This question shouldn’t even be a difficult or controversial one to answer because as a collective I think the world has agreed that it is in fact, Cinderella.

But why Cinderella? She isn’t the first Disney princess to exist, she’s not the only one of royalty, and she doesn’t even have her own star on the Hollywood walk of fame, Snow White does. In almost all of the photos of the princesses together, Cinderella is featured at the very front. So why do we all collectively accept that she’s the leader?

The Order of Coronation

Snow White (movie released in 1937, box office $418 million)
Cinderella (movie released in 1950, box office $263.6 milliion)
Aurora (movie released in 1959, box office $51.6 million)
Ariel (movie released in 1989, box office $233 million)
Belle (movie released in 1991, box office $440 million)
Jasmine (movie released in 1992, box office $504 million)
Pocahontas (movie released in 1995, box office $346.1 million)
Mulan (movie released in 1998, box office $304.3 million)
Tiana (movie released in 2009, box office $271 million)
Rapunzel (movie released in 2010, box office $592.4 million)
Merida (movie released in 2012, box office $540.4 million)
Moana (movie released in 2016, box office $690.8 million)

The order of the princesses are determined by release year, however if it was based on box office successes, Moana would be the leader. Elsa and Anna aren’t considered official Disney princesses. Cinderella has one of the lowest box office sales and it was the second movie to be released. So what are the reasons of her leadership?

The Princess Lineup

In the late 1990s, Andy Mooney who was the chairman of the Disney Consumer Products saw that many little girls that visited the parks and watched the movies always dressed as their favorite princesses. He saw an opportunity to build on this phenomenon, and in 2000 he officially launched the Disney Princess lineup, which only had Snow White to Mulan included since the more recent movies weren’t out or created yet. Since this lineup was made before the more popular movies like Moana and Tangled, we can’t count them in for popularity.

Laugh-o-gram Films

Before Walt pursued the Walt Disney Company, he had a small studio called Laugh-o-gram Films (read more in my post called Walt Disney - Early Companies & Early Films to learn more). They released a total of 11 films, one of which near the end of the studio’s journey in 1922 was Cinderella. It was the only current princess movie that was featured in that lineup at the time, meaning Cinderella has been in Walt’s life before any other princesses.

The Restoration Era

Image from: https://www.rotoscopers.com/2016/06/23/disney-canon-countdown-the-silver-age/

Disney’s animation has gone through many stages and time periods, with groups of movies released at significant times for the company. The first era was the Golden Age which included Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi. After this time was the wartime in which Disney switched to propaganda films. After the war was over, Disney reverted back to its original intentions and released the first film of the Silver or Restoration Era which was Cinderella. This was a pivotal point for the studio and for the world, to have more light-hearted and magical films be released. Cinderella marked its place as one of the few films that really picked Disney up off the ground.

Walt Disney World’s Castle

Disneyland is the home of Aurora’s castle, and the oldest castle of all Disney parks to date. Disneyland opened in 1955 and the idea of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle was brought up and imagined in 1953. According to the Walt Disney Family Museum, Walt only had the idea of a medieval castle to be featured in the park, and didn’t consider it to be owned by any specific princess. In his ABC show he said that it may belong to Snow White, but in the end they decided on Sleeping Beauty as the animated film was coming out 4 years later. It was merely a marketing move. Walt Disney World opened in 1971, with Cinderella’s castle at the center of it all. By this time Cinderella had established herself as one of the more popular princesses out of the 3, so it was named after her. I like to think Cinderella’s castle watches over the whole park for Walt, since he couldn’t be there for the opening.

Image from: http://funaticstv.com/blog/cinderellas-castle-in-review/

Walt’s Favourite

In an interview with Ilene Woods done with the Walt Disney Family Museum, she says:

Seeing a film of Walt talking about his films, and they asked him what his favorite scene from his films was and he said “Cinderella getting her dress”.

According to popsugar, when you google “who was Walt Disney’s favorite princess?” the answer is Cinderella.

Image from: http://wdccduckman.blogspot.com/2010/07/ilene-woods-voice-of-cinderella-has.html

In conclusion, although Snow White would be a runner up for the leader of the princesses since she was the original, Cinderella takes her rightful spot as the leader as she was more popular than Aurora, Walt has been working with her ever since his first company, she marks a pivotal point for the studio, one of Walt’s most prized projects (WDW) features her castle, and it was said she was his favorite. Anything Uncle Walt says, goes!

Why is Cinderella the Leader of the Princesses?