Last week, I updated an old post called The Missing Disney Princesses with a brand new MBTI Chart featuring the 14 official princesses (well, technically there are 11 official princesses, plus Anna and Elsa who have their own line, and Moana who hasn’t been crowned yet. So it was more like the “Official + New/Popular Princesses Chart”).
There are other Disney women, though, who’ve been completely snubbed by the Disney princess line-up and I wanted to include those as well. I had them on a separate chart in my previous post and I wanted to follow that pattern this time as well. Eilonwy and Alice were the most requested characters I left out last time, so I’m adding them. And I’ve also added a character no one asked about from my favorite underappreciated Disney films — Maid Marion from Robin Hood.
Note: I’m not using anything from sequel films (just to help narrow-down the typing choices), so that’s why you won’t see Ariel’s daughter Melody (for example). I also type using cogitative functions. If you’re not familiar with that aspect of Myers-Briggs theory, click here and here for a two-part introduction. Read on for detailed explanations for why I chose these types for the unofficial princesses, and click here for the post about the other princesses.
Alice – ENTP
I’m reluctant to try typing Alice. She’s widely assumed to be about 7 years old and it’s nearly impossible to type children that young with any accuracy. Also, most of the film seems to take place inside her head so that complicates things. We’ll give it a go, though.
Alice seems to lead with Extroverted Intuition (that’s why I’m typing her ENTP instead of INTP). It’s the most visible aspect of her personality. I can’t imagine a Sensing type ever saying, “If I had a world of my own everything would be nonsense.” That seems much more the sort of thing a bored, curious intuitive would say as they try to explore every possibility no matter now far-fetched. As Alice goes through Wonderland, she’s constantly testing the different aspects of the world and asking questions. Her intuition is real-world focused (Ne) and not so much about observing patterns (Ni).
I’m typing her as an ENTP rather than ENFP for these reasons: I think we get a glimpse of tertiary Extroverted Feeling in the way Alice fits in with the flowers. And if we accept Wonderland as a glimpse into Alice’s introverted side, it seems more like Introverted Thinking trying to make sense of all her ideas than Introverted Feeling trying to make sense of herself. Supporting this is her lament that she “never stopped to reason.” She recognizes that her Ne curiosity tends to get her in trouble before her less developed Ti has a chance to catch up.
Giselle – ESFJ
I previously typed Giselle the same way I typed Snow White because, according to Disney Wikia, director Kevin Lima describes her as “about 80% Snow White, with some traits borrowed from Cinderella and Aurora … although her spunky attitude comes from Ariel.” This time, I actually re-watched the film and I still think ESFJ is the best fit.
Giselle’s only focus near the beginning of the film is on love and connection. She’s keenly aware of how the people around her feel and she’s distressed until she can work to bring them all back into harmony. And at the end, she chooses a career that constantly connects her with children to make their dreams come true. Those traits scream dominant Extroverted Feeling type.
On the Sensing/Intuition side, for all her dreaminess Giselle is focused on the here-and-now. She’s not asking the sort of “what if…?” questions that drive intuitive types. She’s sure she knows how the world works and she’s perfectly comfortable with her version of reality.
Eilonwy – ENFP
I wasn’t sure how to type Eilonwy after watching the film, so I also re-read her scenes in The Book of Three. It didn’t help much. Sometimes she seems like chatty, exploration-focused ENxP type. Sometimes she seems a practical, blunt ExTJ type. Sometimes she seems like an adventurous, confident ESxP type. It’s really quite vexing.
For this chart, I’m settling on ENFP. I feel the fact that she’s perfectly comfortable in new experiences (even being stolen) and her dedication to exploring everything she can points to a dominant Extroverted Intuition type. Though she has a strong practical streak and shoots down Taran’s more imaginative ideas, I’m going to stay that’s due to tertiary Extroverted Thinking rather than a Sensing preference. In the book I might have typed her as an ENTP or ENTJ, but she seems a bit more feeling and “feminized” in Disney’s version.
Esmeralda – ESFP
Soooooo hard to type. I originally typed her as an ENTP, so this is basically me saying I was completely wrong. I now think she’s a healthy, mature example of the ESFP personality type. Previously, I’d said she leads with Extroverted Intuition, which re-watching makes me think is dead wrong. She’s not exploring possibilities, generating theories, and pushing buttons just to see what will happen. She’s much more in-the moment sensory as she dances and performs, flaunts her escape at the Festival of Fools, and plays the crowds.
That by itself doesn’t make her ESFP, though, and I’ve seen several people argue she’s an Extroverted Feeling type like ENFJ. They’re citing her song “God Help The Outcasts” as evidence that she’s concerned with the best outcomes for other people. But concern about others isn’t exclusively a trait of Extroverted Feeling and she doesn’t display other markers of Fe. She doesn’t pick up on Quasimodo’s affection for her or jealously of Phoebus, she doesn’t use emotion to manipulate the people she meets, and her decisions seem more concerned with her personal convictions than with maintaining harmony in relationships.
I almost labeled her an introvert, considering her comment about envying Quasimodo’s isolation, but overall she seems more extroverted. Also, she displays quite a few traits associated with Thinking types. ESFPs have Extroverted Thinking as their tertiary function, which coupled with her Extroverted Sensing helps explain her verbal and literal sparing with Phoebus when he pursues her into Notre Dame. (An ISFP would have thinking as their inferior “stress function,” which is not the case with Esmeralda.)
Jane Porter – ISTJ
Jane and Tiana switched places on this new chart (I’d previously typed Tiana as an ISTJ and Jane as an ESTJ). Her Extroverted Thinking is easy to spot. She’s very fact oriented and talks through her ideas as she makes decisions and processes information. She’s not a dominant Feeling type. There’s some indication that she thinks being true to herself is important when making decisions (ISTJs do have Fi in their stack as a Tertiary function), but little indication that maintaining social harmony is one of her primary goals (as it would be for an Fe user). Her interest in science is also an indication that she’s a Thinking type (though of course not definitive).
I’m typing her as an SJ type because she does seem traditional in her ideas and approach to the world. Si is a very observant, inward-focused function that is generally more concerned with reality than abstract possibility. On the whole, Jane seems to prioritize this function over her decision-making Te. Though she is quite talkative (my reason for typing her as an extrovert last time) her main focus is more on learning and taking in information than on the outer world of action.
This typing puts Extroverted Intuition as Jane’s inferior/stress function. Types with intuition in their blind spot are particularly sensitive to unknown futures and decisions they can’t predict an outcome for. When faced with a huge, looming, decision (like whether or not to abandon civilization and stay in the jungle) they might feel like they’ve lost control over details of their lives or come up with worst-case scenarios (which Jane does trying to convince herself to leave Tarzan). When not stressed, ISxJ types might have their Ne show up as a tendency to daydream, which Jane’s father tells us she does.
Kida – ESTJ
Kida is an open, welcoming person with strong values and a commitment to her city. That alone sounds very much like an SJ type (often called the Guardians). As the film progresses, it becomes clear she’s a dominant Extroverted Thinking type. Just take a look at some of her dialogue:
- “I have some questions for you and you’re not leaving this city until they’re answered.”
- She guesses Milo is a scholar because, “Judging from your diminished physique and large forehead, you are suited for nothing else.”
- Tells Milo his accent is “boorish, provincial, and you speak it through your nose.”
She just naturally speaks her mind in a straight-forward way that has earned TJ types a reputation in some circles for arrogance and rudeness (they typically just see it as the most efficient way to communicate accurate data). As is typical of ESTJs, Kida refuses to be patronized (doesn’t like Milo trying to soften her failure to start the speeder), takes things very literally (Milo’s answers to her first questions about the team confuse her because he’s too metaphorical), and acts decisively.
Maid Marion – ISFJ
Marion is a sweet, gentle soul who loves meeting people. The way she interacts with the kids indicates a type using Extroverted Feeling. She’s not seeking out people the same way a dominant Fe type (ENFJ or ESFJ) would, though. She’s more of an introvert content with the society she gets from Lady Cluck but glad to meet other people and attend social gatherings when she gets a chance.
Though a dreamer, I wouldn’t type her as an intuitive type. As I’ve said elsewhere, Introverted Sensing is an subjective, inward-focused mental process that’s tied to the real, concrete world but certainly isn’t unimaginative. There’s a practicality to Marion’s dreams — Robin might have forgotten all about her while she’s gone because absence can make the heart grow forgetful just as easily as fonder. This tells me she’s an Si type with inferior Ne playing into her dreams as well as her uneasiness about an uncertain future (something Si dominant types generally struggle with).
Megara – ISTP
“I’m a damsel. I’m in distress. I can handle this. Have a nice day.” (I love this line)
Meg is a practical thinking woman who runs all her decisions through her dominant function — Introverted Thinking. This mental process wants things to make sense. What other people want or need doesn’t really matter all that much. She applies this sense of objective analysis to herself and other people. She thinks of herself as “petty and dishonest,” along with everyone else. It’s only after Hercules starts giving her conflicting evidence (by proving he’s not trying to take advantage of her and likes her for herself, not just her body) that she falls for him. At that point, she warns Hercules away from her (lying isn’t something TP types easily do to those they love).
Meg’s use of Extroverted Sensing shows up in how she manipulates people. It’s similar to the way Jasmine uses her sexuality to manipulate Jaffar (though Marvel’s Black Widow would be a more ISTP example). Along with Ti, it also explains her intense sense of individuality — neither mental process likes being told what to do. She’s controlled by Hades only to a certain extent — not because her highest priority if being true to self (an Introverted Feeling trait) but because she prizes freedom from outside control. It’s what she craves most in the entire cosmos.
It’s worth noting that we see Meg using her less-dominant mental processes as well. She’s clearly under stress as Hades’ captive/slave. Her choice to swear “off man handling” is tied to the fact that her boyfriend abandoned her after she sold her soul to Hades to save him, but it’s also consistent with an ISTP’s stress reaction. Naomi Quenk associates “Hypersensitivity to relationships” with stressed Thinking types, along with a struggle to always maintain the appearance of control.
Nala – ENTJ
Nala’s a bit hard to type. She doesn’t really have all that many scenes that show her introverted side. She does seem very outward focused, hence typing her as an extrovert. I see her as a strong ETJ type with her tendency to bluntly state exactly what she thinks is the most effective solution to any question. We see this mostly strongly in the scene where she discovers adult Simba in hiding.
Unlike we’d expect from an Extroverted Feeling type (like the ESFJ I sometimes see her typed as), she doesn’t pick up on Simba’s reluctance to let other lions know he’s alive. “Of course they” need to know he’s alive, because “everyone thinks you’re dead.” Nothing matters except he’s the king and therefore the most effective solution to Scar’s control. You see a glimpse of her softer side when she says how much she missed him, but that’s not enough to type her as a dominant Feeler.
I’m going with ENTJ because of two things: Nala is the only lioness who leaves to find help (indicating she’s more comfortable breaking out of the status-quo than others) and her desire to see things from Simba’s perspective (“I would [know what you’ve been through] if you just tell me”). It’s really not much to go on, but it plays into a hunch that she’s more interested in figuring out what to do next than in guarding tradition (which is more NT than SJ type).
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I appreciate this chart and your thoughts, but I disagree with a lot of it.
For starters, I definitely think Alice is an INTP. Despite me simply thinking she’s an introvert whose Ne pairs more with her Ti than vise-versa, I think the way she expresses her feelings shows clear inferior Fe.
Esmeralda is ENFJ. She’s a clear Fe user, through and through. The way she talks to and bonds with Quasimodo over his emotions, as well as her singing a whole song dedicated to understanding other people’s emotions of pain and suffering is such a high Fe thing to do.
Elsa is ISxJ. So much Si in that girl.
I don’t see the Ne in Moana that would make her an ENFP. To me she’s a clear Se user, ala an ESFP.
Jane, ugh. Jane has been so hard for me to type. But so much about her just screams Ti and Ne to me. The way she goes about her ideas and social interactions reminds me of all the INTP’s I’ve known. I definitely think TI-NE-SI-FE are her functions. Any decisions she makes using Feeling isn’t necessarily her own. She was ready to leave the jungle and never come back until her dad told her it was okay to stay. But I agree, Jane doesn’t lead with a feeling function.
There are some other characters I’d probably type differently (Anna-ESFP Rapunzel-ENFJ) but other than that, good job here. 🙂
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Fictional characters are so hard to type “correctly” and it’s nice to get different peoples’ views 🙂
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She’s not ENFJ, she shows every marker of inferior Ni. She voluntarily leaves the sanctuary out of a freespirited whim. Under Frollo’ clear warning it would evidently get her caught and arrested, but she didn’t have much Ni to be aware of the effect of her freespirited actions. She’s a roaming free spirit, someone who in her own words doesn’t do well inside stone walls and prefers to wander free despite danger. Frollo is an actual NJ. She isn’t. You can easily see how Ni repressing Se versus Se repressing Ni appears differently. And it’s very different. Frollo is a long-term planner who has decades of foresight but ruins his plans based on one sensual impulse he desperately tries to suppress, and suddenly wrecks every scheme he had by burning Paris based on his sexual desire (and no, Si isn’t tRaDiTiOn by itself, it’s an awareness of inner sensations and isolating a common thread of experience for oneself throughout time, that’s where their penchant for routine comes from). Esmeralda is impulsive, bold, embraces her sensuality and free-spirited, but doesn’t always manage to see the consequences of what she does (and is pretty bad at cracking people’s motivations, like seeing that Quasimodo was quite obviously infatuated with her, inadvertently hurting his feelings).
Where the hell even is her Ni? She not only doesn’t show it AT ALL, she’s even pretty bad at it as I mentioned. Ni isn’t “wanting things to be better”, her desire to right things comes not from a vision but somewhere from her feeling function. Her people were mistreated, as a very compassionate person she wanted that to stop. You know what’s Ni? The theoretical function Nietzsche or Ayn Rand used to write their philosophies. It’s highly abstract and symbolic, and often makes quite brooding, essence-searching, symbol-cracking personalities (Elsa is an actual Disney NFJ, so is Mufusa), people who pull strings with mastery – V for Vendetta vibes if you’re talking about social rebellion, as a comparison. Not badass ladies who don’t mind to pole dance on the streets (and I’m not saying that’s a problem since I won’t do slut-shaming like Frollo, but that honestly is pretty daring even for our time – and you tell me that’s repressed Se for the standards of the 15th century?). You know, you guys seem to be flipping the Se/Ni axis. She’s literally the MOST present and impulsive character in the whole movie. NFJs don’t own kindness, you know.
She has little concern for convincing people through smooth-talking charisma than for a rough-and-tumble act of defiance which she jumps into directly from a Fi sense of morals. It’s Fi that led her to heroism. The ENFJ “speech” stereotype comes from their affinity for persuasion. All types of people can make what you loosely call a speech but not all of them fit the ENFJ Cicero mold. Hers doesn’t – she’s expressing her rage by shouting “Justice”. It’s very Fi and I don’t see a trace of ENFJ persuasion in that particular act of hers. ENFJs rally for justice, yes, but often through words and persuasion. Persuasion is their forte and they’re often a bit of an “ideologue” type of person, a proponent of an ideology. But I can’t see her arguing about morality or ethics with Frollo, or delivering a speech with metaphorical turns of phrases like MLK did. She stands up for Quasi and her fellow people with practical action, not persuasion.
Here’s a description by Broadway’s auditioning (similar to Disney) of the character. That’s literally Fi and Se, and she’s even bolder and feistier in the Disney movie: …”20s, exquisitely beautiful, exotic and oozing with sexuality. A free-spirited gypsy who has often gotten into trouble for speaking her mind and standing up for what she believes in.”
Don’t stuff FeNi qualities in a character who just isn’t that. Fe types often have a struggle with absorbing and harmonizing too much with other people they struggle with losing themselves. Esmeralda is Fi all the way through, unabashedly so. NFJ often has a “wise contemplative leader” energy (Mufusa) more than a “fiery vagabond with a heart of gold” energy.
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Does the character Eve (female robot and Wall-E’s love interest) from the Disney Pixar film “Wall-E” (2008) represent the INTJ type?
I am an INTJ myself, and I am very well aware of the stack functions:
Ni > Te > Fi > Se
Ni: Introverted Intuition
Te: Extroverted Thinking
Fi: Introverted Feeling
Se: Extroverted Sensing
I do not know how Eve’s mental functions play out precisely.
It has been a decade since I last saw the film (when it was first released — but for the very little I remember, Eve was a cold, unfeeling robot, initially hostile towards Wall-E; she only “softened” and warmed up to Wall-E when he showed her unending kindness and when she began to trust him.
I know Eve is not a breathing living human, much less a human Disney princess, but she is practically the only female (lead) Disney character I can think of.
Such a pity that INTJ female characters in Disney films are virtually universally cast as quintessential villains, for instance: Malificient from “Sleeping Beauty”.
p.s. my biased opinion: INTJ women rock!
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You might be right about Eve. I re-watched Wall-E a few months ago and definitely get an INTJ vibe from her.
I’ve been working on a similar Myers-Briggs chart for Disney villains and of the female villains I’ve typed so far I’ve only found two that aren’t TJ types. It’s a shame that Disney seems to think logical, straightforward, blunt, and commanding women should be cast as villains. INTJ women do rock and they deserve better representation!
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I agree with most of your findings, however, I think Giselle seems more spontaneous and impulsive (ESFP) than a judging type. For example, she randomly decides to start cleaning up the apartment and seems a lot more creative. Js are much less creative, (except INFJ) and strive to hide their differences to fit in. Giselle, instead, embraces her individuality when she cuts out Robert’s curtains to make a dress (definitely not a judger’s move).
Another one is Pocahontas. She’s much more an INFJ, standing out differently from the rest of her tribe. Some could probably even argue that she’s an ENFJ, especially when she stops her father from killing John Smith. She’s passionate about nature and connects with Grandmother Willow on an intuitive level. I can definitely see her as an INFJ or ENFJ. After all, ENFJ (aka the Teacher) is more likely to educate John Smith on how nature and people connect.
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I really like your chart, there’s a lot of insight and it’s very through. I may not agree on all the characters, but it’s still enjoyable.
I noticed in your Disney Heroes MBTI chart you put in Peter Pan, since Wendy’s arguably his match, why isn’t she included here?
Also, since you typed Simba and Nala, would you consider adding Lady and Tramp into these charts?
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