Why PAF + Tiana never achieved full popularity.

I'm disappointed that Jasmine is not as popular as she used to be.

So why are Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan and Tiana so unpopular as Disney Princesses? My opinion is a controversial one, but I think its plain to see.

It's not a hateful thing. It's subconscious wiring- mostly from the media. This is how the ideal Western woman looks. And what the majority of Western girls (caucasian) can relate to.

That's why the more ethnic girls fall by the wayside. As do any girls that don't meet that standard such as Merida (tight curly hair and freckles)

There's a whole list of reasons it underperformed. Hand drawn was a mistake because today's kids have been brought up on 3d animation.

Soundtracks are everything and jazz doesn't have a wide enough appeal. There's no A whole new world in PATF.

Agreed on the swamp setting frog movie and kids don't dream to work all day. They dream to have fun. Black, white they're all going to pick the girl who can build ice castles over the entrepreneur.

And lastly I don't dismiss the racial/ looks argument and that works in 2 ways. Merida is a redhead with curly hair so she's a tomboy. Tiana is black so she's blue collar and has to work her way up. Kids identified with the personalities as well and if that doesn't speak to them they gravitate to people who do. Then you get into the straight up culture wars. Alot of people didn't take their kids to this movie for less than pure reasons.

Bingo we have a winner! Unfortunately I think it’s true what you said. It all comes down to what people consider beautiful. For decades, fair skin and blonde or light brown hair was the media standard. Ethnic skin stones were cast aside, presumably for racial reasons in the earlier 20th century, and later on, just out of the habit. I say this as a person of color. I remember young girl family relatives playing princess and no one wanting to be Jasmine or Pocahontas since they are darker skinned princesses. It’s awful. For all the people that complain about the recent trend of racial representation, it’s obvious they’ve never lived the experiences. I’ve learned to love and appreciate all ethnicities and their beauty. All that can be done now to change the mindset of people to “all ethnicities are beautiful” is to be more representative and part of changing that mindset is showing people that anyone can be beautiful by having ethnic representation. Disney, for years being critiqued for this, is now on the forefront of this change. I applaud them. My hope is that in time, the princesses like Moana, Jasmine, Tiana etc. will achieve more popularity than what has been the trend in years past.