Searching for a Prince

Uncovering the most searched for Disney prince in the UK.

Romance spans the ages and despite what some may think, our fascination with fairy tales, the magic of folklore and our love affair with princes’ stories now seems stronger than ever. The wonder of a Disney prince still has the mystery and charm to conjure a certain alchemy that ignites our imagination.

At a time when, more than ever, reality has been intense for so many of us, does the glitter dust and enchanting spell of a captivating prince help us all keep dreaming?

Inspired by our Disney jewellery collection, we wanted to uncover how the appeal and allure of a prince continues to fascinate the nation, find out who is the most popular Disney prince in different cities across the UK, and discover how certain events such as live film remakes and sequels have renewed our interest in princes over time

By analysing search data, as well as consumer and critic ratings and release dates for 16 Disney films and their respective princes, we have been able to map our collective love for princes and what has kept us spellbound. Scroll down for a fairy tale story about where Disney princes sparkle the brightest, and who sits at the top of the castle.

The most popular prince of them all

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Aladdin – or Prince Ali – is our top prince, showing that when it comes to fairy tales, stories of transformation and desire to make our deepest wishes come true still have the power to delight and transfix us. The magic lamp burns brightest of them all when we weigh up the UK’s combined search interest in the prince and the film, as well as critic and consumer approval ratings. The 1992 film has the highest Tomatometer score of all the films analysed too, with a 95% score from the critics.

In second is England’s very own Prince of Thieves, Robin Hood, which has seen many remakes in its time. The 1973 animated film ties for first place in monthly search volume with 9,900 searches and has a high IMDB rating of 7.6. Some modern adaptions, such as 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, have kept the film front of mind and given it something of a cult-like status.

While Hercules is more the son of a Greek God than a prince, searches for him and his film of the same name are so common in the UK that he still lands in at number three in our weighted rank. This 1997 film fetches 9,900 searches a month in the UK thanks to the legend of heroism and god-like strength that continues to appeal in modern times.

A surge in film interest

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Although, overall, the allure of Disney princes and films has performed strongly over the last five years, there have been surges in interest at certain times and across different UK regions. The biggest nationwide spike in interest for any film was for Hercules in June 2020, when Disney announced a live-action remake that caused a big surge in online fan debate and searches that topped over 33,000 in just one month.

Robin Hood caused the second highest search spike, in April 2020, when it was announced that Disney was remaking the classic movie as a live-action film for Disney+. With interest in Nottingham’s prince renewed, curiosity in the film surged with more than 27,000 searches in one month.

Mulan is the film that showed the biggest increase in interest between 2017-2021 with an increase in searches of 687%. The popular 1998 release also matched Robin Hood for search interest in September 2020 with 27,000 searches, when the beloved Disney classic’s remake went live.

Prince of remakes

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The most popular prince on our list, Aladdin, had the biggest spike in interest in May 2019, followed by another big spike in January 2020. In 2019, Guy Ritchie’s remake of the Disney classic starring Will Smith caused monthly searches to soar to 1.5M, followed by sequel rumours causing a second surge in interest for the movie.


Robin Hood had the second biggest surge in interest, in November 2018, with more than 300,000 monthly searches caused by the Otto Bathurst’s new movie, starring Rocketman’s Taron Egerton as Robin of Loxley, Ray’s Jamie Foxx as John and Bridge of Spies’ Eve Hewson as Maid Marion

A city fit for a prince

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While most of the UK is agreed that Aladdin, Robin Hood and Hercules are the most popular princes, that hasn’t stopped certain cities and regions searching for a bit of variety in recent years. Certain princes have grown significantly in popularity in different places around the UK.


People in Nottingham are head over heels for Simba (we know he’s technically the King of the Pride, but we’ve let that slide!) with searches between 2017-2021 increasing by a massive 800%. Another regional favourite is Kristoff from Frozen, whose search interest soared by 755% in Newcastle and 753% in Birmingham during the same period. In London, Li Shang proved the most popular with searches for the hero rising by 705%, while Prince Naveen is Manchester's favourite prince. An increase of searches for the Princess and the Frog hero increased by 447%, just beating Kristoff from Frozen, whose searches maxed at 433%.


When it comes to searches for the films these princes come from, Liverpool recorded the highest search increase for one specific film, with a 714% increase in searches for the film Mulan. Overall, though, Bristol saw the highest average increase (142.3%) for all Disney prince films between 2017-2021.

If you’re left feeling enchanted by our study of Disney princes, why not celebrate your love of Disney with a magical piece of jewellery from our Disney jewellery collection. Whether that’s a sparkling Disney necklace, a spellbinding Disney bangle or a pair of delicate Disney silver earrings to add to your collection, our Disney X PANDORA range has something for every King, Queen, Prince and Princess to live happily ever after with.

Methodology

1. We compiled the list of princes and heroes using https://disneyprincess.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Disney_Princes and selecting only those who were well known enough to have search volume, and also starred in at least one Disney film.


2. We analysed Google search data for the period between 2017-2020 for 16 Disney films and their respective princes, as well as monthly search volumes to identify the most searched for prince in 16 UK cities.


3. For the same films, we also analysed consumer and critical acclaim through ratings on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. A weighted score was then allocated based on all four data sets combined.


4. The data set on princes and films was broken down further into 14 cities across the UK to analyse search fluctuations over time and draw comparisons between regions.