When I was a young child, one of my favorite princesses was Aurora. I remember admiring her for the way she carried herself. There was something about her that was enduring, and I was captivated by her.
Not everyone feels the same way. Aurora is often overlooked by a lot of Disney fans.
One of Aurora's biggest criticisms is that she does not speak much during her movie. In fact, she has only 18 lines that span only 18 minutes of her movie. It is very difficult to develop a character in 18 lines, but if any can do it, Disney can. They told an entire love story in just 5 minutes with NO dialogue, and that scene in UP! touched everyone's hearts. In those 18 lines, we learn that Aurora is kind, clever, a romantic, a dreamer, and a bit of a rebel. We learn that Aurora feels as is she is overprotected by her aunts. Her only friends are the woodland creatures because she was not allowed to meet anyone. She is funny, playing along with the owl that pretends to dance with her.
Lots of people admire Jasmine for refusing to marry a stranger. "If I do marry, I want it to be for love" she tells her father. But people forget that Aurora and Phillip did this first. Phillip is betrothed to the Princess from the day she was born. But then he meets a girl - Briar Rose - and falls in love with her. So, he rides off on his trusty steed to tell his father, King Hubert. At first, his father is furious. But Phillip is persistent. "This is the 14th century, after all!" Come on, dad. Get with the times. King Hubert realizes that Phillip is right. Phillip is happy and in love, and that's all that really matters.
After meeting a stranger in the woods, Aurora waltzes into the cottage to tell her aunts the good news. It is then that her aunts reveal to her that she is a Princess, and therefore must marry a Prince. This is why Aurora is upset. Not because she does not want to be a Princess, but because she is forced to marry someone she does not love.
Another criticism Aurora gets is that she "married a man she just met". Even though Phillip did not spend much time with Aurora, he still loves her. He escapes a dungeon, faces against an army's flying arrows, cuts through a thorn forest and fights off a dragon. He does all of this just to save Aurora and her kingdom. Well, if there was ever a man who risked his own life to fight a dragon just to save me, I'd marry him too! I'd snatch that man up real quick! After all, isn't that what love is about? Sacrifice?
Yet another criticism Aurora gets is that "she doesn't do anything" and that "she only has her good looks". Sure, Aurora may not be as tough as Mulan or as smart as Belle, and she is beautiful. But what's wrong with that? Feminism is about letting girls be who they want to be. And if a girl chooses to wear pink dresses and fall in love, what's so wrong about that?
I love hearing someone else sing Aurora's praises. I feel like people criticise her without fully understanding her character. One other thing that I think makes Aurora a strong character (despite her short screen time) is that she doesn't run away from her responsibility as a princess when she finds out the truth. I feel like most teenagers would rebel or run away in that situation, but Aurora, whilst understandably upset, goes to the castle to assume her role, even if it means giving up on love, understanding that her duty to her country comes first. That is a very mature and difficult decision to make for a character so young, and would have been scary having no memories of her real parents and no interactions with any other people besides the fairies or Prince Phillip for the first 16 years of her life.
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