I've been reading about the complaints he gets on F*** Yeah Controversial Characters, and one of the major ones is that he didn't go after Cinderella himself.

Here's what they say on there in his defense, which I've also pretty much always thought:

"He is the crown prince. Going to every single house in the capital city presents a huge security risk to his life. It is much easier for him to give the royal adviser Cinderella’s shoe and a general description instead of risking being murdered by a crazed citizen with ideas of revolution."

I may be wrong, but it probably had to do with adhering to the original Charles Perrault fairy-tale. Walt Disney liked his source material.

Although possible assassination sounds like a good thing to avoid, too.

^^Exactly what cruella said.

Exactly what cruella said. Plus you have to take into consideration that back then they didn't know how to animate handsome young men and were very difficult to draw. Realistic humans were difficult to draw in general. Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs was the first time humans were drawn realistically.

Yeah, being the handsome young rich heir in line for the throne entering the homes of rabid young fangirls sounds like a great idea.

hahaha. but really, I'm tired of all the hate Charming gets. it's not his fault.

^Yeah I'm tired of the hate he gets too.

^^Good point, the animation isn't something I'd thought about.

As far as I can tell, the duke went to the king, the king threw together everything, and Charming wasn't even clued in. He can't be considered lazy if he literally didn't know it was happening.
Still loathe him, though.

What cruella and AudreyFreak said.

Dude's busy helping to run the kingdom! Grunt work is what servants are for.

I agree with rhythmicmagic.

Not really, a crown Prince can't go around in the city looking for someone. Customs back then do not allowed that.

Yes, a bit. I get that he can't go to every house, but you would think he would at least go to the upper middle // upper class(es) houses, so he would have gone to Cinderella's house.

(I guess I'm also upset with that fact that Disney was going to have a slightly different ending to Cinderella. One where they brought Cinderella to the prince, he sees her in her work clothes, decides it doesn't matter to him and proposes anyway. Then they show the wedding. Disney decided not to do this for some weird reason.)