If Disney Princesses Were Historically Accurate
What would your favorite Disney princesses have actually looked like IRL?
Watch these models transform into historically accurate Disney princesses:
Disney creates fictional worlds for their princesses to live in, drawing on historical and mythical inspiration to create beautiful fairy tales. We wondered what the princesses would’ve looked like if they’d existed in the real world, so we used context clues from the films to determine, as specifically as possible, the time and location of each Disney princess’s story.
*based on the Disney films, not the original source material.
Music Credit: "Bloom," ODESZA
Jasmine, Aladdin — c. 300s Arabian Peninsula

CONTEXT CLUES:
• “Salaam,” an Arabic greeting, is used several times.
• The opening song, "Arabian Nights," is pretty clear about where this story takes place.
• When Genie makes over Aladdin into Prince Ali, he says, “First, that fez and vest combo is much too third century,” making it seem like Aladdin must take place in at least the fourth century A.D.
Aurora, Sleeping Beauty — c. 1300s England

CONTEXT CLUES:
• An illuminated manuscript with gold leafing opens the film.
• Aurora’s name before she knows she is a princess is Briar Rose, which is a rose that has been prevalent in England since ancient times.
• Prince Philip says to King Hubert, “Now, Father, you’re living in the past! This is the 14th century!” when he thinks Aurora is a peasant and still wants to marry her.
Snow White, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs — c. mid- to late 1500s Germany

CONTEXT CLUES:
• Opens with a storybook that is reminiscent of early printing press manuscripts.
• The dwarfs’ home is decorated with carved wooden furniture and instruments, which, along with the mountains and forest, is typical of the Black Forest region of Germany.
• The dwarfs yodel: yodeling was first recorded in Europe in 1545, so Snow White must’ve taken place after that.
• With all this information, we decided that Snow White must’ve taken place in the mid- to late 1500s, Germany.
Pocahontas, Pocahontas — c. early 1600s Virginia

CONTEXT CLUES:
None necessary — the story very clearly takes place when John Smith landed in Virginia and met the native Powhatan tribe.
Belle, Beauty and the Beast — c. 1700s France

CONTEXT CLUES:
• In the opening song, Belle says “bonjour” to the townspeople, and in “Be Our Guest,” Lumiere says, “After all, Miss, this is France.”
• When Cogsworth is giving Belle a tour of the castle, he describes the architecture as the “unusual Rococo design,” and “this is yet another example of the late Neoclassic Baroque period.” This dates the film to the 17th–18th century.
• The fact that the Beast is a prince means that the story took place when there was still aristocracy, before the French Revolution in 1789.
Tiana, The Princess and the Frog — c. 1920s New Orleans

CONTEXT CLUES:
• Says immediately at the start of the film that Tiana’s mom is “the finest seamstress in New Orleans.”
• Jazz, drop-waisted skirts, and Gatsby-esque cars date the film to the 1920s.