Yeah, the fact that Alice was chosen as one of the princesses of heart never made any sense all to me.
Originally Posted by
Jinx
There is no such thing as a Native American princess.
Native American here. Tell that to my tribe, which currently has three princesses.
Also, in the stupid sequel
Pocahontas II when she goes to the new world, the people there refer to her as a princess. And honestly, being the daughter of a chief really is the closest thing to a Native American equivalent. But it's true, "princess" was not a Native American term until the last couple centuries.
I've always wanted to see Pocahontas in
Kingdom Hearts but I'm guessing Nomura either didn't really like that movie or just can't think of a way to feasibly work her/her world into it well.
As for the whole "Disney Princess" thing, they don't actually have to be a princess to be a "Disney Princess". You see, the group who came up with the whole DP thing base it on something they call "The Princess Mythology" which means they have to meet certain criteria, mainly four things: They have to sing, they have animal friends, they have to have a love interest, and they have to come from a film that was a well known roaring box office success. This is why characters who meet the criteria like Megara from
Hercules and Esmeralda from
The Hunchback of Notre Dame aren't part of it (those films were both successes, but they weren't THAT successful), nor are actual princesses like Kida from
Atlantis: The Lost Empire or Eilonwy from
The Black Cauldron (they don't fit the criteria, plus those films were box office bombs).
Of course, that's all apparently stopped applying now that Merida from
Brave is a Disney princess. She doesn't sing, doesn't really have any animal friends (unless you count the horse she rides), doesn't have a love interest, and technically isn't even a Disney created character. So I think now it just comes down to being the female lead from a roaring box office success. Which begs the question why Elsa hasn't been added to the lineup, although I'd guess it's because she's still literally printing money on her own without being part of a secondary character lineup.