An artist reimagined the Riverdale cast as iconic Disney couples
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina may technically be the most magical Archie-verse series, but that hasn’t stopped one talented artist from bringing some magic to Riverdale…Disney magic, that is.
Disney characters have long served as inspiration for online artists, with many of our favorite animated characters depicted as everything from millennials, to purveyors of high fashion, to modern-day career women. And now, artist André Manguba has combined two of his favorite things—Riverdale and Disney couples—for some stunning results. In an interview with Teen Vogue,Manguba said he tried to infuse the Riverdale characters’ personalities into the illustrations as best he could.
He crossed the fiery spirit of Rapunzel and Flynn Rider with Riverdale‘s favorite sleuthing duo, Betty Cooper and Jughead Jones.
He also matched the brilliant and headstrong Veronica Lodge and lovable jock Archie Andrews with Hercules and Megara.
"Bughead for example, gave me the same vibes as Rapunzel and Flynn Rider," Manguba said. "Lili’s strong-willed personality and femininity also matched Rapunzel’s. Varchie reminded me of Hercules and Megara’s relationship. Archie matched Hercules’ heroic traits and just like Megara, Veronica had a sultry and dark side to her too."
However, Manguba’s favorite drawing from the series is his rendering of fan-favorite couple Cheryl Blossom and Toni Topaz as Ariel and Moana—which he revealed also took the longest to come up with.
"To be honest, this took me the longest to conceptualize because I wanted the best choice of Disney characters to portray them," Manguba said in the interview. "I thought Ariel and Moana would fit them perfectly because of the fan theories telling how they could have met in the same universe. Not to mention the perfectly matching hair color of Cheryl and Ariel."
The Riverdale teen couples weren’t the only ones to get the Disney treatment.
Alice Cooper and F.P. Jones as Belle and Prince Adam (aka Beast) is a spectacularly fitting choice.
Manguba has plans to expand on his Riverdale-as-Disney characters collection as Season 3 unfolds, incorporating new characters and pairings, along with a number of other creative ideas for the characters we haven’t seen yet.
“There’ll be new characters introduced this season which I might possibly draw soon,” he said. “I brainstorm a lot of crazy and creative ideas and there are many possibilities on how I’ll execute them, which keeps me excited for future Riverdale artworks.”
We can’t wait.
