In hand-drawn, the proportions really depend on the particular artists working on the specific scenes in question. Keane draws the bigger eyes, like in the example I gave of Ariel. And since he was her character designer and lead animator, I consider his work to be the most representative and on-model of what she is supposed to be.
We can go around to nitpick and compare screencaps all we want, but the fact of the matter remains that she was originally designed to have the larger eyes. You're entitled to your opinions about what makes animation designs look better, more appealing, or "balanced," but keep in mind it's all subjective. Many agree that the larger eyes, heads, etc. make a character more youthful, appealing, easier to relate to, and much more expressive. It's when an artist tries too hard to replicate realism that the illusion can fall apart, as this particular type of character animation is all about exaggeration through movement and design.
Even characters with smaller eyes tend to have larger eyes than a realistic human, although there are numerous reasons of course to vary the size of the features and overall "cartoony-ness" in order to suit the type of role each character is supposed to play.
And as for what gives character "life," that's also subjective. Sometimes eyes in the form of dots are enough to give a character life. In anime, characters are often deliberately depicted without highlights on their eyes if they're hypnotized, possessed, etc. in order to make them appear lifeless. I fail to see what gives Rapunzel "dead" eyes aside from being biased against CG but to each his own; we're all free to dislike CG, tablets, charcoal, oils, watercolor, pencils, or whatever.
I agree with this for the most part. But I don't have to like Tangled or WIR to accept that hand-drawn is dead at Disney. (Although I thought WIR was okay, and wouldn't mind a sequel.)
