The Disney/Fox merge brought a lot of popular characters into the Disney family, among those Anastasia, who should be now considered a Disney Princess… but she isn’t one. Walt Disney Pictures has been sharing its unique type of magic through movies for decades, and while it has explored various genres and styles, the studio is still best known for its animated features, and those with princesses as the lead characters have a very special place in the hearts of many.
Disney’s first princess was introduced in 1937 in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which was also the first full-length cel-animated movie and gave the studio its first Academy Award (an honorary one, accompanied by seven miniature statuettes). Since then, Disney has brought a variety of fairy tales and princesses to the big screen, of which most have joined Snow White as official Disney Princesses: Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Rapunzel, Merida, and Moana. While they all meet certain criteria, there’s no official set of requirements to become a Disney Princess, and while there are some exceptions (such as Mulan, who isn’t royalty but is still considered a Disney Princess), Fox’s Anastasia still doesn’t count as one.
The Fox deal with Disney made many fan-favorite TV shows and movies part of the Disney family, including the 1997 animated movie Anastasia. The story is a loose adaptation of the legend of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, who was believed to have escaped the execution of her family. Anastasia followed an 18-year-old amnesiac orphan named Anya (voiced by Meg Ryan) who, on her journey to discover where she came from, sided with two con men – Dimitri (John Cusack) and Vlad (Kelsey Grammer) – who planned on taking advantage of her likeness to the Grand Duchess. Anastasia was a critical and commercial success, though it wasn’t safe from criticism from historians, and caused some confusion for years as it was wrongly assumed to be a Disney property. Now, with the Fox deal, Anastasia is a Disney property, but she isn’t an official Disney Princess.
The requirements to become a Dinsey Princess are only known to Disney executives, who have the final word on who is an official Disney Princess and who isn’t, but they all share some basic characteristics: they are human (or have a humanoid appearance, in Ariel’s case), they have the central role, they aren’t the star of a sequel, and they are royal by birth, marriage, or did a heroic deed (like Mulan). Anastasia meets all these and a bit more, such as having at least one musical number (which is mentioned as a requirement by many), and now that she’s property of Disney, she’s technically a Disney Princess, but she isn’t part of that specific franchise, simply because she hasn’t been chosen as one. Instead, Anastasia is a princess owned by Disney.
While she could be chosen as an official Disney Princess at some point, it’s unknown if that will ever happen, and as there’s a lot of mystery around the princesses and what makes Disney executives decide who is an official princess and who isn’t, there’s no way to know if she will ever become one. An important factor that could prompt Disney’s people to consider making Anastasia a Disney Princess is how well her movie is received now that it’s available to stream on Disney+, and if it turns out to be profitable, she could join Snow White and company in a near future – until then, she’s just another princess owned by Disney.
