Love Interests
Like the female protagonists, the Disney men started out very bland and one-dimensional before evolving into more complex characters. The unnamed prince of Snow White and Prince Charming of Cinderella had no notable personality traits and scarcely any lines. Prince Phillip was given more depth but still had little obvious traits beyond falling in love with a singing girl in the forest.
It was only with The Little Mermaid and beyond that the Disney love interests acquired actual personalities. This marked their departure from props for the heroines to marry into real characters. They also began spending more time with the heroines instead of relying on the brief courtship and offscreen marriage of the previous movies. Disney has sought to make each new male love interest a distinct individual instead of interchangeable cutouts. This has helped to improve the romances of the films by making the relationships more believable and realistic instead of the quick marriages of the early characters.
Disney also improved the men by having them undergo character arcs. For example, the Beast had to forsake his aggressive, selfish ways before Belle would consider even having a polite conversation with him. John Smith realized his prejudice against the Native Americans was wrong and sought to establish diplomatic relations. This helped to establish them as more realistic characters who were not immediately perfect love interests, making the romances of the films more grounded in reality.
It was only with The Little Mermaid and beyond that the Disney love interests acquired actual personalities. This marked their departure from props for the heroines to marry into real characters. They also began spending more time with the heroines instead of relying on the brief courtship and offscreen marriage of the previous movies. Disney has sought to make each new male love interest a distinct individual instead of interchangeable cutouts. This has helped to improve the romances of the films by making the relationships more believable and realistic instead of the quick marriages of the early characters.
Disney also improved the men by having them undergo character arcs. For example, the Beast had to forsake his aggressive, selfish ways before Belle would consider even having a polite conversation with him. John Smith realized his prejudice against the Native Americans was wrong and sought to establish diplomatic relations. This helped to establish them as more realistic characters who were not immediately perfect love interests, making the romances of the films more grounded in reality.