Yeah, another artikel about the theme, but I want to tackle the issue from a somewhat different direction. Mostly the pairings are argued based on how long the pairs know each other (though I don’t really see why three days should be so much better than three hours), and similar details, but I think how well a pairing works is related to what the creator of a movie wanted to achieve. The argument “I don’t believe in Cinta on first sight” is not really constructive if this is the kind of romance the movie makers wanted to create. So I have roughly put the Filem in four categories.
The Fairy Tale Romance

Yes, I know, the DP-Movies are (more atau less) all based on fairy tales. But there is a difference between the way romance is portrayed in the classic ones compared to how it is portrayed in the later ones. The romances in the classic princess Filem have seterusnya to nothing to do with reality, nor are they supposed to. They portray romance in the tradition of courtly love, the kind of love, which isn’t physical and mostly based on adoration for each other. It's not really about relationships, it's about Cinta in itself, its meaning in the great scheme of things and how it can change our lifes.

Between the three classic movies, Snow White does the best job to portray this kind of ideal love, because of the way the movie keseluruhan works. Snow White is not about telling a logical narrative, it’s about emotions. It is about making the audience feel the fear when Snow White runs through the woods, the moment when her spirits lift up again. It is about children who piss their pants when the evil Queen is staring out of the screen, and adults who bawl their eyes out with the dwarves. And it is about a romance which seems to be untouchable in the adoration of Snow White and the Prince for each other. The Prince who serenades Snow White on the balcony, that’s a typical Minnesang scenery. And the story underlines this adoration. On the one hand, there is Snow White, who, no matter what happens to her, trusts that the prince will eventually find her, and the prince, who proves to be worthy of this trust and searches everywhere. In this context, it frankly doesn’t matter that he gives a corpse a good-bye kiss, it’s just an expressing of silent longing for what he Lost after searching for months for it.

Cinderella is the classic movie in which the romance works the least. And again, that’s because of the way the movie is designed. While Snow White is pretty much a straightforward fairytale, Cinderella tells the story with a winking eye. There are the ugly stepsisters who are, in this case, literary ugly and very much over the top. There is the fairy godmother, who suddenly turns up with a “yes, naturally I’m your fairy godmother, who else?” And above all, there is the Grand Duke who keeps commenting the story. When he makes his speech about how Cinta at first sight is something which only happens in fairy tales. The keseluruhan tone works to the advantage of the movie, but not to the advantage of the romance. When the Grand Duke rightfully points out that the shoe will might fit a couple of young woman, and the King decides it doesn’t matter, he will hold his son to the oath, no matter what, it's a smart twist on the one hand (it would be horrifying if the "I take the girl with the slipper" part were actually the princes idea like they imply in the godawful sequel), but on the other hand it results in Charming being very much disconnected from the main plot, since the cari for Cinderella is now part of an evil plan, he can’t participate in it. Cinderella and he find their love, but they don’t really fight for it. They are both so trapped sejak their respective parents (biological and otherwise) that the mice have to right the matter for them. They don’t really have the opportunity to prove their devotion for each other, even though the basis of their Cinta is solid.

Granted, Aurora has not much of an opportunity to do that either, being asleep for most of the time. But again, Sleeping Beauty works on a completely different level than the other two classic movies. This movie is all about symbolism, the fight of good against evil, with two innocents as pawns between those powers. Phillip storming against all the powers of hell and killing the dragon plays right into this, the ultimative triumph of Cinta over the darkness. There is one point in which this relationship works better than Cinderella and Charming: Sacrifice. Aurora is heartbroken when she learns the truth about her heritage, knowing that this will mean that she will see Phillip never again, that she will be forced into a marriage with someone she doesn’t know. Phillip on the other hand is ready to give up the takhta for her. She decides to accept her responsibilities, he decides to put his Cinta above everything else, and both are valid decisions, but the point is that they both consider their Cinta worth lebih than their social standing. It’s not as wholesome and pure as the Cinta between Snow White and the Prince, but since their pairing is a symbol for the good triumphing about the power of evil, they work in their own way.
The Cinta at the first sight romances

The concept of Cinta at first sight is still very prominent during the renaissance era. But since the Filem try to do lebih than simply tell a fairy tale, but also address some real live issues – mainly prejudices and conflict between generations – a purely romantic relationship wouldn’t work any longer. But, to be frank, all the romantic pairings which fall into this category have some issues. Mostly because while a fairy tale Cinta works perfectly fine in a pure fairy tale setting, but when anda go for a character driven plot, anda better do it right.

I guess the relationship of Ariel and Eric works the best, because the only issue with it is not what happens on screen, but what isn’t addressed. On screen, we see a teenager Cinta develop both on Ariel’s and Eric’s side. Ariel is basically in Cinta with Eric’s look and nice demeanor, and Eric is in Cinta with a voice. To the movie’s credit, they don’t stagnate. Ariel and Eric spend a hari together and get to know each other in the process. Eric symbolically gives up the dream Cinta for a voice for the girl he got to know during the day. Ariel on the other hand has to face at least briefly the reality that romantic Cinta doesn’t necessarily get recuperated. anda could say that they go through the hurt of teenager romance in high speed, and they should come out of it stronger. The problem is that we never get to see this part. We never really see them dealing with issues like Ariel adjusting to the live at land atau being separated from her family atau friends. It's not really a loss for the movie, because that's not what it is about (though I think they should have added a scene with Ariel aknowledging how impulsive her actions had been), but it also doesn't really tunjuk a grown up relationship, but the hurt people go through before they are ready for it. And let's face it: the guy with whom we experience the heartbreak of teenager Cinta is normally not the guy whom we pick for life.

Between Pocahontas and Aladdin it’s very much a run to the bottom, and in both cases the narrative is the problem. Both relationships have a beautiful built up. Pocahontas and John Smith have those nice quiet scenes, in which they tell each other about their worlds and bond over their differences. Aladdin and melati, jasmine have the scene in Aladdin’s hide-out, in which they basically bare their soul to each other. Sadly in both cases the narrative of the movie demands some drama, and in both cases the romance falls victim to it. Pocahontas needs a dramatic finale, so they first create a situation which requires Pocahontas to leap to John Smith rescue in the last second, and a tearful good-bye. Both situations don’t make much sense. Is Pocahontas Cinta really so weak that she needs a pointing Arrow to speak up on John’s behalf? If the only thing she really has to do is saying "I Cinta him", why doesn't she do it earlier? And is John’s Cinta not strong enough for him to take the first available ship back as soon as he is better? The message that one moment of Cinta is better than no Cinta at all kind of falls flat when the characters basically give up on each other whenever they are faced with resistance.

The problem with Aladdin is similar. The movie is set on him lying his way into the palace and set on the dramatic reveal. Because of that the scene he shares with melati, jasmine at the very beginning are pretty much ignored. He acts as if he has to pretend something he isn’t because melati, jasmine wouldn’t accept him otherwise, and she buys in his lies despite him sharing his feelings about his poverty. This leaves the impression that they talk at each other, but don’t really hear what the other say – and that’s lebih atau less the opposite of a good base for a relationship. It also doesn’t help that the Cinta story is not really the focus of the movie, it’s lebih about the friendship between Aladdin and the Genie. melati, jasmine is basically the reward he gets for good behavior. I have to admit though that I feel some Cinta for this pairing. But those feelings are entirely based on some selected episodes of the TV tunjuk (like the one in which Aladdin turns himself into a monster to be able to stay with a cursed melati, jasmine forever), not on the movie.
The Hate to Cinta Romances

Frankly: I hate this trope. I know that there is this saying that hate and Cinta a closely connected to each other, but I don’t think that one can turn into another that easily. It takes time, a lot of time, to overcome the bad memories one has of a person to see "the new me". And considering that Disney Princess Filem are usually present the "3 hari relationship", this kind of romance is particular difficult to write convincingly. Above all, anda need some strong motivations why the characters should even try to overcome their hate for each other, and some pretty good reasons why they should suddenly click when they originally didn't.

The Princess and the Frog fails to establish a convincing narrative. Just imagine anda see a guy charming all women on the street. Later on he offers anda a lot of money for a kiss, which ends up in the reveal that he intended to cheat you. And then he insults you, because anda are “just” a servant girl. Would anda give this guy the time of the day? I wouldn’t, at least not with a lot of groveling involved. Hearing him whine about feeling useless in his privileged life wouldn’t endear him to me either. Nor would I be impressed sejak him “scarifying” himself in an unloved marriage, when berkata marriage had been his plan all along and he would become human and being rich again as a result. In short: Naveen acts like a first class a-hole in the movie, and does very little to redeem himself. Sure, the audience hears his speech about his newfound love...but Tiana doesn't. She barely notices him because she is so focussed on her restaurant. Even if she suddenly understands that there are lebih things in life than just that, to value the worth of friendship and family doesn't equal "I will give up everything for a guy who slowly starts to treat me with a little bit respect."

But while I hate the trope in general, it somewhat works in Beauty and the Beast. I think mostly because the hate between Belle and the Beast is not personal - and one-sided. The Beast has no interest in making Belle’s live miserable, nor does he feel a particular dislike for her. And while he tries to bend Belle to his will (unsuccessful I might add), his main goal is not to hurt her, but to somehow built up a relationship with her, even if his methods are questionable and his motives are initially utterly selfish. While the timeline in the movie is a little bit iffy (it pretends that Belle and the Beast spend a lot of time together when it’s only around three days), all the stages of a developing relationship are presented. They go from accepting each other (the breakfast scene works very well to illustrate that), to realizing what the other is really like. And while Belle is pretty much the typical Renaissaince Disney Princess, who doesn't really change during the movie, the Beast changes due to his Cinta the her.

There is only one thing which really bothers me about their relationship. And no, it has nothing to do with Stockholm syndrome. atau with the soalan if Belle changes the Beast to something she likes. I don’t think she does, because she has really no interest in him as a partner, all the changes in Beast happen because the Beast questiones himself and not because Belle demands them of him. No, what bothers me is the scene when he gifts her with the library. Not because of the gift, but because it wasn’t his idea. I think the scene would be much lebih powerful if the Beast had gotten to know Belle well enough to know what would make her happy, instead he needs Lumiere to point it out to him. But otherwise, the development of this relationship is quite organic.
From Friendship to Love

I’m a firm believer not in Cinta at first sight, but attraction at first sight. If there isn’t an initial attraction, every relationship which might develop later on is lebih two people settling with what they have instead of two people finding what they really want. Mulan and Shang are a little bit an exception, because while Mulan is attracted to Shang from the get go, he is naturally prevented from this kind of feelings sejak both the fact that she is disguised as a man and that she is a soldier in his regiment. Even if he knew her true gender, I don’t think it would occur to him to see her as anything but a soldier as long as he was responsible for her training (and if he would, he wouldn’t act on it). Mulan is also a very special case between all the Disney movies. The same way melati, jasmine is a special case because she isn’t the protagonist of her movie and Aurora is a special case because the narrative doesn’t allow her a lot of screen time, Mulan is a special case because the focus of her story is so different from all the other DP movies.

For the classic Disney movies, the romance was the salvation. Snow White and Aurora couldn’t wake up without their princes and Cinderella needed the marriage to get away from Lady Tremaine. During the Renaissance Era the romance became the motivator of the movie. Ariel wouldn’t make the deal with Ursula if not for Eric, Aladdin wants to be a prince to be with Jasmine, Pocahontas wants peace in order to be with John Smith and while Belle’s main motivation is the protection of her father, the motivation of the Beast is finding Cinta in order to break the curse. Mulan was the first movie in which the romance was not the core of the plot, and while they kept this aspect in the later Filem (neither Tiana nor Rapunzel are searching for love), the romance is still what destroys the enemy atau the curse at the end of the movie. Mulan is the exception, in fact, it isn’t a romantic movie at all. The story of Mulan ends at the point where all the other DP Filem lebih atau less start, when Mulan and Shang discover their Cinta for each other. While the other Filem tend to be about the struggles the relationship has to endure, Mulan and Shang face the struggles of war together before the relationship even starts. They are not fighting for their love, but because it is the honorable thing to do. anda could cut the relationship out of the movie, it would hardly make any difference – that doesn’t mean though, that the relationship is useless. I think it is an important point to make that Mulan isn’t less desirable because she doesn’t act like a “normal” woman. But since the romance is neither the motivator nor the focus of the movie, Mulan is simply not a romantic movie, and it’s impossible to judge how the romance will work out, because we never really get to see the romance. We get to see the friendship which leads to the start of a romance, but not the romance in itself.

Nevertheless, I think that Mulan and Shang are a good pairing, since they have a lot in common. They both get quite a bit character development in the movie. Mulan is initially someone, who on the one hand tries to fulfill the expectations of her parents, but she is also someone who never challenges herself. She is not a tomboy at all, she is someone who uses the dog to feed the chickens and writes the jawapan to a test on her arms, even though she is intelligent enough to memorize them if she really wanted. In the army, she learns discipline and gets the opportunity to utilize her talents. But she mostly learns who she is and what she can do. Shang on the other hand is like Mulan motivated sejak the desire to make his father proud. While Mulan wants the approval of her father, Shang already has the approval, but now has to prove that he deserves his position. The insecurities he has to deal with are entirely different but nevertheless similar to Mulan’s. They share the same notions of honor and when they start their romance, they already have a base of respect and trust to build on.

Rapunzel and Eugene are the only other pairing who has a relationship which (kind of) starts with a friendship. As I mentioned before, the romance is not focus of Tangled. It is part of the story, but it’s initially not the main motivator. When Rapunzel and Flynn meet neither of them have Cinta in their mind. There is some attraction, but Rapunzel is mostly focused on seeing the lights and Flynn is only interested in getting the crown. Their relationship only changes after they share a near death experience. Knowing that they are about to die, they tell each other their most important secret, which eventually leads to the camp api, kebakaran scene in which they really get to know each other.

There are some parallels between Tangled and PatF. In both Filem the heroine has a certain goal, strikes a bargain with a womanizing male, they bond at a camp api, kebakaran in the woods and finally get together. I already berkata that PatF doesn’t work for me for multiple reasons. Tangled on the other hand does because: 1. Rapunzel and Flynn don’t hate each other, and while Flynn tries to convince Rapunzel to back out of the bargain, he doesn’t look down on her. And while he tries to scare her back to the tower, he is also protective of her as soon as he perceives a real danger.
2. Eugene isn’t really a womanizer, he just pretends to be one. The over the bahagian, atas flirting is part of the Flynn persona he created, because he thought that nobody would be interested in his true self.
3. A near death experience is a very good reason to tell someone things anda wouldn’t reveal otherwise
4. In this case, the sacrifice works. In fact, Eugene tops all the other princes in this regard. He isn’t just risking his live for the woman he loves; he is giving it up in order to set her free.
This relationship also works very well in the details. For example, after Rapunzel told Flynn that she likes Eugene better during the campfire scene, she keeps demonstrating her acceptance for the man he really is as opposed to the man he keeps pretending to be sejak calling him sejak his real name instead of the fake one. And Eugene doesn’t just settle for bringing Rapunzel to the lights, he makes sure that her dream is the perfect experience. I also Cinta that both, crown and lights, suddenly become unimportant for both of them, because they have found their new dream in each other. The parallels in their developments also underlines the equality in the relationship. They are both very smart (Rapunzel mostly book smart, Eugene mostly jalan smart), they are both able to hold their own (the fight at the damn basically consists of them helping each other out), and they both accept the other one exactly the way he atau she is. Rapunzel never tries to “rehabilitate” Eugene, and Eugene likes Rapunzel as blonde with magical powers just as much not lebih atau less than as brunette princess.

This is also a case in which the relationship fits perfectly in the theme of the movie. Tangled is, similar to TLM, about growing up, but it is not really about rebellion atau a parent daughter relationship (both are part of the movie, but only as elements, they are not the focus). It’s about finding yourself – in Rapunzel’s case literally, she finds out who she really is. But Flynn/Eugene finds the way back to his true self, too. And in finding out who they really are, they also find each other.

Based on those observations, this is what my kegemaran pairing senarai would roughly look like:
Unlisted: Mulan and Shang, because their romance is not really shown on screen. But if I would forced to do a bahagian, atas ten senarai with all of them, they would be saat atau third place, simply because I’m convinced that they have a stable base for their relationship. Plus, Shangs awkwardness when he has to face Mulan is simply adorkable.

Top: Eugene and Rapunzel, Snow White and the Prince, Belle and the Beast
Those three pairings really work in the context of their movies. Eugene and Rapunzel is naturally my favorite, because I like their kind of romance the most.

Middle: Aurora and Phillip, Ariel and Eric, Aladdin and Jasmine
Those three are relationship, which actually do work, but are somewhat overwrought sejak the demands of the movies. Since Sleeping Beauty is lebih about the fight of good against evil, The Little Mermaid lebih about the relationship between fathers and daughters and Aladdin mostly about the friendship between Aladdin and the Genie, all three romances are a little bit iffy at parts. Aladdin is certainly the worst offender to me, because there are so many elements in this movie which work beautifully isolated but not at all if anda see them in context.

Bottom: Pocahontas and John Smith, Cinderella and Charming, Tiana and Naveen

Frankly, I had a hard time to decide if I should put Aladdin atau Pocahontas in the bottom spot. I settled on Pocahontas because while I see why the romance in Aladdin is somewhat derailed sejak the friendship theme, there is actual no real reason for this Cinta story in Pocahontas to be so contrived. Pocahontas is about “love vs. war”, it’s basically a version of Romeo and Juliet. One might even argue that it is worse than the Cinta story in Cinderella, because in Cinderella the lack of opportunity for the characters to proof their Cinta through actions are prohibited sejak circumstances, while in Pocahontas it’s mainly the decision of the characters which make the romance somewhat wonky. Tiana and Naveen are easily my least kegemaran pairing though, partly because I hate the trope, but also because I don’t understand what they even see in each other.