Today we’re taking a moment to wistfully touch our reflections in a mirror and ask, “Who am I?” We’re in good company: the following Disney characters have been there, too. Let’s review the times they successfully stopped, evaluated their lives, and proceeded to rock it out.
The Lion King
After Simba hakuna matata’s a little too hard, it takes a wake-up call from the combined efforts of Nala, Rafiki, and cloud-Mufasa to get him to stop and evaluate his life. And once he does, he returns to Pride Rock to challenge Scar like the true lion king he is.
Frozen
Trusting, naive, sweet, romantic Anna accepted a first date and a marriage proposal from the same guy within the span of a few hours, a classic no-no. Elsa dropped the ultimate evaluate-your-life realness on her when she advised, “You can’t marry a man you just met.” Fortuitously, Anna does not.
Beauty and the Beast
Living alone in his castle for ten years turned Beast into a bit of a grump, a fact which makes itself apparent most readily in the cranky way he talks to Belle. This time, the suggestion to evaluate his life comes from the enchanted objects, who wisely state, “You must control your temper!” After some trial and error, he does learn to control it, and we all know how happily that tale as old as time ends.
Tangled
The Snuggly Duckling’s customer base was less than hospitable to Flynn and Rapunzel … until Rapunzel persuaded the pub thugs to evaluate their lives with the simple statement, “Haven’t any of you ever had a dream?” We’ve never seen a crowd go from hostile to musical so quickly in our lives.
Toy Story
Buzz’s unflagging insistence that he is a legitimate space ranger gets turned on its head once he sees himself in a commercial. He doesn’t take the news terribly well, but after some careful evaluation and a few adventures with his new pals, he comes to terms with who he is … and who he is is pretty great.
Finding Nemo
In her casually flawless way, Dory makes Marlin realize that he’s been looking at his relationship with Nemo all wrong: “You can’t never let anything happen to him. Then nothing would ever happen to him. Not much fun for little Harpo.” Marlin takes this bit of wisdom to heart, and learns to trust his son to make his own way.
The Little Mermaid
Ariel truly could have used a second to stop and evaluate her life before signing her voice away to Ursula. Ultimately, she learns that making deals with sea witches is not a solid course of action, and we learn that stopping to carefully consider contracts never hurts.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Will Turner has a bit of an issue when it comes to telling Miss Swann Elizabeth how he feels. He misses out on chance after chance to declare his love, until finally Jack Sparrow nudges him to evaluate his life with this golden nugget: “If you were waiting for the opportune moment, that was it.” Evaluate he does, and the two of them get their perfect happy ending.
Aladdin
In his attempts to woo Jasmine, Aladdin digs himself the deepest of holes by pretending to be someone he’s not. In what we believe is the best “evaluate your life” advice from a Disney character maybe ever, Genie whispers to him, “Bee yourself.” Aladdin does, and it opens up a whole new world for him.
Thanks for reading, Disney fans. We hope that in the course of evaluating your life, you conclude that you are a star, because you are.
