Cartoon Crushes?

I grew up in the era when Disney had a ton of new animated movies come out, such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and The Lion King. I was eight years old when The Little Mermaid came out and I remember how all my friends and I gushed about how hot Eric was. He was one of my first crushes. How could he not be, he was a prince! Not only was he a prince, but he was tall, dark and handsome with bright blue eyes. Of course that was not all. While he was a handsome prince, he was down to earth for the most part. He played the flute, loved his dog and enjoyed sailing. I mean a friendly, kind prince with cool hobbies was awesome.

Aladdin also had his attributes. He was also tall, dark and handsome. He was smart and loyal. After all he stole bread to feed himself and Abu, but gave it to two orphan children after almost being caught with it. He also loved animals, which was shown by his friendship with his cute, vest wearing monkey. Not to mention his moves on a first date with a magic carpet ride and passing her the apple with is elbow. That's pretty suave.

On the other hand, the beast was well a beast. He had a huge gothic castle, loyal servants in the form of inanimate objects, albeit a beastly temper. However, I would put up with that just to get into that library! My one issue was that when the made him human, he was well, nothing spectacular.

Then years went by and I grew up, went to high school and no other animated prince ever appealed to me again, that was until Dmitri from Anastasia. I was a junior in high school and it was a Sunday night. Seven girls and I piled into a van and drove to the nearest movie theater. Since it was a late show on a Sunday night there were two other people in the theater besides us girls, who were all juniors or seniors. I will never forget when Dmitri appeared on the screen my friend leaned over and said, “Damn!” I wholeheartedly agreed, with a,”Yeah, too bad he is fictional and a cartoon”

While all of these princes/heroes were animated, they definitely impacted my impression of what a hero should be. Not just what he should look like, but what kind of inner qualities he should have, how he should treat his princess, and how finding the woman he loves can change him.

Have you ever found a cartoon character appealing? Why or why not?