Is Being 'Saved By The Prince' Passé?
Why did Disney feel the need to purge romantic heroes from their stories
The 2025 live-action remake of Disney’s 1937 animated feature ‘Snow White’ is in trouble. The movie has alienated its audience already, and it hasn’t even been released yet. It’s looking to be a huge box office disaster. Most point the finger of blame at a myriad of reasons, but the chief amongst them appears to be the disdain of the makers and the cast, predominantly, the actress who plays the titular character, Rachel Zegler, for the source material. The 1937 movie was produced by Walt Disney himself and, obviously, reflects the time in which it was made. But it appears, the cast of the 2025 version, isn’t a fan…
This shocking interview and the way Disney are no longer including romantic plots in their movies belies a revealed anxiety that this romantic trope results in female characters who are neither feminist nor empowering. Though Zegler has drawn ire for her comments, I think it’s worth noting that Zegler herself is probably not to blame for this particular interview. I believe that she is parroting the talking points fed to her by the Disney corporation.
I have previously written about Disney deconstructing and, therefore, degrading the fundamental essence of their own fairy stories, but I think, in the light of the catastrophe that the upcoming Snow White movie is turning out to be, it’s worth having a look at why Disney has been so keen to abandon their once successful storytelling formula which almost always included a happy ending. The movies which did not include a romantic ‘happily ever after’ always tended to fare worse than those which did.
In the years following their release, Disney renaissance movies were a victim of their own success. Such was their cultural domination, they were analysed, and reanalysed into oblivion. Common critiques of Disney renaissance films were that the animation style presented an unrealistic and sexist depiction of female physicality, the earlier characters like Cinderella and Snow White were mere ‘damsels in distress’ who needed saving by a man, to the tedious discussion of whether Belle, from ‘Beauty and the Beast’, had Stockholm Syndrome.
Rather than just move on from this over-analysis, Disney decided to remake all their animated movies as life-action movies, with excruciating lip-service paid to every bad faith critique. Disney’s inability to ignore the haters and social media parvenus trying to be outrageous for the sake of content, resulted in movies made for the haters rather than for those who loved them - their audience.
Even if you think depicting women as ‘damsels in distress’ in any way is disempowering and passé, is this really what the Disney princesses were?
Far from being meek or degrading depictions of women, the Disney princesses of their renaissance era were all vibrant, clever women with spirit and agency. Every single Disney princess desired love and romance, yes, but they also showed inspiring strength of character within those relationships.
The art at midnight YouTube account points out that the last true Disney romantic story was fifteen years ago, between Tangled’s Rapunzel and Flynn Rider. For me, this is one of the most stunning moments in Disney storytelling. Rapunzel sacrifices her freedom for Flynn’s life, just before Flynn sacrifices his life to free Rapunzel’s from her exploitative and abusive ‘mother’. This scene is why Tangled (2010) is my favourite Disney movie of all time.
We see the theme of mutual self-sacrifice time and time again:
In the first act of ‘The Little Mermaid’ (1989), Ariel saves Eric from drowning after the ship is caught in a storm. In the third act, Eric saves Ariel from Ursula, the sea witch. If Ariel had not saved Eric first, the pay-off would not have been as satisfying for audiences.
In the first act of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (1991), Belle sacrifices her freedom for her father, showing how selfless she is, she then flees the castle as she is afraid of the Beast, but is attacked by wolves. The Beast saves her from the wolves, and there is a lovely moment where she turns away to get back on her horse, and we see that although she seriously considers leaving him to die, her conscience stops her, and she takes the Beast back to the castle. In the third act, the spell is broken, when she confesses her love for the Beast, and he is transformed back into a man. The Beast physically saves her life, but Belle saves his soul.
In ‘Aladdin’ (1992), Jasmine helps Aladdin defeat Jafar, and he, in turn, saves her from a loveless, arranged marriage.
In ‘Hercules’ (1997), Megara risks her life to save Hercules, an act which ultimately results in her death. He, in turn, risks his mortal life to bring her body back from the river of the dead and then sacrifices eternal life to be with her.
In ‘Mulan’ (1998), Mulan risks her life to save her father from having to join the army, she then risks her life again to save her friends from being killed by the Hun. On discovering she is a woman, for which the penalty is death, Li Shang refuses to execute her in return for saving his life, so the debt is repaid, and they go on to save China together.
None of the heroines strike me as weak, or anti-feminist. Quite the opposite, in fact. But what about Disney’s original Snow White or Cinderella? Both of whom come from a different era of Disney storytelling.
Cinderella’s strength lies in her refusal to become bitter and cynical in the face of her abuse. Her goodness and kindness is rewarded when the prince finds her and marries her.
The original Snow White survives an assassination attempt, but doesn’t let it ruin her. She remains charming, and nurturing, improving the lives of those around her (the dwarves), who, in turn, kill the evil queen for the repeated attempts on Snow White’s life. Her goodness and kindness is rewarded when the prince wakes her from a deep sleep. It is actually the dwarves who save her, not the prince, he’s more like a consolation prize.
Both these stories are about maintaining good character in the face of adversity, which was an important theme in the storytelling of that time. None of these characters needed a feminist rebranding, they are already strong female characters. It’s a shame Disney does not see their strength.
It is clear from re-watching those movies as an adult, that even though we do see art from that period differently now, the creators never intended those movies to demean or belittle their female characters or womankind in general.
Disney may think that a woman being ‘saved by the prince’ is passé, but the heroines of their previous movies were never ‘damsels in distress’. What was beautiful about those stories was the universally and timelessly beautiful mutual self-sacrifice between lovers.
Disney seems to think that romantic storylines are cringe, or demeaning, but audiences - who still love romantic fairy tales - certainly don’t, and they never will. Without recognising the inherent majesty of this romantic trope, and returning to their winning formula, Disney’s movies will continue to flounder.