[Netherrealmer]

This May is rumored to launch a new Disney princess. We don't know what her ethnicity is, but the report is she's going to have long black hair. But yeah, she's going to be the next princess, but we don't know who she is. So before her reveal, I want to talk about those Disney princesses who almost became, who almost got animated but got canceled. It's based from a Russian fairy tale, so she would have been the first Russian princess. And supposed to be the concept is, she's a time-traveling princess and she's accompanied by 12 people who are personified version of the 12 months. It was supposed to come after Snow White, but it got canceled.

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Another canceled Disney princess happened after the success of Pocahontas. Pocahontas was the first Disney princess based from a historical figure instead of a fairy tale character. Pocahontas really existed. And because, you know, people back then didn't get offended, Disney almost considered making their first Jewish Disney princess by turning Anne Frank into a Disney princess. Anne Frank was a 14-year-old girl who hides on the cellar of her family's home for five years, I think, to hide from Nazis. But eventually someone betrayed them and surrendered them to the Nazis. Yes, she died at the concentration camp, and Disney almost considered making her a princess, and then she will have animal friends who will help her escape the Nazis and be free.But Disney decided to cancel the movie because, you know, it's so offensive to turn a real-life victim of the Nazis into a fictionalized fairy tale princess.

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During 1960s, Disney was determined to adapt every single fairy tale into a princess movie, and they almost turned Little Red Riding Hood as a Disney princess. Back in the 1960s, they already have the conceptualization, the scripts, and those concepts and scripts is hiding somewhere in a vault in the character designs. And eventually, it got canceled.

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Swan Lake is a canceled Disney project that somehow still got animated in the 90s. Here's what happened. An employee of Disney got fired, so his concept of Swan Lake turns into Swan Princess and became a Warner Brothers movie instead. So Warner Brothers ends up having their own princess. So technically, she was originally going to be a Disney princess, but she ends up becoming a Warner Brothers princess. It's about a princess who got cursed to become a swan.


I think most people grow up with the 1980s Disney The Little Mermaid version, Ariel. But this Ariel that most people grew up with have a happy ending. In the original fairy tale, Ariel never won the love of the prince, so she turned into seafoam. She died. And this original movie was actually almost, this original concept from the fairy tale was almost animated by Walt Disney back in the 1930s, but because it's too dark, he canceled, but because the script and the concepts were found on the vault, eventually it got animated in the 1980s. But yeah, we almost have the dark version of The Little Mermaid, and she was not named Ariel. She was originally going to be blonde, because I think originally The Little Mermaid is named Marina.

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[germainebull]

That canceled concept you describe is fascinating. It’s based on the Russian fairy tale The Twelve Months. Disney toyed with the idea of ​​adapting it after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The story was set up for a Russian princess who could travel through time with twelve characters representing each month of the year. She would have been the studio’s first Russian princess, but the project never got beyond early development. Disney focused on other stories, and the idea was dropped.

This is one of those “almost princesses” that shows how wide Disney’s creative net was, even in its early years. The idea of ​​a heroine traveling through time with seasonal companions feels ahead of its time compared to the more traditional fairy tales they chose to animate.

[Neurosurgeon]

Rejected Disney Princess concepts include characters like Esmeralda or Mulan’s original darker versions that didn’t fit branding, inspiring fan analyses of evolving gender roles and marketing strategies behind Disney’s curated princess lineup and its cultural influence on childhood narratives.

[germainebull]

I think it is good that fans adopted their independent analyses of these Disney princesses.
Shows deep engagement with the content.

[eldavis]

I feel these canceled stories would have been really fun to watch though.

[Paradise]

I feel these canceled stories would have been really fun to watch though.

I feel the same way too. That swan princess looks really like an intriguing movie... You know.. I'm already keen on wanting to know why the princess was turned into a swan.