“I’m so quirky and different!” could be a catchphrase for the majority of Disney’s recent princesses and characters. When the company was young, Disney was known for having a variety of princesses, each with unique personalities. Snow White was soft and caring, Cinderella was hopeful and humble, and Belle was clever and brave.

“[My favorite character] is Mulan. She’s really strong-willed and independent,” senior Shubha Ballurkar said. “I would say that [her personality] is different to that of other princesses.”

But now, Disney seems stuck. All of their princesses, and sometimes even other characters, have the same “dorky” personality. This seems to have been the pattern ever since the movies “Frozen” and “Tangled” were released. At first, these personalities made sense. Rapunzel had been stuck in a tower her whole life, so her dorkiness stems from her excitement at being able to leave the tower, and Anna’s dorkiness contrasts well with Elsa’s calmer personality.

But what exactly characterizes a dorky personality? In short, it occurs when someone is purposely trying to be different. This is something that Disney is doing with all of their new princesses in recent films, not including live-action remakes. People who used to watch older Disney movies are upset, and understandably so; when something you used to watch as a kid gets ruined for future generations, it’s bound to invoke emotions.

“I feel like with the characters from the movies that came before [Tangled], they all had distinct personalities and traits that really stood out about them. I don’t feel that way about the characters from the more recent movies,” Ballurkar said.

Being upset over princesses may seem trivial, but Disney’s lack of diversity when it comes to personalities can have huge consequences for the company itself. Ever since the same personalities have been reused, the hype for Disney movies and their new characters has never been the same, and this has led to a reduced number of audience members watching when new movies are released.

So why did in-theater audiences for movies with adorkable characters suddenly drop, even though movies like “Frozen” and “Rapunzel” did so well? This is likely because when Disney first started to use this personality, no one paid too much attention, as it was hard to see that they were just reusing the same traits. But as more movies came out, people started taking note of the similarities in personalities the characters had, and it became more obvious that Disney was just becoming lazy with their characters.  

This “dorkification” has also had impacts on society. When “Frozen” was released in 2013, the impact the movie had on everyone was profound. Obsessions with the song “Let it Go” were rampant, and Elsa and Anna costumes, dolls, and lunchboxes were every kid’s dream. 

Even the many movies before this had similar societal impacts. “Brave” featured one of the first princesses who did not end up with a man, and “Princess and the Frog” was one of the first Disney movies whose main character was Black. The characters stood out because of both this, and their personalities, which made the movies popular.

But since then, no movie has had the same effect, and Disney’s laziness with their main characters is showing and drawing the public away. With reduced interest in Disney characters, people don’t feel the need to watch their new movies. 

However, this “dorkification” doesn’t just stop at the movie’s protagonists, but is even starting to affect antagonists. Villains in Disney movies no longer act like they’re pure evil, a factor that made people love them so much. Now, it seems as though all villains are required to have a quirky one-liner every five minutes.

If you listen to villain songs like “Be Prepared,” or “Poor Unfortunate Souls” and compare them to the villain song in “Wish,” called “This Is The Thanks I Get?” prepare to be disappointed. Villain songs are yet another victim of Disney’s dorkfication, and the bland lyrics might as well have been written by ChatGPT.

The writers’ strike may have played a huge part in the lack of creative personalities and plots. Even though the strike began in May of 2023, the lead-up to this event has been a long journey, and its beginnings stem from years ago. This can explain why Disney has seen such a lack of creative movies and ideas, even before 2023.  So much so, creators on social media have even suggested that the storyline, characters, and songs for “Wish” were so bad that it had to have been written by an AI.

“With the new movie ‘Wish,’ I’ve noticed that [the characters] are all the same kind of quirky,” said senior Charlotte Chung. “I think they’re trying to appeal to younger people, but I don’t think it’s working very much because [the movies] are very low quality.”

Disney Animation Studios is digging themselves into a hole, and it seems that they refuse to find a way out of it. Instead of hiring new writers, and coming up with risky, yet creative ideas, they are playing it too safe. 

Disney has the ability to make magical stories with unique and meaningful characters, but they are brushing this off. Unless they find a way to create new personalities and creative storylines by taking risks like they used to,  dorky Disney is here to stay.