The Princesses celebrate their 100th strip.
The people behind the Disney Princess franchise have (well, had) an unwritten rule that prevents the princesses from interacting with one another. Gathering the leading ladies of some of the most popular Disney Animated Canon films out there under one label is just begging for a Crossover of sorts after all.
Which brings us Pocket Princesses, a Fan Webcomic made by professional Disney artist Amy Mebberson depicting what would happen if the current and future Disney Princesses were all living under one roof. The result? Lots of hi-jinks and shenanigans as different personalities and eras mix, often in very silly ways.
Characters page here, but a quick summary:
Characters
- Snow White: Purity Personified who reflects traditional early 20th century values. Does not react well to apples.
- Cinderella: A former maid who still has a Neat Freak streak on her. Has troubles with her glass slippers.
- Briar Rose/Aurora: Princess who was raised inexpertly by fairies. Sleeps a lot.
- Ariel: The mermaid who wanted to know what it is to be human. Has a fish tail when immersed in water, but grows legs when she dries out. Due to the nature of her transformation, she can't speak when she has legs.
- Belle: Bookworm villager turned bookworm princess. Really likes tea.
- Jasmine: The princess from a desert kingdom with exotic tastes. Sassy as heck and prone to running away.
- Pocahontas: The chief's daughter from the new world. Nature lover, outdoorswoman, and health nut.
- Mulan: The Chinese girl who disguised herself as a soldier. Enjoys both warriorly pursuits and moments of peace.
- Tiana: Supreme Chef and restaurant owner from New Orleans. Mess with her kitchen at your own risk.
- Rapunzel: Princess with the really long and useful hair. Loves her paints and frying pans.
- Merida: The Scottish, aggressively tomboy princess with a love of archery. Has a thing for bears.
- Anna: The hyperactive Scandinavian princess, in contrast to her refined sister. Gets along well with Rapunzel, Ariel, and Merida.
- Elsa: The queen of ice and snow with a mild case of Power Incontinence. Would rather not be associated with the other Disney queens.
- Moana: The island chief's daughter who's friends with the ocean... enough so that it moved in with her, causing a few problems.
- Leia: The Force Ghost of the famous Princess-turned-General who fought against tyrannical space rulers alongside her famous twin brother, now usually hangs out with the girls as a mentor to them. Loves Coke and tends to give the girls worldly advice.
- Vanellope Von Schweetz: Actively campaigned to be a new princess in November 2018, in time for the release of Ralph Breaks the Internet. Racing enthusiast.
- Raya: The newest of the bunch who have joined after her debut movie.
The comic could be found either in this
Tumblr page (up to December 2018), or in this Instagram page, in this Pinterest page, or this dedicated Instagram page.
On February 19, 2016, the comic was put on Series Hiatus due to Mebberson's heavy workload. The hiatus officially ended on November 20, 2016, just in time for the release of Moana. On December 17, 2018, Mebberson announced the comic would no longer be updated on Tumblr, in protest of Tumblr's purge of adult content; the archives would remain up, but new comics would be limited to Instagram and Facebook. The comic went back on hiatus on April 20, 2019, again due to Mebberson's workload. It seems to have restarted as of November 23, 2019, with the release of Frozen II. However, it now only has a dedicated Instagram account here for new strips as Amy has also removed the Facebook page she'd had beforehand (to delete her FB presence) as well. She also returned to Tumblr in in protest of Twitter's new ownership in 2022, though comics still only post to Instagram; the Tumblr is more for fanart art.
Pocket Princesses provides examples of:
- Abandoned Info Page: Amy formally ceased hosting her work on Tumblr in protest of the site's infamous change in policy and piss-poor implementation thereof, although she left her preexisting archive up for fans' convenience. She then returned in 2022 due to issues with new implementations on Twitter, but only posts fanart and images rather than any comics.
- Actor Allusion:
- Elsa's favorite song at karaoke night is one of her voice actress's.
- As one reader noted, "Anything that doesn’t immediately scream ‘Leia’ is probably a Carrie reference", such as her enjoyment of Coca-Cola and chocolates.
- Anna’s actress in the original Broadway version of Frozen once said she could probably drink ranch dressing straight from the bottle. In this comic, next to Anna is a bottle of ranch dressing with a straw in it.
- Elsa's favorite song at karaoke night
- Alliterative Title: Pocket Princesses.
- And I Must Scream: To celebrate Target putting out Disney's Princess merchandise, including dolls designed by Amy, three of the girls (Jasmine, Belle and Rapunzel) are replaced with their dolls. However, the Blue Fairy ONLY immediately changes Jasmine and Belle back:Jasmine: Oh fank goodnesh, no more SHMILING!
Belle: I'm getting changed...
Blue Fairy: You're very lucky. I only do this for good children!
Rapunzel: (thinking as she's still stuck as a doll) Uh oh... - Angrish: In contrast to Snow White's understated "Mercy" when she drops her cake, Merida curses up a family friendly storm when she accidentally nicks her finger.
- Aside Comment: Aurora tries on Elsa's ice gown, and Elsa explains she can wear the freezing garment because she's an ice queen. At the same time, Anna lifts the hem of her dress and whispers "Thermals." at the audience.
- Beware the Nice Ones: When black word balloons come out of normally nice characters, be afraid.
- During Comic Con 2017, the usually-sweet Anna finds a guy who had his smartphone pointed at an undisclosed place with his selfie-stick and, along with Jasmine and Merida, is not happy:Jasmine: He pointed it WHERE!?
Anna: (grabs man while talking in ominous black-word-balloon-with-red-text) Don't ask. But it's going up his NOSE, now..! - When Hurricane Elsa (previously Tropical Storm Elsa) becomes the first hurricane for the 2021 season, it's Aurora's turn for the black word balloon:Aurora: What. Did. You. DO?!
Elsa: Welll... I KIND of accidentally spilled a pitcher of strawberry daiquiris into the Nokk aaaannnddd...
Anna: In her defense, Key West now smells AMAZING.... - Rapunzel when witnessing AI art, probably reflecting Mebberson's own opinion on the subject.
- During Comic Con 2017, the usually-sweet Anna finds a guy
- Books vs. Screens: Belle dismisses Elsa's suggestion to read from an eBook in favor of the classics.
- Bookworm: Several, with Belle being the most prominent and leading the princesses' book club.
- The Cameo: Many other Disney characters appear in other strips, which includes:
- Kida shows up in a strip, but her application was rejected.
- Princess Leia impresses Merida and Mulan with her blaster, and Rapunzel with her hairstyle. (This was published shortly after Disney bought Lucasfilm.)
- Totoro shows up all of the princesses' animal sidekicks in the the Sidekick Envy comic
- Vanellope shows up in one strip to break down the cast's door.
- Shanti shows up to deliver Kaa to celebrate the Year of the Snake
- Alice and the Chesire Cat show up as the new neighbors of the cast.
- Eilonwy shows up in the D23 Expo auction.
- Charlotte fangirls over meeting Cinderella and Aurora◊.
- Baymax proves to be a hit with the princesses. He makes a second appearance doing testing for COVID-19.
- Esmeralda and Djali show up to ring in the Year of the Goat.
- Leia asks the girls if they can hold up until Christmas to open up their new present
- Leia gets a warm welcome from the princesses on Opening Night.
- BB-8 has been unwrapped, and has been taught a few tricks.
- Lilo shows up to help the princesses throw Moana an authentic welcoming party. She later shows up with Stitch trick or treating.
- Leia
appears In Memoriam of Carrie Fisher. - Alan-a-Dale shows of the Year of the Rooster... but unfortunately isn't needed.
- Giselle and Stitch try their hand at princesshood, and Giselle gets some help from Jasmine.
- Elena shows up to make sure no-one's stealing her look. (Word of God confirms this is just a cameo and she won't be joining the Royal Court.)
- Hamm gets lucky money stuck in him during the Year of the Pig celebration.
- A couple of The Muppets characters have also appeared. Rizzo stops by for the food in the Year of The Rat celebration and Kermit greets a frog Naveen being dropped off at his swamp, who has heard the latter played a good ukulele.
- Scrooge is seen checking out Merida's dress in a photoshoot for Disney's 60th birthday.
- Kitty Yzma is presented to Rajah on National Kitten Day. Vanellope has also rented Mochi for the day from a cat cafe.
- Cassandra tries to get the princesses out of the ball pit… err… Dr. Scrooge's money pit at D23 Expo 2017.
- Babe the ox visits for The Year of The Ox.
- In response to "Olaf Presents", Ariel and Rapunzel file a lawsuit with the help of Snoopy the World Famous Attorney. Joe the Legal Weasel also appears.
- Tigger is chosen to represent for the Year of The Tiger, much to Jasmine and Rajah's displeasure.
- Mei, Miriam, Priya, and Abby visit the princesses' house on Halloween, having heard the place gives out whole pies.
- Randall was apparently the monster in the closet for several of the princesses.
- The girls give Minnie Mouse a makeover for her birthday.
- On one Friday the 13th, Mulan invites Oswald and Ortensia to celebrate. Oswald would later appear for The Year of the Rabbit, this time accompanied by Roger Rabbit.
- Kida shows up in a strip, but her application was rejected
- Carnivore Confusion:
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Giselle appears in a couple of early strips but appears to have been phased out.
- Collector of the Strange: Ariel has a tendency to hoard anything that catches her eye. Bringing her to a Comic Con may not be the best idea.
- Commonality Connection: The "Meet the Princesses" sub-series lists the princesses' best friends based on shared interests:
- Merida and Mulan, being the resident Rebellious Princesses who balk at being dolled up and married off.
- Belle and Snow White, who are both dreamy and sweet-natured.
- Tiana and Cinderella, the hard-working cooks and cleaners who went from Rags to Royalty.
- Ariel and Rapunzel, the exuberant princesses defined by their curiosity of the world.
- Jasmine and Rapunzel are also best friends for similar reasons and because there was an odd number of princesses at the time.
- Moana and Ariel, as Moana's connection with the ocean allows Ariel to roam the house in mermaid form more easily.
- Aurora and Pocahontas, both being Outdoorsy Gals.
- Anna and Elsa, the co-starring royal sisters who grew into Disney's premier Moe Couplet.
- Vanellope and Raya, the most recent princesses who rather battle than stay in dresses.
- Merida
- Cool Old Lady: Leia is old enough to be the other princesses' mother, but is still capable of slinging both shade and blasters with the best of them.
- Cosplay:
- The Love Your Comics strip features Elsa, Anna, and Ariel dressed up as Captain Marvel, Black Widow, and Jean Grey respectively.
- This gets revisited in time for Captain Marvel to come out, where Elsa, Mulan and Vanellope each have a "Carol Danvers" outfit on, and Snow has Cat Girl cosplay on.
- There was also this strip, showing Tiana, Jasmine, Rapunzel and Elsa dressed as Storm, Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Spider-Gwen, and a genderbent Iceman, respectively.
- Halloween Cosplay: Rapunzel, Cindy, Snow, Elsa, and Jasmine went as Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust, respectively. Meanwhile, Tiana, Belle, Pocahontas, and Mulan had trouble deciding which on them gets to go as Sally. It's a step up from last year's costumes...
- In this strip the princesses cosplay as the eleven Doctors.
- For yet another Halloween strip, Tiana, Merida and Rapunzel disguise as the Sanderson Sisters.
- The Love Your Comics strip
- Does Not Like Spam: The events of her movie have given Snow a fear of eating apples.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Some of the earlier strips show Giselle as a part of the cast.
- Election Day Episode: In anticipation of Ralph Breaks the Internet, Vannelope has begun a campaign to be officially listed as a princess. Her signs are on the property, and she'd given candy to Merida, Snow and Poca. As of November 23, 2018, she appears to have become a member of the cast.
- Everyone Hates Fruit Cakes: Subverted—to celebrate the upcoming Christmas season of 2017, Tiana made a fruitcake but figures that the other princesses are going to grouse about it, but Aurora and especially Merida are eager to taste it.
- Exposed to the Elements:
- Lampshaded in this comic, where Ariel and Jasmine are unsure why Belle is dressing up for cold weather.
- Jasmine soon has to for a January 2018 strip where she must brave the cold to get litter for Rajah (and to get to a shoe sale)—while Merida's about to get provisions and wonders why she's bundled like that.
- Moana joins Jasmine in "Cold Snap" for a February 2018 strip.
- Lampshaded in this comic
- Fangirl:
- Charlotte shows up in one strip where she goes absolutely Squee from meeting actual princesses. This later piece shows her chasing a few (probably wanting pictures and autographs).
- These strips show that the princesses are huge Star Wars fan-girls.
- Charlotte shows up in one strip
- Fire-Breathing Diner:
- Belle does not react well to Mulan's changes to Tiana's gumbo
- In a variation, Tiana's gumbo is so spicy, it melts Elsa's ice powers into waterpowers.
- Belle does not react well to Mulan's changes to Tiana's gumbo
- Friend to All Living Things: While all the princesses have their own animal and magical friends, Snow White almost instantly gets along with anything she meets, even the weirder magical beings that disturb or annoy the other princesses like Carpet and Olaf.
- Furry Reminder: Tiana and Cinderella had a bit of a quarrel when Cinderella's mice friends ate the food in Tiana's kitchen while Tiana's moth friends ate one of the Cinderella's dresses.
- Glass Slipper: Cinderella has to order entire crates of these as replacements since they break rather easily.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Part of the reason why Queen Elsa prefers to stay away from the Queen's Club is due to the presence of Evil Queens.
- Haggis Is Horrible: Tiana is not exactly looking forward to cooking haggis when she looks at the ingredients.
- Hair Flip: As "Hair Toss 101" demonstrates, proper hair flips require training. If Aurora has perfect mastery, Moana and Pocahontas have lots of trouble with the technique. As for Rapunzel, naturally, she just ends up entangling herself.
- Heavy Sleeper: Aurora, who frequently goes to sleep at the drop of a hat or at a prick of a finger.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: Talking with Woodland Creatures proves surprisingly useful when you could interrogate them for the whereabouts of runaway princesses.
- Hidden Depths: Kristoff is usually The Pig-Pen and brusque, but is capable of being neat and even thoughtful under the right circumstances. When he housesits for the girls, at first he makes a mess, but when they come back he has a spread of tea, coffee, and "Smorbrod" (the Danish version of a "open sandwich") ready for them when they come home as well as Sven having "Oaken's Edelweiss bath gel" if they wanted to freshen up before eating.Jasmine: Keep him.
- Homage: The Dapper Day strip is one to the Norman Rockwell Sunday Morning illustration◊.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Snow White does not have any dark secret. Given that the other Princesses' dark secrets consists in having a secret diary or fake jewelry, this means something.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Belle does not take Harry Potter ending very well.
- In-Series Nickname: Rose for Aurora/Briar Rose, Cindy for Cinderella, Tia for Tiana, Poca for Pocahontas.
- Inspiration Nod: One strip has Elsa reading The Snow Queen, the story that her movie was Inspired by….
- Jabba Table Manners:
- Merida and Mulan aren't exactly the most formal of eaters.
- 'Course, Belle isn't one to talk. She seems to have been influenced by the Beast
- Merida and Mulan aren't exactly the most formal of eaters
- Jumping Out of a Cake: Done for Aurora's 60th birthday, with a leather-clad Prince Phillip as the jumper.
- Lethal Chef:
- Rose seems to have learned fancy cake making from Fauna.
- The other princesses try to give Cindy and Tia a break and handle Thanksgiving dinner one year. Uh-Oh...
- Rose seems to have learned fancy cake making
- Messy Hair: Due to averting Wakeup Makeup, the Princesses are sometimes shown with messy bedhair. And then there's the effects of humidity on the princesses who lived in drier climates.
- Missing Mom: The Mother's Day comic gives an idea of how many Disney Princesses have lost their mothers.
- Mobile Fishbowl: How Ariel gets around as a mermaid.
- Modesty Towel: Ariel, whenever she has just changed from her mermaid to human form and has yet to put clothes on, will wear a towel around her waist.
- Mouthful of Pi: Parodied by Rapunzel. She can recite pie to 4,256 fillings
- Mundane Utility: Rapunzel's magical hair is used for a lot of things from washing lines, to jump ropes, to scaffoldings.
- Must Have Caffeine: Rapunzel and Anna, if their personal coffee mugs are to go by.
- Mythology Gag: Several of the gags are funnier if you're familiar with the Disney Animated Canon and Pixar films the characters came from.
- Neat Freak: Cinderella, who often cleans up the messes of other princesses.
- Negative Continuity:
- Things like Mulan's and Rapunzel's hair changes from pre- to post-Important Haircut depending on what fits the current joke.
- This strip has Ariel talking in human form. Previously, Ariel had been shown as The Speechless in human form.
- Not a Morning Person: As seen in the Morning People series of strips, which references the concept by name:
- The first: Practically everyone has trouble getting up in the morning, except for Pocahontas.
- The second shows Rapunzel being a morning person.
- The first
- Old-Timey Bathing Suit: Whenever there's a Pool Scene or a Beach Episode, it will frequently feature the princesses dressed up in old-fashioned types of swimwear since their movies did take place in the past.
- One-Word Title: Multiple:
- Outdoorsy Gal: Pocahontas and Aurora show Snow White isn't the only one in touch with nature.
- Out of Character Is Serious Business: The other princesses panic when they see Elsa in sweats and a hoodie.Aurora: WHO ARE YOU AND WHERE IS ELSA?!
Elsa: Oh, so everyone else gets a casual look but me? - Out of Focus: Mulan and Pocahontas don't appear as frequently as some of the other princesses.
- Panthera Awesome: Jasmine has a pet tiger, Rajah, who could double as a couch.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Stitch manages to pass as a princess with a princess dress.
- Picky Eater: This strip shows the problems of making a menu for an audience that's composed of a wide variety of lifestyles.
- The Place: Strip 212, San Diego Comic Con, named for the location where the strip apparently takes place.
- Power Incontinence: One strip has Elsa accidentally freezing Ariel's fishbowl. She barely touched it too. Another time she accidentally takes out a wall of the Princesses' house.
- Prefers Going Barefoot: Aurora, Moana, Pocahontas, and Rapunzel often prefer to go barefooted, much to the consternation of some of the more orderly princesses since they prefer to not have mud on the carpet. Aurora later learns one of the problems of always walking around barefooted when Cinderella breaks one of her slippers.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: This July 2, 2021 comic happened after the real-life Hurricane Elsa (previously Tropical Storm Elsa) became the first official hurricane of the 2021 Hurricane Season. The seriousness of Aurora's displeasure is emphasized by every word in her speech bubble being punctuated.
- Purity Personified: Snow White's main character trait. See the weapons comic, where Snow's "weapon" is an adorable little bird.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic with the government orders of staying indoors for quarantine, the princesses are shown doing their part of obeying social distancing rules and keeping themselves away from possible infection.
- Running Gag: Pumpkin spice. Anna, Ariel,Pocahontas and Rapunzel are big fans. Tiana and Cindy, not so much outside of Thanksgiving.
- Sanity Ball: There is no concrete Only Sane Man. Whilst the ball is most often in the hands of Belle, Tiana and Elsa, other characters may hold it, when those three show their crazy moments.
- Scarily Competent Tracker: Pocahontas, which is useful whenever one of the other princesses disappear.
- Schizo Tech: The headband Cinderella wears turns out to be earphones for an iPod.
- Shouldn't You Stop Stealing?: Ariel can't keep herself from collecting human trinkets and Jasmine is still quick to run away despite the issues that caused these habits being solved at the end of their movies. Why? Because Rule of Funny, that's why.
- Shout-Out:
- Ariel accidentally kidnaps a Princess Bubblegum cosplayer during the San Diego Comic Con 2013.
- When the princesses look for a Christmas tree, they find the one from A Charlie Brown Christmas.
- The princesses cosplay as the eleven Doctors.
- Yes, Elsa is wearing a Deathly Hallows sweatshirt.
- Tiana, Mulan and Jasmine as the Schuyler Sisters, and Belle as Lafayette.
- Elsa encounters her incarnations in other media and worries that she could be another Variant.
- Mei and her gang are dressed as Sailor Moon, Bart Simpson, Sally, and Lydia.
- Ariel accidentally kidnaps
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Anna and Elsa, as shown in their debut strip, which has Anna bouncing on a couch with Rapunzel and Ariel while an embarrassed Elsa is having tea with the older princesses.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Several of the princesses. One strip shows Pocahontas speaking in bird to have a conversation with Snow White.
- The Speechless: Since Ariel was mute when she was a human during The Little Mermaid, Ariel loses her voice whenever she's in human form in the comic.
- Spit Take: Ariel spit-takes out of surprise upon seeing Vannelope (disguised as a Tusken raider) "glitching" right before her.
- Squee: When Moana joins the princesses and brings her pet rooster, Heihei, with her, Jasmine squeals in delight when she sees him, whom she thinks is a very cute "parrot".
- Super-Deformed: The art style of the comic.
- Super Not-Drowning Skills: This backfires on Ariel when she instinctively breathes in bathwater.
- Supreme Chef: Tiana naturally, who is the mistress of the kitchen. Cindy also has shades of this, as shown in the Thanksgiving strip where she helps Tiana prepare the feast.
- Symbol Swearing: Fittingly, the comic is wholesome and won't show swearing, but Merida isn't above using grawlix.
- Tag Along Kid: Vanellope is this to the princesses, being younger and more energetic and childish than the rest of them.
- Take That!:
- A Jack Frost cosplayer apparently tried to
hit on Elsa, and paid the price. - All the girls (especially Mulan) are disturbed by a Ms. Fanservice cosplayer's "Mulan in a Slave Leia bikini" outfit during Comic-Con 2018. They also try to distract Leia from said outfit, knowing full well that she won't like it either.note
- Let's just say the girls have strong opinions about AI art.
- One comic has Belle complains on how all the photo shoots only want her in her ballgown instead of her more casual dresses. Cinderella sympathizes, recalling her other hairstyle with the side bangs.
- A Jack Frost cosplayer apparently tried to
- Take That, Audience!: This comic Con strip featuring Elsa infuriated by a Jack Frost cosplayer came after Amy was bombarded with messages asking for Elsa to have Jack as a boyfriend in the comic, even though the comic is Disney characters only and Amy has already expressed her dislike for the ship's massive prominence in the cosplay community.
- Team Mom: Leia Organa sees herself as this, giving advice to the princesses as needed.
- Tempting Apple: Snow White should really stay away from apples.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Several of the princesses after watching Avengers: Infinity War. Notably Elsa and Anna, who were clinging to each other for dear life. (Snow White seems either immune or most likely has been watching a different movie.)Elsa: I'm here, Anna...
Anna: 'M here, Elsa... - Tomboy and Girly Girl: Many of the conflicts come from Merida and Vanellope being very tomboyish and wild next to the more feminine Princesses.
- Uncanny Valley: An in-universe example. The disney princess figurines really stand out unsettlingly from Mebberson's art style, much to Snow White and Cinderella's horror.Snow White: I'm AFRAID, Cinderella.
Cinderella: I've got you, Snow. - Unusual Ears: Turns out those huge earrings of Jasmine aren't earrings at all.
- William Telling: Averted by Merida when Snow White just happens to have an apple on her head, although it takes lots of "Willpower". (Considering that Snow White freaks out at the sight of an apple, it was probably a joke by another of the girls.) Later gets a call-back showing that Merida controls herself much better, although she refuses to ruin a perfectly good apple, aiming at Anna's pigtails instead.
