With one exception, all the princesses and princes of Disney studios share one thing in common: they have no children!
“They lived happily and had many children”, we are used to hearing at the end of fairy tales.
But are the princesses and princes found in the animated classics of Disney studios affected by this famous archetype? As surprising as it may seem, with one and only one exception, the human (and royal) protagonists who populate the studio’s films are never portrayed as parents.
So when you take inventory of all the Disney princes and princesses – from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 to Frozen 2 in 2019 – you realize that only one studio couple is shown with a child. Indeed, in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Ocean (released directly on DVD in 2013), Ariel and Eric have a daughter named Mélodie, who dreams of exploring her mermaid origins by going to live “under the ocean”. .
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Except for The Little Mermaid, then, in all of Disney history, not a single movie shows a human princess and prince having children. And even when we expand to other (non-princely) characters in the studio, we can only add Wendy, who has two children in Peter Pan 2, as well as Phoebus and Esmeralda, who have a son named Zéphyr in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame 2.
A rather unexpected result compared to the image that Disney can send back in general, but which widens considerably if we look at the side of animal heroes. Indeed, one can find many more parents and children here: for example, Lady and the Tramp have four children at the end of the film, Simba and Nala have a daughter in the last scene of The Lion King, Duchess has three little Aristocats, and Pongo and Perdita literally have… 101 Dalmatians.
Why do you think there are so few relatives among Disney’s human heroes?
(Re)discover the trailer for “101 Dalmatians”…