Did you ever notice that fairy tales pretty much never start that way? They're almost always about a young princess, or a young maiden, or whatever. Especially in the whole Disney franchise. I mean some of the princes don't even have names, and the ones that do, people don't know what they are half the time. Like this guy => His official character name is "The Prince". I mean, how one dimensional can you get? Poor guy got cheated. They didn't even need to hire two actors for him, like they did with a lot of people. One for voice, and one for singing. He just sang. I don't honestly remember if he even had any speaking lines. Not that this is too terrible, because singing princes are always much cooler than non-singing ones. 
Then, of course, you've got this guy. Prince Charming. You know, I still haven't decided whether that's his character's name because his parents actually named him "Charming", or if they just wanted him to seem more dashing than "The Prince". I'm not really sure what face that is... I think it might be his version of "I just saw the girl of my dreams, and so I'm standing there looking completely ridiculous" face. Which is ok, I guess, but still. You'd think falling in love would look less dull. One thing's for sure... they really have come a long way from that <= to that =>
This is prince Naveen. I haven't seen this movie yet, but I heard it's really good. And this prince has more personality in just one preview than most of the first princes put together. Plus they aren't so generic looking anymore. 
And this guy. Prince Edward. He, too, is a drastic improvement on "The Prince" and "Prince Charming". Especially because he, of all the princes, unquestionably has the hottest singing voice. There's something weird about that sword in this pic, though. It's like... translucent or something. *shrug* But three cheers for James Marsden. Woot. 
Ah, Prince Philip. We're back to the somewhat more vague looking princes, but this guy was the first one to actually be cool. Where as "The Prince" was in the movie for like 1 minute a the beginning to woo Snow White through song, and then a minute at the end to kiss her and wake her up, this guy actually played a part in the plot. He stormed a castle on horse back, plowed through a giant thicket of briars, and battled an evil enchantress dragon all for his princess. Combine that with the fact that he, too, sings, and I think we have the undisputed winner of the best classic prince award. 
Here we have prince Eric. The award he gets is the first disney prince to actually look like a real person. He even has dimples. It's a good thing they finally figured out that princes are people too. Although, honestly, where in all the other movies I knew they were princes, for some reason Eric never seemed like a real prince to me. Perhaps it's because he didn't own a medieval kingdom like all the others. Don't get me wrong, castles on the sea are awesome. But I think my little kid brain refused to accept him as an actual prince until much, much later.
This one is an exciting one. Mostly because very few people know that this prince does, in fact, have a name. And it's not "Beast". Can you imagine his parents... "Honey, it's a boy! What should we call him?" "Oh, I like the name Beast." No, this prince has a name. And it's a boy's name too. :P Sorry, couldn't resist the movie quote. Or the fact that if you don't know what his name is, you're probably really waiting for me to tell you, and the longer I draw it out, the more amusing it is for me to make you wait. Ok, ok. His name is Adam. Prince Adam. Yeah, you'd think that in all that time at the castle, Belle would have thought to at least figure out what his name was. But no. Even after she realized that she loved him, "Beast" was the best she could do. Haha. No, I really do like Belle. She's cool. I just think that sometimes the disney people don't think of all the stuff they should have. Did you also notice that he's the only prince that doesn't have dark hair. They all have brown or black hair. I guess this sort of counts as brown, but I really think they were trying to break out of the tall, dark, and handsome thing. They still really haven't though. They haven't made a single blonde prince that I can think of. 
Alright, we've reached the end of our classical princes. But there are two more I just had to add in. Firstly, Aladdin. Because even though he's not a prince by birth, the Genie turns him into a prince, which totally counts. Plus he ends up marrying Jasmine (FINALLY, in the THIRD movie. Took long enough.) who is a princess, and he therefore becomes not just a prince, but the heir to the Sultan. That's a big leap for a guy who grew up stealing food with his monkey friend just to stay alive. 
And of course, there's Prince John. Self proclaimed ruler, and antagonist in Robin Hood. He doesn't count as a Disney prince, by any means, but his name has prince in it, and I could resist adding him. Especially in this picture. The classic sucking his thumb moments. So, did you ever notice that he's supposed to be a lion, just like his brother King Richard, but he doesn't actually have a mane? Richard does. Just an interesting note for consideration. Ok, I am now finished with my discourse on the princes in disney history. The homework may be found on page 42 of the text, and will be due by the start of next class. You are dismissed.
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