It's no secret that I am a huge Disney fan and so one of my friends wanted to know who my favorite princess and villain were. Unfortunately in the last few years, my college education has taught me that a majority of the princesses were rather useless bimbos and victims of the patriarchy which puts a damper on things a bit. However, I think there are some strong female characters to be had in these movies so let's examine them a bit.
Princesses: Tie-Tiana and Mulan
These are the two "princesses" that happen to annoy me the least. However, you may notice that they are not actually princesses. Tiana is the protagonist from the movie The Princess and the Frog and is a young chef trying to save up enough money to start her own restaurant in New Orleans. Mulan is the star of the self-titled film who enlists in the army during the draft in her father's stead.
Tiana I think is a really refreshing character from the rest of the 'princesses' because it is made abundantly clear that she is from a humble background in the first five minutes of the film. She herself does not buy into the romance that her childhood friend so obviously does. Tiana has already learned that the world does not operate the way it does in fairytales(though for her, this is a bit ironic). Her family does not have a ton of money but they do love eachother fiercely and bond over food. The fact that Disney shows that there can be dreams outside of the castle and the Prince is valuable because it transfers nicely to real life. Furthermore, also in the first ten minutes of the film, we see that Tiana has been working hard for a long time to save up enough money to buy the building for her restaurant-and it's not glamorous in the least. She works two jobs and is dead on her feet but she is willing to sacrifice a lot for her dream. She does end up getting the Prince in the end, but he fell in love with her determination rather than her beauty.
Mulan is one of Wellesley's favorite princesses I think. She gets the equivalent of the Chop and proves that she is every bit as strong and even a fair bit smarter than the guys. Mulan completely shatters the gender norms and just wins at everything. She also goes into a war for her father which shows a great love of family and courage because she could die if she were to be found out and she could also die on the battlefield. Also, she's a little awkward and clumsy in the beginning which you have to admit is a little endearing. The one thing that I will say annoys me a little bit is her naivete in thinking that she will never get caught-what did she think was going to happen in the end? She could just ride into the sunset after the war was over? Though, she managed to keep up her disguise for several months which I can't imagine is an easy task so kudos for that.
Villains: Mother Gothel
I don't know if she's necessarily the "best" villain but I think she's one of the scariest. She stole Rapunzel as a child from her parents for completely selfish reasons but she is so good at putting up the facade of being the over-protective mother and is even a little bit charming. Gothel is so good at manipulating Rapunzel emotionally and putting up the facade as though she cares for her well-being when really she can turn around and be absolutely ruthless. There's ambiguity in whether or not she does care about Rapunzel because she does agree to make a journey to get ingredient for her favorite food but I still think that's even a facade. Frankly, that ability for deception makes her a lot scarier than the other villains who use magic but are much more honest about being evil. Furthermore, she also undermined Rapunzel's confidence at numerous occasions over the course of the film. I think that everyone knows someone a little bit like Gothel in their lives and that realness makes her the most formidable villainess of them all.
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