She has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. But she also has hidden disabilities — obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety disorder. So Elsa, the queen whose hidden condition is dramatically revealed, feels like an ally.
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).
Disney Princess Syndrome. Often seen as a comorbidity of Peter Pan Syndrome, the Disney Princess Syndrome often appears as the inability to help oneself when presented with a new task or when faced with an unexpected problem.
For Elsa, the focus wasn't to make her seem older, since “she's always been a little more stoic and reserved,” Lee says. “She's the older sister and so we sort of played that into her from the beginning.” But rather the challenge lay in how to design a costume that was going to endure high amounts of action.
What sets Elsa apart from the mass array of Disney princesses is her inner battle with mental illness, anxiety and depression. In Frozen II, Elsa is the only person who can hear a voice but everyone couldn't.
The ice from which the palace is constructed is capable of taking on different colors, such as purple, blue, red and yellow, based on Elsa's emotional state (blue when she is happy or neutral, yellow or amber when she is angry, and red when she is frightened).
As such, Elsa's position as Disney's first disabled princess becomes even more important since her film is garnering more attention than any Disney film ever made including golden-age classics like The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast.
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). First, she directly experiences a traumatic event relating to a near death experience (Criterion A1).
14 Anna: ADHD
Anna is the youngest of the sisters, and unlike her sibling, she does not possess ice magic and is far more outgoing and lovable. But, she also likely deals with having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Ariel, our beloved Disney princess can be diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
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.
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.
“Pinning an autism diagnosis on a Disney heroine may seem audacious, but Elsa displays a lot of traits reminiscent of those that clinicians and researchers have highlighted among girls with autism. As a model, Elsa can provide us with some clues about how autism is expressed in girls. . . ” Read more here!
Trying to bottle up her emotions, Elsa has a PTSD flashback, and her emotional state, combined with the trauma, causes her to want to shut out what's hurting her – in this case, remembering things and Anna.
After they visit the trolls, Elsa is forced to keep this big secret from his sister and the rest of the world. This sends her into a state of depression because she doesn't want to keep a secret from anyone, but she feels like she has to. Elsa also doesn't know how to control her powers which gives her anxiety.
In the movie The Little Mermaid (Clements & Musker, 1989), Ariel displays symptoms of disposophobia, which is defined as the fear of getting rid of things.
Self-isolating, immobilized by the weight of personal expectations, and largely unable to experience joy, Elsa is the Anxious Girl's heroine. The model for Disney princesses has changed over the years, but every one of them has fallen somewhere between aggressively perky and blindly optimistic.
Actually, Ariel cries *a lot* for a Disney princess. Most have that ONE SCENE; Ariel has like 3, maybe 4. Definitely one of the more emotional ones.
The answer: Beauty and the Beast's Belle. Belle is an independent thinker, was raised in a geeky household, and *loves *to read. Her dad loves to tinker and make inventions and growing up in a house like that she was bound to be geeky.
Merida, a princess of the mystical Scottish highlands, has not only the archery skills of Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games" but the parent-stopping pout of Bella Swan in "Twilight." She sulks with a brogue -- "Ach, Mom!" -- but her eye-rolling and tantrum-throwing are universal.
Cinderella is the prettiest Disney Princess. She really sums up what it is to be a Disney princess and has defined the look for many years. She has a perfect figure, a flawlessly pretty face and beautiful clothes. You could say she is the perfect pretty princess.
When she is happy, the castle is blue; it turns red when she is scared, yellow when she is angry, and purple when she is sad.
In terms of food, Idina Menzel said during a Frozen Facebook Q&A, “Elsa eats soy ice cream sandwiches” in her ice castle. While this doesn't sound practical or very tasty, it comes from the woman herself, so it has to have some validity. Realistically, Elsa probably wasn't thinking long-term.
While the voice was calling Elsa to reveal her past to her, it was ultimately revealed that Queen Iduna (Evan Rachel Wood) - Elsa's mother - had a lot to explain as well. This, coupled with the reveal that the call was Iduna all along, means Elsa was hearing the voice of her long-lost mother.