Disney's Secret To Relatable Characters: The Power Of The Eyebrow

Have you ever noticed that all your favorite animal Disney characters, like "Simba", "Winnie-the-Pooh" and even the reindeer "Sven" from Frozen have one thing in common?

The lion king kovu
Why Disney Animal Characters Have Eyebrows | © Disney / EarlyGame

Have you ever noticed that most Disney animal characters have eyebrows like humans do? Well, there is actually quite an interesting explanation behind those brows...

Why Do Disney's Animal Characters Have Eyebrows?

We all sympathize with Disney characters, even if they aren't even human. But why is that?

The most obvious explanation is that they have relatable, human-like personalities, which is reflected in their voices and relationships. But there's also a more subtle, physical characteristic that does a lot of heavy lifting.

They all have eyebrows. Yes... Every. Single. One.

Even Ariel's best friend "Flounder"... who is a fish.

Ariel flounder
Ariel's friend "Flounder" has eyebrows on fleek | © Disney

Eyebrows play a crucial role in conveying a wide range of emotions. By giving animals eyebrows or prominent brow ridges, animators can more easily depict feelings such as happiness, anger, surprise, or sadness. This helps viewers to understand and connect with the characters on an emotional level.

Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. By adding human-like features such as eyebrows, animators make animal characters more relatable and familiar to audiences.

So there you have it: This is why every Disney animal character has a good set of brows.

Feel free to share this fun-fact with your friends at the next Disney movie night.

Malena Rose

Malena is a game design student and writer at EarlyGame. Her life-long passion for videogames inspired her to make a living out of it. Through her studies in Game Design, she now plays an active role within the gaming industry....