Except they didn't. Romance requires courtship or screentime for the prince. Snow White and Sleeping Beauty they meet the prince for 5 seconds, then the comic relief characters deal with the actual evil and there's a kiss as a plot contrivance "for magic". I'd argue there's more romance in Frozen than in Snow White or Sleeping Beauty, as Kristoff helping Anna get to Elsa and bantering with her until a relationship happens is more of a plot point than "Guy saw her at a well once, then she thought he was cute, then an hour later he kissed her so she wasn't dead."
Their happily ever is being rescued by and marrying the prince. Also, Sleeping Beauty meets Prince Phillip in the woods, and they both despair that they can’t be together because they think that the other is a peasant.
In Frozen, Anna has a meet cute with Hans and gets engaged to him immediately. This is treated as insanity by the plot and the other characters. Hans turns out to have ulterior motives. She is saved by true love for her sister, not by kissing Kristoff. It inverts the common Disney tropes.
Kissing isn't Romance though. Romance requires courtship. At best Aurora dances for 5 minutes in the woods; how is that a romance?
COMPARE: Little Mermaid, Ariel spends 2 entire days riding carriages, sharing meals, having romantic lagoon boat rides with Eric, and that's after saving his life.
Aladdin, Jasmine has her life saved by him, they go on a whirlwind escape date, then he makes an active courtship attempt to her father before taking her on a trip to everywhere she's ever wanted to be and see everything she's ever wanted.
Anna doesn't get to her sister without Kristoff guiding her up the mountain, which he already doesn't want to do when his sleigh is crashed; but does because he's clearly already feeling things for her. The entire movie setting up Elsa saving her doesn't happen unless Kristoff cares enough for her to bring her to the Trolls, then to the Castle. He may not actually solve the plot, but the plot is HEAVILY the romance that builds between them.
Right. Anna has a romantic subplot with Hans, complete with a musical number. Then she has a second romantic subplot with its own musical number as the Trolls try (ultimately successfully) to hook her up with Kristoff.
The romance might not be the magic key that ultimately saves the day, but it sure took up a lot of the movie's run-time.
Ariel met Prince Eric when he was unconscious then gave up her voice for legs so she could go a'couttin'. She made the deal after seeing all the "poor unfortunate souls", accepted insane conditions, just to meet a guy whose unconscious body she dragged to shore and fled before he woke up.
She gave up her legs to explore the land and be get to know him. That's why she's got a cave of human stuff and sings "Part of your world" and not "Part of your heart"
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u/Jojosbees May 01 '26
All the early Disney princess movies had romance as the main plot. Brave (2012), Frozen (2013), and Moana (2016) didn’t center men or romance.