Talk:Disney Princess/@comment-4075031-20130929200311/@comment-1416077-20131001190200

My timeline is wrong? Where? The timeline is factually accurate regardless of whether I worked for Disney or not.

For the record, the company I worked for at the time did a marketing study for the local Disney Store franchise; since then, for both professional and personal interest, I've kept tabs on the Princess franchise. I happen to know what I'm talking about.

Pay attention:

When the franchise first launched, it included EVERY FEMALE CHARACTER in the Disney stable; Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck, Clarabelle Cow, Maid Marion, Wendy, the Blue Fairy Godmother (from Pinocchio), Mary Poppins (yes, live action), the centaurettes from Fantasia and a plethora of others, all orbiting the FIVE indisputed Disney Princesses (Snow White, Aurora, Cinderella, Ariel and Belle).

These five core characters appeared with a rotating cast of other characters, including Alice, Tinkerbell, Esmeralda and even Meg. At this time even Jasmine was not one of the "core five" even though she DID appear on several products. She was included as the "sixth" core character ONLY because there were complaints of lack of ethnic diversity among the princesses.

It was around this time that Tink got her franchise and MOST of the secondary characters were quietly removed from the franchise. At this time, Pocahontas, Mulan and Jasmine took a secondary position to the core five (yes, Jasmine started appearing less, so she was essentially "demoted" from "core" to "second tier" - My eldest daughter's Master's Thesis in marketing was on this topic, so... yeah, I kinda know a thing or two about it.).

You are mistaken about the Giselle incident: Disney DID make an announcement and it was even carried on CNN. THe problem arose when they realized that they would have to pay Amy Adams royalties for the use of her likeness in the franchise, essentially giving her a share of the profits of each and every item sold in the franchise. She was more than willing to participate, but in order to avoid having to fork over a TON of profits, the company chose to refine the definition of "Disney Princess" to exclude any characters that were not from fully animated feature films.

Oh, and for the record, I don't think that the animated Giselle looks enough like Amy Adams to warrant the issue, but that's IMHO.

While this was going on, there was some dissatisfaction at the company over the reception of the film "The Emperor's New Groove", which was originally intended to be a musical with a more serious tone but ended up being more of a comedic romp than a "classic" (I still love it though). Though Emperor's groove" has no princess-worthy character, with this debate, Hercules was also put under a microscope due to its farcical style (not to mention Meg's less-than-shining past), which prompted the powers-that-be to establish "once and for all" who were the official princesses.

It was at this time that THE LIST was created. Everything before that was just semi-official: websites, books, posters and merchandise all shoe "semi-official" characters: even the "core five" were "semi-official". THE LIST set in stone (so to speak) the primary requirements for princessdom:


 * Female Human (Nala and Maid Marion need not apply) - note that Ariel takes human form.
 * Titular character (or central love interest of titular character - Jasmine, from the film Aladdin personifies this point) of an animated Disney feature film.
 * Music & Magic; film has musical numbers and magic is a central component of the story. This is why Jane Porter was not inducted after the list was established (non-magical) nor was Kida (not a musical and the "magic" is actually super-advanced technology).

As I stated; once THE LIST was created, we have the OFFICIAL list of princesses. Not a core group surrounded by everything else.

You do realize that there was a time before websites, right? A time where good old-fashioned research did not involve googling info and collegiate dissertations were published on paper? TODAY there is an official list to which new princesses are added. In this OFFICIAL LIST, not a single Princess has been removed. Period. There are characters who were not put on the list when it was created (Esmeralda, Megara, Eilonwy) and there are characters who were NOT added to the list after the list was created (Jane Porter, Kida). These characters are sometimes seen in relation to the franchise, but they are "heroines", "associated characters" or "secondary princesses" who are not added to the official list.

If it is not clear now, it will never be clear. I'm not willing to transcribe a 60-page dissertation just to "prove" a point which should be crystal-clear.

To reduce it to its simplest expression: Before THE OFFICIAL LIST was created, THERE WAS NO OFFICIAL LIST. Ergo, EVERYTHING BEFORE THE OFFICIAL LIST WAS CREATED CANNOT, BY DEFINITION, BE OFFICIAL.