like climbing down from high heights, swinging from one place to the other, and lighting up dark places. These traits make her a clever and educated princess, trumping every bad thing Mother Gothel said to her otherwise.
Jasmine is just as much a feminist Disney Princess as Belle, only she has a more progressive idea of marriage than her father, the Sultan of Agrabah: marrying someone based on his character rather than his royal status. Before Aladdin came into her life (disguised as an ultra-wealthy prince per his wish to Genie, no less), she rejected every prince that came to her palace, upset by an age-old law that she has to marry a prince by her next birthday. Her rebellion against getting married off roars through in a famous line to her father, Jafar, and Aladdin (as Prince Ali), “How dare you? All of you, standing around deciding my future? I am not a prize to be won!” After Aladdin uses his last wish to free the Genie, the Sultan changes the law to make it so that Jasmine could marry who she wanted, and it happens to be Aladdin because he learned the value of being himself instead of someone he’s not.
Although she serves a supporting role as the love interest in her own film unlike most Disney Princesses before her, Jasmine is a symbol of female empowerment for defying traditions set by the men in her life. She’s also the first West Asian princess in the franchise, credited with introducing racial diversity to Disney’s princess genre.
- Cristina Alexander
May 12, 2016 · Movies. Our Official Ranking of the 10 Best Disney Princesses of All Time. You know you have a favorite. By Justine McGrath. May 12, 2016. Disney princesses taught you that you could brush...
- Mulan – Mulan. Mulan is a badass warrior who saves China. ‘ Nuff said. Where will Moana land on this list? Only time will tell, but in the meantime they all lived happily ever after.
- Jasmine – Aladdin. Let’s just start off with the fact that Jasmine has a pet tiger. It’s almost all that needs to be said. Like Merida, she doesn’t want to be married off and, in the end, she marries for love instead of money.
- Belle – Beauty and the Beast. Let’s be real, Belle from Beauty and the Beast (Watch Now on Disney+) is not only beautiful but smart, educated, and doesn’t judge a book by its cover.
- Merida – Brave. This is the princess that takes the bull by its horns. Brave’s Merida is a sharp shooter…literally, she’s got mad bow and arrow skills (Watch Now on Disney+).
- Nicki Swift
- Snow White—Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) What do you do when you're considered too beautiful to survive in your own kingdom and are forced to roam the woods aimlessly until you find a seemingly abandoned bit of shelter?
- Aurora—Sleeping Beauty (1959) While Disney's live-action reboot Maleficent (2014) tries to give Princess Aurora a little more dignity by showcasing her kindness and empathy towards the film's titular villainess before putting her to sleep for the rest of the movie, the original version of the character is most definitely a dud.
- Cinderella—Cinderella (1950) Cinderella is another Disney princess who receives several post hoc reimaginations through the likes of Disney's own live-action Cinderella (2015) and Universal's Snow White and the Huntsman (2013).
- Rapunzel—Tangled (2010) There's something biblical about the importance that's given to Rapunzel's hair and its fair tale origins in Tangled. Much the same way Samson's strength is stored in his mane, sthe very health of the world in which this Disney princess lives derives from her locks.
People also ask
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Mar 19, 2020 · Every Disney princess, ranked from worst to best. USA TODAY. It's been 10 years since Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) used a frying pan as a weapon in Disney's "Tangled," which debuted on Nov. 24,...
Oct 3, 2021 · Movies. Movie Lists. 10 Best Disney Princesses, According To Ranker. By Chloe Gronow. Published Oct 3, 2021. Disney Princesses have shifted in recent years to become strong, independent young women with their own agency. Ranker rates the best right here.
