Top Five Disney Princess Films

There is always an air of excitement whenever a new Disney film centering around a princess comes out. Ever since Disney decided to make a franchise centered around fictional female heroines back in the mid-2000s, it has continued to make the $ 52 billion company hefty profits.

The original Disney Princess line up includes characters like Snow White, Jasmine and  Pocahontas, later expanding to include characters like Rapunzel and Merida. Their latest addition to the lineup, “Moana” was released on Nov. 23 and is expected to join the ranks of the the Disney princess canon, making now a better time than ever to look back at the company’s top five princesses.

5.“The Little Mermaid” (1989)

“The Little Mermaid,” the film that arguably started the Disney Renaissance, set the bar so high for what a typical Disney animated movie should amount to, it’s not even funny. Despite being made in 1989, the animation looks great even to this day, especially when compared to the company’s other animated film “Oliver and Company,” which was only released a year prior. It’s impressive what technology allowed Disney to do in a year.

You know the music, you know the lyrics, you’re humming “Under the Sea” right now as you read this. It’s a musical masterpiece. The characters are so memorable. Princess Ariel is a beautifully written character especially when compared to previous Disney princesses like Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora. Ariel was a much less flat character than the others and her suffering at the hands (or tentacles) of Ursula, one of Disney’s greatest villains, makes her development more meaningful.

It was hard to choose between this film or “Aladdin” for number five, but I gave it to the mermaid mainly because while Jasmine is a great character, Ariel is the main character in her film.

Besides that, the two films are really on par with each other except for the fact that maybe “Aladdin” is the funnier of the two, mainly due to Robin Williams’ performance as Genie. Yes, I’m still crying too.

4.“Cinderella” (1950)

Out of what many Disney Princess fans call the original three (Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty) Cinderella is my favorite. Despite doing nothing but working hard throughout the entire film, Cinderella doesn’t receive much credit for her hard work throughout the film. While she doesn’t like dealing with her family and doing their chores for them, she puts up with it anyway because she knows that her hard work will pay off in the end, and it does.

3.”Mulan” (1998)

Is Mulan a really a Disney Princess? Well, despite not being born into royalty or getting married to royalty, the website has her included in their canon so yeah, she’s making it on the list. And so is her movie, which is incredible.

Mulan was Disney’s first and so far, only action princess due to her being conscripted into the Chinese army. The songs on the soundtrack are underrated too, with Mulan’s contractually obligated song “Reflection” and the macho anthem “Make a Man Out of You.” The characters are memorable from Mulan’s fellow soldiers, to Mushu (voiced by Eddie Murphy), to my favorite one (the silent companion to end all silent companions) Mulan’s lucky cricket, Cri-Kee.

The villain Shan-Yu is also one of Disney’s more intimidating rogues and his army of Huns are a force to be reckoned with. Not to mention Mulan has one thing no other Disney princess has: a body count.

2.“Frozen” (2013)

Yes, the hype has died down substantially. But still, your kids, younger siblings and you can’t “let it go” just yet with this modern classic.

The story is deep and emotionally investing. The characters all bounce off one another so well you would assume the script was written in a “Frozen” themed bounce house. The characters of Anna and Elsa divide siblings when deciding which princess they like more, despite the film’s focus on sisterhood rather than the usual formulaic romance between the heroine and her love interest (though Anna and Kristoff are still adorable together).Either way Disney won because we know you bought your kids the merchandise to fuel that “Frozen” war.

The plot twist with Hans is one of the few times a Disney movie mastered the “didn’t see it coming” formula to the point that it put him alongside the best of Disney’s baddies. But the best character in the film is Olaf, simply because they took a character I thought I was going to hate and made his main objective (wanting to experience summer) something that would kill him.

Now that is funny, dark, and twisted all at the same time. And you still can’t get “let it go” out of your head even three years later. Now go. Sing it. It’s okay. Chances are everyone around you will join in eventually.

1.“Beauty and the Beast” (1991)

“Beauty and the Beast” isn’t just the best film with a Disney Princess in it, it’s also arguably Disney’s best film (animated or otherwise), the greatest animated film ever made, and one of the greatest movies of all time. Period.

Its visuals are some of the most beautiful frames ever put on film. Its songs are legendary, winning multiple awards across multiple ceremonies. Its characters are the best that Disney had to offer. Belle is not only Disney’s strongest female character, she is also my favorite princess, due to her charm, class, and kindness. The storytelling and how they reworked the original French tale is so amazing, that this is the version of the story that people first think about when you say “Beauty and the Beast.”

It is the only animated film to win a Golden Globe for best picture. It was the first animated film to be nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards, and that was before the mandatory 10 movie count was brought in. It is a cinematic masterpiece and deserves all the praise it got back then and throughout the years.