Recently, a coworker and I got on the subject of how long it took the Disney princess took to “fall in love” with their princes. Because it has been INCREDIBLY slow at the library (seriously, please check out a book, I don’t even care if you live in Florida) I decided to make a list of the actual amount of time between the couples meeting and the princess falling in love.
Not an Anna in sight
Snow White: sees him at the well – so almost instantly (does she actually fall in love with him at this point? He certainly falls in love with her. She just seems to be a little creeped out by his sudden appearance, which opens up all kinds of new questions into her willing consent in the relationship.)
Cinderella: dances with him – 3 hours (I’m being generous here)
Aurora: he sees her when she’s a baby, they meet in the woods – it takes her about the length of the song, so a whole 3 minutes
Jasmine: meets Aladdin but falls in love with him as Prince Ali – benefit of the doubt, 3 days
Belle: spends unspecified amount of time with Beast – at least a week (which is pretty good considering she hated him initially)
Ariel: sees Eric on the ship and rescues him – 30 minutes (okay, he also represents her idolization of the human world, but you shouldn’t need a man to push you to pursue your dreams)
Pocahontas: they hang out, she accuses him of cultural insensitivity, he repents (sorta) – 1 day
Mulan: they get to know each other for a while (but he thinks she’s a boy) – 1 month (could be more – how long does it take to get strong enough to pull yourself up a wooden pole? Wait – is that some kind of gender metaphor?)
Tiana: they look for Mama Odie – 3 days
Rapunzel: he takes her to see the lights – 3 days
Anna: they look for her sister – 3 days
It’s interesting that a lot of the recent Disney princess movies seem to follow a very similar formula – some sort of journey in which the prince tags along and they fall in love along the way – usually after initial distaste for one another, whereas a lot of the earlier movies employ different methods of establishing the relationship.
Go ahead, tell me I have too much time on my hands.
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