Acting for Two: Lea Salonga as the singing voices of Jasmine and Mulan in CDs and music videos where both characters sing. Oddly enough Salonga is replaced by Liz Callaway for the two Aladdin sequels before returning to sing for Jasmine and Mulan in The Merch.
Author's Saving Throw: Disney's portrayal of its Princesses has changed over the decades due to evolving views towards the role of women. Starting with The Black Cauldron and, more popularly, The Little Mermaid, Disney's princess characters started taking an active role in the plot and doing things of their own accord, as opposed to previous films where everything just happened around them. Mulan took it one step further by having the princess be the one who saves the day instead of her boyfriend. Finally, Brave removed the boyfriend requirement altogether, and future princess movies (except Tangled) have been about the girls' own self-discovery rather than just falling in love.
Cash-Cow Franchise: Disney makes $4 billion annually off its Disney Princess line. As of January 2021, Wikipedia estimates that it's currently the second-highest grossing media franchise of all time at $46.4 billion, only behind the somewhat older and more universally appealing Pokémon franchise.
Celebrity Voice Actor: Rapunzel has the most famous voice actress of all the princesses - pop star Mandy Moore. Mulan's actress Ming Na-Wen has retroactively become more famous through her high profile role in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Tiana is also voiced by Tony winner Anika Noni Rose. Merida is voiced by noted Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald.
Brenda Chapman, co-director of Brave, got very angry about the most recent redesign of the princesses, especially Merida, who she felt had been redesigned to be Hotter and Sexier. Merida, though, was later redesigned to resemble her movie appearance better; in fact, her image on the official Princess website is straight from her CGI film.
Adriana Caselotti was reportedly upset when a different actress was hired to voice Snow White during her appearance at the 1993 Academy Awards.
Exiled from Continuity: While the official roster includes three characters who are not princesses and other non-princesses have appeared from time to time, there are several actual princesses from the Disney Animated Canon who have been omitted. The roster has always tended to skew towards more popular works, which is usually taken to be the main reason Eilonwy and Kida have never been included, although the Darker and Edgier aspects of those two films may also be part of the reason. Non-human princesses such as Faline, Nala, and Kiara are also left out, likely because they don't wear glamorous clothes or jewelry, and consequently can't be dressed up like the human princesses (though it may also be because like most writers, most audience members are human). In other cases, the nature of the source material is the most likely factor: Vanellope von Schweetz is never included, probably in part because her status as a princess is a spoiler,note and because she relinquishes her title and abolishes the monarchy in Sugar Rush almost immediately after The Reveal but likely also due to her film being aimed at an older audience and her character not fitting thePrincess Classic model at all. Another special case is Giselle, who can't be used because Disney would have to pay Amy Adams royalties to use her image on their products (presumably similar reasons are why Mia Thermopolis is also absent, as is Princess Leia). Eilonwy and Jane Porter are also passed over because unlike the official Princesses, they are not either wholly Disney-owned or Public Domain Characters, but from adaptations of other properties. Melody is also passed over despite being Ariel's daughter, mostly for debuting in a sequel made by Disneytoon Studios (Which is also the reason she's not in the Descendants sequels). Disney-owned princess characters from television and video games are also excluded, such as Star Butterfly and Kairi due to the movies being better-known amongst general audiences.
Flip-Flop of God: Are Elsa and Anna considered to be Disney Princesses? Not even Disney has a solid answer on that. Officially, neither one has been inducted into Disney Princess status, and Disney tends to treat Frozen as a standalone IP with no connection to the line. Despite that, both characters are included alongside the Disney Princesses in Ralph Breaks the Internet and occasionally in marketing. Since 2022 they are usually listed together on Disney Princess products as "Frozen Queens".
Kids' Meal Toy: At McDonald's, the franchise was given 10 stackable mini castles, each containing a matching princess figure, for the 2021 Ultimate Princess Celebration campaign.
The Merch: The very premise is to give girls official items for the princesses when they weren't available before.
Original Character: Technically Merida is this to the franchise since she is the only heroine not based on a pre-existing source.
At least six new shorts were prepared for a direct-to-DVD series called Disney Princess Enchanted Tales, but the ban on Direct to Video Disney sequels killed the line after the first volume. As a result, only one Aurora short and one Jasmine short became available, and the ones for Belle, Mulan and Cinderella (as well as a second one for Aurora) might never see the light of day. The original DVD of Cinderella III: A Twist in Time contained a preview and a trailer for the unreleased Aurora tale, that show just enough clips for fans to piece together the storyline.
A Spear Counterpart called Disney Heroes was planned to focus on many of the male protagonists (as well as other heroic characters like Robin Hood and Peter Pan) but fell through when the few action figures released sold poorly.
Giselle from Enchanted was going to be given Disney Princess status as well, but Disney abandoned the idea when they realized they would have to secure life-long rights to the image of Amy Adams, Giselle's actress.
There have been occasional instances of heroines being shown in official merchandise. This includes Alice, Esmerelda, Megara, and Jane. Tinker Bell was also to be included, but she eventually got her own franchise, the Disney Fairies. Alice and Tink would join in for The Merch made in Japan, along with Anna, Elsa and Minnie, to fill gaps lost for not including the other princesses there. note In Japan, only the first six (Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle and Jasmine) and later Rapunzel have the most merch made for the fanbase there, but the later princesses (Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Merida and Moana) get little to none.
Anna and Elsa were slated to join the line-up as the 12th and 13th princesses, respectively, but were dropped for multiple reasons:
The profitable nature of the Frozen franchise means it would be redundant to include either of them in the line up.
Elsa's technically a queen and not a princess (which is also one of the reasons that Kida is absent from the franchisenote she became queen at the end of her film, alongside the fact her film was one of the Box Office Bombs that Disney had during their post-Renaissance Eisner era Audience-Alienating Era), and later, Anna gets the title of queen at the end of Frozen II after Elsa vacates the title.
Had The Black Cauldron not been a near-Creator Killer for Disney, it's possible Eilonwy would have become part of the founding line-up.
After Tangled was released, there were plans for an animated short titled Princess Academy that would have featured nearly every Disney and Pixar heroine up to that point. Why it was shelved is not known, although Disney's original plan of Rapunzel being the last Disney Princess may have had something to do with it.
One of Rapunzel's concept art depicts her with a green version of her iconic purple dress. Presumably, it was changed due to the majority of her movie taking place in the forest combined with the most recent princess Tiana already using green.
Word of God: According to Walt himself, the reason for the setting of Cinderella is because "that was a romantic period".
, especially Merida, who she felt had been redesigned to be Hotter and Sexier. Merida, though, was later redesigned to resemble her movie appearance better; in fact, her image on the official Princess website is straight from her CGI film.