by Breelyn Sirk

Created on: May 23, 2009   Last Updated: May 27, 2009

Disney has been enchanting children for over 70 years, mesmerizing them with tales of "true love". These beautiful and beloved stories like "Cinderella", "The Little Mermaid", "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", and "Sleeping Beauty", have indeed enthralled generations of little girls, giving them the hope and dream of growing up beautiful and find their "prince".

Getting wrapped up in the magical fantasy of growing up to be a princess and live "happily ever after" is a precious time in a little girls life and is positive because children need to be allowed to get lost in imagination, but if this idea of finding their "prince", is held onto even into adulthood, that's when the lesson turns sour. Not a single person is as flawless as the characters are in the Disney movies, so this lesson that is depicted in Disney movies can only lead to disappointment in real life.

"Cinderella" is the pinnacle example of this lesson in Disney movies. Cinderella is a beautiful girl caught unfairly in the role of maid and walked all over by her foul step-family. Her life gets turned around completely when a magical fairy godmother enters into the story and so Cinderella meets Prince Charming. The two dance at a ball and that is all that it takes for this faultless prince to know that she is "the one". In the end, of course, he finds Cinderella and rescues her from her shabby life and wicked step-family, and they "lived happily ever after". In real life so many little girls grow up into women that are in desperate search of their "prince charming", only to have their efforts seem like a waste of time when they finally realize that he doesn't exist, no matter how hard they wish he did.

Disney movies also tend to condone reckless behavior in the pursuit for love. In "The Little Mermaid", Ariel is a beautiful teenage mermaid who experiences love at first sight with a human prince (of course). When Ariel is forbidden to go to the surface or land ever again, her response to that is to strike a dangerous deal with a sea witch that not only temporarily costs Ariel her voice, but could end up costing Ariel her life. Ariel takes this perilous risk so that she can hopefully get the prince to fall in love with her. This Disney movie once again provides a bad view of true love because it teaches that anything is worth risking for true love. Children see this example of teenage rebellion in the name of love, and later on when they are teens go through the same defiance when they first experience forbidden love. Disney fails to portray the fact that this sort of intense reaction to first love is irresponsible and unsafe

Another large factor in Disney's distorted lesson on true love is that to them, you must be beautiful to live "happily ever after". There is not one animated Disney movie that has an unattractive main female character. Perhaps the most definitive example of this Disney rule is in the movie "Pocahontas". This movie is based on actual people in history, but in real life Pocahontas was not much of a looker by any means, but in the animated movie she is illustrated as being strikingly beautiful. It is disheartening that Disney took an important woman in history, and completely altered her looks so she could fit the Disney standard of what love is supposed to be like. Perhaps if Disney had stuck to reality with even that one movie, it would have taught girls and boys that you don't have to be perfect in looks or personality, or by any means a princess or prince, to find love.

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