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Prince Charming

Prince Charming is a fairy tale stock character who comes to the rescue of a damsel in distress and must engage in a quest to liberate her from an evil spell. This classification suits most heroes of a number of traditional folk tales, including "Snow White", "Sleeping Beauty", "Rapunzel" and "Cinderella", even if in the original story they were given another name, or no name at all.

For other uses, see Prince Charming (disambiguation).

Often handsome and romantic, these characters are essentially interchangeable, serving as a foil to the heroine; in many variants, they can be viewed as a metaphor for a reward the heroine achieves for the decisions she makes.[1] The prominence of the character type makes him an obvious target for revisionist fairy tales. "Prince Charming" is also used as a term to refer to the idealized man some people dream of as a future spouse.[2]

The Broadway musical (first produced in 1986) explores the character as lecherous, and where there are not one, but two Prince Charmings. Here, they are shown as brothers pursuing Cinderella and Rapunzel, then later, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, after they have married their first wenches. Cinderella's Prince has an affair with the Baker’s wife as well, and when confronted about his womanizing, states "I was raised to be charming, not sincere." The princes are portrayed by Robert Westenberg and Chuck Wagner in the original Broadway cast and by Gavin Creel and Joshua Henry in the original 2022 Broadway revival cast, Andy Karl played both princes for limited runs in the revival and Cheyenne Jackson played Cinderella's Prince for a limited run as well. In the 2014 Disney film adaptation of Into the Woods, the Prince Charmings are portrayed by Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen.

Into the Woods

As implied by the title, the 1991 fantasy novel by Roger Zelazny and Robert Sheckley includes sharp satire of the traditional fairy tale theme.

Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming

Prince Charming is a prominent character in the comic book (2002–2015). Polygamy is explored again: in that version, he successively married Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella with each marriage ending in divorce due to his compulsive womanizing. He himself comments: "I always truly love a woman when I first pursue her...I'm just no good at the happily-ever-after part." He parlays his charm into election as the mayor of Fabletown, the underground "Fable" community, and finds the job more difficult than he had anticipated. He died in the Battle for the Homelands by activating a bomb to End the War.

Fables

The character of is deconstructed in the 2004 movie Shrek 2 and its 2007 follow-up Shrek the Third, wherein he is the son of the Fairy Godmother and has an unpleasant and ruthless personality unfitting for a fairy-tale prince.

Prince Charming

In the fantasy novel series (2005–2012), Prince Charming is the mayor of Ferryport Landing, a town inhabited by fairy-tale characters- or everafters. He is shown to be rude, arrogant and boastful, but turns out to be a valuable ally to the protagonists of the series. He is shown to have married and slept with many of the girls in this town, among them Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. But he clarifies that he truly loves Snow White and proposes to her. He then separates himself from her for her protection.

The Sisters Grimm

The concept of the Prince Charming is parodied in the 2007 film when Edward is looking for Princess Giselle in the New York City. While knocking the doors he finds a pregnant housewife holding three kids, who tells him, in a scoffing voice, "You're too late."

Enchanted

In the television series (2011–2017), Prince Charming (portrayed by Josh Dallas) is the husband of Snow White, though neither of them remembers this in the cursed Storybrooke, where the character's name is David Nolan ("Charming" is the nickname given to him by Snow White). In his previous life, David is actually the brother of the real prince James (also portrayed by Josh Dallas) who died and was replaced with his twin. Both brothers were born to a poor farm couple who made a deal with Rumpelstiltskin to save their farm; they gave up one son to King George, whose wife could not conceive. After James's death his brother found out the truth and took his place, becoming engaged to Abigail, daughter of King Midas (reluctantly, after his family is threatened by the real prince's adoptive father) in a deal that unites two kingdoms with Midas giving the King George gold in exchange for the prince defeating a dragon. Later, the prince meets and marries Snow White with whom he has a daughter named Emma. In Storybrooke, David is a John Doe with amnesia who meets and falls for Mary Margaret, who is really Snow White, before recovering his memory and working at the Storybrooke Sheriff Department. He later has another child with Snow White named Neal.

Once Upon a Time

In the book series (2012) by Chris Colfer, there are four Prince Charmings, who are brothers named Chance, Chase, Chandler and Charles Charming who are married to Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Red Riding Hood respectively.

The Land of Stories

Merriam-Webster.com: Prince Charming