Disney princesses have always been rather small, but we might be able to forgive that if they didn’t have such abnormal faces. They all have a very childlike imagining of beauty- huge eyes, wide cheeks, and a small nose. From Disney’s point of view, maybe this is used to emphasise their innocence and emotions, or to make them appeal more to children in that they have a curious mixture of childlike qualities and adult features. However, from the point of view of anyone older than a child, they’re very much stylised.

Photoshop artist TheNamelessDoll has reimagined Disney princesses to make them look less like cartoons can more like ‘normal’ people you’d meet on the street. This includes making the eyes smaller and the noses larger, but in the case of Anastasia and Belle, this also means giving them some extra padding so that they have proportions more in line with the normal female figure. The results of the Photoshop edits are captivating and a little unnerving, as though the princesses have actually come to life and turned into real people. Once you see these, its difficult not to notice just how overdrawn and over animated the characters are, and how little they actually portray adult women.

Merida from Brave

Merida’s face has had a whole re-imagining and she looks much more human, as well as a quite a bit older.

Rapunzel from Tangled

Rapunzel’s long hair is often seen as being her main attribute, but what about the huge staring eyes? In this edit, she seems like she was actually modelled on a real person instead of a strange woman-child hybrid.

Honey Lemon from Big Hero 6

Giving the face normal proportions makes a huge difference to Honey Lemon and you can really see just how exaggerated they are to start with.

Cass Hamada from Big Hero 6

In the before and after it’s clear to see how much Disney characters’ eyes influence the size of the head. With smaller eyes, the head looks as though it has been shrunk by half.

Mother Gothel from Tangled

It seems that it isn’t just the princesses and ‘good’ characters that get the childlike treatment, even old Mother Gothel has been subjected to having huge eyes and a tiny nose. This edit is quite unsettling as she looks less scary and deranged with more normal facial proportions.

Ana from Frozen

Ana looks incredibly more realistic without the ‘baby face’ that Disney had given her in Frozen. She looks much older, probably closer to the age is supposed to be by the end of the movie.

Colette from Ratatouille

Colette looks almost unrecognisable with normal sized facial features.

Elsa from Frozen

As well as creating an edited image, the artist also created a new GIF of the character. It’s hard to go back once you’ve seen the reincarnation of Disney favourite Elsa, with her actually looking her age instead of a bit bug eyed.

Anastasia from Anastasia

In this image and GIF, Anastasia is given a body which is more to the same proportions as Sophie. It makes her look wildly more real and human, without any of the ‘jolliness’ that larger Disney characters usually have. Many fans are waiting for the day that they will see a plus size protagonist or princess, and this edit shows that the idea would actually work well.

Belle from Beauty and the Beast

Belle has also been given a plus size makeover, although this one isn’t quite as dramatic. Still she looks much more realistic, retaining her perfect features but adding some extra weight that will be familiar to all of us. Nothing is detracted from her beauty and, if anything, she actually looks more realistic.