I like it too, but it’s pretty eye-popping to modern sensibilities. I didn’t want to link directly to it because I think it’s probably put up in violation of copyright, but if anyone wants to find it it’s ridculously easy, second hit on a google search.
Jasmine, she’s spunky.
I also voted other for Esmeralda. No, she wasn’t a princess, but her heart was more pure than most of the official ones.
Sarabi was hardcore too. She was more hardcore than Nala so she gets props.
looks at wiki OMG how could I have forgotten about Meg? It’s funny, I was moving into the ‘soon to hit teenage years and reject childish Disney’ stage when that movie came out, her maturity was really awesome to me though.
Surprised no one has said Alice yet.
I should mention that I just used the chart in the Wiki article for the poll options.
More people have to watch The Princess and the Frog. Tiana doesn’t start as a princess and she’s hard working, honorable, brave, smart, and earns everything she ever gets.
Was I the only little girl who never cared if they were Princesses or not? Aurora, Belle, Esmeralda and now Tiana…they all just mixed in as the girls of Disney. Same with the dudes. Who cared if Aladdin wasn’t a Prince? He had to go further to save Jasmine than Beast needed to for Belle!
I am noting that the results are skewed heavily to the strong independent woman line. Male or female we Dopers like our woman smart and not needing the strong men they are attracted to to rescue them, better yet if they partner and rescue each other.
And we get back to the need to use SafeSearch, again. 
BTW–I vote for Ultraviolet, of The Incredibles.
That and the ones who aren’t strong and independent are annoyingly stupid; there doesn’t seem to be an in between. Snow White was dumber than Dopey. Cinderella had some sort of Stockholm Syndrome, and needed a bumbling deus ex machina to do anything. Not enough people have seen Tiana, and Pocahontas (the movie) was just plain bad.
Aurora get the short shrift, she’s the title character, but only gets less than 20 minutes of on-screen action, and that’s as “Briar Rose.” At least in that little amount of time, she charming and intelligent.
One of us is misremembering the movie then, because I don’t recall there being any suggestion that Mulan’s father held a hereditary title or was of noble rank. I’m pretty sure the movie would have to be set post-feudalism too, not that I’d hold Disney to a high standard of historic accuracy. More to the point, she’s never called a princess in the movie. The title just got slapped on her after the fact so she could be included in the “Disney Princess” franchise. Had the movie been made a few years later I’m sure they’d have found some way to have her be called a princess in the script, maybe as a nickname or by having Li Shang be the Emperor’s grandson or something, but Mulan (thankfully) predated Princessmania.
I don’t know how the French handled these things, but in the UK the title “Dame” applies to a woman who has herself been knighted. The wife of a knight is styled “Lady”. (The husband of a Dame doesn’t get any title at all.)
ETA: Wikipedia indicates that the wife of a knight was called “Dame” up until the 17th century, so I think you’re right that Esmeralda could have been Dame Esmeralda upon her marriage.
I don’t think anyone cared much about whether the heroines were princesses or not until the marketing department came up with this whole Disney Princess thing circa 2000. Well, I’m sure lots of little girls had a thing for princesses before 2000, but there wasn’t so much the idea that Disney Heroine = Princess. I don’t remember characters like Cinderella and Belle being referred to as princesses at all when I was a kid.
I was still pretty young when Beauty and the Beast came out and saw it dozens if not hundreds of times on video because one of my sisters LOVED it, and as far as we were concerned Belle was just Belle. We didn’t refer to her as a princess, and I don’t think we considered it particularly important or interesting that for the last minute or so of the movie she does have the right to that title. (Another reason I dislike the “Disney Princess” brand – the most important thing about Belle isn’t that she manages to bag a husband with a title!) We did think of Jasmine as “Princess Jasmine”, but she’s actually a princess for the entire movie and her status as princess is crucial to the plot.
I’d be happier if instead of “Disney Princesses” they were just called the “Disney Girls”…although I don’t know that this would sell better, and I’m quite a bit older than their target audience anyway.
Voted Mulan, because I love her! It was hard to choose between her, Jasmine, and Tiana. I just love them. I asked my daughter and she picked Ariel (and Princess Anneliese from the Barbie movie Princess & the Pauper).
Prince Phillip is my favorite prince, because he’s just awesome! My little one picks Prince Naveen.
In Kingdom Hearts, at least, the girls (and most of them ARE girls) are referred to as “Princesses of the Heart”, which made me gag.
Exactly.
Exactly. Belle, Belle, Belle. My wife even has a top notch Belle dress (the yellow one) made for her by her sister-in-law who is a stage seamstress. Beauty and the Beast is one of the better princess stories imho, both in plot and depth of character.
And yet Belle’s tied for first, so that’s just not true.
What does Belle DO in Beauty and The Beast? People seem really jazzed that she reads a lot, but she doesn’t demonstrate a lot of brainpower in solving any problems. In fact, she’s kind of a dumbass at times. She goes to help her Dad and accepts, inexplicably, imprisonment for no good reason, and then falls in love with the total asshole keeping her prisoner. When the town gets ready with the torches and pitchforks she yells “oh, oh, he’s really very nice!” and that’s about the extent of her contribution.
Objectively, in terms of women showing initiative, independence, and strength, among the Disney “Princesses” Belle is at best middle of the pack. Her job in the movie is really nothing more than being pretty and not liking Gaston.
She helps Beast become a better person; more importantly, into wanting to be a better person. She’s selfless, and takes charge where she knows it’s needed.
I voted for Mulan and Belle; while the criticisms of Belle are fair, it’s a friggin’ Disney movie, and she’s about as tough and independent as those get. Hell, just turning down Gaston gets props (I still get a smile just thinking of my favorite line in his big song, though – “I use antlers in all my decorating!”
Incidentally, Disney has never cared whether its Princesses were royalty, only whether they’re representative of what they call “the Princess mythology,” which is why Tinkerbell isn’t in there and Alice is not exactly in there. Giselle is missing, on the other hand, because Disney doesn’t want to pay royalties (heh!) to Amy Adams. Maid Marian, Nala, and others are also sort of in there; not on the list, but featured in some of the material.
In Belle’s defense, based on internet pr0n, she does have the nicest tits.
The first three princesses might as well have been clones, for as much as their character or looks were important.
I had a huge crush on Ariel as a kid, particularly when she turn human and they zoomed in on her legs walking out of the water. Unfortunately, this was mostly ruined by the TV show that showed her younger, and she started seeming more like a spoiled brat.
My liking of Jasmine was because I liked being Aladdin. I wanted to reveal a “Whole New World” to her. She did need to be rescued, but she could also take care of herself.
Belle never really clicked with me. The movie itself was nice, but I can never get past the whole thing where she almost lets Beast die. The only thing she had going for her is her trustworthiness, and she couldn’t keep that.
Pocahontas: NO ONE CAN SING WITH THE VOICES OF A MOUNTAIN OR PAINT WITH ALL THE COLORS OF THE WIND. Also, love does not work as free translation microbe. I couldn’t get passed the movie itself to care about the characters.
Mulan: the first woman I would actually have crushed on if she were real today. I love her willingness to break the rules to save her father, and later, her country. I like that she doesn’t really look like any of the other “princesses.”
Tiana: the days of Disney Movies had passed for me by then, and I have not seen this one. She looks beautiful, though.
I guess this means I give it to Ariel for when I was a kid, and Mulan now.
I’m not surprised Belle is winning. I picked Belle as well. There’s something awful peculiar about that girl 
I am surprised Mulan is in 2nd, although I like her a lot as well.
A harder question is hottest Disney Princess. I’d say Ariel, Jasmine, Belle, Pocahontas, Mulan, Aurora, and then whoever. Just off the top of my head.
And every last inch of me’s covered with HAIR!