ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses heroism in Disney’s animated Princess Line movies. The chapter problematizes the idea that these movies promote feminist Princess Line heroines by analysing the transcultural frictions that are created by the ethnic and cultural diversification of the Princess Line stories and the way they absorb ‘other’ cultures. Discussing the Princess Line movie Mulan (1998), and a more recent one, Moana (2016), it shows that the films establish female heroes with strong fighter and leadership qualities but fail to depict local Chinese and Polynesian cultures in any authentic or culturally sensitive way. The chapter argues that despite being marketed as feminist and multicultural, both movies represent and export Western girl hero fantasies in exotic dress-up.
