“Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest maiden of all?” How many of you read that with the voice of the nasty witch from Snow White? As the first princess movie produced by Walt Disney on February 4, 1938, Snow White set the scene for their Disney princess dynasty.

Seventy-seven years later, Disney’s Frozen won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It was the first win for Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Like a baseball roster, I lined the princesses up, side by side and looked at their “women power” stats. I send Aurora to the minors and choose Mulan for my cleanup hitter.

Sleeping Beauty fails to impress me. “She will sleep until she is kissed by her true love.” This is the fate for the pin-pricked slumbering girl, Aurora. In my opinion, Aurora is not princess worthy. She falls in love with a stranger she meets in the woods and is obsessed with the mysterious man in the forest. Disney has come a long way since 1959, when Sleeping Beauty was published.

How can you be in love with someone who sneaks up behind you in the woods? Aurora encourages girls to fall in love with absolute strangers. How could that make her a good princess?
Mulan, released in 1998, is a better role model for modern girls.

“I KNOW MY PLACE! It is time you learned yours,” says Fa Zhou, Mulan’s father. She can’t fit into the traditional Chinese life that she is supposed to desire.

Mulan says, “Can it be I’m not meant to play this part?”

Mulan lives in a world where honor means everything. With that in mind, Mulan disobeys her father, commanding officer, and her country. She risks he life to save her father.

Dominique Montello said, “Mulan is the most inspiring princess because she is never selfish and she risks her life to honor and save her family which results in saving all of China.”

Mulan inspires children (and adults) to be who they really are and to not change for someone else. She leaves the message the she (and we) can change the world.

Frozen, which has not only won awards for animation, but its hit song Let It Go has had 214,371,809 views on YouTube, as of 12:23 on 5/5/14, and is played on pop radio stations. I grant Anna and Elsa as Rookies of the Year in my lineup.

In Frozen’s song, For the First Time in Forever, Anna sings,“For the first time in forever, I finally understand. For the first time in forever, we can fix this hand in hand.” Anna is an inspiring princess. She is always looking out for Elsa, even after Elsa runs away. Anna wants to help Elsa, not shut her away like everyone else.

Angel Montello thinks Anna is the best role model. “She never gave up on caring and loving her sister. Even after everyone else saw Elsa as ‘bad’ or ‘dangerous,’ she was determined to find her sister and protect her.” Anna shows that love is beautiful.

In Frozen’s song, For the First Time in Forever, Elsa sings,“There’s so much fear, you’re not safe here.” Elsa is a princess who makes a 180 degree turn through the movie. She finally faces her fears and overcomes them. With love, Elsa becomes invincible. Elsa is able to stop the winter and open the gates for the community. Elsa learns that love is both dangerous…and beautiful.

Frozen has other lessons to illustrate the dangers and beauty of love. Snowman Olaf, who is willing to disappear into a puddle to save Anna, says, “Some people are worth melting for.”

The wise trolls from Frozen sing, “People make bad choices if they are mad or scared or stressed, but throw a little love their way and you’ll bring out their best.”

Anna and Elsa are great example of modern day women power. Despite their dominance in media now, the sisters only scored 14% combined in Lancer Media Disney Princess Popularity poll. The poll winner was Rapunzel with 19% and Ariel in the close second with 17%.

Disney’s next movie Moana is scheduled to be released in 2018. Moana is a Polynesian princess in the South Pacific. Maybe it will be a movie where the prince doesn’t try to rescue a princess; perhaps she will save him.