Do men talk more than women in Disney films?
In most Disney and Pixar films, yes. When The Pudding counted the words spoken by male and female characters in the screenplays of 30 Disney films, 22 had a majority of male dialogue [1]. Its chart above, which covers 31 films, puts 23 of them in the group where men have 60% or more of the lines, four close to an even split and only four where women have 60% or more. The Jungle Book is the most lopsided, at 98% male dialogue.
The finding surprises people because many of these are princess films. Even in stories built around a female lead, the supporting cast of fathers, sidekicks, villains and comic animals is mostly male, and they do most of the talking.
The gender breakdown of dialogue in Disney films
| Group | Films |
|---|---|
| Men have 60% or more of the dialogue (23 films) | The Jungle Book (98%), Monsters, Inc., Up, Toy Story, The Rescuers Down Under, Aladdin (90%), Holes, Cars 2, The Lion King, Ratatouille, Something Wicked This Way Comes (87%), Monsters University, Hercules, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Toy Story 3, Finding Nemo (75%), Mulan, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Wreck-It Ralph (69%), Mighty Joe Young, Pocahontas |
| Roughly balanced, within 10 points of 50/50 (4 films) | Frozen (57% male, 43% female), The Incredibles, Into the Woods, Tarzan |
| Women have 60% or more of the dialogue (4 films) | Inside Out (64% female), Alice in Wonderland, Maleficent, Sleeping Beauty |
Source: The Pudding’s chart of screenplay dialogue [1]. Percentages are male dialogue unless stated; the chart prints figures only for the films shown with one. The two cut-off titles on the chart are read as Something Wicked This Way Comes and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Episode VII).
Female-led films where men still talk most
The most striking cases are films with a heroine at the centre. Mulan, The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas and Beauty and the Beast all sit in the group where men have 60% or more of the dialogue [1]. In Mulan, The Pudding found that Mushu, her dragon protector, has 50% more words of dialogue than Mulan herself [1].
The authors point out that a plot can centre on a character even though the dialogue does not reflect it [1]. Ariel gives up her voice for much of The Little Mermaid, for instance. But the pattern across the whole set shows that heroines are usually surrounded by male characters who carry the conversation.
Which Disney films give women the most dialogue?
Only four of the 31 films give women 60% or more of the lines: Inside Out, Alice in Wonderland, Maleficent and Sleeping Beauty [1]. Inside Out, where most of the story happens inside a girl’s mind and is led by the emotions Joy and Sadness, is labelled 64% female. Frozen, often thought of as a breakthrough for female characters, is close to balanced but still leans male at 57% [1].
At the other end, many of the most male-heavy films are animal or toy stories with mostly male casts: The Jungle Book, Monsters, Inc., Up, Toy Story, The Lion King, Ratatouille and Cars 2.
How the dialogue was measured
Hanah Anderson and Matt Daniels of The Pudding collected around 8,000 screenplays online and matched each character’s lines to an actor, giving word counts by gender for roughly 2,000 films [1]. The Disney study started from a January 2016 report that men speak more often than women in Disney’s princess films; The Pudding checked the claim and doubled the sample to 30 Disney films including Pixar [1].
The method has limits the authors set out. Only characters with at least 100 words were matched to an actor’s IMDb page, so very small parts are left out; at least 90% of each screenplay’s lines had to be assigned a gender; and scripts change on the way to the screen as lines and characters are cut or recast [1]. They describe the results as directionally accurate, with errors likely in individual films [1]. The chart’s 31 films and the article’s “22 of 30” do not quite agree, so treat the exact counts as approximate.
Is the gender gap in dialogue just a Disney problem?
No. Across all 2,000 films in The Pudding’s data, women had the most dialogue in only 22% of films, and women held at least two of the top three speaking roles in 18% of films, against about 82% for men [1]. Even romantic comedies averaged 58% male dialogue: Pretty Woman and 10 Things I Hate About You both have female leads but 52% male dialogue overall, because of their male supporting characters [1].
The study also found an age effect. The share of dialogue going to women falls sharply for actresses over 40, while for men the opposite happens, with more lines going to older actors [1].
Questions about gender and dialogue in Disney films
Which Disney film has the most male dialogue?
The Jungle Book, with 98% of its screenplay dialogue spoken by male characters [1].
Which Disney film has the most female dialogue?
Of the films with a printed figure, Inside Out, at 64% female. Alice in Wonderland, Maleficent and Sleeping Beauty also give women 60% or more [1].
Does Mulan have the most lines in Mulan?
No. Mushu has 50% more words of dialogue than Mulan, according to The Pudding [1].
How much dialogue do women have in Frozen?
About 43%, against 57% for men, on The Pudding’s screenplay count [1].
How many films have a female lead?
In The Pudding’s 2,000 screenplays, a woman had the most dialogue in 22% of films [1].
Sources
- Hanah Anderson and Matt Daniels, Film Dialogue from 2,000 screenplays, Broken Down by Gender and Age, The Pudding, April 2016.
Last reviewed 2 November 2026
