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Since I’m done with the connecting the Disney movie series, I thought we would just go over what the time period and general location of each of the Disney princess movies. Some movies it’s really easy to tell where they happened based off the story or the architecture, while others are a little more difficult to place. Some are placed in certain areas due to the author of the original tale and their origins, while others are taking context clues from the movies. And yes some of these may be off, but it’s not like it’s specifically stated anywhere in these movies where their fictional land takes place. And I have seen a lot of different ideas floating around where and when each movie occurred.
- Snow White: Germany around the mid-1500s.
- Aurora from Sleeping Beauty: England or Northern Italy in the 1400s.
- Belle from Beauty & the Beast: France in the mid-1700s.
- Cinderella: Germany in the late 1880s.
- Jasmine from Aladdin: Arabian Peninsula in the 300s.
- Ariel from The Little Mermaid: Denmark in the mid to late 1800s.
- Mulan: China, Northern Wei Dynasty, 386-534 AD
- Pocahontas: Virgina in the early 1600s.
- Tiana from The Princess & The Frog: New Orleans in 1920s.
- Merida from Brave: Medieval Scotland.
- Rapunzel from Tangled: Northern Italy or Austria in early 1800s.
- Anna and Elsa from Frozen: Norway in 1840s
- Moana: Polynesia in the 1000s.

Credit: Claire Hummel
Love ya,
Mae Polzine
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I’m sorry but some are actually wrong
OML I cannot get over Rapunzels place! She lives in Germany! Cinderella lives in France! And Moana takes place in 500 B.C.
Mulan was somewhere between 100 BC and 300 AD based on when the Huns invaded China. Moana was over 2000 yrs ago, so we can assume late BC. Based on research I am thinking something like this:
Moana 300 – 100s BC
Mulan 100 BC – 300s AD
Jasmine 300s
Merida 300s
Aurora 1400s
Snow White 1500s
Rapunzel/Anna/Elsa- some say 1840s according to an alleged Roman numeral on a map though they were not roman, but in the the Norwegian region, used crossbows and swords vs guns so I believe this did not take place after the industrial revolution and should be 1600s
Pocahontas 1600s
Belle 1700s
Cinderella 1800s
Ariel mid to late 1800s
Tiana 1920
Vanellope Von Schweetz 2000s
Some of these are wrong, for Instance rapunzel and Flynn (eugene) are seen attending Elsas coronation and look the same as at then end of tangled. So it can’t be 40 years in her future she’d be nearly 60, how can she still look like she’s 19.
Author
The time periods are based around the original fairy tales, not taking into consideration easter eggs.
Yes, Rapunzel and Eugene appear in Frozen as Easter Eggs similar to how other characters make appearances in other movies as well even though they don’t make sense to the timeline (i.e. age of characters, etc.).
♥ Mae
The year for Aladdin is definitely wrong. Multiple times throughout the movie you hear them say “praise Allah” meaning the Islamic god. However Islam never existed until the 7th century. Also the city Agrabah is obviously based on Baghdad, Iraq so clearly not the Arabian Peninsula.
thanks for this post, (even though it may or may not be accurate.) my brother and i were kept searching: which disney princess story takes place first and it’s always been snow white cuz that movie came out first
Author
You’re welcome! Yeah everyone has different thoughts on when these tales take place. As it depends on which version of the original tale you go with and if you take what Disney roughly based their movies around.
♥ Mae
In Sleeping Beauty Prince Phillip says “this is the 14th century” to his father making the time period the 1300s.