DVDizzy Forum

Atlantica wrote:There was HUGE controversy at the time about the Princess Pavilion; the element of 'surprise' as to who you would see absolutely traumatised the girls in the queue. They were dressed as Cinderella / Ariel / Belle / Rapunzel .. and they would clearly have expectations as to who they would like to see. When the cast member at the front of the queue was trying to force them into saying 'heeeey, you gotta love Tiana don't ya ? Or hey, how about Snow White ?' You could see the looks on their faces of absolute trauma of WHY CAN'T I SEE RAPUNZEL ??????? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY and the parents would give them grief and so on. Horrible experience to see and hear.

Then on the other hand, for myself who's a fan of meet and greets, I had to see Snow White twice, which was beyond annoying. And then another two times over for Cinderella, until eventually they altered the process so you see listed outside the two princesses that are there.

So unfortunately, it was desperately telling who the most popular Princesses were, and I felt it directly corresponded to what dresses were most widely available in the parks. That would therefore mean it was Cinderella / Aurora / Belle / Rapunzel pretty much, and maybe Snow at a push. Absolutely nowhere were there Tiana / Mulan / Pocahontas costumes. And I think they missed a trick with Ariel as well; they had her 'Princess dress' as her wedding gown, which their off a lot of people it seemed like.

This was before the princesses' park redesign but I always thought it was funny when the little girls was dressed as Aurora in her pink dress to try to match her (you could only buy the pink dress). But the problem was that the real Aurora was always wearing her blue dress for meet and greet in Disneyland Paris.

I miss her blue dress in the parks.

I don't know if you were talking to me, thedisneyspirit, but I don't remember seeing any minority princess dress on little girls except one or two Tiana's.

Disney Duster wrote:I don't know if you were talking to me, thedisneyspirit, but I don't remember seeing any minority princess dress on little girls except one or two Tiana's.

Maybe I am wrong but aren't there Jasmine costumes for girls in the park to buy too.

Yes, yes they have costumes for every princess! I just only saw Cinderella, Belle, Rapunzel, Merida, and Tiana being worn by little girls, if I am remembering corrrectly. I really could be wrong and not have noticed the others, but if there were others, they weren't on as many little girls as many as those.

Disney Duster wrote:Yes, yes they have costumes for every princess! I just only saw Cinderella, Belle, Rapunzel, Merida, and Tiana being worn by little girls, if I am remembering corrrectly. I really could be wrong and not have noticed the others, but if there were others, they weren't on as many little girls as many as those.

Don't forget all the little girls dressed as Elsa and Anna. So, so many of them when I am there.

Yeah, because Disney would sell the dresses of all their princesses. Now if they're gonna be paid, that's a different story.

Oh yes, there must have been some Elsa's and Anna's! And I think I saw two or three Ariel's. I wish I could remember exactly.

DisneyBluLife wrote:

Disney Duster wrote:I don't know if you were talking to me, thedisneyspirit, but I don't remember seeing any minority princess dress on little girls except one or two Tiana's.

Maybe I am wrong but aren't there Jasmine costumes for girls in the park to buy too.

I think Disney Duster meant that he doesn't remember seeing any little girls dressed up as any minority princesses, with the exception of Tiana, at the Disney Parks. Not that the Disney Parks don't sell Jasmine costumes. In my own experience though, I've seen the opposite with plenty of little girls dressed up as Jasmine and no Tianas whatsoever.

Cinderella, Belle, and Rapunzel were the most popular choices, alongside Elsa and Anna (Frozen Fatigue clearly isn't as widespread as claimed to be). There were plenty of girls dressed up as Snow White, Aurora, Jasmine, and Merida as well. Merida surprised me because I didn't think she was still very popular but there were plenty of little Meridas running around. Ariel was surprisingly rare though, during both of my recent trips to the Disney Parks. I barely say any Ariels, and no Tianas or Mulans.

I honestly think it could be a case of the prettier the dress, the more it sells. A lily-pad based dressed might not appeal to some girls, along with the pant suit of Jasmine ?

We need to find some little kids to ask

Rapunzel's and Merida's outfits are not prettier than Tiana's dress. The simplest solution is usually the right one--it comes down to race, more often than not.

Funny thing is, people in my country love Pocahontas. Like, seriously, the movie is so popular here, and when you ask someone about their favourite princess, it's like, 90% chance it's Pocahontas. The movie is also on tv, like, every two weeks on different channels. But unfortunately, we still don't have any merchandise of her, since nothing is made by Disney.

Disney's Divinity wrote:Rapunzel's and Merida's outfits are not prettier than Tiana's dress. The simplest solution is usually the right one--it comes down to race, more often than not.

While race is a factor, I don't think it's the sole factor here. Tiana in general doesn't appeal as much to the core demographics of the Disney Princess franchise, which is very small girls. They love the magic and dreaming aspects of the princess films which happens to exclude the more serious and mature princess films like Pocahontas, Mulan, TPATF, etc. Tiana in particular is one of the most mature (if not boring) characters with her workaholic tendencies. There's a more universal appeal to characters like Ariel, Belle, or Cinderella who dream of something more and a better life versus Tiana whose hobby is cooking and dream is to own her own restaurant.

But even if you ignore the characterizations, it all comes down to the dress. I hear lots of people complain that Tiana's dress looks like a ball of lettuce of cabbage. If a little girl doesn't mind looking like leafy greens, then they might choose her dress, but she's got competition with Tinker Bell as well. Tinker Bell also has a leafy green dress and Tink is more popular and iconic. It's very difficult to compete with her. Not to mention that the nature aspects of her dress make more sense for a fairy than for a princess so generally princess fans are going to be looking more at Cinderella or Aurora's dresses whereas a fairy fan would be more won over by Tink's dress.

Not to mention, green is not a very popular color for little girls anyway. Rapunzel's dress is very much beloved by small children (I personally despise it), but the purple color factors into it. Purple is usually the favorite color for little girls (moreso than pink these days which has a more negative connotation now and big female oriented brands are backing away from that) so Rapunzel wins from that alone. As for Merida, her blue formal dress is very popular amongst little girls, moreso than the teal/green dress. Once more, green doesn't seem to be a hugely popular color for little girls. Ariel gets away with it because they usually make her green tail more aqua or blue.

Raf wrote:Funny thing is, people in my country love Pocahontas. Like, seriously, the movie is so popular here, and when you ask someone about their favourite princess, it's like, 90% chance it's Pocahontas. The movie is also on tv, like, every two weeks on different channels. But unfortunately, we still don't have any merchandise of her, since nothing is made by Disney.

Which country do you come from? Pocahontas is one of my favorites so it's always nice to hear that she has a fanbase somewhere in the world. I've heard that Pocahontas is quite popular in the Netherlands, basically as much as the Big Four of the Disney Renaissance (TLM, BATB, Aladdin, TLK).

I quite agree with Atlantica and JeanGreyForever that little girls will more often pick a dress because they think it's pretty than if it came from their favorite princess. Otherwise we would see waaay more Ariel's. However, I thought Merida's formal dress was teal?

Disney's Divinity wrote:Rapunzel's and Merida's outfits are not prettier than Tiana's dress. The simplest solution is usually the right one--it comes down to race, more often than not.

Oh my gosh for little girls, for sure Rapzunel's dress is much prettier; its pink and purple. WHAT COULD BE PRETTIER THAN THAT ?!?!?! And actually Merida does get quite a lot of love in Paris as well; could be as her dress is shiny turquoise rather than just blue/greenish.

Why do you think Elsa is so popular with littlun's ? 100% due to her dress. There was even a program over the Christmas period in the UK all about the success of Frozen, and they interviewed some little girls about why they loved it. And almost every one said ' she makes her own sparkly dress / has magical powers ' . Their love of characters sometimes is as deep as that, until they can see outside the Princess / sparkly dress franchise.

Atlantica wrote: Oh my gosh for little girls, for sure Rapzunel's dress is much prettier; its pink and purple.

While I personally think it's hideous, I didn't say it wouldn't be pretty to little girls. My only point was that, no, I don't believe it's any prettier than Tiana's green dress (which is gorgeous), so I don't think the little-girls-like-the-princesses-with-pretty-dresses excuse explains why the princesses of color are all unpopular. Anna also has a green dress and the girls dress as her, too, so I don't the color of the dress explains it either. Elsa and Belle are also "mature" characters personality-wise like Tiana, Pocahontas, Mulan, etc., and are popular. Race is still the easiest explanation for the difference, imo.

Mulan's matchmaker dress is pretty, too, imo, although I've always felt it was wrong that that dress is the one you see the most through the line (just like with Merida) because it's the antithesis of what the character is.

Disney Duster wrote:I quite agree with Atlantica and JeanGreyForever that little girls will more often pick a dress because they think it's pretty than if it came from their favorite princess. Otherwise we would see waaay more Ariel's. However, I thought Merida's formal dress was teal?

Merida's main dress is teal/green, but her formal dress is the light blue/turquoise one she wears when she is "fighting for her own hand." The one with the wimple. I see this one a lot worn by little girls so I think the design and colors are more popular than the dark green. If you look at Merida's main dress, it's very different from the typical princess dress because of how dark the color is. Usually Disney Princesses have bright or pastel colored dresses.

Anna has a green dress but the one she is mainly marketed with is her blue dress with the magenta/pink cape. That is what little girls wear most often costume wise. The green dress is really only at the Disney Parks and they sell her main outfit alongside it.

Moana's dress is popular as well do I think it has more to do with the films' popularity than anything.

Oh, I guess Merida's "win my own hand" dress looks a tad tealish to me. Yes her main dress color is so different.

When we were discussing dresses I thought it was why little girls wear them more than what princesses are their favorite. Of course race is why some princess characters are more popular than others.