Here's What Disney Princes Would Look Like in Real Life

Confession time: My first crush was Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid. Granted, I was about 7, but Eric just seemed so dreamy, despite the fact that he didn't need to have substantial conversations with Ariel to fall in love with her. (I didn't pick up on that at the time, OK?) Now, artist Jirka Väätäinen has imagined what Eric and his fellow Disney princes would look like as real humans, and the results are simultaneously nostalgic and confusingly hot. 

Väätäinen tells Cosmopolitan.com that the idea to reimagine Disney characters came "out of nowhere" in 2011, when he wondered how Ursula from The Little Mermaid would look like in real life. Last year, he illustrated Ursula, along with many Disney princesses. "Having grown up with a lot of these characters, the sense of nostalgia made it such a fascinating and fun personal project to explore and carry on with," he says. In these illustrations, he tried to stay true to the characters' quirks while also making them look more realistic. He took inspiration from real-life photos, blended together elements on Photoshop, and finished them off with digital painting for the finished product.

Take a look at his creations, and check out all of Väätäinen's works on his website. 

1. Prince Charming from Cinderella:

2. Prince Adam, after transforming from the Beast, from Beauty and the Beast:

3. Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid:

4. Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty:

5. John Smith from Pocahontas:

6. Aladdin:

7. Hercules:

8. Tarzan:

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