Artist Recreates Disney Sidekicks As Princesses They Are Following

Those wonderful sidekicks ….

Damjan

• Published in Disney
• July 10, 2021

Disney princesses wouldn't be what they are without their faithful sidekicks. They complete the story, provide comic relief, and often gain immense popularity.

An artist going by the name HatterpillarArts wanted to honor those charming characters and their supporting role by recreating them as their beloved princesses. You can see Pascal, Olaf, Mushu, and other Disney sidekicks as lead characters.

HatterpillarArts says:

"The idea came about when I was watching Mulan, and I just started thinking about how funny it would be if Mushu was dressed up as Mulan with the fan and the flower in his hair and everything. I then just decided to give drawing it a go, it came out really well, I posted it to Reddit, and people loved it, so I did some more princess/sidekick mash-ups that were requested. I am actually planning on continuing the project soon and doing a few more!"

1. Mushu is Mulan

2. The Owl is Aurora

3. Flounder is Ariel

4. Pua is Moana

"Inspiration for me can come from a lot of different sources at once. It can be something as random as the weather, or it can be a song lyric. It definitely changes a lot. Sometimes I do pieces where I can't pin down any kind of inspiration, and the art piece 'just kind of happened.'"

The artist added that she is inspired by great artists like Van Gogh, Salvador Dali, and Andy Warhol. But modern artists are also a big inspiration for her - Australian YouTuber Jazza and artist Jim McKenzie are just some of them.

"I've been drawing since I was a toddler. My dad is an amazing artist, so I took after him and had my first tiny art studio under the stairs when I was about 4 years old."

5. Olaf and Sven are Elsa and Anna

6. Rajah is Jasmine

7. Gus is Cinderella

"The most rewarding thing about any series, but especially the Disney project, is the audience reaction. These pieces appeal to everyone, old or young, and there's always so much happiness surrounding them in the comments.

There aren't many challenging things about it, but if I had to say something, I'd probably say the hours I put into the work. For example, Louis as Tiana (my latest addition) took me about 8 hours non-stop from start to finish. Definitely not as long as a lot of art pieces take, but it definitely took it out of me."

"My personal original style is realism. I do a lot of realistic portrait oil paintings and/or digital art. However, I do draw in a LOT of different other styles too. For example, the Disney project is very cartoon, and the Pokemon project, another popular ongoing long project I do, are purely calligrams (art made completely out of words). I like dabbling in all kinds of art, I don't like sticking to one style."

8. Louis is Tiana

9. Pascal is Rapunzel

HatterpillarArts added that her favorite thing about Disney is the positivity and light-heartedness that takes us back to our childhood.

"What I like about Disney is the fact that you can sit and watch a Disney film, and you and everyone you're watching it with can feel like a child again for those 2 hours. Bright colors, great art, and fun songs to sing along to. What more could you want?"

10. Meeko is Pocahontas

"There's like a 90/10 reaction of people loving and hating the series," HatterpillarArts says. "90% of people think it's absolutely adorable, funny, entertaining, and original, and the other 10% make it very well known that they think it's cursed and ugly. It definitely means a lot to me, because I started posting my art online purely to try to brighten people's days, and the Disney project achieves that so well for both adults and children. That's all I care about."

Damjan