Fact Check: Only 13 Female Protagonists

"Between 1937 and 2005 there were only 13 female protagonists in animated movies."

I stumbled upon this quote that's been floating around, originating from Miss Representation, though I can no longer find it on their site. There doesn't seem to be any source material backing it up. I feel like this is why it is so important to get some raw data out there about gender statistics in animation, because there isn't a lot to go off of at the moment.

From what I can gather the "13" statistic is referring to Disney Movies. I think that the statistic was referring to female protagonists who do not share the main character title with a male character (and that each of the three female characters from Home on the Range were counted). Either way, this is a really important distinction to make. If we look at all American/American co produced animated theatrical releases there have been 32 animated movies with female main characters. Yep, a whole 32 movies in 68 years.


Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (G)
Cinderella (G)
Alice in Wonderland (G)
Lady and the Tramp (G)
Sleeping Beauty (G)
Aristicats (G)
Journey Back to Oz (G)
Raggady Ann and Andy (G)
The Secret of Nimh (G)
Heidi's Song (G)
The Last Unicorn (G)
Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer (G)
The Rescuers (G)
The Little Mermaid (G)
The Rescuers Down Under (G)
Beauty and the Beast (G)
Ferngully (G)
Happily Ever After (G)
Thumbelina (G)
The Swan Princess (G)
Pocahontas (G)
Anastasia (G)
Quest for Camelot (G)
Mulan (G)
The King and I (G)
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (PG-13)
Return to Never Land (G)
Lilo and Stitch (PG)
The Powerpuff Girls (PG)
The Wild ThornBerrys Movie (PG)
Home on the Range (PG)
Hoodwinked (PG)


Edit: I can only assume that Miss Representation didn't fully cite this quote from Geena Davis. Her Institute on Gender in Media has wonderful work being done with links to full data on all the studies.
Click HERE and check it out.