Summary
Over nearly ninety years, Walt Disney Animation Studios has released a huge number of what the company now deems “animated classics,” many of which have become renowned worldwide. Several of these hugely culturally significant films feature Disney Princesses, a select group that has become steadily more empowered throughout their long-running history.
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FromSnow WhitetoFrozen 2, lovable princess characters have been a mainstay. One of the things these films feature commonly, besides musical numbersand animal sidekicks galore, is a Prince to sweep the Princess off her feet, or vice versa on more than one occasion. While these princes have bumbled into situations frequently, some of them are slightly brighter bulbs than others.
7John Smith
Pocahontas is a Disney Princess, and besides whatever spiritual powers she may have, and some amazing singing talent, the real capability she proved in the film was getting through to John Smith when it came to helping him understand that his role in claiming “the new world” was wrong. This isn’t to say that Smith was stupid. After all, he seemed to manage to rise to a prestigious rank with little trouble.
However, it is clear that John Smith didn’t understand what was wrong with pushing Native Americans off their land, letting him down somewhat. Still, once he had decided which side he was on, Smith proved to be a useful ally in the battle against the British, without ever feeling in danger of being the brains behind the operation.
6Prince Phillip
He knew her once upon a dream, but when it came down to it, Phillip has the accolade of being the only Prince in Disney history to actually pull off slaying a dragon for his love. Aurora wasn’t able to provide a lot of assistance when it came to the final battle against Maleficent, but the crafty dark fairy, even as a dragon, must have kept at least some of her wits.
Maleficent was a hugely intelligent and devious character, so simply being able to defeat her, especially in her dragon form, is a mighty feat. Phillip managed to pull this off while fighting his way through to the castle, albeit with some help, to save Aurora and gain true love’s kiss. This all required more than just brawn and brute strength. It took brains as well, and Phillip proved he’s got at least some with this sequence,which helped inspire a lot of other films.
5Prince Eric
It takes a bit of eye-rolling because he never realized that Ariel is the girl who saved him, but she never quite spelled it out, so Eric is partially forgiven. Despite this, theLittle Mermaidcharacter proved, particularly in the recent live-action film, to have a brain that he enjoyed using. Even in the original, Eric proved his worth on more than one occasion.
Despite being cruelly ensorcelled by Ursula, something he couldn’t help, Eric managed tohelp defeat the evil sea witchin a major way by steering his ship directly at her. This may have been the act of a hopeful lover over an intelligent young man, but either way and in either version of the story, Eric truly seems to be a young man who listens to his heart while still having a brain.
4Aladdin
It’s difficult to quantify intelligence without considering several factors, one of which is definitely street smarts. Compared to most princes in Disney animated history, Aladdin would have relatively little actual education. Despite this, and all the odds stacked against him, he managed to survive and even thrive on the streets as he grew up, an impressive feat with so many guards having it out for him.
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Aladdin was desperate to escape the struggle of his everyday life by becoming a prince, but most of what he did was actually for love, and between this and outwitting Jafar himself, Aladdin proved throughout his adventure to bea worthy hero and an iconic prince, despite the less than stellar upbringing he had and despite his lack of formal education.
3Beast
There are a lot of factors to consider when it comes to intelligence, and emotional intelligence is certainly one of them. However, it is hard to deny besides this one specific area that the Beast, also known as Prince Adam, is a pretty smart guy. He is shown throughout the film to be thoughtful and pensive, if a little too much so at times, and though he lets his rage get the better of him on occasion, he is simply angry at his stupidity at ending up in his current predicament.
Prince Adam was a member of the old French Royalty, and it is shown inBeauty and the Beastthat he has a huge library which takes up most of his time. He and Belle only end up getting along so well because they can relate to being different and liking books so much. There is simply no way that Prince Adam isn’t a fairly smart fellow, despite appearances to the contrary and needinga little dating advice from some kitchenware.
2Shang
Shang fromMulandoes have a strike against him that he never managed to see past the disguise put on by the young female warrior. However, besides this glaring fault, he is a trained warrior and tactical commander who managed to rise high within the ranks of the Chinese army at an early age. He is even smart enough to go against the rules on occasion, such as sparing Mulan’s life.
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Besides this, Shang fell for Mulan and realized, with some help from the Emperor, what a special woman she was in spite of her being so untraditional. This added to Shang’s general wisdom and street-smart style, makes him seem like one of the most thoughtful and intelligent men to come across the Disney screen asa great character helping celebrate diversity.
1Flynn
Flynn Rider, also known as Eugene Fitzherbert, is one of the most recent additions to the Disney Prince listing. Though many princesses have appeared in Disney films, a meager list has been made of the “official” Disney Princesses, meaning the official list of Disney princes is similarly smaller than might be expected. But Flynn Rider is one of the Prince characters shown to have the most growth in Disney history, andhe’s also one of the oldest.
Despite starting pretty street smart already, Flynn Rider proved over the course of his journey in Tangled to be a kind, warm-hearted man with a lot of love to give, who could think quickly on his feet and had a surprising amount of wisdom to share as well. This helped showcase him as one of the smartest characters designated a true Disney prince ever to cross the big screen.
