Lisa Dawn's Blog: The Princess Blog, page 32
October 16, 2022
Review: A Kingdom Submerged
It's no secret that I love mermaids. So when I found out about a great deal on the first book in a four-book series by Deborah Grace White that features a mermaid, I decided to dive right in. The last book I read from her was a mediocre retelling of "Beauty and the Beast." I decided to give her another chance for the sake of mermaids, and I'm so glad I did! The Vazula Chronicles is such a well-written and compelling series that as soon as I finished A Kingdom Submerged, I immediately got started on A Kingdom Discovered! While this series is not based on "The Little Mermaid," it does contain a torrid romance between a mermaid and a human that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
A Kingdom Submerged tells the story of Merletta, an underprivileged mermaid who gets accepted into an elite school and is mocked for getting ahead based on her background as opposed to her own merit. Yet, it's pretty clear that the school would have preferred not to have someone from her background, and only her phenomenal intellect and skills allow her to remain there. At first, I thought this concept seemed a little too human for an underwater world. After all, there are many fantasy books about dark academia and racism. Yet, the more I read, the more impressed I was by the little details that set this mermaid society apart from a human one. Merletta wishes to attend the school to become a record holder, which is someone who keeps track of the recorded data about the Triple Kingdoms where the merfolk reside. Because they are underwater, paper and ink would disintegrate pretty quickly, so they have their own system of carving words onto writing leaves and copying them again over time as the ocean slowly eats away at them. There are also strict rules about going to the surface that Merletta defies on multiple occasions and learns all the things that her superiors wish to hide from her and the other inhabitants of the Triple Kingdoms.
The book alternates between the perspective of Merletta with Heath, a human noble who discovers a long-lost island kingdom called Vazula thanks to his dragon friend, Rekavidur. If the mermaid lore isn't enough for readers to get their fantasy fix, this fully fleshed-out enchanted world has plenty of dragon mythology as well. Heath's story begins when he befriends Reka and the two bond over their curiosity about ancient kingdoms. Reka agrees to fly Heath to the location where they believe Vazula is located. They just happen to arrive there on the same day that Merletta goes exploring beyond her kingdom's magical barrier. Heath is just as shocked by the existence of mermaids as Merletta is by humans. This initiates a series of secret rendevous between the unlikely pair on this ancient island lost to time that only the two of them know about. What a tantalizing way to begin an illicit romance! Unfortunately, Heath gets tied up in some politics about governing magic users in the human kingdom at the very same time that Merletta discovers her life is in danger. When they are finally reunited again, it is under the worst possible circumstances.
I love how this book takes common mermaid and dragon lore and does something entirely different with it. It makes sense that a diverse mermaid society would have its own form of racism and prejudice even though that's not something we like to think about when we read these stories for escapism. Merletta's very real fear of "drying out" on land was a nice touch that added additional stakes to the story. I also liked that she had some allies at the school and that she was considered a hero back home for attaining such an auspicious opportunity even though most of the staff and students were against her. Heath's situation about governing magic users is a fairly common one in fantasy lore, but the close bond he shares with the dragon is more unusual, which makes it all the more frustrating when it becomes clear that Reka is keeping secrets from him. This only increases the desire for Merletta and Heath to find a way to be together because they are the only ones who can truly trust each other.
I highly recommend A Kingdom Submerged and the rest of The Vazula Chronicles to all fans of mermaids and romance. The characters and world-building are superb. It is a fantastic original story with hints of nostalgia for similar fairy tales and books. I especially enjoyed how well the romance was done. Sparks fly between Merletta and Heath from the moment they lay eyes on each other, and we spend the rest of the series desperate for them to find a way for their impossible love story to work. All four books in this series are out now, and I am currently halfway through the second one.
October 9, 2022
Two New Anime Series This Season Feature Princesses!
Bibliophile Princess, which I've lovingly nicknamed "Library Princess," is a throwback to the classic version of Belle from Disney's Beauty and the Beast, particularly the scene where the Beast presented Belle with the library. In this aesthetically tranquil new anime, Lady Elianna is offered unlimited access to the royal library in exchange for becoming the fiancée of Prince Christopher, who wishes to avoid the scrutinizing eyes of the public by marrying a lesser-known noble. Of course, she accepts. Who wouldn't want to become a princess and have access to an enormous library? When she realizes that Christopher's true feelings may lie elsewhere, she begins to develop unexpected feelings toward him. This adorably sweet series has only aired one episode so far, so readers of the manga that it's based on know a lot more about the plot than I do. Let me know in the comments if you've read it!
The other show, I'm the Villainess, so I'm Taming the Final Boss, is already three episodes deep into its run. It offers an edgier option to princess fans with a protagonist who must charm the villainous demon prince to avoid her untimely demise. This may sound similar to another anime I reviewed a couple of years ago called My Next Life as a Villainess, and that's because it is. Both shows tell the story of girls from the modern world who were obsessed with "otome" visual novel games and got reincarnated as the wicked romantic rivals from their favorite games despite not being wicked themselves. Having completed multiple endings from the visual novels, both girls have some insight into what will cause their bad endings and must take steps to prevent them from happening.
What makes Lady Aileen from I'm the Villainess stand apart from Lady Catarina from My Next Life is that Aileen is far more open about her intentions. While Catarina had secret meetings in her head to discuss her plans, Aileen marches straight up to the demon lord, Claude, after being dumped by his brother, Prince Cedric, and tells him that she intends to marry him so he doesn't turn into a dragon and slay her like he did in the game. Even though Claude doesn't entirely believe her explanation (Who would, really?), he finds Aileen endearing and agrees to be her date for a royal ball. What follows is a very "Cinderella" moment for Aileen when she realizes that Claude is genuinely more interested in her than the game's protagonist, Lady Lilia, who Prince Cedric had betrayed her for. She is a woman on a mission who knows what she wants and won't stop until she gets it!
Disney has yet to release another show like Sofia the First, Elena of Avalor, or Tangled: the Series, so Japan has swooped in to save the day for our weekly princess fixes. These shows satisfy both sides of the princess coin. Bibliophile Princess is a light saccharine pastel-filled dream world of innocent love and classic storytelling while I'm the Villainess, so I'm Taming the Final Boss is a dark and edgy tale of a blunt noble who secretly struggles with internal vulnerabilities. Will you be watching either of these shows this season? Which one do you prefer? Let me know in the comments!
October 4, 2022
Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cinderella Is Coming to Broadway, and I Have Thoughts
After following the West End run of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cinderella with great anticipation, I was pleased to learn that the show is coming to Broadway after its controversial closing in the UK. I was a little less pleased when I learned that its title would be changed to Bad Cinderella. Yes, I know "Bad Cinderella" is the headlining song from the show and that they don't want people to confuse it with Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, but after Lloyd Webber was booed onstage for calling the production "a costly mistake" in a letter he wrote for its final curtain call, is it really a good idea to promote its revival in America with a derogatory adjective? Maybe if it didn't spark so much controversy in its British run, the title could have been interpreted as a parody along the lines of Disenchanted. At this point, it gives off the impression that Webber is making fun of the show, something that I personally don't think it deserves. However, after listening to the new lyrics for the song, I thought "Maybe the new title is appropriate after all." Give it a listen below.
The song, which is energetically performed by Broadway actress Linedy Genao, changes many lyrics from the British version by Carrie Hope Fletcher to the point where it takes on a completely different meaning. The most notable change is its chorus. Instead of "Call me Bad Cinderella," which sounded like a take on the old "sticks and stones" adage that used to be taught to children to help them tolerate bullying, Linedy now sings "I am Bad Cinderella," implying that she owns her reputation as a troublemaker and enjoys doing bad things. There was one lyric from the Carrie Hope Fletcher version that I felt never quite fit with the rest of the song, which was "Yes, I'm Bad Cinderella flying high in the sky." Unless the show had a crossover with Wicked or portrayed Cinderella doing hard substances, I thought this line was out of place. Now, it's a recurring line in main the chorus followed by the lyric "And from here I look down on you." Wasn't this elitist attitude the very thing that Carrie Hope Fletcher's Cinderella was trying to put down with this song? Now I'm concerned about what other changes might be made to the show.
Of course, none of this is meant to besmirch Linedy Genao, who we have yet to see in costume or performing any of the show's songs live.* I hope she has a fantastic run in the role. From the little I've heard, her voice sounds more punk rock than Carrie Hope Fletcher, which may be appropriate for a character that defaces statues and acts out against her society. However, I feel that the lyric changes promote negative stereotypes about America that all women are militant feminists and all princesses must be retooled as masculine warriors. As an American woman, I can assure you that most of us are sick of these inaccurate portrayals that the media presents of us and would prefer to see ourselves portrayed as we are. I was impressed with the West End run of Cinderella because I thought it did just that. Cinderella felt trapped in her superficial village and thought she needed to act out to pretend that the people's bullying didn't get to her, when in reality, all she wanted was to be loved. The nuance of the original "Bad Cinderella" lyrics reminded me of the brilliant woman-led show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which depicted how women feel a need to deny their true feelings in public to avoid being shamed by maintaining a strong image even if they're falling apart on the inside. Songs like "I Know I Have a Heart" and "Far Too Late" prove that this version of Cinderella is just as vulnerable as any real living breathing woman. I pray that the American run doesn't ruin those songs as well.
Along with the new name comes a slightly modified poster. Gone are the cheerful blues and hot pinks from the West End run replaced with a rebellious red and black color scheme that gives off more of a goth vampire vibe than fairy tale. The tagline "an unconventional fairy tale" has been added just in case the new title wasn't enough to inform audiences that this isn't a classic retelling. The shape of the spray-painted dress has been slightly altered from forming a "W" for "Webber" to the "A" in "Bad," which I think looks fine since making it the producer's initial was a little self-serving, especially after the awful way he behaved around the show's closing in England. I also like how the graffiti style lettering has been emphasized in the new poster, although I miss the "E" and "R" in "Cinder" forming the shape of a glass slipper. While I understand that the show's press wants to give the new marketing more of an edge so parents won't be surprised by Cinderella's rebellious behaving, I think the harshness of the new poster might scare away long-time princess fans like myself because there's no hint of the character's underlying vulnerability that makes the show so nuanced and relatable.
At this time, I have mixed emotions about Bad Cinderella. While I'm glad it's coming to my home country, I'm not a fan of the changes that I've seen so far and must anticipate that this may not be the full extent of them. I hope American audiences are able to experience the same story that British audiences did about a young woman who feels she needs to pretend she doesn't care what anyone thinks of her when she's actually falling apart on the inside, which is how many of us Americans feel in today's polarized political climate. Which version of "Bad Cinderella" do you prefer? Let me know in the comments!
*Update: Just after posting this, I saw a video of Linedy Genao performing "Bad Cinderella" on the Today show, so I retract my statement about there being no videos of her singing the song.
October 2, 2022
How The Rose of Versailles Paved the Way for Revolutionary Girl Utena
I used to think that Revolutionary Girl Utena was the most innovative, unique, and original anime out there. After watching Princess Knight and now The Rose of Versailles, I realize that it drew inspiration from older anime sources. All three of these series feature women who don swords and take on the role of a man to protect the innocent. They each have their own queer-coded attributes that combine all the best things about noble heroes and damsels in distress. The Rose of Versailles, which came out in 1979, right in the middle of the 30-year gap between 1967's Princess Knight and 1997's Utena, stands apart from its surrogate cousins because it is set in a historical setting rather than a fairy tale world.
The Rose of Versailles takes place prior to and during the French Revolution. It spans the decades of Marie Antoinette's life from her engagement to King Louis XVI to her beheading at the guillotine. If you haven't already guessed, the show does not have a happy ending. Since the Queen Marie visual novel in Time Princess spans the same period of time, it gave me a point of context for the historical characters and events in the series. Marie is only a side character in Rose of Versailles, which focuses mainly on the life of a fictitious female soldier who serves in the Royal Guard and the French army. She was born to a father who was hoping for a boy after having many daughters. When another girl was born, he decided to name her Oscar and raise her like a boy. Despite her role as a soldier, Oscar identifies as a woman and struggles between her duty to her father and her romantic feelings toward her servant, André. Like Utena, Oscar is admired by all the women she encounters for her effortless ability to be as brave and strong as a man while maintaining a woman's grace and dignity.
What I love about these shows is the way they are able to depict women exhibiting masculine traits while remaining feminine in their actions and demeanor, something that Disney has been attempting and failing to do for the past decade. Both Oscar and Utena are determined to protect their respective princesses, but it comes from a place of female-driven compassion instead of a male-driven motivation such as power or sex. While fans like to debate about Utena's sexuality, she is attracted to men for the majority of the series, and her protective feelings toward Anthy are very innocent until the ending when they may have developed into something more, as interpreted in the 1999 movie adaptation. Utena also ends in tragedy, hinting that these characters may have been better off in circumstances that allowed them to be their true selves instead of selflessly taking on heroic roles for the sake of protecting others. Oscar is greatly admired by Marie Antoinette and Rosalie, an original character, but her heart belongs to André. She also some pent-up romantic feelings she has toward Marie's love interest, Fersen, which are realized during the one scene in the series where she dresses as a woman. Oscar only flees deeper into her male persona when she is attempting to escape these feminine romantic urges.
I do have one nitpick about The Rose of Versailles as a result of playing the Queen Marie visual novel in Time Princess. One of the many historical characters featured in the anime was Gabrielle, the Duchess of Polignac, who happened to be a fan favorite from the visual novel. Gabrielle was a low-ranking noble who was down on her luck until Marie Antoinette befriended and welcomed her to court despite being strongly advised against it by her superiors. Gabrielle was ostracized by most nobles her status was not deserving of such a high-ranking position for the friendship she shared with Marie. This made Gabrielle an underdog. While most stories glorify underdogs for their reliability to the audience, The Rose of Versailles vilified Gabrielle by inventing some historical events that never took place and turning her into a despicable human being. I recently posted a rant about defamation of fictional characters who were based on real people, and this one made me just as angry. I couldn't believe they would take a character who was ostracized for most of her life and justify the hate by having her commit such heinous acts.Princess Knight, The Rose of Versailles, and Revolutionary Girl Utena make up a trio of shows that span three decades and explore gender identity and fairy tale tropes in a way that Disney only wishes they could do with their princess line in the 2020s. They should watch these shows and take notes because Japan has gotten it right for over 50 years. I love how these series show us that it's possible for a woman to become the hero of her own story without needing to give up the things that make her uniquely female.
October 1, 2022
Story Saturday: The Little Seamstress (Once Upon a Time)
Once upon a time, there was a poor girl living in a small village with her father. The two were in mourning for the tragic death of her mother, who taught her how to be a seamstress like she was. The girl, whose name was Beatrice, diligently took on her mother's profession and mended garments for the residents of the small village. One client named Prunella seemed to visit more and more often and spent a great deal of time talking to Beatrice's father. Prunella would bring things like a skirt with a missing button that appeared to be torn off or other clothes with small rips that did not look like they happened by accident. Soon, Beatrice learned that the woman was to become her new stepmother.
On the night of her father's wedding, Prunella demanded a gift from her soon-to-be stepdaughter. Beatrice had little to offer. She tried offering a prized pincushion, some of her finest needles, and even her favorite spool of fabric that shimmered like silk. Prunella scoffed at all of these offerings and accused Beatrice of not truly wanting to have her as her new mother. Eager to please her father, Beatrice insisted that wasn't true and asked Prunella what she could do to make up for her transgressions. Prunella pointed to the heart-shaped ruby amulet that Beatrice wore around her neck, the last thing her mother had given her before her death. When Beatrice explained that the necklace belonged to her mother, Prunella only insisted that was more reason for her to have it since she was to become the girl's mother. Beatrice could not come up with a valid argument for that, and so she lost her precious amulet to her new stepmother.
Over the next few years, tragedy struck, and Beatrice lost her father in a carriage accident. Prunella's heart never softened. She forced Beatrice to sew fine clothes for her at all hours of the night while she slept comfortably in her room. She kept her door locked all the time and told Beatrice that she was never to enter under any circumstances. Now that her father was gone, Beatrice had nothing keeping her tied to the house with her awful stepmother. She devised a plan. While Prunella was asleep, Beatrice practiced the art of lockpicking with the pins and needles that she was so familiar with from her work. When she felt she had thoroughly mastered the skill, she used her tools to break into her stepmother's room one night while Prunella was fast asleep. Inside the room, she found her mother's necklace glittering in the moonlight on the nightstand. Careful not to wake her stepmother, she stuffed it in a bag with some of her finest gowns and slipped out of the house, never to be seen again.
Beatrice ran deep into the forest with no means of survival aside from the dresses she planned to sell to passing travelers. All she knew was that she could never return to that awful village again. After sleeping many nights in the woods and surviving on berries and river water, she finally came upon a beautiful kingdom with picturesque houses and a tall shimmering castle. Beatrice attempted to sell her dresses at a local marketplace, but no one wanted to buy anything from such a filthy girl who appeared out of nowhere. Soon, one of the local vendors took pity on her and gave her a tip about an opening for a maid at the palace. Beatrice did her best to clean herself up and applied for the job.
As it turned out, the king and queen were planning a huge festival that took place celebrated every year, and they needed help tailoring and mending their finest clothing for their sons and daughters. When Beatrice demonstrated her skills with a needle and thread, they were impressed and decided to give her the job. Over the next few weeks, Beatrice was busy helping with all the preparations. She met several of the princes and princesses for fittings and was taken with one prince in particular, who was fascinated by her delicate stitches and diligent work.
When the day came for the festival, Beatrice wore one of the fine gowns she had brought with her that no one wanted to buy at the market and pinned her hair in the same way she had seen the princesses and ladies at court do. As the finishing touch, she wore her mother's heart-shaped amulet, which made her feel closer to her than ever now that she was no longer trapped by Prunella's cruelty. When she entered the ballroom, everyone was impressed by her fine gown and assumed she was a visiting noble from a foreign land. The prince, however, immediately recognized her for who she was. He realized that she was not only a skilled seamstress but also a gentle and graceful dancer. He proposed to her on the spot, and she wore the same jewel on the day they were married. The prince and the little seamstress lived happily ever after.
September 25, 2022
Review: Time Princess - Moving Mountains
I wasn't sure what to expect from the latest visual novel in Time Princess called Moving Mountains. This game releases new stories so often that there isn't always enough time to read up about them to get excited, which was the case here. This story is pretty typical of a visual novel from this game. It focuses on a particular historical period and features a heroine with the ability to make decisions that have the potential to change history. Moving Mountains is the most generic story I've played in this game so far. It didn't introduce me to a new culture since there have already been several stories set in China, most of which were more interesting than this one. Unlike many of my favorites from this game, the story was not rooted in mythology or legend. Instead, it was your average tale about a woman who was ahead of her time and wanted to avoid an arranged marriage and find independence.
There was nothing particularly wrong with Moving Mountains story per se, but it didn't have anything that made it stand out among the other visual novels in Time Princess. The hook didn't grab me with something unique like mythological beasts, demons, secret identities, pirate legends, or historical icons. You play as a typical girl from ancient China named Wen Rou who wants to do more with her life than being married off to the richest suitor. When she turns down a pompous man's proposal, her father is falsely accused of criminal actions, and she goes on a quest to clear his name. The story is called Moving Mountains because she realizes that she needs to clear a mountain pass in order to save a village from a flood that had recently devastated them. Her three companions help her out from the sidelines, but none of them have particularly interesting backstories.
Lady Jiaojiao is Wen Rou's best friend who supports all her decisions. After Wen Rou leaves her home to investigate the floods on behalf of her father, Jiaojiao mainly communicates with her through letters and does some things in the background to help her out when she can. Jiuhua is Wen Rou's neighbor and one of the story's two potential love interests. He is also supportive but not very interesting as a character. The other love interest, Gu Yin, has the most relevance to the plot. He is a government official, which gives him the most connections to help Wen Rou with her research on stopping the floods and clearing her father's name. He is more difficult to get close to since he is the only one who didn't know Wen Rou prior to the beginning of the story and is intimidated at first by her take-charge and independent nature. By making certain decisions throughout the story, it isn't too difficult to bring him over to your side.
I was pretty disappointed with the clothing options in this visual novel. Time Princess has already released several stories set in ancient China, and the outfits from this one didn't look any different from many of the ones I had already collected in the game. Most of the hairstyles and robes looked similar enough to the ones I had from other stories that it didn't feel like I was getting anything new or special. Not only that, but this was the first story in Time Princess that does not contain the complete blueprints for the main outfits in the visual novel itself. More than half of the outfits require the player to obtain the final piece through the game's "Lucky Jerry" lottery system, meaning it is only possible to complete two of the outfits by completing the story alone. I thought this was a pretty cheap trick to encourage players to spend more money and become even more addicted to a game that's already highly addictive.
Overall, Moving Mountains just didn't do it for me after having played so many of the more fantastical and innovative stories in this enchanting game. I found this visual novel very bland. It only took the basic ingredients of an average Time Princess story without adding anything new into the mix. Like most stories in this game, the main character was a good role model and had some pretty clothes and close friends, but there was nothing that made her particularly special. I wouldn't recommend this story to seasoned players because there's nothing in it they haven't already seen, and I don't think I'd recommend it to newer players either because there are so many more interesting ones that will add more complete outfits to their in-game wardrobe than this one will.
September 20, 2022
Princess Updates from Disney Television Animation
The most notable gap in the D23 Expo announcements this month was from Disney Television Animation. Two years ago, they announced a massive slate of upcoming series, several of which were never mentioned again. Now we know why. Most of these shows have either been canceled or delayed, and the princesses are sadly no exception. Before I get into that, however, I'd like to lead with some good news. As many of you know, one of my favorite shows of all time is Sofia the First, a limitless adventure about a little girl who gets to experience all the magic of being a Disney Princess for the first time. This series has been stuck in Netflix limbo for the past three years, preventing Sofia from joining her fellow princesses on Disney+. Next month, all of that is about to change.
In tweet posted on September 15th, series creator Craig Gerber shared Disney Schedule Archive's post that Sofia the First will be leaving Netflix on October 8th and joining the ranks of Elena of Avalor and her other princess friends on Disney+ on October 12th. This is a huge deal! Sofia spends many episodes of her show hanging out with other Disney Princesses whose movies are currently available on Disney+, so it always felt off for her series to be streaming on a different network. Her show has always been the only one that I truly miss during the months that I don't subscribe to Netflix. It makes so much more sense to have all the princesses in the same place. That's why October 12th truly feels like a homecoming for our littlest Disney Princess. I am so excited to finally see her where she belongs.
Now for some less exciting news. The highly anticipated Tiana series inspired by The Princess and the Frog had a big press release last year with concept art, story developments, and an estimated release date of 2023. You would think with all that hype, it would have had its own panel at the D23 Expo this year. It turns out the reason it didn't is that the series was delayed. It has been quietly rescheduled to 2024 with no updates about its production. Like the original release estimate, this date is not set in stone. It is very possible that the series will continue to get delayed as its release draws closer, especially after the complete lack of new information since last year, implying that it might be going through some major changes regarding its story, animation, or overall vibe.
Similarly, the Moana series, which was announced at the same time as Tiana but has had absolutely no details released, has been removed from Disney's release schedule. Keep in mind that this does not necessarily mean it was canceled, although that is a possibility. At this point, there is simply not enough information to know what's going on with it or even what it will be about, although the title at least implies that Moana will be the main character. This series is not as high profile as Tiana's, which gives Disney more leeway to quietly push it back as much as they find necessary.
I realize this isn't a lot of exciting news to look forward to, but the lack of information is probably why none of these titles were mentioned at the Expo. The Sofia the First announcement is very exciting for me personally as a fan, but the series has already ended, meaning there is no reason for Disney to give it a big fanfare just because it's moving to their streaming service. As for Tiana, I believe that the Disney executives are being very careful to give fans what they want and avoid controversy, which may lead to some internal battles regarding what would be more culturally acceptable among modern audiences and cause delays. Moana is on the backburner since it did not receive as much hype, which means it can potentially get canceled if the budget gets too big. Which of these shows are you most excited to see? Let me know in the comments!
September 19, 2022
We Need To Talk About Gabriella
Why am I bringing this up now? I wish it was simply to share my memories of this episode with you and pay tribute to this tragic story and how it demonstrates the power of the princess spirit, caring about those in need, and providing representation for disabled characters. However, that's not the reason I am making this post today. Three years ago, when Halle Bailey was announced as the lead actress in the upcoming remake of The Little Mermaid, it created a hailstorm of online negativity and hate, almost all of which was undeserved. Then the hype died down, and the world was at peace for a while. Unfortunately, that was only the calm before the story. After the trailer was released at the D23 Expo a few weeks ago, the negativity ramped again with countless videos, essays, and flame wars about whether or not it was okay to change a Disney Princess's race. Initially, I was going to ignore all of this because I had already said my piece three years ago, and the only thing I'm concerned about now is seeing how the movie turns out. However, when the drama resurfaced in the form a viral meme on social media making a bunch of false claims about a character based on a real little girl's tragic story, I knew it was time to intervene again.
When Gabriella passed away and her visage was featured in the animated Little Mermaid series, her race had nothing to do with the tribute. However, now it seems that's all people can talk about. Not only was Gabriella Angelina Bommino was Latina, but she was also a sick little girl who was used for positive disability representation, something that was unusual on a series like this in the '90s. Recently, this incredibly disrespectful meme has been spreading all over the internet about how "Ariel meets an African mermaid from the Ivory Coast because mermaids are fictional and can be black." Not only does it fail to mention that Gabriella was a real little girl who loved mermaids so much that she became one after passing away at a tragically young age, but it also misrepresents her race as a Latina. She is being used as a tool to promote "the message" instead of the respectful tribute she was created as to show her family what their daughter would have looked like if she had survived past the age of two.
I recently reviewed Jodi Benson's book, Part of My World, and in it, she talks about a close relative named Kylie who passed away from cancer at the age of twelve. She thought Kyle was recovering and had a big plan to put her on stage in a Broadway production similar to the way Gabriella was placed in an episode of her series, but Kylie never made it. Jodi discusses this as one of the darkest periods of her life and the only time she ever truly questioned her faith. This shows us that it would be equally important to Jodi to see other children who passed on before their time to be presented faithfully and not to have their identity stripped and altered to support some sort of political agenda. Not that it matters, but Jodi completely supports Halle Bailey as the next Ariel as do I because that has nothing to do with this issue.
If you seen this meme on social media, I implore you to share a link to Gabriella's story and do everything in your power to stop the spread of misinformation. These tactics are incredibly disrespectful to the Bommino family and go against everything princesses stand for. I'm hoping to mentor a little girl myself one day, and it would break my heart to see her image reduced to a meme that focuses entirely on the color of her skin as opposed to what's in her heart. Not only is this an insult to Gabriella's family, but it is also insulting to the deaf community as the meme erases her disability that was celebrated so beautifully in the episode's finale. Can we please be adults about this and respect the children who were moved by these princesses up until their final days on Earth? After all, isn't that what brought us together to celebrate princesses in the first place?
Update: After I shared this post, the Facebook page called CineMarvellous changed the caption on an image of Ariel and Gabriella to say "
Gabriella's appearance in '92 #TheLittleMermaid series might have no meaning, but the new remake hails African folklore 
tiny.one/mamiwata"
September 18, 2022
Review: Part of My World
I thought I already knew everything there was to know about , the iconic voice of my favorite Disney character, Ariel, from The Little Mermaid. When I found out she was releasing an autobiography, I expected it to contain the same stories I'd already heard in interviews, live performances, and word of mouth. As it turns out, I was wrong. Part of My World: What I've learned from The Little Mermaid about love, faith, and finding my voice is an intimate and revealing account of everything that went on behind the scenes of Jodi's life, and not all of it is pretty. This book humanizes this smiling upbeat role model for princess fans and musical theater ingenues and shows us that she is a real person with real problems just like everyone else. Reading Part of My World made me feel closer to Jodi Benson than I ever have, even after meeting her in person. I highly recommend this book to all fans of musical theater and animation.
Part of My World was like catching up with an old friend. I knew all the names, events, and locations recounted in the book, but I didn't know how they were all connected or the struggles that went on behind the scenes. For instance, even though I had met , the voice of Disney's Belle, who wrote the book's foreword, and knew that she and Jodi were friends, I did not know that they met before getting hired by Disney or that Jodi had been pushing for Paige to get cast as Belle. Prior to her role as Ariel, I knew that Jodi had performed in a short-lived musical called Smile and sang a beautiful song called "Disneyland." I did not know that the musical was staged at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater, where I would see the Broadway production of The Little Mermaid years later, or that Jodi had formed a strong relationship with through that show that caused him to request her for the role of Ariel and help her find the nuances to make her work better for animation. It's a well-known fact that Jodi is married and has two children, but I had no idea she met her husband by performing the song "Tonight" from West Side Story in a theater group, impressing their future colleagues.
While Jodi is an upbeat and positive person, she does not stray from the hardships of reality in her book, something that left me feeling satisfied because I knew it wasn't the "Disneyfied" version of her life. In fact, the book itself has nothing to do with Disney. It was released by Tyndale, a Christian publisher that had been bugging her to release a book with them for a while. Jodi has always been a devout Christian, but it felt like the book followed certain protocols that were too routine to be natural, such as a call to action at the end of every chapter about believing in God and a large number of quotes from the bible. As a non-Christian, most of these things didn't bother me with the exception of one rather disturbing chapter where Jodi describes becoming physically ill after being coerced into converting to her future husband's denomination and being told that it was her body trying to fight off evil spirits. Regardless, I knew this book was written from Jodi's heart because she has always been very serious about her religious beliefs.
Though the book has a positive overall message, almost every chapter described an event that caused Jodi to question her faith, and it was these moments where I felt like I got to know the real Jodi Benson. I was surprised to learn that she had a rocky relationship with her husband, nearly breaking up twice, and suffered a miscarriage before giving birth to each of her two children, McKinley and Delaney, who she regularly dotes upon on social media. It was also eye-opening to read such candid descriptions of the life of a struggling actor. I don't have a lot of experience with acting, myself, but I know some people in the industry and am very much aware of the cutthroat lifestyle of surviving from audition to audition, never knowing where your next paycheck will come from. Even though Jodi has had an immensely successful career and later had people calling and begging her to come to auditions, she reached that point by surviving in a tiny New York City apartment with her husband on a shoestring budget turning down ensemble roles in the hopes she might make it big one day. As a fan of shows like Smash, I appreciated this honest account of show business. I loved that every chapter in the book was named after a song lyric or line from a movie, almost all of which I was able to identify immediately!
After all these years of loving and relating to Ariel, Part of My World gave me a chance to love and relate to Jodi Benson on an entirely different level. I was only a child when The Little Mermaid came out, so I was able to appreciate the fantasy and wonder of the fairy tale. Now, as an adult, I am able to appreciate the struggles and realities of Jodi's actual life. Maybe it's not a fairy tale like the stories she's played it, but I have a great deal of admiration for this woman who overcame so many obstacles and remained faithful even when everything seemed hopeless. If you were on the fence about reading this book like I was when it was first announced, I can assure you that it is worth every penny. This is a complete recounting of the life of an actress, mother, and Christian with nothing held back.
September 13, 2022
The School for Good and Evil Finally Has a Real Trailer!
As soon as I heard that The School for Good and Evil was coming to Netflix and was based on a popular princess book series to Soman Chainani, I went ahead and read the first book. I had mixed feelings about the visually stunning setting combined with outdated stereotypes about princess characters being selfish and vain. The initial teaser for the film revealed very little about how it might look or how closely it would follow the book. Today, a new trailer was released that shows significantly more footage from the movie does seem to follow the book, right down the lavish visuals that provide a sensory overload of beautiful fairy tale imagery.
While the initial teaser and casting announcement focused on the two headmistresses who barely even made an impression in the book, the trailer shines the spotlight where it belongs on Sophie and Agatha, the two protagonists. Like the teaser, the trailer pushes the fairy tale angle with the claim that Snow White, Cinderella, and Jack who climbed the beanstalk all attended this school. I still have the same issue with this now as I did when I read the book, which is that going to a school that supported and fostered their talents changes these characters' backstories about being sheltered underdogs who were mistreated or abused and had very few people on their side. This should make the outcome of their fairy tales themselves different from the versions we know. This is something I already brought up in my book review, so I will try to focus the rest of this post on the new content from the film.
This trailer features one of the most visually stunning moments of the book in which Agatha rescues the wishing fish from the pond and looks on in shock as it transforms into a humanoid girl. The visual effects that Netflix uses to portray this are just as bizarre and striking as the description was in the book. The trailer features even more extravagant wardrobes for the students at both schools. The book described the girls at The School for Good as wearing pink frilly uniforms that seemed to have a cohesive look to them while students at The School for Evil wore black Hogwarts-like robes. This trailer features the students at The School for Good donning a sumptuous feast of fairy-tale inspired ballgowns with embroidered accents and decals in different colors that give each costume a luxurious and and individualistic quality that evokes the feeling of attending a royal ball. Meanwhile, Sophie is shown at The School for Evil in a gothic black strapless dress that is more evocative of her exorbitant sense of fashion than the robes she refused to wear at the beginning of the book.
It looks like the story in the film will follow the first book pretty closely with Sophie dreaming of being a princess at The School for Good and getting forced into The School for Evil while Agatha is determined to rescue her from the entire debacle. It's unclear whether the film will keep some of the more offensive aspects of the book, such as the other girls in The School for Good being just as vain and selfish as Sophie. I hope the script will at least try to tone this down since it completely contradicts the aspect of the story where Sophie needs to accept she doesn't belong with them when in actuality, she is no different than they are. The trailer doesn't spend a lot of time teasing Agatha's reluctant relationship with Tedros, but the promo images that were released yesterday include one of her dancing with him at a royal ball. At this point, there is little reason to believe that anything in the Netflix movie will be different from the story in the book, but one can still hope.
Though I'm not a huge fan of this story, the visuals in the Netflix trailer for The School for Good and Evil are everything I could have possibly dreamed of and more. The filmmakers went above and beyond when it came to bringing this bizarrely disturbing fairy tale world to life. I love the detail and variety in all of the stunning costumes as well as the dark and unnerving visuals that perfectly recreate the tone of the book. The film's release has been pushed up by two days from October 21st to October 19th, so we will be able to watch it on Netflix a bit earlier than anticipated. My only hope for this film is that the screenwriters tried to smooth out some of the contradictory messages from the novel, but even if they didn't, it looks like it will be a gorgeous sight to behold.
