The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules by
John Grant

Walt Disney Character Description of Prince Charming from "Cinderella" (1950)

By contrast with Cinderella, Prince Charming is a rather anonymous character - much like the Prince in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, for example. His role is purely to be a handsome and high-born spouse, marriage to whom will raise Cinderella from her life of unjust drudgery. Even his insistence that he will marry no other than the beautiful girl with whom he danced at the ball is rendered to us at second hand, in a hilarious interview between the King and the Grand Duke. It was not until much later, in 1959's Sleping Beauty, that Disney was able to bring us a handsome fairy-tale prince capable of being more than a symbol.