When we think of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Walt Disney’s first full-length animated film, we associate Snow White as the first original Disney princess.
Even major publications such as Entertainment News Weekly believe that Snow was the first original princess, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs came out in 1937, debuting the very first Disney princess with Snow White herself. Voiced by Adriana Caselotti, she’s incredibly of her time “. While this may be the consensus among many, it is not true.
Disney introduced a different princess much earlier, however, the company has never capitalized on what could be a massive blockbuster hit if expanded upon.
As stated by the Smithsonian, Persephone was the first Disney princess.
“That honor goes to Persephone, the main character of a 1934 Silly Symphonies short that served as a sort of test run for Snow White. The film, “The Goddess of Spring,” features Disney’s first realistic maiden twirling and flitting through an idyllic spring world, accompanied by dancing, dwarf-like figures, birds and fairies. Things take a scary turn when a singing Pluto (no, not that Pluto), the god of the underworld, snatches Persephone and drags her to a jazzy, fiery hell. Spoiler alert: The spring maiden works things out with Hades and agrees to spend half the year with him.”
Credit: D23
Alyssa Carnahan, open studio coordinator at the Walt Disney Family Museum noted that he project provided Disney’s animators with an opportunity to animate a human character, a departure from their usual focus on animated animals.
While early silent shorts featured a real-life girl named Alice with long curls, the emphasis had primarily been on whimsical animal characters. As the team worked on creating Persephone’s princess-like appearance and movements, they also established standards, such as the model sheet. This tool enabled cel animators to maintain consistency in character attributes throughout the film.
This is where Snow White was derived from. Persephone was known for twirling, holding her skirt, and speaking with the animals around her — much like Snow, whom we would see three years later.
Credit: Disney
Persephone is based on a real character from Greek mythology and is the daughter of Zeus, which makes her both a goddess and a princess.
Like many of Disney’s most successful princess characters, Persephone is not an original character, but she is one that Disney took and molded for their story-telling format.
Persephone is a popular figure in Greek mythology, known as the goddess of the underworld and the daughter of Zeus, the king of the gods (which is how she is a princess). Her story is often associated with the changing seasons.
According to the myth, Hades, the god of the underworld, abducts Persephone and takes her to his realm to be his wife. Demeter (goddess of agriculture) was grief-stricken by the disappearance of her daughter, which caused the earth to wither and the crops to die.
In response, Zeus intervened and negotiated with Hades to allow Persephone to return to the world of the living for part of the year.
Persephone’s time in the underworld corresponds to the winter months when the earth becomes barren, symbolizing her mother Demeter’s mourning. Her return to the surface heralds the arrival of spring, bringing new life and fertility to the land.
Credit: Disney
The myth of Persephone is often seen as an explanation for the changing seasons, with her time in the underworld representing the cold and dark months of winter and her return symbolizing the rebirth of nature in spring. While her short Goddess of Spring did not have enough time to show it, there is a lot of complexities to dive into when it comes to Persephone.
When we look at classic Disney princess movies, from Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Frozen, Tangled, Princess and the Frog, and more we know that they were all derived from much older fairytales and folklore. While Disney certainly changed a lot of the stories that these characters were associated with (for example, the original Little Mermaid story is much darker and more violent than Disney’s version, with the sea witch brutally cutting out the mermaid’s tongue in exchange for legs), they have found success playing with original tales and Disney-fying them.
Credit: Disney
We know this is a route for success for Disney through their box office numbers: Frozen made $1.282 billion, Tangled made $592.5 million, Beauty and the Beast made $1.266 billion, and the list goes on. Then, when we see Disney create an original princess, like Asha from Wish, box office returns have been vastly smaller.
So, in theory, it would be a much better path to financial success for Disney to return back to the story of Persephone and add their own spin on the Greek tale. Her story already has a villain and shows her as a strong heroine with protective parents, placing it in the perfect trope of the Disney princess. While Disney may not want to make the devil a character in their movies, they certainly have a solid framework to work with. Plus, we have seen Disney toggle in the world of black magic with Dr. Facilier, so entering an evil ethereal realm seems very plausible.
Below, you can watch the full short for Goddess of Spring!
Do you think a full-length feature about Persephone, the Disney princess, would be a box-office success?
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Credit: Edited by Inside the Magic
