The original Disney Princess line-up consisted of Snow White, Cinderella, Tinker Bell, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Esmeralda, and Mulan. Tinker Bell was removed soon after; she would go on to headline the sister franchise Disney Fairies. Esmeralda was also removed.
Tinker Bell, Esmeralda, and Jane: Three Princesses Dropped From the List. The list of official princesses kept changing over time, mainly because new characters were added to the list as new movies emerged. Still, three princesses were removed from it in 2005: Tinker Bell, Esmeralda, and Jane Porter.
Why was tinkerbell removed from the Disney Princess list?
Tinker Bell
Per Disney lore, this was because she committed an act of bravery worthy of a princess, but in reality, it was so the Mouse House could add a popular character to its lucrative line of toys. Commercial reasons were also behind Tinker Bell's removal as a princess.
Rapunzel, a.k.a. “The Lost Princess,” was royalty in the kingdom of Corona her whole life, although she didn't know it until she turned 18. Trading in her frying pan for a crown and her hidden tower for a castle, she finally took her rightful place in the kingdom as their princess!
Ariel appears as an adult in Return to the Sea and gives birth to a daughter named Melody, becoming the first, and currently, only, Disney princess to become a mother.
In Disney's nearly 100-year history, there has been only one Black Disney princess — Princess Tiana in “The Princess and the Frog,” a 2009 animated feature starring Anika Noni Rose.
According to Sara Franks-Allen of ScreenCrush, Meg was excluded from the official Disney Princess franchise due to Hercules' underperformance in theaters, describing her as a "forgotten Disney princess".
Everything is a business, and the Disney Princesses world is one. Esmeralda was removed as she wasn't marketable enough for the franchise's standards, as the sales of The Hunchback of Notre Dame's products weren't good, and because the movie dealt with themes that were not entirely suitable for children.
They were given an official number in the franchise line-up based on the chronological order in which their films were released, starting with Snow White as the first and original Disney Princess, with Cinderella being the second, followed by Aurora and so on.
Nevertheless, Snow White is one of the least popular Disney princesses due to her inability to think for herself and have her own goals. Snow White is simply known as a beautiful woman who can sing and talk to animals. Beyond that, she has no personality or ambition.
Merida and Pocahontas are the only Princesses to not be seen married, or have wedding dresses in the franchise. Belle and a few others were featured in Disney's Beautiful Brides book.
Esmeralda (French: [ɛs.me.ʁɑl.da]), born Agnès, is a fictional character in Victor Hugo's 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (French: Notre Dame de Paris). She is a French Roma girl (near the end of the book, it is revealed that her biological mother was a French woman).
Of course, white Roma exist and it is obvious that in Hugo's mind, Agnès/Esmeralda was nothing but a white woman “with a tan”. But the recurring use of actresses, in later adaptations, whose whiteness is portrayed as approximate points to a commodification of Romani ethnicity.
Esmeralda repeatedly spurns Frollo's advances, and when Frollo captures Esmeralda toward the end of the novel and gives her a choice between him and execution, Esmeralda chooses execution. She is hanged on Frollo's orders.
Anastasia meets all these and a bit more, such as having at least one musical number (which is mentioned as a requirement by many), and now that she's property of Disney, she's technically a Disney Princess, but she isn't part of that specific franchise, simply because she hasn't been chosen as one.
Frozen became so successful it became its own franchise and didn't need the help of the Disney Princess brand to stand on its own two feet. It's also technically no longer Disney since Frozen became its own franchise which is another big requirement.
Hercules was supposed to have been a prince, but Hera (who else?) had played with Zeus' mind and given the throne to Hercules' cousin Eurystheus, a caricature of mediocrity. The deal is that Hercules can get his throne back if he completes the tasks that Eurystheus gives him.
One thing to note, Hans Christian Andersen left out race, skin color, and character names. For the animated movie, Disney made the little mermaid white, made her hair red, and gave her a name, Ariel.
His skin is brown, but he isn't African-American. "A lot of moms had issues with that," Coleman said. "It felt like it was a slap in the face to black men." Coleman asked a Disney executive if Prince Naveen was Creole and was told that his background was made up; he's whatever ethnicity they have in fictional Maldonia.
He says they were looking for the best actor for the role of any ethnicity who could not only sing but convey traits such as strength, passion, beauty, joy and intelligence, which they found in Bailey.
