The Little Mermaid, Snow White, Pocahontas. We grew up watching Disney classics. We sang along, dressed like them and imagined being whisked away by a knight in shining armour. Fast-forward to today, and Disney heroes and heroines look very different.
Classic Disney Princesses have ridiculously small waists and large eyes to the point where they are almost out of proportion to the rest of their face. Whereas the villains are known to have hard, sharp facial features, oddly shaped noses and their bodies are often cloaked.
Modern Disney heroes are still stunningly beautiful and thin, but more proportionally so, and the villains look like any other person you would meet on the street.
Disney has evolved
While there is nothing that can explain the historic waist sizes and obvious uglification of villains, Disney has stepped up in recent years to portray more life-like characteristics.
Let’s take a look at Frozen, one of the most popular modern Disney films. While Elsa is a favourite, Anna is clearly the hero of the piece. She is still on the smaller side in terms of body size; however, the proportions are much more realistic.
Whereas Hans, the villain, doesn’t have any specific undesirable traits, on the outside at least. Unlike Gaston, with his oversized box jaw and nasal bump. Or Jafar, with his bulbous nose and pointed chin.
How would classic characters look today?
In 1957, when Disney princesses and villains were filling our screens, the average British female weighed 9st 10lbs, were 5ft 2ins, wore a size 12 and a size 32B bra.
While Disney has come on in leaps and bounds in how they reflect what desirable body shape or facial features are, they don’t yet truly represent current measurements.
We wondered what our favourite characters would look like if they existed today:
Gaston 
John Smith 
Mulan 
Elsa 
Belle 
Tiana Pocahontas Ariel
Today, average UK females weigh 11st, are 5ft 5 ins, wear a size 16 and a 36DD bra. But as you can see from the above representations, beautiful women come in all shapes and sizes.
The average body measurements for men in the UK are:
- 38.5ins hips
- 34ins waist
- 40ins chest
While John Smith didn’t require many alterations, we beefed-down Gaston from his over-the-top torso that contrasted with an unrealistically small waist.
A look at facial features
Classic Disney princesses have delicate, proportionate noses which are still favoured today. Therefore, we simply had to add in winged eyeliner and bushier eyebrows to modernise them.
When it came to John Smith, again, there wasn’t much to be done. He already had stunning cheek contours and a strong jawline that wasn’t overly boxed. Gaston, a Disney villain, originally has a nasal bump and an oversized, boxed chin. After straightening out the nose and adding a beard and some cheek contouring, we believe that we have transformed him into a beauty that could rival Belle herself.
Disney movies over the last decade have gotten closer to better representing the diverse range of measurements with the likes of Frozen and Brave, and we are excited to see this continue with much better representation.
Artist credit: Elena Provolovich
