Although Elsa's disability is encoded as a magical ice power, the language the film uses to talk about her condition maps on to the experiences of people with physical, mental, and intellectual disabilities in recognizable ways.
Anna's parents rush her to the sacred realm, where discussions with the trolls reveal that Elsa was born with her powers/ depigmentation and deafness, rather than them being due to illness or accident. Grand Pabbie troll heals Anna but removes her memories of Elsa's magic.
Although Elsa is not the only character with disability in the Disney canon, she is the first princess 1 to be designed with disability in mind, and one of only two human characters with visible disability to make the cut at all since Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996).
There are a few characters who have disabilities like Dory (short term memory loss in Finding Nemo/Finding Dory), Quasimodo (titular hunchback in Hunchback of Notre Dame), or Dopey (mutism, dwarfism in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves).
In a few attention-grabbing works shown here, two of Disney's most prominent characters, Cinderella and Snow White, use a wheelchair, while Pocahontas and Jasmine deal with their own circumstance.
Anna, Frozen - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) The most popular character on this list is, of course, Anna from Disney's 2013 animated film Frozen. Anna is a perfect example of what it's like to have ADHD.
But then, after seeing the film a few more times, I realized what makes Elsa so special: She is the poster child for girls with autism.
Did you know that Disney offers a Disability Access Service that allows children with ADHD to 'virtually' wait in line, saving them (and their families) the agony of trudging through those long, boring, tantrum-inducing queues?
In "Finding Nemo", I discovered sunken treasure—a multifaceted representation of disability. The protagonist, Nemo, displays a small, or "deformed," fin that is a congenital result of a fatal attack on his mother and sibling eggs—a corporeal characteristic that the story surrounds, yet does not drown in.
Moana. This animation film about an adventurous teenager has two characters with disabilities. Hei Hei the rooster has dyspraxia, a common disorder that affects movement and co-ordination and a learning disability.
Tiana is not only one of the most intelligent Disney characters but also the most inspiring and ambitious Disney princess who is not afraid of hard work and does everything in her power to achieve her goals no matter how impossible they might seem.
The reasons for removing Tinker Bell and Esmeralda from the Disney Princesses franchise might seem obvious as they weren't born nor married royal and they weren't the leads of their movies, but they actually go beyond that. Everything is a business, and the Disney Princesses world is one.
The character of Anna does not have Clinical Depression or Anxiety. In her case, she is faced with debilitating grief that threatens to paralyze her. But being overcome with immobilizing levels of fear, hopelessness, and overwhelmedness has many origins. Depression and anxiety can be crippling.
Elsa has a mild PTSD flashback, and runs away – thankfully, only to her room, this time. Recovering from PTSD is a process, and it takes time – sometimes a LOT of time – to heal. But Anna is still there for her, and Elsa knows it.
The difference is, Elsa's hair is a manifestation of her icy prowess and Sadie has albinism - meaning she has little to no pigment in her hair, skin and eyes and wears glasses to correct what she can of her low vision.
Dory suffers from severe short-term memory loss, but a lot of what she goes through can be adapted to other contexts, such as the world, or ocean, of ADHD. Dory has trouble with multi-step directions, is easily distracted, and is very impulsive.
Finding Dory, Pixar's most recent box office success, stars many characters with disabilities. Dory, the titular character, has short-term memory loss. Nemo has physical disabilities with his little fin, and Hank is an octopus that is missing a tentacle.
Amnesia in the movies. The character Dory from the movies Finding Nemo and Finding Dory is an example of a movie character who has amnesia, or memory loss. Some of the things that Dory does in the movies are a lot like real-life amnesia. For example, Dory forgets that she has met Marlin, another character in the movie.
Disney also offers what's called Disability Access Service to guests (you're not a “visitor” — you're a “guest”!) who are unable to wait in a long line due to a disability. The card allows you to go to an attraction and get a set time to come back and experience the ride.
Disability Access Service pass (DAS)
All three major amusement parks (Walt Disney World, SeaWorld and Universal Orlando) provide assistance passes for guests with autism and other developmental disabilities.
Ariel, our beloved Disney princess can be diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Snow White can be classified as having Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The Princess meets all eight of the criteria listed in the DSM-V to diagnose PTSD (See Appendix A).
Ariel. Ariel from The Little Mermaid clearly has signs of Obsessive Compulsive disorder (OCD), where she is obsessed with collecting useless things.
Frozen's Elsa Is a Disney Queen for Anxious Girls. In the new “Frozen,” Elsa is plagued by personal demons, terrified of human implications for the climate, and, believe it or not, newly aware of the evils of colonialism and her complicity in it.