In five years, Disney Princess has bloomed into a hugely successful multinational brand
This Christmas, it was easy to find a present for my three-year-old daughter, Honey. A nylon Snow White dress complete with hooped skirt and cape (available from Woolworths for £15) was all she wanted. She hasn't seen the Disney classic, but let's not worry about the source material. As far as Honey is concerned, being a Princess is all. Before going to bed, she brushes her teeth with Princess toothpaste. She sleeps under a duvet decorated with ladies wearing wimples.
What's going on? What's going on is that the vast children's "lifestyle" market has spotted a niche and jumped into it with both satin-slippered feet. Once upon a time - indeed, only five years ago - Disney executives realised that they had the perfect opportunity for a brand aimed directly at little girls aged between three and six. And so the Disney Princess was awakened from her glass case with a very aggressive kiss from her creator. To say she bloomed is an understatement. The brand is now worth $3bn, and in the UK its 2005-2006 growth figure is 25 per cent.
The rest of the high street has followed suit. M&S and Gap now sell Princess clothes. Mothercare has traded in Baby On Board signs for Princess On Board signs. Even high-end brands such as the White Company have jumped in with Princess bedlinen, towels and a four-poster bed.
If you're interested, the eight official Disney Princesses are: Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Belle, Jasmine, Mulan, Ariel and Pocahontas. According to Disney, these gals have two things in common: they all have great ballgowns and they all call the shots. Disney Princess has been launched in Russia, China and, most recently, India. It's as if wanting to look like Belle, in yards of furiously frilled yellow, were a natural, worldwide thing.
Disney stresses it is merely catering to an "important developmental stage" in the life of a young girl. Others see it differently. The American film critic Roger Holland, in the online newsletter PopMatters, writes of the "unremitting loathing I'm developing for the Disney Princess brand". What really irritates him is the dearth of creative thinking behind a concept whose entire reason for being is to occupy giant stands in Disney stores. Disney Princess, he says, has been "plumbing the depths of nasty and exploitative marketing with minimal upfront investment". He goes on to describe a Princess DVD that has no new stories and not much new animation. "All you get for your $20 is a stylistically bankrupt and frankly frightening front end to extracts from movies your children already own."
Indeed, is it just a coincidence that Disney is currently rolling out its so-called "Platinum Strategy", wherein the classic Disney archive (which has a lot of Princess action) is slowly being rereleased on DVD? Probably not, but frankly, any noise from the Disney film market has been drowned out by a thundering avalanche of Princess trinketry.
So should we all resist the power of the crown and gown? Probably not. I would rather Honey went around as the modestly dressed Snow White than one of the terrifying Bratz, with their cropped tops and nascent sexual awareness. Because there is one thing that Princesses aren't bothered about, and that is a Prince. Disney's research found that as far as small girls are concerned, a Prince is a non-vital accessory. Compared to a cape.
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