Disney Princess Facts

[pap64]

Giselle
-The ONLY princess to have crossed into the real world.

Nope. Snow White lived in Germany, Cinderella lived in France (debatable but ask me and I'll give you the evidence), Belle lived in France, and Jasmine lived in the Middle East. They all lived in real countries, though I suppose fictional kingdoms or cities of those real countries.

And that, my friends, is part of my hate for Enchanted. The princesses all already lived in the real world.

Correction: CROSSED into the real world, as in "The character left a fantasy world to encounter our present day, no heroes, dragons, magic or princesses New York".

Yes, the Princesses' stories took place in real places, but what I mean is that Giselle is the first one to leap out of her fantasy world and into ours, creating a live action version of herself along the way.

And looks like I opened a Princess can of worm here ...

I hate to limit discussion potential, and I admit I am partly guilty of adding Gisselle into the "official" club, but guys if you are going to start discussing who should and shouldn't be a princess as well as discussion of the Princess merchandise line I suggest you find another thread for it or start a new one. Again, not that I want to censor anyone but I know if we start diving into "Oh THIS princess should be part of the line" and such we'll have a 3 or 4 page thread with a never ending discussion.

Now regarding the ever so controversial Giselle...

The reason I added her is, truth to be told, because I love her. That's right, pap64 likes Giselle. I like her because Amy Adams did a splendid job with the character. Plus she's a great character in the sense that she's both a tribute to the pure heroines that came before her and a great mockery to them.

Its too bad that due to licensing issues that Giselle will barely be remembered by the time the year 2010 arrives. But I do find this strange...If I am not mistaken there were Enchanted dolls with Amy's likeness on them. There was also video games, music videos, and even character appearances at the theme parks and special events. Did Amy Adams only agree to lent her face to merchandise during the time of the film's release?

I think she just didn't want to be over-merchandise to the point where its both annoying and disturbing to her, and Disney DOES over-merchandise...

I wonder how Johnny Depp feels about all the Pirates merchandise...

[toonaspie]

Here's my first attempt to think of at least A new fact for each one:

Snow White:
- First to develop a relationship with non talking animals.
- First to have a magical antagonist (Wicked Queen who was skilled in dark magic).

Cinderella:
- First to have a non-magical antagonist (Stepmother)
- First to have a prince with a featured relative (the King and possibly the Duke if he is supposed to be the King's brother but we dunno)

Aurora (Sleeping Beauty):
- First to have a Prince with an actual name (Phillip)
- First to celebrate a birthday in the movie
- First to be estranged from living parents
- Only Princess who grew up without the knowledge of her royal status

Ariel (The Little Mermaid):
- First to maintain a royal status (Mermaid and Human royalty) throughout her entire life (SW was reduced to scullery maid and Aurora was undercover).
- First to be acquainted with a prince for more than one day before marrying him (lol, dont you see how ridiculous many of the fairytales require only one meeting for the boy and girl to fall in love before they immediatly get married? Of course the Ariel-Eric relationship was only a fews days old. It's still better than a few hours.)
- The first princess to come to the rescue of her love interest (saved Eric from drowning)

Belle (Beauty and the Beast):
- First princess who made the unselfish willing sacrifice on her own to be placed in a bad circumstance (Ariel became a human for her own interests, while the other pasts Princesses were forced into their starting circumstances. Belle offered to be the Beast's prisoner to save her father's life).
- UPDATED: First princess to be in a relationship that was NOT "love at first sight"

Jasmine (Aladdin):
- The first princess to not wear a dress!

Pocahontas:
- The only princess to not wear shoes!

Mulan:
- Only one to have a living grandparent (Grandma Fa)
- Only Princess to be willing to go through with an arrainged marriage (the Matchmaker was going to choose her husband, of course Mulan failed to qualify for this very miserably)

Giselle (Enchanted):
- Only Princess to later have a stepchild

[slave2moonlight]

Cinderella had a theme song in the opening of the film. And, I'm not certain, but she might have been performed by a different speaking actress and singing actress.

Actually, I believe Ilene Woods provided both singing/speaking voices for Cinderella.

That's what I always thought, but there is an extra on the DVD release that threw me off on that. I seem to remember one clip from a TV show or radio show where they introduce someone else as the singing voice of Cinderella, or something like that. I can't remember exactly.

[Siren]

I would say Giselle was the only "princess" to cross over to the real world. In the real world there isn't magic, talking animals, mythical creatures (troll), etc.
Jasmine lived in the Middle East, but she rode on a Magic Carpet.
Belle lived in France, but she lived in a cursed castle full of humans who were turned into objects and a beast.
Etc.

[slave2moonlight]

Giselle is a Princess ,yeah,officialy.
Okay,let's see:
Ariel is the first morden Princess.
Ariel is the first Princess who isn't from Walt's era.
Belle is the first Princess that had the same actor who voiced her and sang her.
Pocahontas is the first Princess that her movie isn't based on a fairy tale,does Aladdin count a fairy tale?.
Aurora is the first Princess that her sidekicks aren't animales.

Hmm, I have a problem with these. Most of them Eilonwy did first (non-animal sidekick, movie based on a book series not fairytale, first princess not from Walt's Era). Not sure what the definition of modern princess is, but at least the other stuff. And Aurora did have animal sidekicks. Also, there were classic princesses who had the same speaking and singing actress, right back to Snow White, so Belle wasn't the first.

[slave2moonlight]

Kida,Elionwy,Meg,Alice and all of them aren't official (Maybe Alice a bit),but Giselle was in the wedding dress,Zazzle,Shopping website,Simba Toys and more (Like the new Giselle Halloween costume said that she's the lastest Disney Princess),they all count her as an official Princess,anyway I count her too,it's not like Meg or someone else that just appeared in a CD,You know,now they have more then 10 Princess they don't need to add Meg,Alice and etc.

You can apply those distinctions for the others, but Eilonwy is unquestionably a princess. She's Disney, and she's a princess. She's a Disney princess.

[slave2moonlight]

Technically speaking, Ariel's daughter Melody should be considered a princess as well.

Alice is not of royalty, nor does she "marry into it" like Cinderella or Belle, so why does she sometimes get lumped in with them (if only as a "guest") when none of the above are? [I do realize that she is considered a princess in Kingdom Hearts, but this feels far removed from the concept of the original film.] I'd say that Meg is more princess material than she is but isn't included either (after all, she ends up with someone that was born a god, that's a bigger title than any prince or king)!

I've heard that the main reason Giselle is not a part of the princess line is because she has a real-life likeness that would require life-long royalties (can anyone confirm this?)

I doubt that's the case with Giselle, because they could simply use the cartoon version of her. In fact, that may have something to do with why they started to do tooned up merchandise of the Pirates of the Caribbean cast. I'm sure it's why they started focusing on Toon Lizzie when they finally started making Lizzie McGuire merchandise for the Disney Store. I don't think they have to pay likeness royalties for toon versions. I could be wrong, but I wouldn't think they'd have to. Cartoon shows do caricatures of celebs all the time, and I don't think they send any of them checks for it.

That's a great point about Melody being a princess, and as for Meg, I have heard that in the original myths she IS a princess. Can't say for sure though, and Disney didn't touch upon that at all.

[The Little Merboy]

Snow White lived in Germany, Cinderella lived in France (debatable but ask me and I'll give you the evidence)

I always imagined Snow White living in Switzerland, due to the yodeling. LOL!
But I can also see Germany, due to the dwarf's beer steins.

And Cinderella from Holland because of her wooden clogs.
But I can also understand France, since she lived in a chateau.

[Escapay]

Its too bad that due to licensing issues that Giselle will barely be remembered by the time the year 2010 arrives. But I do find this strange...If I am not mistaken there were Enchanted dolls with Amy's likeness on them. There was also video games, music videos, and even character appearances at the theme parks and special events. Did Amy Adams only agree to lent her face to merchandise during the time of the film's release?

Perhaps she only agreed to lend her likeness to Enchanted merchandise, and not extend it to the "Disney Princess" line, which is a smart move on her part for the reason you already mentioned (overmerchandising).

Albert

[2099net]

Giselle
-The ONLY princess to have crossed into the real world.

Nope. Snow White lived in Germany, Cinderella lived in France (debatable but ask me and I'll give you the evidence), Belle lived in France, and Jasmine lived in the Middle East. They all lived in real countries, though I suppose fictional kingdoms or cities of those real countries.

And that, my friends, is part of my hate for Enchanted. The princesses all already lived in the real world.

I don't think any world with "magic" in it could be considered "real".

As for the other Princesses living in real countries, none is stated on screen (and isn't it sad the non-white princess is said to live in a generic Middle-East? Although logically the geographical make-up of the Middle East would have been totally different at her time). Beauty and the Beast being set in France seems the most clear-cut, but even then its not a "real" France, because we know the history and chronology of French royalty, and there's no lost Prince/Beast/Prince Adam (really, a French prince called Adam?) - again showcasing the fact the setting is fictional.

[Ariel'sprince]

About Giselle and the real world-It's OUR world,not real world,the other Princesses's world and Andalasia are real too.

You can apply those distinctions for the others, but Eilonwy is unquestionably a princess. She's Disney, and she's a princess. She's a Disney princess.

I whould love to count her but... I don't think she ever appeared in the line,thought I think she is belong,maybe people just don't like it like the others and this film is too dark for small kids.
Anyway Giselle seems official to me.

[Atlantica]

I read an interview with Amy, and they asked her how did she feel about being the latest character in the Princess line ? And Amy said something like that it was really wonderful that she could take her grandkids to Disneyland, and they could go and meet 'her' as Giselle. She obviously feels her charcater will have longevity in Disney ... If Echanted II does happen, this whole 'Is Giselle OFFICIAL' may be solved.

[Disney Duster]

pap64, you love Giselle, okay, but Giselle is very, very different from any of the other princesses. Her film opened it's own can of worms. I think she should be viewed seperately from the rest. I mean...what is she?

I don't think any world with "magic" in it could be considered "real".

Bedknobs and Broomsticks, set in wartime England. Sure, they entered alternate universes or something but magic did indeed happen outside those parts as well, and magic was needed to enter those worlds in the first place. And Harry Potter, set in real Britain. Witches and Wizards are born in real places among the ordinary, very real muggles. They used magic to make the wizarding world that they go to.

As for film portraying real places...films get real things wrong all the time, anachronisms and such. The idea is for a lot of Disney's films is they set things around a real area, and make towns or monarchies or characters that could have happened. It's all about believablity anyway.

Anyway, Andalasia, set in nowhere, beyond the meadows of happiness and the valley of contentment, is still not Disney or Disney Princess. In order for me to accept Enchanted, I have to view Giselle's trip as visiting the future via the well being like a time machine. Thankfully the film doesn't outright say exactly how everything works, how everything is. I also don't accept the idea that Giselle's world is flat and the real world is 3-D. If that were the case, why not just have the inked characters jump off the computer screen (long ago it would have been cels, wah), and then grow to life-size and dimensions?

I still have much hate toward Enchanted. The Disney Princesses were supposed to be realistic girls set in realistic places and Giselle's some average joe's uninformed opinion of them. It doesn't matter if Snow White was always naively good or the story people couldn't get Aurora more time to become a deeper character. It doesn't matter how some people feel about the characters Disney created, but what Disney thought of them, how they were suppsoed to be. It's what they intended, and the principle of the thing.

[2099net]

I don't think any world with "magic" in it could be considered "real".

Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

Sure, they entered alternate universes or something but magic did indeed happen outside those parts as well, and magic was needed to enter those worlds in the first place. Same thing with Harry Potter.

But I don't consider Bedknobs and Broomsticks real either. Ignoring the magic, it's really a sort of fairytale romanticism of War Time Britain anyway, just as Sleeping Beauty is a fairytale romanticism of medieval France (most probably).

Nor do I consider Harry Potter real-word, as the real-world is already host to magic.

All are clearly fictional worlds, but based on our own. Do we have wizards and witches, and a ministry of magic? Or talking mice? Or cursed/enchanted castles?

As for film portraying real places...films get real things wrong all the time, anachronisms and such. The idea is for a lot of Disney's films is they set things around a real area, and make towns or monarchies or characters that could have happened. It's all about believablity anyway.

Cinderella has talking animals. Beauty and the Beast has enchanted objects. I don't see how any of that could of happened.

Also, from my viewpoint, Disney has gone to a lot of trouble not to name the areas or time periods that they take their inspiration from for films like Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. That's why such opinions are still subject to debate.

As I say, Beauty and the Beast on the face of it is the most obvious (France) but things still don't add up. In short, the Princess films are set in a non-place, which are amalgamations of European influences. Just like the old Universal Monsters movies were generally set in Vasaria a town or country (depending on the film) somewhere in Eastern Europe.

I think the whole point of Enchanted being set in the "real world" as opposed to a fictional world is that until Giselle arrives, the live action New York is the live action New York. Giselle may (for want of a better word) "infect" that reality with magic, but had Giselle not arrived, it would remain non-magical. You can't say that for any other Princess film location, which are inherently fictional from the start.

[toonaspie]

Nope. Snow White lived in Germany, Cinderella lived in France (debatable but ask me and I'll give you the evidence), Belle lived in France, and Jasmine lived in the Middle East. They all lived in real countries, though I suppose fictional kingdoms or cities of those real countries.

And that, my friends, is part of my hate for Enchanted. The princesses all already lived in the real world.

The Cinderella in France thing I believe. While the story itself is completely universal, for the film Disney used the French adaptation by Charles Perrault which also explains why the movie's time period is more 1600s/1700s and not so gothic/medieval as Sleeping Beauty or other fairy tales. The Cinderella Castle in MK is more gothic which conflicts with the actual film setting but I doubt anyone cares.

As for the thing with Enchanted, I think what pap64 couldve meant to say was that Giselle was the first princess to cross over into the CONTEMPORARY world. Technically Giselle was coming from a storybook kingdom which wasnt considered a real place but rather an Alternate Universe. So in actually she was entering the real world because the world she was originally from wasnt really real.

[Siren]

Yes, the country Giselle was from is actually a reworked word of a breed of horse and/or based on a community in Spain. Andalasia is where Giselle, Edward, etc are from. Andalusia is in Spain (and a few cities are named that in the USA). And Andalusian is a breed of horse.

I seriously doubt that Giselle. Her world was completely made up.

[Elladorine]

The Disney Princesses were supposed to be realistic girls set in realistic places and Giselle's some average joe's uninformed opinion of them.

No, given the makers of the film Giselle is hardly some random guy's uninformed opinion of them. She is an affectionate spoof of what many perceive a fictional Disney-type fairy-tale princess to be. I feel the film asks the questions, "What if one of those magical fairy-tale princesses suddenly found herself in our world? How would we react to her? How would she react to us?" She is naive and optimistic having lived in an enchanted forest, unexposed to the harsh, gritty realities of a setting like modern-day New York. Imagine Snow White, Cinderella, or Aurora being thrown into modern-day New York; they'd probably act in a similar fashion as Giselle. In fact they could have gone with the route of doing this with a familiar character like Snow White but they wisely chose a whole new character for the film.

And really, I'm not sure how "realistic" any of the other princesses are regardless; insert the old Disney term "plausible impossible" here. Any film is a suspended belief of reality, animated or not, realistic or not.

It's also implied that Giselle lives in the same world of other fairy tale characters. I'd say it's clearly a dimension issue, time travel doesn't seem suitable for worlds that are so different even if they occur in different eras. It's very similar to the concepts of The Neverending Story and Fushigi Yuugi.

Anyway, pap64 asked us to continue the debate elsewhere, so my apologies over making one last statement here. I'll quietly step out of the thread for now.

[Jack Skellington]

Jasmine lived in Morocco, I can tell from they way the doors are shaped, take it from someone who knows his culture.

[Cordy_Biddle]

pap64 wrote:
Its too bad that due to licensing issues that Giselle will barely be remembered by the time the year 2010 arrives. But I do find this strange...If I am not mistaken there were Enchanted dolls with Amy's likeness on them. There was also video games, music videos, and even character appearances at the theme parks and special events. Did Amy Adams only agree to lent her face to merchandise during the time of the film's release?

Perhaps she only agreed to lend her likeness to Enchanted merchandise, and not extend it to the "Disney Princess" line, which is a smart move on her part for the reason you already mentioned (overmerchandising).

Apparently, the reason why Mattel is so wary about continuing to make Giselle dolls in the likeness of Amy Adams is because the company will end up having to pay Ms Adams for every time they use her image for the dolls. However, I'm sure we'll be getting lots more of the 'animated Andalasian' version of the Giselle doll.

[Flanger-Hanger]

Princess Cala:
-First Disney TV princess
-First to not follow parents orders
-First to show love interest that was not connected to royalty (although The Black Cauldron was released a few months before the show premiered so I guess that award goes to Eilonwy even if it's not supposed to show that until book 5)

I don't care what "the line" says Eilonwy is a Disney princess and a damn good one at that. Though she's not nearly as bitchy as she is in the books. She's also the first princess to use magic powers, but not nearly as much as she does in the book.