Summary

• Disney Princesses in older movies made poor decisions due to their naivety and the way women were depicted at that time.
• In later Disney Princess movies, the protagonists' mistakes humanize them and set up the main conflicts.
• Movies like Frozen and Brave address and satirize the poor decisions made by princesses in older movies, treating the princesses as flawed individuals capable of learning and growing.

In the early days of Disney animated classics that did not age well. A Disney Princess making a poor decision could be due to an oversight in the writing process, but it is more likely a symptom of how women were often depicted in cinema in the early and mid-twentieth century.

Later Disney Princess movies still depict their protagonists as young women who make mistakes, often setting up the movie's main conflict. However, their mistakes serve to humanize them rather than reduce them to clueless heroines who need to be rescued. Merida, Rapunzel, Elsa, and Anna all come across as flawed but real individuals. Some of these more recent movies even satirize their predecessors, as is the case with Frozen.

10 Merida Tries To Magically Sway Her Mother

Brave (2012)

In Brave, Princess Merida is under immense pressure to learn proper etiquette from her mother, Queen Elinor. Tensions between them reach a breaking point when Merida is expected to carry on the tradition of the crown princess marrying one of the sons of the kingdom's three most powerful clans. Merida consults a witch and asks for a way to "change her mother." The witch produces a small cake that Merida believes will change her mother's way of thinking, but fully transforms Elinor into a bear.

Merida's plan backfires, but it was not exactly ethical or even very smart to begin with. Even if the cake had worked the way Merida intended, the marriage tradition would still have been in place and the clan leaders would still have expected her to marry one of their sons. Elinor could have possibly swayed their opinions (she "conducts" Merida's speech which does achieve this), but Merida seems to think that it is all up to her mother.

9 Aurora Talks To A Stranger In The Woods

Sleeping Beauty (1959)

Princess Aurora is raised by the fairies using the name Briar Rose and is unaware of her true identity when she meets Prince Phillip in the woods. While Aurora initially tries to get away from him, she quickly falls into the song and dance of "Once Upon a Dream." She is depicted as too trusting of a stranger she met in the woods. While this does not exactly "backfire" because she is supposed to marry Phillip anyway, it still isn't a smart choice. Aurora spends a few days in misery because she does not know who Phillip is either, and when the fairies reveal her status as a princess, she believes she has to give up her "true love."

8 Rapunzel Never Cuts Her Hair

Tangled (2010)

Rapunzel is kidnapped by Gothel and groomed to be her willing source of immortality in Tangled. However, it is still somewhat surprising that it never occurred to Rapunzel to cut her own hair. She doesn't need the ability to heal and grant immortality to live a happy life. She might have even cut away her locks when she realized that Gothel had kidnapped her, before leaving her room to confront her "mother" in Tangled's final act. Flynn essentially comes to this conclusion and hacks off Rapunzel's hair so that she will no longer be of any use to Gothel.

7 Elsa Hides Her Powers From Anna

Frozen (2013)

Elsa continues to hide her powers from Anna after their deaths, even though this may not have been the smartest way forward. It would have been more practical for Anna, now nearly an adult, to know the truth and how it could disrupt their lives. Instead, Anna is as surprised as anyone when Elsa accidentally launches the kingdom into winter. Anna could have helped prevent this by ing Elsa while being fully aware of the danger, but Elsa never willingly told her the truth. It seems like Elsa wants to tell Anna when she asks to speak alone after Anna announces her engagement, but it is too late.

6 Jasmine Runs Away With No Plan Or Money

Aladdin (1992)

Early in the movie Aladdin, Princess Jasmine runs away to avoid being forced to marry a prince. She returns to demand that Jafar releases Aladdin. However, Jasmine only meets Aladdin in the marketplace because she takes an apple from a vendor for the child. The vendor threatens to cut off her hand because she has no money to pay for the apple and Aladdin comes to her rescue. It was poor planning on her part to flee the palace with no money to even buy a meal. For all Jasmine knows, this oversight on her part got Aladdin killed for "kidnapping" her.

5 Belle Goes Into The West Wing

Beauty And The Beast (1991)

When Belle takes her father's place as the Beast's prisoner, the Beast gives her one rule: Don't go into the West Wing. If Belle wanted to generously consider the Beast her host, it would have been polite to respect his privacy. She more likely and more accurately thinks of him as her kidnapper, and doing as she is told and avoiding the West Wing should be a matter of common sense and self-preservation. Yet Belle, naturally curious, turns down going to the library with Lumiere and Cogsworth to explore the West Wing. Beast is furious and Belle flees the castle, and they both almost get killed by wolves.

4 Cinderella Is Too Trusting Of Her Stepmother

Cinderella (1950)

In Disney's original animated Cinderella, Cinderella is depicted as ive and does whatever her stepmother tells her without resistance. When she hears that the prince intends to marry the girl with whom he danced at the ball, Cinderella dreamily sways away singing "This Is Love" to herself. She does not understand that Lady Tremaine would never willingly let anything good happen to her. While Cinderella is distracted, Lady Tremaine is easily able to lock her in her room. Cinderella's ivity is often pointed out, but her disposition suggests that she is not even aware of who her stepmother is and what she will do to keep her trapped.

3 Snow White Lets A Stranger Into The House (And Accepts Food From Her)

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937)

When the seven dwarfs leave to work in the mines for the day, Doc tells Snow White, "The Old Queen's a sly one, full of witchcraft. So beware of strangers." This suggests that the Evil Queen has a reputation for using magic. Yet Snow White welcomes the Evil Queen disguised as a hag into the cottage, despite the interference of her animal friends. Fairy tales often set up one rule that the protagonist will inevitably break, leading to trouble, but Snow White is especially naïve. She knows that the Queen can use magic, just as she knows that the Queen is determined to kill her.

2 Ariel Signs Ursula's Contract

The Little Mermaid (1989)

Ariel is aware of Ursula's reputation as the Sea Witch – Ursula even addresses and dismisses this in "Poor Unfortunate Souls." The stipulations of Ursula's contract with Ariel that Ariel will belong to her after three days are also indicators that Ursula has no good intentions toward Ariel. Yet Ariel is apparently so desperate to meet Eric or mad enough at her father for dashing these hopes that she signs Ursula's contract. Ariel could have gone back to her original plan of trying to Eric as a mermaid before striking a bargain with a known villain.

1 Anna Accepts Hans' Proposal

Frozen (2013)

Anna's brief romance with Prince Hans of the Southern Isles mocks the fast marriages of past Disney Princesses, which are never characterized as bad decisions in their own movies. Anna trusting Hans is particularly damaging because it almost gives him control of the kingdom. When it appears that Elsa killed Anna, the palace attendants are willing to have Hans rule Arendelle because he is Princess Anna's "husband." However, Frozen highlights Anna learning from this mistake. While the poor decisions princesses made in older Disney movies are never addressed as being mistakes, movies like Frozen and Brave treat their princesses as flawed people who are intelligent enough to learn and grow.