Disney Prince Review: Prince Phillip, Sleeping Beauty

Phillip

Sleeping Beauty didn't make the impact Walt thought it would be, he thought it would be his greatest work but it didn't. Years later, like the Black Cauldron and Alice in Wonderland, the film became more popular later on and it is a legitimately good movie. A lot of things to separate it from Snow White and Cinderella, namely Prince Phillip. He's honestly not the greatest character but he was not only more present than Florian and Henry, but he was also more active and vocal as in he had dialogue for him. He's in the film first as a child meeting a newborn Aurora and he shows up later int he film meeting and falling in love with Briar Rose (who is actually Aurora). He is remembered for among other things, killing Maleficent which I always felt was a bit false none of what he accomplishes in regards to Maleficent would be possible without the Good Faeries, but whatever. Phillip wasn't the most interesting character but he did feel like something that was built on by the previous two.

Prince Phillip gets the action scenes and friendly animal moments his predecessors were denied but he also gets to take an active role in his love interest and he actually gets to initiate it. His relationship with Aurora/Briar Rose often feels more a feeling of destiny, the idea that love does find a way. He's very much the archetypal hero in a way that Henry would only be in later sequels of Cinderella. Even with all these it's hard to say exactly who he is other than the dashing hero and this is honestly true of Aurora as well. This is because it honestly isn't their film, Maleficent and the Good Faeries carry the film and make things happen with Aurora and Phillip really only pawns in the game. It should be noted that he doesn't even speak for the later part of the film along with Aurora who at least has the benefit of being magically asleep.

In a lot of ways, Phillip is his predecessors fully realized and honestly there isn't much to him which would make sense. Even if we take out the feeling that he and Aurora aren't the real players here, he still has the role to play of noble rescuer and like his predecessors, he does it but on a bigger scale. 

Tragic Hero?

Once Upon a Time doesn't give us the most in depth take on Phillip's character but it does play around with his story as the show usually does. Maleficent this time turns him into a monster that goes around rampaging villages while totally aware of what is going on and is only turned back by Belle's intervention. He then goes looking for Aurora with the help of Mulan (at times I swear this show wants to be like Kingdom Hearts). There isn't a lot of stuff to his character that I honestly remember other than his love for Aurora and the idea that he might have fallen for Mulan.

The First Generation

Three Princes in and what have we learned? Like the first three Disney Princesses, they are more archetypal than they are characters. Where Snow White, Aurora, and Cinderella were what we could view as the best of humanity, we could view their princes and their friends (the dwarfs, mice, and faeries) as the people who see them as such. If we wanted to get really negative we could say that the princes of this time exist to be rewards for our protagonists since they seem to only exist to marry the princess. The argument is comparable the idea of "The princess exists only to be rescued and coddled" and while I find the latter argument more credible, it is no less annoying as it ignores the context of the films. These characters don't just like the girl they meet, they know they have found someone they want to spend their entire lives with, it's love at first sight for them and they are willing to brave any danger for them, whether its dragons, witches, or trusting that even something as vague as a slipper will yield results (barring enchantment theory). These three are the original Disney Princes and like their counterparts, they are idealized, flawed, yet interesting in their own way.