Disney Princesses and Color

Disney Princesses and Color

Ever heard of ?Disney Blue?? Well it is a thing. When you look at any female Disney character, many of them wear blue at some point throughout their movie. Color symbolism more then just that piece of clothing. Disney Princesses such as Cinderella, Jasmine, Belle, and Ariel all wear blue. Elsa, Alice and all other princesses except for Rapunzel wear this iconic blue. We admire all of them and more female heroines for the confidence that they instill in us. I never realized that they all had blue clothing in common. Designer Christopher Kane made this observation in a recent interview with ELLE.com about his new Beauty and the Beast inspired collection saying.

Image for postPrincesses in Blue

Disney loves blue and Leatrice Eiseman of the Pantone Color Institute says the color is no coincidence. She tells Allure that female empowerment is the reason, ?You?re adding a bit of power to the character by giving her the blue.? She adds, ?It?s a very subtle way of saying, ?Yeah, but young women, young girls, can be empowered, too.?? When these Disney princesses are wearing blue, they accomplish things that they never thought they could. Belle finds her adventure that she has been dreaming about, Cinderella finds her Prince while defying her stepmother, and Alice finds the adventure she thought only existed within her.

Before the 1920s, blue was a color fit for girls and pink was a colored fit for boys. Disney is very traditional in keeping blue associated with their female heroines. Since pink represents femininity now, it goes against gender conforming colors, showing that blue isn?t just for boys. Blue could also be a popular princess color because it represents the color of the sky. The sky is where dreams, hope and positivity lie.

These princesses usually shift between pink and blue dresses. This shows the shift between boys and girls wearing the 2 colors. They also switch into pink dresses when it comes to love or something romantic. In The Little Mermaid, Ariel wears a blue dress when she is in human form and switches to pink when she has dinner with Prince Eric. In Frozen, Anna was wearing her green dress but when she met Kristoff, she was wearing blue and pink. In Mulan, she even wears a pink dress during the matchmaker scene. When she saves China and gets Shang she is wearing pink and blue again. The most famous example of this is Aurora?s changing dress from Sleeping Beauty. Her dress keeps changing from pink to blue as she dances with Prince Phillip. These are just a few examples of the way pink and blue are used for princesses.

Image for postPink vs. Blue

Purple symbolizes royalty. Rapunzel wears this throughout Tangled and so do kings and queens from numerous other Disney movies.

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Purple can also symbolize evil. Ursula wears purple very proudly as she is manipulating Ariel. The shadow man from The Princess and the Frog, Dr. Facilier, wears purple and black clothes. His magic is all shades of purple or green.

Image for postRed and Purple worn by Villains

These heroines rarely wear Red. In Aladdin, Jasmine wears red when she is under the control of Jafar. It has a more evil affect.

Green is worn to show the connection with nature and the past. Merida loves the outdoors and wears green throughout the movie.

White is a color of purity and is also rarely worn by these princesses. They only wear white on their wedding days.

Colors symbolism the characteristics of these female heroines and everything that they stand for by telling us a story through their history.

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Color Symbolism in Disney Princess Movies

As a feminist, I feel like I should hate the Disney Princess franchise. I don’t, for the record. I enjoy them a great?

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