On Wednesday, a few students (I don’t know anyone’s name yet, but I will learn) touched on the newer model of Disney prince. While in the past, the princes have been flat and mute, our new heroes have fleshed out personalities, motives beyond getting the girl, and character arcs of their very own. I hadn’t given the princes any thought before, to be honest, but now I’m thinking that the cardboard cutout nature of the prince could be one of the reasons for the criticism of the old-fashioned Disney princess.

You know the story: princess falls victim to something or someone through no fault of her own, falls in love with a prince in one glance, the prince rescues her because true love, and they live happily ever after. A problem many people have with this structure is that a romantic happily ever after is positioned as a prize and easily won. Now I’m thinking that a root of this issue is the trophy prince. Without a personality on his part, we’re left with love for love’s sake. The two fall in love because it’s a nice idea, nothing more than that. The man of your dreams is literally the first man to come along. That’s not healthy.

Is Disney making its new princes/heroes complete characters because they want to nuanced or because they’re trying to bring in little boys? It’s no secret that Tangled was rebranded for just that purpose. There are Disney movies that are gender-neutral in appeal/marketing and movies that have been marketed more to boys, but apparently those are no longer enough. Are they trying to bring little princes into the princess genre, or is the Disney prince improving for the princess’s sake?