Easy Things to Trace Modern Day Disney Princess

CONTENT WARNING! This article contains mentions of sensitive topics including kidnap and abuse.

The live-action versions of bothSnow White andThe Little Mermaid are coming in 2023, and other live-action adaptations have shown that they will need the right balance of faithfulness to the source material and modernization to be successful. While Disney promises to provide its viewers with timeless tales of love and goodness, they have shown through their actions that they know a 21st-century audience demands the stories be updated.

While Pocahontas and Mulan's movies are firmly fixed in specific cultural moments, most of the other princesses' stories could be moved to different times. Any reinterpretation of the original should consider how those stories would work in the modern day, and what tweaks should be made, even if the setting stays vaguely medieval. AsEnchanted proved, there are some major cultural differences between the classics and the modern world, meaning that movie writers should carefully consider what changes may be needed to keep the timeless narratives heartwarming to every generation.

10 Merida

Stripped down to its basest narrative, Merida refuses to get married for the sake of her tribe, and in an attempt to get her mother to understand her better, accidentally turns her into a bear. The communication barrier between mother and daughter is timeless, but the specific details of an arranged marriage may be hard for many modern audiences to relate to.

Removing the marriage plot could theoretically work, butBrave would lose many of the details that make the story so strong. Merida's story could be transferred, but it would require heavy editing to still feel fresh and relatable, making it the hardest princess narrative to set in the present day.

9 Jasmine

Jasmine feels trapped by society's expectations for her, particularly regarding love, a theme that plays a part in many modern coming-of-age movies. While we all wish we lived in a Disney movie, a modernAladdin could tell a surprisingly deep story about the troubles that come with living in a fairytale.

In addition, the prevalence of examples in film and real life of royalty marrying commoners means the love plot could be transferred fairly easily. Though most of those narratives focus on a regular girl marrying a prince, it would be nice to see more movies that flip the script and show the princess looking for her boy-next-door.

8 Snow White

Snow White is a young girl who was repeatedly abused by her step-mother, leading to her near death at the queen's hands. While the abuse is sadly realistic at any time, any modern adaptation would need to find a new approach to true love's kiss.

The two key problems with bringingSnow White to the present are the unlikeliness of true love happening so quickly and the moderately disturbing decision of the prince to kiss a corpse. While the first could be fixed with an extended beginning, in which the pair actually bond in a meaningful way, there is very little that would make audiences comfortable with Prince Charming deciding to kiss Snow's unconscious lips.

7 Aurora

While the curse that is central toSleeping Beauty could be easily adapted, its solution simply doesn't fit the modern-day. This much was made clear whenMaleficent made the choice to change true love's kiss to come from Maleficent instead of the prince - and make it a chaste kiss on the forehead.

Beyond that small change, however, the other details of the movie could stay the same. In a modern fantasy setting, the magic would be realistic, and the fact that there are many small countries that largely exist off maps means the kingdom could actually be frozen for several years, before a curious soul (a laBuzzfeed Unsolved) came looking and found a solution to the sleeping curse.

6 Cinderella

Although there have been several critically acclaimed Cinderella adaptations, it isn't the easiest story to make work in the modern-day simply because women have more options now than they did in the original tale. The idea of a woman mistreating her step-daughter unfortunately transcends time, but the best Cinderella adaptations diverge from there.

There's nothing wrong with being rescued from time to time, but Disney's newer princesses prove that modern audiences prefer active protagonists, especially when they live in a setting where they have more agency. Beyond that, modern women would hope their lovers could recognize them for more than their shoe size. Those details definitely need some updating, but the rags-to-riches storyline will always be popular.

5 Ariel

Ariel falls in love with Eric and leaves her father's domain to try to make her dreams come true. There's actually nothing about that idea that wouldn't translate, as there are plenty of modern-day stories that rely on two people falling in love despite cultural differences, and movies likeAquamarine show that the idea still works well with mermaids.

However, the story would struggle to prove that Ariel couldn't find some way to communicate with Eric in the modern-day. While it's plausible that she never learned to write in the original, increased literacy and communication technologies make that explanation questionable in the present. The spell would have to be re-written to specifically prevent all forms of communication for modern audiences to keep up their suspension of disbelief.

4 Belle

Belle is one of the most relatable Disney princesses, and her struggles easily translate to modern times. Belle constantly has to prove herself and her father to the town, who are overly impressed by Gaston. Sadly, the choice of appearance over intelligence is relatively universal.

However, the forced captivity of Belle and her father would hopefully not be so readily accepted in the modern-day, nor would the romance of Stockholm Syndrome be easily recreated. While the specific plotlines ofBeauty and the Beast can easily happen in the present, they would likely change the tone of the film from romance to horror.

3 Rapunzel

According to Protection 1, there are around 200 Amber Alerts put out in the United States each year, and many more abducted or missing children who sadly never get documented. While this is tragic, it means that the kidnapping of Rapunzel is still a very realistic plot, especially given that she was taken so young.

Her kidnapping explains why Rapunzel wouldn't be aware of most modern technologies and ideas, and they could easily be added to the things she learns about after escaping the tower. The central elements ofTangled are her relationships with Eugene and Mother Gothel, and there's nothing keeping those dynamics from being just as complex and strong in a modern setting.

2 Moana

As one of the bravest Disney princesses, Moana would find her way to heroism no matter what time she found herself in. Nothing about Moana's story requires it to fit in any particular time period other than the knowledge that many indigenous cultures were harmed by imperialism. However, reimagining a world where those cultures were never suppressed could actually set the movie as a strong work of Indigenous Futurism.

In many ways, Moana is actually highly suited for a modern adaptation. Moana learning wayfinding in a world filled with automatic, high-tech seacrafts could send a powerful message about how indigenous technologies can be more effective than western ones, and the islands dying would easily tie in with current issues of climate change.

1 Tiana

It's no wonder that Tiana's story is most easily adapted to the modern-day since it's already set so much closer to the present than the others. Tiana is a hard worker from a poor family, and though racial relations are hopefully better in the 21st century than they were in the 1920s, she would still be hard-pressed to succeed in spite of every roadblock life threw at her.

Tiana's determination to make her and her father's dreams a reality is powerful in any setting, and the elements of voodoo and jazz that color the film can still be found in modern New Orleans. Tiana's fight for success works well in any time period and is powerfully juxtaposed with Lottie's wealth and Naveen's privileged upbringing. The film focuses on the difficulties those born in poverty face in their attempts at success, and that message is no less relevant to the world today.

NEXT:The Best Disney Princess Fan Theories, According to Ranker

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Source: https://screenrant.com/disney-princess-stories-possible-modern-day-retelling/

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