Tiana . A Disney Princess?

[SillySymphony]

esmerelda looks about 12, lol.

whos the girl between eilonwy and rapunzel?

You seriously don't know?
It's animated Giselle from Enchanted.

enigmawing, I love your Meg.

[Elladorine]

esmerelda looks about 12, lol.

Must be the size of the head . . . it was a bugger trying to get them all to match up somewhat with the various styles and proportions going on for each character.

It's animated Giselle from Enchanted.

I seriously couldn't get her to look right.

enigmawing, I love your Meg.

Aw, thanks! She's one of my favorite characters so it's kinda odd I haven't drawn her very much.

[sunhuntin]

ahhh, thanks for that, lol. enchanted is one movie i havent seen much of. lol. it was on tv last week, but i couldnt watch thanks to neice and nephews acting up. it started right on their bed time, so i missed the start and couldnt follow the rest.

esmerelda looks adorable, so does meg.

[BellesPrince]

The new Princess line where hardly any of them are actually Princesses.

[pinkrenata]

I love the Giselle drawing, enigmawing. Well, they're all great, but I'm partial to Giselle.

[Goliath]

No I think from other posts that Goliath has posted, he is saying nothing bad about the Princesses themselves....just the Marketing Ploy of Disney Princess and how they are marketed....

Bingo! I didn't mean to take a swipe at the characters or their films. (Was that not clear? ) I think the Princess Line cheapens the individual characters. They're not individual characters anymore. They're all 'just princesses' now.

[BellesPrince]

Well, I don't really agree with you. You might just as well say that the Pooh franchise cheapens the Pooh characters so they're just 'stuffed animals', or Mickey and the Gang, are just 'Mickey's Pals', or Tinkerbell is just a fairy.

Yes, there is a lot of poor merchandise, but, there is also alot of good quality merchandise. I don't know how it is in the States, but over here in the UK, not every Princess item is plastered with a Disney Princess logo, especially when a movie is released. Currently all the Belle stuff has a Beauty and the Beast tag on it.

They never put a Disney Princess logo on the DVD's and Blu Ray's, so I really don't see as these characters are getting subsumed into a Princess line. They still stand separately as their own creations.

And what's wrong with putting out Princess themed merchandise anyway. Isn't it a nice idea to have a PVC set out featuring all the Princesses? A Princess calendar? What about the Art of the Disney Princess hardcover?

I really don't think you're being very fair at all.

It's common sense from a business perspective that Disney will have individual lines such as the Princess line in their Stores, so when people go to a Disney Store, they know which part of the store to go and look in.

I really don't feel that Belle, Ariel, Snow White or any of the others are cheapened by their inclusion in a group.

And knowing many of the girls who portray Princesses in one of the parks, I'm sure they don't feel that way when performing in parades or doing character meets.

[pinkrenata]

No I think from other posts that Goliath has posted, he is saying nothing bad about the Princesses themselves....just the Marketing Ploy of Disney Princess and how they are marketed....

Bingo! I didn't mean to take a swipe at the characters or their films. (Was that not clear? ) I think the Princess Line cheapens the individual characters. They're not individual characters anymore. They're all 'just princesses' now.

Well, when you really get down to it, they all are just formulaic female leads. The only thing that really, truly set them apart from one another are their (all fairly similar) dreams and aspirations. After that, you're really just looking at dress and hair color as unique qualities.

Coming from a Disney Princess fan who has often been called a "hater," I've found that it's hard to criticize something that many people love blindly. Yes, I was thrilled back in the late 90's when Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, et al. began to appear more often on merchandise. Did I start to get sick of it after a short period of time? Yes. Do I wish that they would stop the line altogether? Of course not. In fact, I am very guilty of supporting the franchise every now and then.

So there.

[BellesPrince]

All just formulaic leads? Hmmm, not really.

I can perhaps see that argument with the earlier Princesses, but I certainly don't think it's true of Ariel, Belle, Jasmine or Tiana - I can't say about Rapunzel yet because we haven't got Tangled in the UK, but I'd imagine that she's been imbued with a little bit of personality too.

[pinkrenata]

All just formulaic leads? Hmmm, not really.

I can perhaps see that argument with the earlier Princesses, but I certainly don't think it's true of Ariel, Belle, Jasmine or Tiana - I can't say about Rapunzel yet because we haven't got Tangled in the UK, but I'd imagine that she's been imbued with a little bit of personality too.

For argument's sake -- I would <i>almost</i> say that the newer princesses are the most formulaic. They all want something they can't get at home and they even have a song that illustrates this feeling.

And to further make my point, I turn to the genius of <i>Animaniacs</i>:

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Seriously, though, please nobody take offense from anything I say. Usually when I criticize the princesses, it's more than a little tongue in cheek.

Or is it?

[Disney's Divinity]

I would agree that Ariel, Belle, and Jasmine are fairly similar, especially design-wise, but I think they are fairly differentiated as well. How else could you explain why one person would love Belle, hate Ariel, or be ambivalent to Jasmine? And Tiana is another one that follows a similar design, but I find her much different (perhaps "better") than the early '90s heroines. She definitely at least has a dream, outlook, and personality that is different than the others. Looking at her and Rapunzel (as well as Naveen and Flynn), I think another trend's starting, with emotionally damaged girls and spoiled, badboy guys ending up together.

Also, the formula you're referring to happened to nearly all the films following Mermaid. Belle, Aladdin and Jasmine, Quasimodo, Pocahontas and John Smith, Hercules, and Tarzan are all variations on the same plot-line/character that began with Ariel. They all have the dream of going "out there," out there nearly always being a world that's been misunderstood and demonized by a narrow-minded patriarchal figure. There are a bunch of other formulas that went on through the '90s, but there are always subtle (sometimes obvious) differences between characters/films.

As far as the older princesses, it's hard to classify Snow White and Aurora as characters at all (particularly Aurora, which has been done to death already). They're really just there to instigate the rest of their films.

[BellesPrince]

I really can't understand why people bother watching them, or discussing them if they are so hyper critical of the films and characters.

It's beyond me really, you'd have thought they would just leave them to those of us who do enjoy them.

[Elladorine]

Thanks pinkrenata.

I was drawing group shots of the Disney princesses/heroines long before there was a merchandise line. There was always something fun for me about seeing the girls together since I'd grown up adoring them, and it was both exciting and annoying when the line actually started to appear. I'm a girl and admittedly like girly things, but after a while it got over the top. And due to popularity issues of course certain characters were given the cold shoulder (a friend and I used to joke that Nala was discriminated against just because she was a lion). While it's obvious that the line is little more than a money-making marketing gimmick that may have gotten cheesy and blown out of proportion over the years, I honestly don't pay much attention to it anymore unless something appealing catches my eye; for example there's a Snow White purse I'd love to get my hands on that is quite lovely (and isn't of the typical "princess" merchandise we're used to seeing). I still enjoy the individual characters for who they are in their respective films, and I enjoy seeing them drawn in different styles and situations . . . you know, when it's not the same damn clip art used over and over and over again! Anyway, I don't really take this stuff seriously.

[BellesPrince]

Well, I don't do much drawing these days, and tend to work more with my photo's, and have been assembling group shots of them for a few years now, but sometimes it's even more rewarding when you actually get a group of them together on the odd rare occassions and manage to get some nice photo's.

I think in this photo the Prince had lost patience but the girls were only too happy to pose for photo's.



And this one was a real favourite shot with three favourite castmembers.

[Elladorine]

I enjoy the live-action versions of the characters in the parks and even cosplay when done right, so I think those kinds of images are fun too. In all honesty I'd love to do cosplay myself (it would be so much fun to dress up and take photos/have photos taken) but I don't exactly have the right figure for it.

[BellesPrince]

Drifting off topic a bit here, but it's especially nice when the characters know you and greet you by name when they see you.

[Elladorine]

Drifting off topic a bit here, but it's especially nice when the characters know you and greet you by name when they see you.

If only I could visit the parks that often.

Anyway, something that I think is great about these characters and stories is how they can bring people together. There are always gonna be some harshly criticizing, but a lot of people have memories and experiences attached to them . . . which is probably why some are either so defensive or harshly critical in the first place. And I think it's all good.

[BellesPrince]

Well, I only visit every 6 months, but I stay for a week at a time, but I really throw myself into the place and spend a lot of time around the characters, and so they all started to remember me, and I started to get to know people online too through my photography, so going back now is always like going back and seeing old friends.

And with some of the characters, I'd even go so far as to say that through meeting people in the parks, it made me revisit the films, and look at them a little bit different. Up until a couple of years ago, I was never the biggest Snow White fan, but then I met a lovely Snow White in the parks who spent ages posing for photo's for me, and it made me look at the movie and the character again in a totally different light.

[Elladorine]

I usually get to visit Disneyland one day a year, typically around my birthday. My husband agrees it's kinda disappointing they don't have as many characters walking around as they used to, at least from our own personal experiences (unless we're simply making modern comparisons with the activity we see at Universal Studios). Our usual visit consists of catching most of our favorite rides and soaking up as much atmosphere as possible before the day is out.

I didn't like Snow White much when I was younger, but my appreciation grew over the years as I learned more about animation history. And speaking of Snow White, this is the purse I've currently fallen in love with.



I used to collect character purses a few years back, and although I never had one this nice I'm not sure if I'm willing to part with $40 for it. Maybe I should put it on my birthday wish list this year.

Anyway, I'd love to see more stuff like the above purse than something like this:



While it's obvious that the latter purse is geared for little girls, I'd love to see more classy material like the former. I certainly don't think there's anything wrong with creating merchandise that appeals to little girls (I imagine I'd have loved that pink purse had they made something like that when I was a kid), but when they are so heavily marketed that the average person thinks Disney is nothing more than babysitting fodder for little girls, it's a little disappointing.

[BellesPrince]

I suppose you have to look at both sides of of it really, and a little girl is probably going to go for the pink thing with several Princesses on it rather than the other one, even though it looks much classier. But, there are plenty of nice collectibles to be found out there too, although alot of the stuff for older fans tends to be more expensive and often tends more towards figurines and snowglobes.

We still seem to have a lot of characters walking around at Disneyland Paris. You have dedicated meet and greets often for the more popular characters like the Princesses, the Pooh characters, Mickey Mouse and some of the Toy Story characters.

But throughout the day, there will be several times when characters a selection of characters are sent out into the park, which can be a selection of head characters, but can also include other characters like Belle in her village dress, Gaston, Alice, Esmeralda.

We also have show stops in the parade where characters will come over to the audience, and a session after Stars N Cars where they'll come and meet people.