22 Things You Didn’t Know About Your Favorite Disney Movies
Yes, we enjoy Disney movies. Splendor, grandeur, a smile and a tear, glitter and glamour: they have it all. But did you know that behind all the beautiful animations there is often much more than you think? You probably didn’t know this about your favorite Disney princesses!
1) Merida refuses to sing
Of all the Disney princesses to date, Merida is the only one who doesn’t sing. The Scottish princess is just a little too busy rescuing her mother and riding around on her horse.
2) Mutilations
You may have heard about the dark stories that originally hid behind the kid-friendly fairy tales that Disney has created. This also applies to Cinderella’s stepsisters. In the original story, they cut off pieces of their feet to fit into that coveted glass slipper. Ooh!
3) No footwear
One princess who likes to do things differently is Rapunzel. She goes through life barefoot for most of the film. Her voice actress, Mandy Moore, does that in everyday life too. This inspired the creators of Rapunzel.
4) Native princess
When you think of a princess descended from the native inhabitants of North America, chances are you immediately think of Pocahontas. But she was not the first native princess. That would be Peter Pan’s Tiger Lily. Unfortunately, she is not on the list of official Disney princesses, so Pocahontas takes the honors.
5) Tiana or Madeline?
Did you know that the original plan was to call Tiana Madeleine or Maddy? However, this was widely criticized. ‘Maddy’ used to be a commonly used name for slaves, critics said. And that wouldn’t be good, with her being Disney’s first African-American princess.
6) Recycled Dance Scene
Disney has a large portfolio of beautiful fairytale films. It takes quite a bit of work to perfect all these animations down to the last detail. That’s why some handy tricks are used here and there to speed up the work. For example, the dance scenes in Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast are practically the same. Watch and compare:
7) Tattooed princess
Maybe you hadn’t even given it a thought, but did you know that Pocahontas is the only Disney princess with a tattoo?
8) Brothers
And of all the Disney princesses, Merida is the only one with a bunch of brothers! None of the other Disney princesses have brothers. Ariel, Elsa and Anna have sisters, but that’s about it.
9) Children
Of all Disney princesses, Ariel is the only one with a child. You may not have known because the film was not nearly as successful as the original, but there is a second (and even a third) part of The Little Mermaid. In this film, Ariel is married to Prince Erik, and they even have a daughter together: Melody.
10) Very Young Princesses
While the movies themselves are of course timeless, the princesses are not. But did you know that these brave ladies are often very young? Jasmine is only fifteen years old in her story. The youngest princess, however, is Snow White. She is only fourteen years old! Most of us had just settled in high school at the time, but she’d already left her parental home.
11) True story
Did you know that of all the beautiful Disney fairy tales, only Pocahontas’s is based on a true story? Pocahontas really existed. Her real name was Matoaka. Here too, Disney has made the story just a little more beautiful: although Pocahontas is a beautiful love story in the film, it was not so beautiful in real life. In reality, she was taken hostage by the settlers and was forcibly married to John Rolfe when she was about seventeen years old. She eventually died at about age twenty.
Want to read more? On the next page you will find many more facts about the famous Disney princesses. For example, did you already know about number 19?
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