Wish Creators Break Down The "Disney Princess" Moniker

Should Encanto's Mirabel and Wish's Asha be clumped in with Disney's princesses?

By Jamie Jirak

Disney's Wish is heading to theaters next week, and the animated film stars Ariana DeBose as Asha, a girl who learns a dark secret about her kingdom's wish-granting ruler. Back in the day, most Disney heroines were princesses, but there have been a lot of characters recently who don't fall into that category such as Asha and Encanto's Mirabel. Recently, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with Walt Disney Animation Studios' Chief Creative Officer and the co-writer of Wish, Jennifer Lee, along with Wish producers Peter Del Vecho and Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster Jones, and directors Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn. We brought up how Mulan is always clumped in with the princesses, but now that she's paved the way for more non-princess characters, should there be another moniker for the studios' heroines?

"We have two queens in Frozen," Lee pointed out, referring to Anna and Elsa being considered "princesses." When asked if Asha would be part of a hypothetical princess movie like the fan-favorite scene from Ralph Breaks the Internet, Lee replied, "Well, you'll always get from me is what is important to me, but this is just me, is as a kid especially, the more you could connect me to the unique qualities of that character, the more I was excited."

She continued. "With Frozen ... everything that's connected to Frozen is Frozen, so you can really immerse yourself. I'd love the same for Asha, but at the same time, I think all these heroines are so wonderful together and deserving together. There's a label of 'Princess' ... maybe it's that we're redefining what that means. Really, what we did with Frozen is, the responsibility they carried by being in charge of their kingdom added so much to their story, and I think what I love is where Asha ends up is something really special. I mean, that's directly connected to all our heroines in its own way, so I think it's fun to see how they'll find each other."

"I don't know. I mean, when we start these movies, it really is all about the story," Buck explained when asked about the "princess" moniker. "It's really about how this character fits into the story. And we love all our princesses 'cause they're amazing. I know that you grew up on-"

"Yeah, the '90s," Veerasunthorn replied. "And then Raya was also a princess. I'm like, 'Yes, two princesses in that movie.'" She added, "Yeah. And we love these qualities of aspirational young women who has all this determination. They're very sure of what they want to do and they pursue it. And we see that in Asha as well. And Asha's specificity comes so much from collaborating with Ariana DeBose who brings joy, exuberant personality, and quirkiness. Someone who's not afraid to be who she is, very comfortable in her own skin and say what she wants and express herself. And those qualities we find that in Ariana and we're like, 'Ariana is Asha. Asha is Ariana.'"

"You know, I think it's phenomenal that we kind of look at them together because they are role models for so many people," Lancaster Jones shared. "So in that level, I think it's cool. But I also like the independence of each character and let them be their self." 

"I think that's the key is each character deserves to have its own identity," Del Vecho added. "So it's hard when you group them in. You don't want to sort of just make them all the same. So I think the key is making sure they keep identified as who they are. "

Stay tuned for more from our interviews with the creatives behind Wish, which opens only in theaters on November 22nd.   

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