Disney Princess
Disney Princess, also called the Princess Line, is a media franchise and toy line owned by the Walt Disney Company. Created by Disney Consumer Products chairman Andy Mooney, the franchise features a lineup of female characters who have appeared in various Disney films.
The franchise does not include all princess characters from the whole of Disney-owned media but rather refers to select specific female lead characters from the company's animated films, including only protagonists of theatrical animated films from Walt Disney Pictures, with twelve characters from the Walt Disney Animation Studios films and one character from a Pixar film, with the term "Princess" for the franchise being used as a title in a way unrelated to the royal title, being used as a term for specific heroines who have shown certain inspiring qualities. The thirteen characters in the franchise consist of Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Rapunzel, Merida, Moana, and Raya.
The franchise has released dolls, sing-along videos, apparel, beauty products, home decor, toys, and various other products featuring some of the Disney Princesses. Licensees for the franchise include Glidden, Stride Rite, Funko, Fisher-Price, Lego, Hasbro, Jakks Pacific and Mattel.
History
Conception
Former Nike, Inc. executive Andy Mooney was appointed president of The Walt Disney Company's Disney Consumer Products division in December 1999. While attending his first Disney on Ice show, Mooney noticed that several young girls attending the show were dressed in princess attire—though not authentic Disney merchandise. "They were generic princess products they'd appended to a Halloween costume", Mooney told The New York Times. Concerned by this, Mooney addressed the company the following morning and encouraged them to commence work on a legitimate Disney Princess franchise in January 2000. Mooney's insight was that the company was "missing a key element in merchandising the characters"; he wanted to bring them together under one franchise for the first time. Walt's nephew, Roy E. Disney, objected to the creation of the line, as the company had long "avoided mingling characters from its classic fairy tales in other narratives, worrying that it would weaken the individual mythologies."The original Disney Princess line-up was formalized in 2000, consisting of Snow White, Cinderella, Tinker Bell, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Esmeralda, and Mulan. Esmeralda was removed in 2005. Tinker Bell was also removed in 2005, but she would go on to headline the sister franchise Disney Fairies.
The creation of Disney Princess was the first time that the member characters would be displayed together as part of a single media franchise, separate from their original films. Mooney decided that, when featured in marketing advertisements such as posters, the princesses should never make eye contact with each other to keep their individual "mythologies" intact. " stares off in a slightly different direction as if unaware of the other's presence."
In an unconventional manner, Mooney and his team launched the Disney Princess line without utilizing any focus groups and with minimal marketing. By 2001, Disney Consumer Products had generated about $300 million, but by 2012, the division had increased revenue to $3 billion, making it the top seller of consumer entertainment products globally. DCP issued princess product licenses to Hasbro for games, Mattel for dolls, and Fisher-Price for plastic figurines in 2000, allowing the franchise to meet the $1 billion mark in revenue in three years.
Expansions
Inductions and coronations
became the first additional character to the Disney Princess franchise officially on March 14, 2010, taking Tinker Bell's short-lived place as the ninth member. Her "coronation" took place at the Lotte New York Palace Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. Tinker Bell was already heading up another franchise, Disney Fairies, starting in 2005.Rapunzel was crowned and inducted into the franchise as the tenth member on October 2, 2011, during "Rapunzel's Royal Celebration", a special event in London. Also attended by the other Princesses plus the Fairy Godmother and Flynn Rider, it included a procession through Hyde Park concluding with a ceremony at Kensington Palace in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, a residence used by the Royal Family since the 17th century and whose residents included Diana, Princess of Wales and Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon. Disney hosted the event in cooperation with Historic Royal Palaces, a British nonprofit organization that maintains the State Rooms.
On May 11, 2013, Merida became the first Pixar character as well as the eleventh member of the franchise series in a coronation ceremony in front of Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
In May 2019, Moana was added to the line-up as the twelfth member of the franchise without having a coronation ceremony, but rather being included in new merchandise.
In August 2022, it was announced that Raya from Raya and the Last Dragon would be inducted as the thirteenth member of the franchise during World Princess Week at Disneyland Paris. In January 2023, she was featured on some Disney Princess products and was later added in August that year among the other princesses on their official website.
At different points, Tarzans Jane Porter, Enchanteds Giselle, and Frozens Anna and Elsa were considered to be included in the line-up but did not officially join.
Redesigns, merchandise and other events
A line of Disney Fairy Tale Wedding gowns were designed by Kirstie Kelly, based on the Princesses, and were available in January 2008.In 2012, the Princesses were given modern redesigns. While some like Tiana and Rapunzel just had added glitter on their outfits, others like Belle, Ariel, and Jasmine received new hairstyles or modified outfits. The most drastic of these was Cinderella, who was given side-swept bangs and an outfit with sheer sleeves.
With Target Corporation as its marketing partner, Disney held the first National Princess Week on April 23, 2012. During the week, there was the release of The Princess Diaries on Blu-ray and The Very Fairy Princess book. Harrods already has a Disney Store within, followed by their Christmas theme, Disney Princess, by having Oscar de la Renta designed dress for the Princess on display. In August, the dress was on display at the D23 Expo before being auctioned on November 13 to benefit Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity.
Mattel added a Barbie princess-themed line in late 2010 and the fairy tale-based Ever After High in 2013. With these competing lines and an expiration of the brand license at the end of 2015, Disney offered Hasbro a chance to gain the license, given their work on Star Wars, which led to a Descendants license. DCP was also attempting to evolve the brand by marketing them less as damsels and more as heroines. In September 2014, Disney announced that Hasbro would be the licensed doll maker for the Disney Princess line starting on January 1, 2016.
The June 2013 release of the Disney Princess Palace Pets app from Disney Publishing led DCP to turn Palace Pets into a Disney Princess franchise extension, with the release of the Palace Pets toy line in August from licensee Blip Toys. The line was also selected by TimetoPlayMag.com for its Most Wanted List Holiday 2013. In 2015, Disney Publishing released the animated short series Whisker Haven Tales with the Palace Pets. The short journey to the magical world of Whisker Haven, a secret realm deep in a fairy tale land between the Disney Princess kingdoms.
Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media launched the Princess Comics line, which was started with Princess Comics graphic novels by Joe Book, in August 2018 at Target with Hasbro figures and Hybrid Promotions apparel. This expansion featured Belle, Jasmine, Ariel, Rapunzel, and Pocahontas.
File:Disney Princess Actresses at D23 2024.jpg|thumb|Jodi Benson, Paige O'Hara, Anika Noni Rose, Linda Larkin, and Ming-Na Wen at the 2024 D23 Disney Legends ceremony for Mark Henn, supervising animator for Ariel, Belle, Tiana, Jasmine, and Mulan.
On April 27, 2021, Disney launched the Ultimate Princess Celebration. This year-long event brought back the princesses' classic designs and included many special events, products, and performances. Pop singer Brandy released a new single, "Starting Now", as the official anthem of the celebration. Despite not being official, Anna and Elsa from the Frozen franchise were included in parts of the celebration; they were removed from their temporary inclusion in the collection at the end of August 2022. When the celebration launched in South Africa on April 29, 2021, Sofia from Sofia the First and Elena from Elena of Avalor were also included in its territory, though in a lesser capacity than the other princesses. On August 23 of the same year, Disney announced the World Princess Week, as part of the Ultimate Princess Celebration.
In January 2022, Mattel regained the license to produce lines of toys and dolls for the brand.
Criteria
To be included in the Disney Princess line, a character must be a protagonist or main supporting character in an animated theatrical film produced by a studio owned by The Walt Disney Company that is the first film in its franchise, must be human in her standard form and in general should be a princess by way of either marriage to a prince or through herself descending from a monarch or tribal chief. Exceptionally heroic characters who do not have a royal title can also be included.Marketability is a key factor in whether a character is chosen for inclusion in the Disney Princess line. Characters from unsuccessful Disney franchises are never seriously considered. In the case of Elsa and Anna, they are eligible by Disney standards but have only sporadically been included because the standalone success of the Frozen franchise has made bundling them into the Disney Princess line unnecessary.