Celebrate Romance with 8 of Our Favorite Disney Couples

Last week, some of the world (and all of the greeting card industry) observed Valentine’s Day, a holiday to celebrate romance and to remind us just how much a dozen red roses actually cost. A time that reminds us to reach out and grab our happily ever after, and to pretend that heart-shaped antacids are actually candy. For others, the real celebration began the day after Valentine’s Day, when boxes of chocolates were spontaneously marked down 50%.

In the past, Celebrations honored the day by musing on 10 of Our Favorite Disney Couples and 8 More of Our Favorite Disney Couples. But there are still more to explore. So, we thought that this year we’d revisit the subject, hitting on some of the storybook romances we didn’t touch in our first two lists. 

Miss Bianca and Bernard

When we first meet Miss Bianca and Bernard, in the 1977 masterpiece The Rescuers, they are not a couple. They’re merely colleagues working for the Rescue Aid Society. On the surface, they seem like an unlikely pair. She is adventurous, confident, and sophisticated, while Bernard is timid and seemingly constantly overwhelmed by anxiety. Yet, the two seem to bring out the best in each other.

Still, their romance is not solidified until late in The Rescuers Down Under (1990) when Miss Bianca accepts Bernard’s proposal of marriage. It’s hard to think of a sweeter or more endearing scene than when we see Bernard nervously practicing his proposal at the beginning of the film, and you’d have to have a heart of stone to not stand up and clap when he finally gets around to asking her at the end of their adventure.  

Sergeant Calhoun and Fix-It-Felix

How can you not cheer for this couple? When we first meet Sergeant Calhoun in Wreck-It Ralph, she’s a no-nonsense soldier who is still suffering from the trauma of the most tragic backstory ever. Her fiancé was killed by Cy-bugs on the day of her wedding.

Fix-It-Felix is immediately smitten with the Sergeant from their first meeting, recognizing right away that she is “one dynamite gal.” Despite Calhoun’s best attempts to protect herself from future heartbreak by pushing Felix away, the pair eventually end up together. And it’s a good thing too. As Felix says, “She gives me the honey glow something awful.” 

Megara and Hercules

Disney’s 1997 animated classic Hercules proved that true love can overcome all obstacles, even the incessant meddling of James Woods.

When Megara and Hercules first meet, she is being used by Hades (voiced by Woods) to trap and destroy the half human, half god in his attempt to become a true hero. But along the way Megara falls in love, leading to one of the most unusual (and brilliantly catchy) of Disney’s love songs, the Grease-inspired “I Won’t Say I’m In Love.” 

In the end, Hercules ventures into the Underworld to save Megara, and even gives up the chance to become a god on Mt. Olympus to ensure they can be together. 

George of the Jungle and Ursula Stanhope

Full disclosure. We’ll take any opportunity we can get to celebrate Brendan Fraser, and we’re particularly bullish about singing the praises of Disney’s 1997 live-action-comedy George of the Jungle. It’s like the romance between Tarzan and Jane, but even better. Because Tarzan didn’t have Brendan Fraser doing a gorilla mating dance to try and woo his lady love.

What makes George and Ursula’s love story even more compelling are the obstacles it has to overcome, the chief being her obnoxious fiancé portrayed by Thomas Hayden Church. The bad guy losing the girl to the clumsy king of the jungle? This is the part where we throw our heads back in the air and laugh. 

Wanda Maximoff and Vision 

Even in the magical world of Disney, not every love story ends with a happily ever after. Wanda Maximoff and Vision have one of the most heartbreaking stories ever committed to film, but along the way we are treated to scenes of great tenderness and devotion between the two that show just how much they truly love each other. 

Through “Wanda Vision” we get glimpses of what their happy ending may have looked like, and the scenes are beautifully simple. They’re the quiet domestic moments that are easy to take for granted, which makes the show’s inevitable conclusion all the more devastating. 

Giselle and Robert

It’s a classic rom-com trope: the love story you go in search of is never the one you end up finding. That’s the case in 2007’s Enchanted, which delightfully spoofed Disney princess stories of the past while simultaneously creating an endearing love story.

Robert plays the grounded, practical counterpart to Giselle, who has literally lived her entire life in a fairytale world. As the two come together, they are both forced to expand their horizons and grow as people. Their dance at the ball is one of the most wildly romantic moments that Disney has ever put on screen. Plus, there are some incredibly catchy songs along the way. 

Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann

Will and Elizabeth’s story starts out rather conventional. Childhood friends who slowly fall in love. They even have to overcome some rather conventional problems. She’s from a well-to-do respectable family, while he comes from nothing. She’s even betrothed to a man more fitting of her social station. The odds seem impossibly against them.

That’s where the typical becomes fantastic because Will is the son of a pirate. Throughout the Pirates of the Caribbean series, their love story becomes something out of epic literature or folklore. By the end, the two are only able to see each other one day every ten years, but their love persists. They even start a family together. Proof that all you need is love. And all love needs is a bit of swashbuckling. 

Monterey Jack and Cheese

We end this year’s list with perhaps the greatest love story in Disney’s 100-year history: the passion of Monterey Jack, from “Chip n’ Dale Rescue Rangers” for a good slice of fromage. There’s not much else that needs to be said about this one. Just find you someone who adores you the way Monterey Jack adores cheese.