Lisa Dawn's Blog: The Princess Blog, page 63
October 7, 2019
Review: Tangled - Rapunzel's Return
There are few season premieres as anticipated as the third season of Tangled. The season 2 finale,
Destinies Collide
, left fans with chills as Cassandra betrayed Rapunzel within the final seconds of the episode by snatching the Moonstone Opal right out of her hands. I avoided jumping too deep into the fan theory vortex since only one explanation for Cassandra's actions would ever truly be canon. That explanation came within the opening minutes of today's season premiere,
Rapunzel's Return
. It was a shocking twist of events, but not one that was completely unfounded. According to series creator
For me, the most disappointing thing about Rapunzel's Return was learning Cassandra betrayed Rapunzel entirely of her own accord instead of being manipulated by some sort of external force as I had initially anticipated (or hoped). However, that disappointment is from my perspective as a fan, not as a writer. In that respect, today's two-part special was almost too perfect. It played all the right heartstrings, making me sad, forlorn, and satisfied at just the right moments. The special answered all of the questions we've been asking for the past two seasons of the show within its 43-minute runtime as well as bringing back several characters from earlier episodes. It avoided any semblance of filler and got straight to the point. I wish every episode of the Tangled series could have been this good.
One of the biggest rewards for trudging through the hiatus was the return of Varian, Rapunzel's troubled alchemist friend whose absence left a gaping hole in the show's second season. Varian also betrayed Rapunzel in the The Secret of the Sun Drop from the first season, but unlike Cassandra, his story went unresolved for much longer than a single hiatus. In some ways, his character arc got tied up too neatly in Rapunzel's Return, but I can forgive that because the kingdom of Corona never felt quite the same without him. If they are able to keep up this momentum until the end of the show, it will be an exciting roller coaster of a final season indeed. The second season had way too much filler for my taste.
The only question remaining is what will become of Cassandra. It seems likely that she will be the new villain of the show. The creators knew exactly what they were doing when they forced us to like for two years just to make the betrayal hurt us as much as it hurt Rapunzel. The optimist in me wants Cass to have a redemption arc by the series finale, but from a writer's perspective as well as my own personal experiences with betrayal, that seems to be an unlikely outcome at this point. I feel as though this series could have benefited from only being two seasons long instead of three. The filler episodes on the island and in the House of Yesterday's Tomorrow feel completely arbitrary when we could have spent all this time developing the complexities of Rapunzel and Cassandra's relationship.
Rapunzel's Return was an outstanding season premiere and possibly my favorite episode of the series thus far. It's impossible not to feel sorry for Cassandra during the opening scene, which allows us to understand her motivation in betraying Rapunzel on a painful and intimate level. Some of the songs felt a little out of place due the darker themes that were introduced in the previous season. The duet between Rapunzel and Cassandra reminded me of "Life's Too Short," my favorite deleted song from Frozen , so I'm glad it made it onto the screen in some form. In fact, the sisterly relationship between Rapunzel and Cassandra bares a strong resemblance to Anna and Elsa. Whether or not their story will end the same way, however, remains to be seen.
For me, the most disappointing thing about Rapunzel's Return was learning Cassandra betrayed Rapunzel entirely of her own accord instead of being manipulated by some sort of external force as I had initially anticipated (or hoped). However, that disappointment is from my perspective as a fan, not as a writer. In that respect, today's two-part special was almost too perfect. It played all the right heartstrings, making me sad, forlorn, and satisfied at just the right moments. The special answered all of the questions we've been asking for the past two seasons of the show within its 43-minute runtime as well as bringing back several characters from earlier episodes. It avoided any semblance of filler and got straight to the point. I wish every episode of the Tangled series could have been this good.
One of the biggest rewards for trudging through the hiatus was the return of Varian, Rapunzel's troubled alchemist friend whose absence left a gaping hole in the show's second season. Varian also betrayed Rapunzel in the The Secret of the Sun Drop from the first season, but unlike Cassandra, his story went unresolved for much longer than a single hiatus. In some ways, his character arc got tied up too neatly in Rapunzel's Return, but I can forgive that because the kingdom of Corona never felt quite the same without him. If they are able to keep up this momentum until the end of the show, it will be an exciting roller coaster of a final season indeed. The second season had way too much filler for my taste.
The only question remaining is what will become of Cassandra. It seems likely that she will be the new villain of the show. The creators knew exactly what they were doing when they forced us to like for two years just to make the betrayal hurt us as much as it hurt Rapunzel. The optimist in me wants Cass to have a redemption arc by the series finale, but from a writer's perspective as well as my own personal experiences with betrayal, that seems to be an unlikely outcome at this point. I feel as though this series could have benefited from only being two seasons long instead of three. The filler episodes on the island and in the House of Yesterday's Tomorrow feel completely arbitrary when we could have spent all this time developing the complexities of Rapunzel and Cassandra's relationship.
Rapunzel's Return was an outstanding season premiere and possibly my favorite episode of the series thus far. It's impossible not to feel sorry for Cassandra during the opening scene, which allows us to understand her motivation in betraying Rapunzel on a painful and intimate level. Some of the songs felt a little out of place due the darker themes that were introduced in the previous season. The duet between Rapunzel and Cassandra reminded me of "Life's Too Short," my favorite deleted song from Frozen , so I'm glad it made it onto the screen in some form. In fact, the sisterly relationship between Rapunzel and Cassandra bares a strong resemblance to Anna and Elsa. Whether or not their story will end the same way, however, remains to be seen.
October 6, 2019
Thoughts on a Live-Action Snow White
Disney recently announced that they will begin production on the live-action remake of
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
. This announcement was a long time coming, beginning with plans for a movie featuring Snow White's sister Rose Red from the fairy tale "Snow White and Rose Red" before ultimately deciding to go back to their standard route of lazily recreating something they already made. This wouldn't be the first live-action portrayal of Snow White for Disney.
If this movie had been announced prior to Disney's remake craze, people would have been completely outraged. After all, Snow White was the one that began Walt Disney's legacy as a studio that adapts classic fairy tales into high quality animated theatrical features. The movie recently celebrated its 80th anniversary two years ago. With a huge party at Sak's Fifth Avenue in New York City, Disney has made it crystal clear that they are aware and appreciative of their roots from this 1937 phenomenon. So why replace it? In the era of direct-to-video '90s sequels, it was an unspoken understanding that Disney would have lost their soul if they tried to do a cheap watered-down sequel to Snow White. The character was also missing from future plans for the failed Disney Princess Enchanted Tales series. Aside from its untouchable status in Disney history, the character of Snow White is also so outdated that even a small change would make her practically unrecognizable from the original film. As much as I loved Ginnifer Goodwin's performance in Once Upon a Time, it's difficult to imagine the 1937 version of Snow White running around with a bow and arrow and hunting down the evil queen's soldiers.
An easy solution to this would be to go the Maleficent route and retell the same story from a new perspective with an alternative ending. That's exactly what Disney was going to do with Rose Red. Rose was going to be Snow White's warrior princess sister who leads a rebellion to save her from their wicked stepmother. This would have allowed Snow White's personality to remain intact from her 1937 counterpart while still modernizing the story with an empowered heroine. Somewhere along the way, Disney decided that people are scared of change, so it would be more profitable for them to create something that looks more like the version they are already familiar with. Something similar happened with their recent Aladdin remake. The project was initially going to be a prequel to the 1992 animated classic called Genies, in which they would reveal the Genie's backstory and introduce other genies from Aladdin's world. This project was replaced with the more familiar-looking movie that we saw earlier this year. At least we can still learn about where genies come from with the underrated Once Upon a Time in Wonderland series.
Snow White is the last pre-millennium animated princess movie they are turning into a live-action remake. Following the announcement of Halle Bailey as Ariel for the 2021 remake of The Little Mermaid , every official Disney Princess prior to the year 2000 has a live-action counterpart with the exception of the fairest of them all. At this point, it seems almost insulting for them to leave out Snow White as she was the one who started the entire phenomenon. Disney must complete the circle and give their first animated princess an alternative movie for a newer generation. If they hadn't already announced it by now, they'd probably be getting complaints about why every other princess got this treatment except for her. The saddest thing about it is that Snow White has had more modernized non-Disney adaptations than any other fairy tale princess, including an animated sequel from the '90s. Unless they do something truly groundbreaking, the Disney remake will be just another movie to throw onto the pile of empowered Snow Whites who fight back against their evil stepmothers. That also brings up the question of whether or not giving Snow White an attitude and a weapon takes away the very thing that made her unique among the other princesses, but that's a topic for another post.
The Disney remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is happening whether we want it to or not, and all we can do is hope that it will actually be worth watching. It will be directed by Marc Webb and likely come out sometime after The Little Mermaid. It's a shame that studios are so afraid of change because I was intrigued by the concept of a Rose Red movie. Instead, we are probably going to get yet another sword-wielding empowered princess who refuses to sit around and wait for a prince to rescue her, even though that is exactly what the most famous song from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was about. Does remaking the movie that put the Walt Disney Company on the map destroy their integrity as a creative and inspirational entity? I say no, but only because I think they already did that a while ago. This movie is just the icing on the cake.
If this movie had been announced prior to Disney's remake craze, people would have been completely outraged. After all, Snow White was the one that began Walt Disney's legacy as a studio that adapts classic fairy tales into high quality animated theatrical features. The movie recently celebrated its 80th anniversary two years ago. With a huge party at Sak's Fifth Avenue in New York City, Disney has made it crystal clear that they are aware and appreciative of their roots from this 1937 phenomenon. So why replace it? In the era of direct-to-video '90s sequels, it was an unspoken understanding that Disney would have lost their soul if they tried to do a cheap watered-down sequel to Snow White. The character was also missing from future plans for the failed Disney Princess Enchanted Tales series. Aside from its untouchable status in Disney history, the character of Snow White is also so outdated that even a small change would make her practically unrecognizable from the original film. As much as I loved Ginnifer Goodwin's performance in Once Upon a Time, it's difficult to imagine the 1937 version of Snow White running around with a bow and arrow and hunting down the evil queen's soldiers.
An easy solution to this would be to go the Maleficent route and retell the same story from a new perspective with an alternative ending. That's exactly what Disney was going to do with Rose Red. Rose was going to be Snow White's warrior princess sister who leads a rebellion to save her from their wicked stepmother. This would have allowed Snow White's personality to remain intact from her 1937 counterpart while still modernizing the story with an empowered heroine. Somewhere along the way, Disney decided that people are scared of change, so it would be more profitable for them to create something that looks more like the version they are already familiar with. Something similar happened with their recent Aladdin remake. The project was initially going to be a prequel to the 1992 animated classic called Genies, in which they would reveal the Genie's backstory and introduce other genies from Aladdin's world. This project was replaced with the more familiar-looking movie that we saw earlier this year. At least we can still learn about where genies come from with the underrated Once Upon a Time in Wonderland series.
Snow White is the last pre-millennium animated princess movie they are turning into a live-action remake. Following the announcement of Halle Bailey as Ariel for the 2021 remake of The Little Mermaid , every official Disney Princess prior to the year 2000 has a live-action counterpart with the exception of the fairest of them all. At this point, it seems almost insulting for them to leave out Snow White as she was the one who started the entire phenomenon. Disney must complete the circle and give their first animated princess an alternative movie for a newer generation. If they hadn't already announced it by now, they'd probably be getting complaints about why every other princess got this treatment except for her. The saddest thing about it is that Snow White has had more modernized non-Disney adaptations than any other fairy tale princess, including an animated sequel from the '90s. Unless they do something truly groundbreaking, the Disney remake will be just another movie to throw onto the pile of empowered Snow Whites who fight back against their evil stepmothers. That also brings up the question of whether or not giving Snow White an attitude and a weapon takes away the very thing that made her unique among the other princesses, but that's a topic for another post.
The Disney remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is happening whether we want it to or not, and all we can do is hope that it will actually be worth watching. It will be directed by Marc Webb and likely come out sometime after The Little Mermaid. It's a shame that studios are so afraid of change because I was intrigued by the concept of a Rose Red movie. Instead, we are probably going to get yet another sword-wielding empowered princess who refuses to sit around and wait for a prince to rescue her, even though that is exactly what the most famous song from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was about. Does remaking the movie that put the Walt Disney Company on the map destroy their integrity as a creative and inspirational entity? I say no, but only because I think they already did that a while ago. This movie is just the icing on the cake.
October 2, 2019
Review: Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs
There are a ton of cultural discrepancies involved in the production and distribution of the recent "Snow White" parody movie, Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs, and I mean a ton. It was produced by a Korean animation studio called Locus Animation. Despite having been around for roughly a decade according to their website, they have never produced an animated movie before this one. Even though the main characters look vaguely Korean and one uses ofuda talismans as an attack, the movie has a full cast of American voice actors. You may have heard of Red Shoes from the controversy it caused at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, where numerous people complained about a billboard for the movie featuring a skinny and fat version of Snow White with the tag line "What if Snow White was no longer beautiful and the 7 Dwarfs not so short?" This billboard sparked anger from the western world about the princess body image issue over to the implication that being skinny is equivalent to being beautiful, a belief that is far more prevalent in eastern culture than it is in the west. The irony is that no one would have even known this movie existed if it didn't spark such a controversy. Smaller studios often have problems with their distribution budget. Like Charming, Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs never saw an American theatrical release, and it's a real shame because the movie is actually pretty decent.
The initial teasers for Red Shoes were incredibly offensive, such as a scene portraying the dwarfs spying on Snow White as she took off her dress and gasping in horror when she removed her shoes to reveal her plus-sized figure and another in which they brutalized her unconscious body in an attempt to remove the shoes. These scandalous ads got shut down after its leading actress,
Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs is a twist on the classic "Snow White" fairy tale. In this version, Snow steals two poison apples from her evil stepmother in an attempt to rescue her father. Before she touches them, the apples turn into a pair of cute red pumps that make Snow White a taller, skinnier, and hotter version of herself. The "Red Shoes" version of Snow White has bigger eyes, longer eyelashes, and shimmery red lips and eye shadow. What impressed me about the movie is that unlike the initial promos, Snow White didn't particularly care about being skinny nor did she say anything to imply that she didn't think she was beautiful before. Her tastes in men are also unconventional. She doesn't particularly care about finding a prince and says that the dashing princes of the Fearless Seven aren't "her type." Snow finds her stepmother's shoes by chance in an attempt to rescue her father. After she sees her new look in the mirror and realizes that the seven dwarfs she encounters are willing to help her find her father because of her appearance, she decides to keep the shoes for a little longer than she was planning.
The dwarfs in this movie are cursed too. They start out as the Fearless Seven, warrior princes who make it their mission to rescue princesses. When they rescue a faery princess and decide to attack her because she has green skin, she curses them to look like little green dwarfs whenever another person lays eyes on them them. That last part is important because it allows us to see the main love interest, Merlin, in his handsome prince form with Snow White every time she looks away, allowing for a number of fantasy sequences and constantly reminding us that he isn't really a chubby green dwarf. The opening scenes of this movie have a lot of emphasis on how men judge women based on their looks but not vice versa. The Fearless Seven assume the princess they rescued is a witch because she looks like a witch, and Snow White's father assumes Regina isn't because she doesn't look like one. Regina uses wears the shoes to take advantage of this even though she doesn't seem to care what the men in her life look like. Likewise, Snow White prefers the Fearless Seven's humble dwarf visages to their conventionally handsome human forms while they only help her for the promise of a kiss from a beautiful woman to break their spell. While this could be a social commentary that men are superficial, I think it's more of an insult to men's intelligence, implying that they are easily susceptible to traps.
Of course, Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs is far from perfect. The movie is hilariously lazy with its character names. It takes place on Fairytale Island, not a new enchanted kingdom like Corona or Arendelle. The Fearless Seven are named after other fabled heroes, such as Merlin, Arthur, and Jack. The Evil Queen's name, Regina, comes straight out of Once Upon a Time. When Snow White doesn't want to reveal her true identity while she has the magic shoes on, she settles for the name "Red Shoes," and nobody questions the fact that it's obviously a fake name. There's also a rival prince that nobody cares about named Prince Average, who tries to court princesses straight out of other copyrighted movies, including Ariel and Leia. Another big flaw with the movie was its musical sequences. The characters don't sing, but there is the occasional pop song montage sequence that brings the entire story to a halt. The songs in this movie felt every bit as awkward and out of place as they were in Charming. Finally, there's the most obvious factor, which is that this is a story we have all seen many times before. It did feel like I watch watching Shrek sometimes, but I enjoyed Shrek, so that's not necessarily a bad thing for me.
Overall, Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs is an enjoyable movie with an obvious message that's not nearly as heavy-handed as the advertising makes it look. If they had done a better job with their marketing, perhaps it could have seen a western release, allowing plus-sized princesses everywhere to have a character they could look up to. As it stands now, it will probably fall into obscurity due solely to the fact that it is an animated movie not produced by Disney. I feel a little sorry for Chloe Grace Moretz, who keeps losing opportunities to become a well-known princess actress. Her Little Mermaid project with Universal appears to be canceled thanks to Disney overshadowing it with their own. I wish more people could hear her adorkable performance in Red Shoes that was unlike any other animated princess I've ever heard. I think that if Locus didn't try so hard to make this movie an obvious Disney knock-off and used an actual Korean voice cast, it could have become more of a cult classic than the cultural mess that it turned into.
The initial teasers for Red Shoes were incredibly offensive, such as a scene portraying the dwarfs spying on Snow White as she took off her dress and gasping in horror when she removed her shoes to reveal her plus-sized figure and another in which they brutalized her unconscious body in an attempt to remove the shoes. These scandalous ads got shut down after its leading actress,
Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs is a twist on the classic "Snow White" fairy tale. In this version, Snow steals two poison apples from her evil stepmother in an attempt to rescue her father. Before she touches them, the apples turn into a pair of cute red pumps that make Snow White a taller, skinnier, and hotter version of herself. The "Red Shoes" version of Snow White has bigger eyes, longer eyelashes, and shimmery red lips and eye shadow. What impressed me about the movie is that unlike the initial promos, Snow White didn't particularly care about being skinny nor did she say anything to imply that she didn't think she was beautiful before. Her tastes in men are also unconventional. She doesn't particularly care about finding a prince and says that the dashing princes of the Fearless Seven aren't "her type." Snow finds her stepmother's shoes by chance in an attempt to rescue her father. After she sees her new look in the mirror and realizes that the seven dwarfs she encounters are willing to help her find her father because of her appearance, she decides to keep the shoes for a little longer than she was planning.
The dwarfs in this movie are cursed too. They start out as the Fearless Seven, warrior princes who make it their mission to rescue princesses. When they rescue a faery princess and decide to attack her because she has green skin, she curses them to look like little green dwarfs whenever another person lays eyes on them them. That last part is important because it allows us to see the main love interest, Merlin, in his handsome prince form with Snow White every time she looks away, allowing for a number of fantasy sequences and constantly reminding us that he isn't really a chubby green dwarf. The opening scenes of this movie have a lot of emphasis on how men judge women based on their looks but not vice versa. The Fearless Seven assume the princess they rescued is a witch because she looks like a witch, and Snow White's father assumes Regina isn't because she doesn't look like one. Regina uses wears the shoes to take advantage of this even though she doesn't seem to care what the men in her life look like. Likewise, Snow White prefers the Fearless Seven's humble dwarf visages to their conventionally handsome human forms while they only help her for the promise of a kiss from a beautiful woman to break their spell. While this could be a social commentary that men are superficial, I think it's more of an insult to men's intelligence, implying that they are easily susceptible to traps.
Of course, Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs is far from perfect. The movie is hilariously lazy with its character names. It takes place on Fairytale Island, not a new enchanted kingdom like Corona or Arendelle. The Fearless Seven are named after other fabled heroes, such as Merlin, Arthur, and Jack. The Evil Queen's name, Regina, comes straight out of Once Upon a Time. When Snow White doesn't want to reveal her true identity while she has the magic shoes on, she settles for the name "Red Shoes," and nobody questions the fact that it's obviously a fake name. There's also a rival prince that nobody cares about named Prince Average, who tries to court princesses straight out of other copyrighted movies, including Ariel and Leia. Another big flaw with the movie was its musical sequences. The characters don't sing, but there is the occasional pop song montage sequence that brings the entire story to a halt. The songs in this movie felt every bit as awkward and out of place as they were in Charming. Finally, there's the most obvious factor, which is that this is a story we have all seen many times before. It did feel like I watch watching Shrek sometimes, but I enjoyed Shrek, so that's not necessarily a bad thing for me.
Overall, Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs is an enjoyable movie with an obvious message that's not nearly as heavy-handed as the advertising makes it look. If they had done a better job with their marketing, perhaps it could have seen a western release, allowing plus-sized princesses everywhere to have a character they could look up to. As it stands now, it will probably fall into obscurity due solely to the fact that it is an animated movie not produced by Disney. I feel a little sorry for Chloe Grace Moretz, who keeps losing opportunities to become a well-known princess actress. Her Little Mermaid project with Universal appears to be canceled thanks to Disney overshadowing it with their own. I wish more people could hear her adorkable performance in Red Shoes that was unlike any other animated princess I've ever heard. I think that if Locus didn't try so hard to make this movie an obvious Disney knock-off and used an actual Korean voice cast, it could have become more of a cult classic than the cultural mess that it turned into.
September 29, 2019
Review: The Dragon Princess
The fairy tale retelling/reimagining genre is huge in novel world right now. I realize that most of my reviews cover books in this genre, but putting the word "princess" in the title or having a princess as a protagonist is still enough to compel me to read a book. When I wrote my last novella,
The Stolen Jewel
, I didn't want to make another adaptation because I wanted to tell my own original fairy tale. In the case of The Dragon Princess by Lichelle Slater (not to be confused with
The Last Dragon Princess
, which I also reviewed), I would say that the subtitle "Sleeping Beauty Reimagined" is a detriment. I've read other "Sleeping Beauty" adaptations that stray far from the original fairy tale, but here, it felt so forced that the story would have actually benefited from not including the reference at all. The Forgotten Kingdom series stands perfectly well on its own as an original princess fantasy series.
The Dragon Princess starts very slow and took a while to pique my interest. It tells the story of Princess Elisa, a girl who was cursed by a wicked faery to turn into a dragon by her 18th birthday. Elisa's parents take every precaution to prevent this ill fate, including covering her scales with gloves training her to conceal her feelings, and giving her sisters Dahlia and Marigold special treatment over her. If you think this sounds a lot like Frozen , you wouldn't be too far off, especially when it comes to the twist ending. The problem is that the story of a cursed princess being trapped in her castle by overprotective parents is something we've all seen hundreds of times. It took roughly two-thirds of the book before it had anything new to contribute to the concept. However, when this book gets good, it gets really good.
After her parents surprise her with an engagement to a too-good-to-be-true prince named Gerard who offers to help with her curse, Elisa suddenly decides to take the matter into her own hands. She journeys off to find a fae who can help her and discovers a faery boy named Dormir. That's where the "Sleeping Beauty" aspect comes into play. Dormir has an odd condition that causes him to fall asleep when he is stressed, and the only way to wake him is with a kiss. This happens to him more than once and never comes off as anything other than comical. Elisa's story would have been exactly the same whether Dormir had the condition or not. The "Sleeping Beauty" reference is clear enough without needing to caption the book "Sleeping Beauty Reimagined." In the end, it's really Elisa's story, not Dormir's.
When Elisa finally does find the faery queen, the story rapidly sets into action. Elisa learns that she was lied to her entire life and that her curse is not what she thinks it is. She decides to embrace her true self, discovers a power she never knew she had, and sets out to save her family and her kingdom from a new threat. The last third of the book felt like another story entirely. The princess tropes ended, and the creativity of Lichelle Slater's imagination came to life. Suddenly, I was savoring every page and couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next. I wish the rest of the book had been this exciting. Like Elisa, it felt as though the beginning of the book was struggling to be something it wasn't.
Overall, The Dragon Princess is a compelling and enjoyable read if you can make it through the slow monotony of the first half. It would have been even better without the forced fairy tale references. I also wish Elisa had been a bit more consistent in her personality. The decision to stop being passive and rescue herself seemed to come out of nowhere. As soon as she went from a passive heroine to an active one, the book became a real page-turner. Since this is the first in a series, I would like to think that the next book will start just as compelling as this one ended, but I wish the series would stray from trying to use the fairy tale reimagining/retelling genre. Lichelle is incredibly talented at creating her own original characters and worlds and does not need to rely on older stories in order to build an audience.
The Dragon Princess starts very slow and took a while to pique my interest. It tells the story of Princess Elisa, a girl who was cursed by a wicked faery to turn into a dragon by her 18th birthday. Elisa's parents take every precaution to prevent this ill fate, including covering her scales with gloves training her to conceal her feelings, and giving her sisters Dahlia and Marigold special treatment over her. If you think this sounds a lot like Frozen , you wouldn't be too far off, especially when it comes to the twist ending. The problem is that the story of a cursed princess being trapped in her castle by overprotective parents is something we've all seen hundreds of times. It took roughly two-thirds of the book before it had anything new to contribute to the concept. However, when this book gets good, it gets really good.
After her parents surprise her with an engagement to a too-good-to-be-true prince named Gerard who offers to help with her curse, Elisa suddenly decides to take the matter into her own hands. She journeys off to find a fae who can help her and discovers a faery boy named Dormir. That's where the "Sleeping Beauty" aspect comes into play. Dormir has an odd condition that causes him to fall asleep when he is stressed, and the only way to wake him is with a kiss. This happens to him more than once and never comes off as anything other than comical. Elisa's story would have been exactly the same whether Dormir had the condition or not. The "Sleeping Beauty" reference is clear enough without needing to caption the book "Sleeping Beauty Reimagined." In the end, it's really Elisa's story, not Dormir's.
When Elisa finally does find the faery queen, the story rapidly sets into action. Elisa learns that she was lied to her entire life and that her curse is not what she thinks it is. She decides to embrace her true self, discovers a power she never knew she had, and sets out to save her family and her kingdom from a new threat. The last third of the book felt like another story entirely. The princess tropes ended, and the creativity of Lichelle Slater's imagination came to life. Suddenly, I was savoring every page and couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next. I wish the rest of the book had been this exciting. Like Elisa, it felt as though the beginning of the book was struggling to be something it wasn't.
Overall, The Dragon Princess is a compelling and enjoyable read if you can make it through the slow monotony of the first half. It would have been even better without the forced fairy tale references. I also wish Elisa had been a bit more consistent in her personality. The decision to stop being passive and rescue herself seemed to come out of nowhere. As soon as she went from a passive heroine to an active one, the book became a real page-turner. Since this is the first in a series, I would like to think that the next book will start just as compelling as this one ended, but I wish the series would stray from trying to use the fairy tale reimagining/retelling genre. Lichelle is incredibly talented at creating her own original characters and worlds and does not need to rely on older stories in order to build an audience.
September 23, 2019
Frozen 2 Trailer 2
The Frozen 2 hype comes to a crescendo today with with the second full-length trailer that gives us more information about this upcoming sequel than ever. Other sources reveal names for several new characters from the movie, including Honeymaren, a young woman who was in the first teaser, and her brother Ryder, who is similar to Kristoff in both appearance and personality. This trailer also reveals footage of Anna and Elsa's parents, who were reported to be part of a flashback sequence at this year's D23 Expo. Couple that with some adorable Anna dialogue and more epic footage of the Nokk, and we have the best trailer Disney has released for this movie so far!
It starts out with a traditional narration that foreshadows the Enchanted Forest that Anna and Elsa would travel to later on. The narrator is then revealed as their father, King Agnarr, who tells them a bedtime story in a flashback from when they are children. We also briefly see their mother, Queen Iduna, even though she has no spoken dialogue. By changing her name from Gerda to Iduna, this movie negates the events of the fourth season of Once Upon a Time, which tied Disney's Frozen to "The Snow Queen" fairy tale. Then we hear present-day Elsa telling Anna about a "voice" that is drawing her to the Enchanted Forest. The rock trolls send Elsa on a quest, and Anna insists on coming with her after a brief recounting of her accomplishments the original movie. If it wasn't clear by now already, the first Frozen was Anna's journey, and this one will be Elsa's.
There are lot of new looks for Elsa in this trailer in that are very different from what we would expect to see her in. While her signature color is normally light blue, here she wears even more pink than Anna! She has a satin magenta dress on in the nighttime scenes, and there is a daytime scene of her looking over a balcony in a soft pink winter dress. Just after that clip, Anna asks Kristoff if he noticed anything weird about Elsa, and I wonder if the sudden change in fashion is meant to be a reflection of that. Frozen's fashions use a technique called rosemaling to reflect the characters' environments in their clothing, so the pink Elsa wears in this film could be symbolic of the eerie pink flames that she finds in the Enchanted Forest which she later chastises Anna for following her into.
Another uncharacteristic look for Elsa is when she lets her hair down while running across an ice obstacle course that she creates for herself. I believe this is the first time we've seen her without her hair braided or tied back. She wears the same ice blue body suit in this scene that she had on in the original teaser, but her hair was in a ponytail there. Perhaps the ponytail came undone after she encountered the Nokk. For a brief moment in the end of the trailer, we see Elsa succeed in taming the Nokk and riding it across the ocean using reigns of ice that she formed around its muzzle. Taming the Nokk appears to be a pivotal moment in the film, implying that it might be the source of the voices she heard calling her to the Enchanted Forest. Whether the mystical water spirit is good or evil remains to be seen.
From the quality of the animation and music in this trailer, it's clear that this sequel is no direct-to-video budget fare. Disney has pulled all the stops to give the many Frozen fans something to look forward to after six years. It's a shame that we didn't hear any dialogue from newcomer Honeymaren or her brother Ryder in this trailer even though they seem to be major players in the film. We do, however, get a close-up of Elsa's new animal companion, Bruni, a blue and white salamander who gives off major Pascal vibes. The Northuldra tribe shows up briefly when they ask Elsa how she found the forest, and we get one line from an old woman who is likely their leader, Yelana. A lot more will be revealed when Frozen 2 comes out on November 22nd. It's nice to have some context of what to expect in the meantime.
It starts out with a traditional narration that foreshadows the Enchanted Forest that Anna and Elsa would travel to later on. The narrator is then revealed as their father, King Agnarr, who tells them a bedtime story in a flashback from when they are children. We also briefly see their mother, Queen Iduna, even though she has no spoken dialogue. By changing her name from Gerda to Iduna, this movie negates the events of the fourth season of Once Upon a Time, which tied Disney's Frozen to "The Snow Queen" fairy tale. Then we hear present-day Elsa telling Anna about a "voice" that is drawing her to the Enchanted Forest. The rock trolls send Elsa on a quest, and Anna insists on coming with her after a brief recounting of her accomplishments the original movie. If it wasn't clear by now already, the first Frozen was Anna's journey, and this one will be Elsa's.
There are lot of new looks for Elsa in this trailer in that are very different from what we would expect to see her in. While her signature color is normally light blue, here she wears even more pink than Anna! She has a satin magenta dress on in the nighttime scenes, and there is a daytime scene of her looking over a balcony in a soft pink winter dress. Just after that clip, Anna asks Kristoff if he noticed anything weird about Elsa, and I wonder if the sudden change in fashion is meant to be a reflection of that. Frozen's fashions use a technique called rosemaling to reflect the characters' environments in their clothing, so the pink Elsa wears in this film could be symbolic of the eerie pink flames that she finds in the Enchanted Forest which she later chastises Anna for following her into.
Another uncharacteristic look for Elsa is when she lets her hair down while running across an ice obstacle course that she creates for herself. I believe this is the first time we've seen her without her hair braided or tied back. She wears the same ice blue body suit in this scene that she had on in the original teaser, but her hair was in a ponytail there. Perhaps the ponytail came undone after she encountered the Nokk. For a brief moment in the end of the trailer, we see Elsa succeed in taming the Nokk and riding it across the ocean using reigns of ice that she formed around its muzzle. Taming the Nokk appears to be a pivotal moment in the film, implying that it might be the source of the voices she heard calling her to the Enchanted Forest. Whether the mystical water spirit is good or evil remains to be seen.
From the quality of the animation and music in this trailer, it's clear that this sequel is no direct-to-video budget fare. Disney has pulled all the stops to give the many Frozen fans something to look forward to after six years. It's a shame that we didn't hear any dialogue from newcomer Honeymaren or her brother Ryder in this trailer even though they seem to be major players in the film. We do, however, get a close-up of Elsa's new animal companion, Bruni, a blue and white salamander who gives off major Pascal vibes. The Northuldra tribe shows up briefly when they ask Elsa how she found the forest, and we get one line from an old woman who is likely their leader, Yelana. A lot more will be revealed when Frozen 2 comes out on November 22nd. It's nice to have some context of what to expect in the meantime.
September 22, 2019
Review: Disenchantment - Part 2
I had high hopes for the second season, or "part," of Disenchantment, even though I was mildly disappointed with the first set of episodes. Having a show about a princess who wants to be a good person but constantly makes bad decisions is pretty ground-breaking for a genre of characters who always do the right thing as second nature. Princess Bean follows in the footsteps of Fry and Homer Simpson from
The second part of Disenchantment begins with Bean on a ship to an unknown destination with her newly revived mother, Queen Dagmar. Bean is eager to get to experience a part of her childhood that she missed out on, especially after sacrificing the chance to bring back her best friend from the dead. However, Bean soon learns that the maternal side of her family is full of psychotic and dangerous people who want to use her to fulfill some sort of dark prophecy that would likely hurt everyone she cares about. Our troubled princess wants nothing to do with this and runs away, which parallels the series premiere where she ran away from her wedding. A common theme in Disenchantment is that Bean always knows what she doesn't want, but not what she does, which is likely the source of her alcohol addiction. The one thing she does know for certain is that she was wrong to sacrifice Elfo for her mother, so she proceeds to find a way to bring him back.
That's when we see most of the footage that was teased in this part's trailer. Thanks to Bean's demon companion Luci, she and Elfo make their way into Hell where they reunite after Luci, true to his "Lucifer" namesake, double-crosses everyone multiple times, including the devil himself. He sends Bean and Elfo on an emotional roller coaster, which is welcome after the dip in excitement after Bean abruptly ran away from her mother and the mysterious prophecy. After this, the show becomes rather stale. This shouldn't come as much of a surprise since its creator is currently on the 31st season of The Simpsons, but for some reason, I was expecting the pacing of his Netflix series to be different. The Netflix format encourages binge-watching instead of week-to-week increments. I was incredibly intrigued to learn about Dagmar's deliciously wicked plans for Bean and what sort of latent powers Bean might have within herself, but this seemed to be all but forgotten until the final seconds, with the exception of a few mysterious dream sequences involving a music box.
I didn't feel that Bean grew much as a character in these episodes, but that's more or less the case for Matt Groening's narratives. The only things she values in her life are her friendships with Elfo and Luci and her addiction to drinking, though that did seem somewhat less prevalent in this part. Her relationship with her father, King Zog, got tested multiple times during these episodes, but it doesn't help that Zog is just as much of a hot mess as she is, if not more so. We also learned more about her half-brother, Prince Derek, who tends to get immediately forgotten the second he goes off-screen. Bean reveals that she had always been jealous of Derek because Dreamland, like many medieval kingdoms, invokes the law known as primogeniture, in which a first-born prince has a claim to the throne over a first-born princess. Derek, on the other hand, does not have the same hard feelings toward Bean, at least until an unfortunate misunderstanding in the finale.
Overall, the second part of Disenchantment was roughly the same as the first part. They both contained intriguing story points during the first and last couple of episodes and very little of value in the middle. Bean is likable enough as a character, but not particularly interesting. If I were to improve this season, I would have put Dagmar in it more instead of having her go completely off the map until it's convenient. The strongest aspect of these episodes was that they further developed Bean's relationships with Zog, Derek, Elfo, and Luci. Thanks to the numerous filler episodes, we learned a lot about each of these characters as they came to terms with who they are and what they wanted to be. I'm less eager for the third part now that I've seen the pattern of filler episodes, but there's just enough that we haven't been told to make me curious enough to want to know more.
The second part of Disenchantment begins with Bean on a ship to an unknown destination with her newly revived mother, Queen Dagmar. Bean is eager to get to experience a part of her childhood that she missed out on, especially after sacrificing the chance to bring back her best friend from the dead. However, Bean soon learns that the maternal side of her family is full of psychotic and dangerous people who want to use her to fulfill some sort of dark prophecy that would likely hurt everyone she cares about. Our troubled princess wants nothing to do with this and runs away, which parallels the series premiere where she ran away from her wedding. A common theme in Disenchantment is that Bean always knows what she doesn't want, but not what she does, which is likely the source of her alcohol addiction. The one thing she does know for certain is that she was wrong to sacrifice Elfo for her mother, so she proceeds to find a way to bring him back.
That's when we see most of the footage that was teased in this part's trailer. Thanks to Bean's demon companion Luci, she and Elfo make their way into Hell where they reunite after Luci, true to his "Lucifer" namesake, double-crosses everyone multiple times, including the devil himself. He sends Bean and Elfo on an emotional roller coaster, which is welcome after the dip in excitement after Bean abruptly ran away from her mother and the mysterious prophecy. After this, the show becomes rather stale. This shouldn't come as much of a surprise since its creator is currently on the 31st season of The Simpsons, but for some reason, I was expecting the pacing of his Netflix series to be different. The Netflix format encourages binge-watching instead of week-to-week increments. I was incredibly intrigued to learn about Dagmar's deliciously wicked plans for Bean and what sort of latent powers Bean might have within herself, but this seemed to be all but forgotten until the final seconds, with the exception of a few mysterious dream sequences involving a music box.
I didn't feel that Bean grew much as a character in these episodes, but that's more or less the case for Matt Groening's narratives. The only things she values in her life are her friendships with Elfo and Luci and her addiction to drinking, though that did seem somewhat less prevalent in this part. Her relationship with her father, King Zog, got tested multiple times during these episodes, but it doesn't help that Zog is just as much of a hot mess as she is, if not more so. We also learned more about her half-brother, Prince Derek, who tends to get immediately forgotten the second he goes off-screen. Bean reveals that she had always been jealous of Derek because Dreamland, like many medieval kingdoms, invokes the law known as primogeniture, in which a first-born prince has a claim to the throne over a first-born princess. Derek, on the other hand, does not have the same hard feelings toward Bean, at least until an unfortunate misunderstanding in the finale.
Overall, the second part of Disenchantment was roughly the same as the first part. They both contained intriguing story points during the first and last couple of episodes and very little of value in the middle. Bean is likable enough as a character, but not particularly interesting. If I were to improve this season, I would have put Dagmar in it more instead of having her go completely off the map until it's convenient. The strongest aspect of these episodes was that they further developed Bean's relationships with Zog, Derek, Elfo, and Luci. Thanks to the numerous filler episodes, we learned a lot about each of these characters as they came to terms with who they are and what they wanted to be. I'm less eager for the third part now that I've seen the pattern of filler episodes, but there's just enough that we haven't been told to make me curious enough to want to know more.
September 17, 2019
Elena Is Coming Back in a Big Way
Last week, I wrote about how Tangled: The Series would return to Disney Channel on October 7th with a new episode every weekday for two weeks. As it turns out, Rapunzel will not be alone in this endeavor. I'm not sure why it wasn't announced at the time, but we now have official confirmation that new episodes of the third and final season of Elena of Avalor will air alongside Tangled starting October 7th. This news accompanied other announcements about the final season of Elena, such as a list of upcoming guest stars that includes Auli'i Cravalho, the leading voice of Moana, who will also star as Ariel in the upcoming November 5th live special to celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Little Mermaid. Is this girl living the princess dream or what?
Elena of Avalor began as a spin-off of Sofia the First and broke boundaries as the first Latina Disney Princess. She currently does regular meet'n'greets at Walt Disney World alongside Cinderella. The show had a rocky start, but quickly picked up around the second season, which led up to the defeat of Elena's arch nemesis Shuriki in Song of the Sirenas . The third season is confirmed to comprise of 26 regular-length episodes and two specials, including Elena's coronation finale special that is set to air next year. If it's anything like the mind-blowing finale of Sofia the First, it will be an event that will not be soon forgotten. The Broadway World article also teases another Dia de los Muertos special and a Hanukkah episode! Wow. A Hanukkah episode? Give me a second.
This is a huge deal for me. I've expressed my disappointment in the past about the lack of inclusion of the holiday I was brought up with in Disney Princess holiday specials. Over the years, I learned to accept that none of my favorite princesses would participate in the same traditions I did as someone who was raised Jewish. Seeing my holiday represented on a Disney Princess show warms my heart and makes me feel like I could be part of Disney's many extravagant holiday celebrations from their parks and media. The episode will be about a "visiting princess from a Latino Jewish kingdom" and is set to air in December. I am eager for other girls like me to like part of the Disney Princess universe.
Elena is reported to receive new magical powers in the final season, which will likely come with the return of her newly restored Scepter of Light. Shuriki is confirmed to be gone for good, making the new big villain Ash Delgado, who was introduced as the long-lost wife of Victor Delgado and mother of Carla, minor adversaries from the show's first season. Ash nearly succeeded in an elaborate scheme to kidnap Elena and drain her magic and life force in the finale of the second season. She and Carla vowed revenge on Elena and her family following their defeat, which will likely be the main story thread over the course of the final season.
I cannot wait to see the return of Elena and the inclusive multicultural episodes that will come with her! The season premiere will air on October 7th alongside Rapunzel Returns, the premiere special of Tangled. There will also be a 44-minute Elena of Avalor special called The Magic Within on October 13th. Both of these shows are entering their third and final season and will be sure to pull all the stops that we've been patiently waiting for since they began. The recent conclusion of Star vs. The Forces of Evil marks Elena and Tangled as the last two princess shows on Disney Channel. We can only hope to see more in the future.
Elena of Avalor began as a spin-off of Sofia the First and broke boundaries as the first Latina Disney Princess. She currently does regular meet'n'greets at Walt Disney World alongside Cinderella. The show had a rocky start, but quickly picked up around the second season, which led up to the defeat of Elena's arch nemesis Shuriki in Song of the Sirenas . The third season is confirmed to comprise of 26 regular-length episodes and two specials, including Elena's coronation finale special that is set to air next year. If it's anything like the mind-blowing finale of Sofia the First, it will be an event that will not be soon forgotten. The Broadway World article also teases another Dia de los Muertos special and a Hanukkah episode! Wow. A Hanukkah episode? Give me a second.
This is a huge deal for me. I've expressed my disappointment in the past about the lack of inclusion of the holiday I was brought up with in Disney Princess holiday specials. Over the years, I learned to accept that none of my favorite princesses would participate in the same traditions I did as someone who was raised Jewish. Seeing my holiday represented on a Disney Princess show warms my heart and makes me feel like I could be part of Disney's many extravagant holiday celebrations from their parks and media. The episode will be about a "visiting princess from a Latino Jewish kingdom" and is set to air in December. I am eager for other girls like me to like part of the Disney Princess universe.
Elena is reported to receive new magical powers in the final season, which will likely come with the return of her newly restored Scepter of Light. Shuriki is confirmed to be gone for good, making the new big villain Ash Delgado, who was introduced as the long-lost wife of Victor Delgado and mother of Carla, minor adversaries from the show's first season. Ash nearly succeeded in an elaborate scheme to kidnap Elena and drain her magic and life force in the finale of the second season. She and Carla vowed revenge on Elena and her family following their defeat, which will likely be the main story thread over the course of the final season.
I cannot wait to see the return of Elena and the inclusive multicultural episodes that will come with her! The season premiere will air on October 7th alongside Rapunzel Returns, the premiere special of Tangled. There will also be a 44-minute Elena of Avalor special called The Magic Within on October 13th. Both of these shows are entering their third and final season and will be sure to pull all the stops that we've been patiently waiting for since they began. The recent conclusion of Star vs. The Forces of Evil marks Elena and Tangled as the last two princess shows on Disney Channel. We can only hope to see more in the future.
September 16, 2019
Review: A Captive of Wing and Feather
Melanie Cellier had been on hiatus from her Beyond the Four Kingdoms series of fairy tale retellings to work on Elena's adventures in The Spoken Mage books. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that she went back to her fairy tales sooner than I was expecting with A Captive of Wing and Feather. This adaptation of "Swan Lake" is set in Melanie Cellier's extended fairy tale universe, where Princess Adelaide takes on the role of Odette. Adelaide is the sister of Prince Dominic, the "Beast" character from her book
A Tale of Beauty and the Beast
, linking her story to the rest of the books in the series. Unfortunately, Melanie has a tendency to shy away from full human-to-animal transformation sequences, which took some of the magic and mystery out of this version of "Swan Lake."
A Captive of Wing and Feather is hard to follow at first because there is so much information to digest about Adelaide's situation. Little by little, we learn that she was cursed by an evil sorcerer named Leander to only be able to speak the language of the swans during the daytime and is considered a mute by all intents and purposes among her peers (similar to the little mermaid). She lives in a haven with a colorful group of women that she considers her adoptive family, even though none of them know that she's a runaway princess. At night, she recovers her ability to speak, but her curse forces her to return to Swan Lake, where the only person she is able to speak to is Leander. The curse also gives her a special connection to the swans who live at the lake, allowing her to communicate with them. Unlike the original story, which often implies that the swans are cursed maidens like Odette, these are real swans that take a liking to Adelaide due to their bond.
I found it a struggle to get through the first portion of the book because there were so many characters to keep track of at the haven. It also starts after many major events in the story have already taken place. I would have preferred to experience the moment Adelaide was cursed instead of reading about it after the fact. It gets a little more interesting after Prince Gabe shows up. Gabe agreed to search for Adelaide on behalf of her brother, Dominic. Like Prince Siegfried from "Swan Lake," Gabe is a skilled archer. He is also extremely impetuous and acts without considering the consequences, such as when he follows Adelaide to Swan Lake the night he discovers her whereabouts at the haven. He quickly the details of the curse and is determined to do everything in his power to help her break it. The two make a charming couple that is reminiscent of Tiana and Naveen from The Princess and the Frog . Adelaide judges Gabe at first for his recklessness, but she eventually accepts that it is sometimes necessary to get the job done.
One thing that surprised me about this book was the character that took on the role of Odile, the black swan. In other versions of "Swan Lake," Odile is a woman who is immensely loyal to Rothbart. In the Barbie version, she was his daughter. There did not seem to be a single woman who was close enough with Leander to take on such a role in this book, so I thought that perhaps Melanie had changed that element of the story. I was caught completely off guard by the twist ending, but I'm not sure I liked how easily it was resolved. The story ended just how you would expect a modern fairy tale to in a way that was reminiscent of other versions I've seen in the past, not counting the original ballet. For such a powerful wizard, I was a little disappointed that Leander never turned Adelaide full swan, even for a short period of time.
Overall, A Captive of Wing and Feather was not my one of my favorite Melanie Cellier books. I found Adelaide difficult to relate to because she hid so much of her past that it felt less significant when it was revealed piecemeal later on. I didn't feel that this story captured the grace or enchantment of the "Swan Lake" ballet. Swans are beautiful and elegant because of the way they move and float on the water. Their trumpets are the least ethereal thing about them, and that was the only aspect that Adelaide inherited from her curse. I would have preferred to see her as a skilled dancer or possess some other ability that makes swans so alluring. The next book in the Beyond the Four Kingdoms series will be A Princess of Wind and Wave, based on my favorite fairy tale, "The Little Mermaid!" I am far more eager to read that adaptation than I was for this one.
A Captive of Wing and Feather is hard to follow at first because there is so much information to digest about Adelaide's situation. Little by little, we learn that she was cursed by an evil sorcerer named Leander to only be able to speak the language of the swans during the daytime and is considered a mute by all intents and purposes among her peers (similar to the little mermaid). She lives in a haven with a colorful group of women that she considers her adoptive family, even though none of them know that she's a runaway princess. At night, she recovers her ability to speak, but her curse forces her to return to Swan Lake, where the only person she is able to speak to is Leander. The curse also gives her a special connection to the swans who live at the lake, allowing her to communicate with them. Unlike the original story, which often implies that the swans are cursed maidens like Odette, these are real swans that take a liking to Adelaide due to their bond.
I found it a struggle to get through the first portion of the book because there were so many characters to keep track of at the haven. It also starts after many major events in the story have already taken place. I would have preferred to experience the moment Adelaide was cursed instead of reading about it after the fact. It gets a little more interesting after Prince Gabe shows up. Gabe agreed to search for Adelaide on behalf of her brother, Dominic. Like Prince Siegfried from "Swan Lake," Gabe is a skilled archer. He is also extremely impetuous and acts without considering the consequences, such as when he follows Adelaide to Swan Lake the night he discovers her whereabouts at the haven. He quickly the details of the curse and is determined to do everything in his power to help her break it. The two make a charming couple that is reminiscent of Tiana and Naveen from The Princess and the Frog . Adelaide judges Gabe at first for his recklessness, but she eventually accepts that it is sometimes necessary to get the job done.
One thing that surprised me about this book was the character that took on the role of Odile, the black swan. In other versions of "Swan Lake," Odile is a woman who is immensely loyal to Rothbart. In the Barbie version, she was his daughter. There did not seem to be a single woman who was close enough with Leander to take on such a role in this book, so I thought that perhaps Melanie had changed that element of the story. I was caught completely off guard by the twist ending, but I'm not sure I liked how easily it was resolved. The story ended just how you would expect a modern fairy tale to in a way that was reminiscent of other versions I've seen in the past, not counting the original ballet. For such a powerful wizard, I was a little disappointed that Leander never turned Adelaide full swan, even for a short period of time.
Overall, A Captive of Wing and Feather was not my one of my favorite Melanie Cellier books. I found Adelaide difficult to relate to because she hid so much of her past that it felt less significant when it was revealed piecemeal later on. I didn't feel that this story captured the grace or enchantment of the "Swan Lake" ballet. Swans are beautiful and elegant because of the way they move and float on the water. Their trumpets are the least ethereal thing about them, and that was the only aspect that Adelaide inherited from her curse. I would have preferred to see her as a skilled dancer or possess some other ability that makes swans so alluring. The next book in the Beyond the Four Kingdoms series will be A Princess of Wind and Wave, based on my favorite fairy tale, "The Little Mermaid!" I am far more eager to read that adaptation than I was for this one.
September 15, 2019
Review: Frozen Live at the Hyperion
It took me quite a while to get over the fact that Disney's California Adventure shut down their stellar Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular show that contained my absolute favorite Princess Jasmine solo to replace it with more Frozen hype. Frozen is not one of my favorites, but I tried to keep an open mind when I entered the newly renovated Hyperion Theater for Frozen Live. Gone was the beautiful Arabian architecture surrounding the stage in favor of a basic screen setup designed for CGI background projections to transform it into any Arendelle locale. I personally prefer the concrete sets of Aladdin that looked like you could reach right into them and enter the world of Agrabah. Hiding Arendelle behind a CGI mask only served as a reminder that the digital age is taking even more artistry away from us than just traditional animation.
Despite my caveats, I enjoyed the performance I saw yesterday due largely to the performers themselves. The actresses who played Anna and Elsa were on point and seemed to know their characters on an intimate level. My favorite song was "Love's an Open Door," which I made sure to record a full video of. The beautiful dancing and costumes from Elsa's coronation ball in the background gave this scene a "wow" factor that "Let It Go," which should have been a showstopper, lacked. I was not particularly impressed by seeing Elsa stand on a rotating staircase while surrounded by fake CGI projections. The only part of this scene that was even remotely impressive was an ice chandelier that came down over the audience for two seconds before immediately retracting to its hidden position on the ceiling. This was probably an attempt to be the new version of "A Whole New World" from Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular in which Aladdin and Jasmine flew high above the audience on a magic carpet and waved down at them. Suffice to say, it's pretty obvious which of these two ceiling effects was more impressive.
The show was roughly an hour long and had many of the same pacing issues as the original film. It jumped from one song to another, which started to feel tedious when it came to some of the more pointless numbers such as "In Summer" and "Fixer Upper" toward the middle of the show. I stand by my theory that the filmmakers chose the wrong songs for the film because "More Than Just the Spare," "Life's Too Short," and its corresponding act three reprise do a lot more to further develop the characters and plot than these filler songs. Of course, that goes back to my issues with Frozen itself, and none of that could have been helped by the time they were ready to adapt it for the theme parks. That said, I think the show could have benefited from its shorter time frame by cutting one of the filler numbers like "Fixer Upper" to make time for the scene where Elsa gets captured, which was cute from the stage show, and more of Hans' betrayal. Someone who attends this show and hasn't seen the movie would probably get confused by having all of these important scenes squished into the last ten minutes.
Another poor attempt that Frozen Live made to mimic Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular was audience interaction. In Aladdin, the parade Genie summons during "Prince Ali" walks down the aisles onto the stage, forcing the audience to turn around and see what impressive float or dancer is coming next. Here, the guests from Elsa's coronation exit into the aisles when Elsa's ice powers are revealed, and then they sort of stand there awkwardly for a while until their cue to leave. In a later scene, Hans asks some of the ensemble members to hand out cloaks to the audience to help them with Elsa's cold winter magic. Even though they marched out into the aisles with the cloaks, they didn't actually pass any around or even seem to interact with the audience much. I realize this is probably due to the possibility of people not wanting to give the cloaks back for the next show, but it cheapened the "audience participation" effect for me. Besides, I could have really used a cloak because that theater was absolutely freezing!
No trip to Arendelle would be complete without a visit to the two royal sisters, so we made sure to stop by and see them before the show. I had met Anna before, but this was my first time meeting Elsa. It was interesting to meet a Disney Princess who isn't all smiles and boundless excitement. Of course, that might be due to the fact that Elsa is the only who became queen in her first movie. She was cordial to me, but in a nervous and introverted way that reminded me of myself when I try to start friendly conversations with people while worrying in the back of my mind that I might say something wrong. Overall, it was another fun day at Disneyland with a good friend, but I will always mourn the loss of the Hyperion Theater's phenomenal Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular. Even though the Broadway play is still running, it could never compare to the masterful artistry of the version that was once at Disney's California Adventure before Frozen Live took over.
September 12, 2019
Everything Princess So Far on Disney+
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past year, you've probably heard about Disney's upcoming streaming service that plans to give Netflix a run for their money. I already signed up for a three-year subscription to Disney+ at the D23 Expo this year, but like most people, I will have to wait until November 12th before I can access it. That is not the case for the lucky residents of the Netherlands, who woke up this morning to a free trial of the service. They must have felt like they won the lottery as Dutch residents now have access to a vast library of Disney movies and shows spanning across generations. Word spread like wildfire about this, and many sources are already listing some of the content that is confirmed to be on the app now through the November 12th launch date. I made sure to gather as much information as I could about the princess-related content that was released in this trial. The biggest news is that the service has its very own "Princesses" section featuring Snow White, Tiana, Elena, Mulan, and Ariel on the header image.
The "Princesses" section of Disney+ looks like a one-stop shop for me. Not only does it feature both the original animated and live-action remake versions of the classic fairy tale Disney Princess movies, but it also includes various original live-action movies that aren't based on old fairy tales, such as The Princess Diaries and Disney Channel's Princess Protection Program . A full list of movies from the Disney+ trial in the Netherlands is available online right now. It appears that Disney has gone out of their way to include as many of their direct-to-video "cheapquels" as possible, yet some of their most famous princess movies are oddly absent, including The Princess and the Frog, Brave, and Enchanted . That doesn't necessarily mean that these movies will never be included in the app, as Disney+ has promised to regularly add content to the streaming service, but it is quite possible that they will not be included on the November 12th launch date. Another interesting thing about the movies on the app so far is that Tangled: Before Ever After , the premiere special of Tangled: The Series is listed as a movie, but the series itself is nowhere to be found. This comes as a big disappointment to many of the Tangled series fans who have been patiently awaiting the October 7th premiere of the third and final season because the first season is currently unavailable on the DisneyNOW app. Below is a complete list of princess movies available on the Netherlands trial of Disney+ leading up to the launch date on November 12th.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Cinderella (Animated & Live-Action)
Cinderella 2
Cinderella 3: A Twist in Time
Sleeping Beauty
The Black Cauldron
The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid 2
The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning
Beauty and the Beast (Animated & Live-Action)Beauty and the Beast 2Belle's Magical WorldAladdinReturn of JafarAladdin and the King of ThievesPocahontasPocahontas 2MulanMulan 2Frozen
Olaf's Frozen AdventureTangledTangled: Before Ever AfterMaleficentMoanaRalph Breaks The InternetThe Princess DiariesThe Princess Diaries 2
Twitches
Twitches Too
Ice PrincessPrincess Protection ProgramInto the WoodsThe Nutcracker and the Four Realms
Disney has a much smaller roster for princess shows than movies, and I'm sorry to say that my sources informed me that Disney+ only contains two princess shows so far. Those shows are Elena of Avalor and The Little Mermaid: The Series. I am grateful to see The Little Mermaid listed because it was a staple of my childhood, and it's also nice to see Elena get represented on the header of the "Princesses" section. However, I am absolutely distraught that Sofia the First, one of my favorite shows of all time alongside Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders, is not included in the Disney Junior or "Princesses" section at all. I thought that Sofia had made quite a name for herself in her time by being the first animated princess to interact with other Disney Princesses (unless you count the Kilala Princess manga). Not to include her on this app for the launch is a complete travesty, especially considering that the series is already available in full on Netflix and will likely be taken down on November 12th when Disney+ launches officially. Other princess shows excluded from the Netherlands trial include Aladdin: The Series, Tangled: The Series (as mentioned previously), and Star vs. The Forces of Evil. Hopefully, they will rectify this grave injustice as soon as possible. It is not fair to include so many princess movies and only two of their excellent animated princess shows.
The other princess feature in the app is the ability to customize a Disney character profile picture. Disney+ has spared no expense in this regard. It includes an incredibly wide range of Disney Princesses and princes to choose from. In fact, the only Disney Princess missing from the customizable avatars that I noticed was poor Sofia. Even Elena has her own icon, as well as Merida, despite her movie not being available on the app. I was always disappointed with the amount of customizable avatars on Netflix, so I'm grateful that Disney will allow users to show off whoever their favorite character might be. Plus, married women like me can now set up our husbands as a matching prince! It's no question who I'm going to pick when the app finally becomes available in the US. I already have an Ariel icon on my Disney Parks account, so it's only a matter of time before I add her to my Disney+ account as well.
All in all, I have mixed feelings about the Netherlands preview of Disney+. I'm thrilled to see plenty of representation for my favorite princess, Ariel, with all three of her movies and series. However, I wish the streaming platform included the first season of Tangled: The Series instead of just the premiere movie, and I'm also incredibly disappointed to see no trace of Sofia the First anywhere, including the profile pics. I know this only a trial version and the the app promises to launch plenty more content after its official release on November 12th, but I was hoping for just a little more princess magic by the launch date. Of course, I am very pleased that the princesses get their very own subsection on the menu as they deserve.
The "Princesses" section of Disney+ looks like a one-stop shop for me. Not only does it feature both the original animated and live-action remake versions of the classic fairy tale Disney Princess movies, but it also includes various original live-action movies that aren't based on old fairy tales, such as The Princess Diaries and Disney Channel's Princess Protection Program . A full list of movies from the Disney+ trial in the Netherlands is available online right now. It appears that Disney has gone out of their way to include as many of their direct-to-video "cheapquels" as possible, yet some of their most famous princess movies are oddly absent, including The Princess and the Frog, Brave, and Enchanted . That doesn't necessarily mean that these movies will never be included in the app, as Disney+ has promised to regularly add content to the streaming service, but it is quite possible that they will not be included on the November 12th launch date. Another interesting thing about the movies on the app so far is that Tangled: Before Ever After , the premiere special of Tangled: The Series is listed as a movie, but the series itself is nowhere to be found. This comes as a big disappointment to many of the Tangled series fans who have been patiently awaiting the October 7th premiere of the third and final season because the first season is currently unavailable on the DisneyNOW app. Below is a complete list of princess movies available on the Netherlands trial of Disney+ leading up to the launch date on November 12th.
Snow White and the Seven DwarfsCinderella (Animated & Live-Action)
Cinderella 2
Cinderella 3: A Twist in Time
Sleeping Beauty
The Black Cauldron
The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid 2
The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning
Beauty and the Beast (Animated & Live-Action)Beauty and the Beast 2Belle's Magical WorldAladdinReturn of JafarAladdin and the King of ThievesPocahontasPocahontas 2MulanMulan 2Frozen
Olaf's Frozen AdventureTangledTangled: Before Ever AfterMaleficentMoanaRalph Breaks The InternetThe Princess DiariesThe Princess Diaries 2
Twitches
Twitches Too
Ice PrincessPrincess Protection ProgramInto the WoodsThe Nutcracker and the Four Realms
Disney has a much smaller roster for princess shows than movies, and I'm sorry to say that my sources informed me that Disney+ only contains two princess shows so far. Those shows are Elena of Avalor and The Little Mermaid: The Series. I am grateful to see The Little Mermaid listed because it was a staple of my childhood, and it's also nice to see Elena get represented on the header of the "Princesses" section. However, I am absolutely distraught that Sofia the First, one of my favorite shows of all time alongside Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders, is not included in the Disney Junior or "Princesses" section at all. I thought that Sofia had made quite a name for herself in her time by being the first animated princess to interact with other Disney Princesses (unless you count the Kilala Princess manga). Not to include her on this app for the launch is a complete travesty, especially considering that the series is already available in full on Netflix and will likely be taken down on November 12th when Disney+ launches officially. Other princess shows excluded from the Netherlands trial include Aladdin: The Series, Tangled: The Series (as mentioned previously), and Star vs. The Forces of Evil. Hopefully, they will rectify this grave injustice as soon as possible. It is not fair to include so many princess movies and only two of their excellent animated princess shows.
The other princess feature in the app is the ability to customize a Disney character profile picture. Disney+ has spared no expense in this regard. It includes an incredibly wide range of Disney Princesses and princes to choose from. In fact, the only Disney Princess missing from the customizable avatars that I noticed was poor Sofia. Even Elena has her own icon, as well as Merida, despite her movie not being available on the app. I was always disappointed with the amount of customizable avatars on Netflix, so I'm grateful that Disney will allow users to show off whoever their favorite character might be. Plus, married women like me can now set up our husbands as a matching prince! It's no question who I'm going to pick when the app finally becomes available in the US. I already have an Ariel icon on my Disney Parks account, so it's only a matter of time before I add her to my Disney+ account as well.
All in all, I have mixed feelings about the Netherlands preview of Disney+. I'm thrilled to see plenty of representation for my favorite princess, Ariel, with all three of her movies and series. However, I wish the streaming platform included the first season of Tangled: The Series instead of just the premiere movie, and I'm also incredibly disappointed to see no trace of Sofia the First anywhere, including the profile pics. I know this only a trial version and the the app promises to launch plenty more content after its official release on November 12th, but I was hoping for just a little more princess magic by the launch date. Of course, I am very pleased that the princesses get their very own subsection on the menu as they deserve.
