You've come a long way, baby your highness.

This week, Disney welcomes "Moana" into the fold as the magical kingdom's first Polynesian princess. To honor the woman whose name literally means "ocean," the folks at Thunderbomb Surf Camp developed an animated GIF to illustrate how Disney's princesses have changed from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937) to "Moana" (2016).Here are the characters in the GIF, in order of appearance:

  • Snow White
  • Cinderella
  • Aurora ("Sleeping Beauty")
  • Ariel ("The Little Mermaid")
  • Belle ("Beauty and the Beast")
  • Jasmine ("Aladdin")
  • Pocahontas
  • Mulan
  • Tiana ("The Princess and the Frog")
  • Rapunzel
  • Merida ("Brave")
  • Anna ("Frozen")
  • Elsa ("Frozen")
  • Elena ("Elena of Avalor")
  • Moana

It's pretty cool to see the evolution from passive (and white) characters to more active (not always white) women who actually star in their own movies and control their own journeys. It's also heartening to see most of those journeys are no longer centered around finding Prince Charming.

The latest official Disney princess, Moana (voiced by Hawaiian Auli'i Cravalho), begins her journey in theaters Wednesday, November 23.

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