Publication Date

2022

Document Type

Book

Description

Disney is one of the largest distributors of media to children, portraying romance, love, and the happily-ever-after endings in its popular collection of animated films (DiPirro 2007). The purpose of this study is to examine the Disney princes and the phenomenon of chasing after a prince for that “happily ever after” ending. Studies have previously explored aspects of the princess and her story, therefore this research investigates another angle of this franchise. The hypothesis of the current study is that Disney Princess movies will end in “Happily Ever After” with Princes with no character or character development in the earlier films, and minimal change over time. The current research method includes a combination of observational and quantitative analysis of eleven of the Disney franchise Princess movies from Snow White in 1937 to Frozen in 2011. Descriptive statistics, as well as t-test and trend data, will be collected and analyzed. Moreover, while watching the movies, relevant quotes will be recorded that depict the character’s personality and portrayal as well as some more general observations about how the film is depicting the prince and the relationships that will included in the study. The results indicate that the hypothesis was somewhat supported as most of the Disney Princess movies end in “Happily Ever After.” However, while the prince character becomes more complex as time goes on, he is still traditionally masculine and is a part of an outdated, gendered love story.

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Some Day My Prince Will Come: Archival Analysis of The Disney Prince, Relationship Portrayal and “Happily Ever After”

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