Justice for Denali: Animated Crushes are Valid
Article written by Kendra Beltran
Friday night means one thing and one thing only, ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race.’ With a margarita in hand and my eyes glued to the Werk Room, I watched the Rusical episode with nothing too out of the ordinary happening until the topic of celebrity crushes came up. Yes, Tina Burner has dated an actual celeb, but that wasn’t the most interesting part of this conversation. No, it was when Denali admitted that she crushed on animated hunks like Disney’s Aladdin and Hercules, and was met with...shade?!
Symone even went as far as to question her season 13 sister’s taste by saying, “Animated people” with a little disdain and a whole lot of confusion. As someone whose first crushes were definitely of the cartoon variety, I was taken aback and wanted to let Denali know - we see you, we get you. Animated crushes are 100% valid, and to prove it - let’s take a look at animated hotties that have made people swoon in both 2D and 3D.
Prince Eric
Disney had a lot of cute princes before ‘The Little Mermaid’ kicked off Disney’s Renaissance era in 1989, but they pretty much all looked like copies of one another. So that’s why Prince Eric made hearts everywhere skip a fucking beat. He wasn’t just some afterthought. Oh hell nah, that man was stacked and we took notice. Yes, most of us were barely old enough to use scissors at the time but we knew what was up with Prince Eric and possibly wanted to take Ariel out to get with him.
Aladdin
As Denali said, Aladdin was crushworthy. Of course, loving him set many on a path of falling for fuck boys because let’s be real...Aladdin was and forever will be the OG when it comes to that. But he was hot, rocked a vest, and MC Hammer pants, and we could not get enough.
Trent Lane
Stepping away from Disney for a second, Trent Lane is another animated man that has been able to steal hearts and make hormones go wild. Like Aladdin, he wasn’t the best guy in the world but that rock star vibe he had, it is something many find fucking irresistible. Daria was not wrong to lust after her best friend’s brother.
Shrek
I know what you’re thinking, who the hell would crush on an ogre? Well, would you question Ariana Grande? Back in her Nickelodeon days, she totally admitted to having a crush on a certain green character.
Li Shang
What made many swoon over Li Shang from ‘Mulan’ wasn’t just his body - because that was fabulous - but the idea that he was rocking that bi life whether those who made the movie want to admit it or not, that’s what was going down. Li Shang wanted Mulan when she was Ping just as much as he wanted her as Mulan. That was the first time A LOT of people saw themselves in a cartoon and for that, crushed even harder on that mountain of a man.
Arnold
What made and continues to make Arnold from from ‘Hey! Arnold’ such a catch is that he is that boy from class we all know. The cute, sweet, smart guy whose name we doodle in our notebooks in secret. Helga was not wrong in going insane over him. We get it, girl!
Darien Shields
There is not a person alive who’s watched ‘Sailor Moon’ and not wanted to fuck that Tuxedo Mask dude.
Nick Wilde
He’s a sly ass fox with Jason Bateman’s voice, who didn’t think about this character in a certain way after watching ‘Zootopia?’ Seriously though, what’s with the animated foxes being top-tier crushes? First Robin Hood and now this guy?