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Lisa Dawn's Blog: The Princess Blog, page 68
April 1, 2019
Review: Just the Way You Are
One of the benefits of blogging about princess books is that I occasionally get recommendations from my readers about books that I probably would never have known about otherwise. This month, that's been a little stressful for me since three of my favorite authors are releasing new books. When I received a recommendation on my "Disabled Princesses" post, I tried to read it as quickly as I could before my reading list explodes. Just the Way You Are by Allison M. Boot was written with the intention of creating positive visibility for disabled princess fans. While it succeeds in that respect, the story itself leaves much to be desired. Allison is a fantastic advocate for people with disabilities, and I think she is a very admirable person for all of the effort that she has put into this. She isn't a bad writer either, but the story structure in Just the Way You Are borrows heavily from common tropes, making it difficult to appreciate as an original fairy tale or adaptation.
Before I get started with my review, I have to say that the cover of this book is absolutely gorgeous. It portrays a romantic couple dancing in the moonlight with a fairy tale castle in the background as the elegantly dressed woman leans back on a silver wheelchair. I was hoping that the story would be just as magical and romantic as the imagery on the cover, but as the idiom goes, you should never judge a book by its cover. I knew I was in for a rough ride when the first page made direct comparisons of the book's protagonist to specific Disney Princesses instead of building its own mythology. Misty Miles is a princess living in a kingdom called Starryton, which exists in an anachronistic universe that contains monarchies, movie theaters, phonographs, and trolls. The more I read of this book, the more displaced the world felt in terms of time and space. There are many other things in the story that don't make sense, such as the specifics of how Misty is able to escape her castle tower in a wheelchair. I doubt she managed to build an accessible ramp all the way from her tower window to the ground.
The first half of the book reads like a butchered version of Disney's The Little Mermaid . Misty runs away from her overprotective parents to make a deal with Trovella, an evil troll, to have a pair of functional legs so she can ditch her wheelchair and make Prince Derrick, a man she has never seen in person, fall in love with her. Some of the dialogue in this section is lifted straight out of the Disney classic. She meets Prince Derrick in a similar manner to Ariel except that instead of falling off a rock into his arms, she falls into a pond, and he pulls her out. Derrick is by far the worst thing about this book. He uses the old cliché "You're not like other girls, are you?" not even a minute after meeting her and invites her to live with him in the castle despite knowing absolutely nothing about her. He only refers to her as "sweetie" or "beautiful" from the moment they meet, which made me want to gag every time. I know she told him her name at some point, but he never actually uses it. His love is not earned by any capacity, and he constantly showers her with compliments for seemingly no reason.
The story improves dramatically in the second half after Misty returns to her wheelchair and starts an honest relationship with Derrick, even though I still couldn't stand him because he was flatter than a piece of cardboard. At one point, he places her in charge of attending to his kingdom's commoners, and she sends all of them away after meeting a little girl who is also in a wheelchair instead of listening to everyone's problems, even though they all traveled there just to report them. This doesn't seem like the best decision for someone in a position of power, but it does support the author's intentions for the needs of those with disabilities to come first. Kara, the girl in the wheelchair, was hoping to wish her disability away like Misty did, but she lost her chance because Misty defeated Trovella earlier in the book using the abilities that she only had because of the wish that Trovella granted her. Misty and Derrick agree to help Kara find a loving family who accepts her the way she is. I think the book would have been much stronger if it was about Misty taking Kara in from the very beginning instead of the weird Little Mermaid mash-up. There aren't nearly as many stories about princesses adopting disabled children as there are about princesses using magic to find love.
I definitely appreciated what this book was trying to do. More positive representation of disabilities in the media is absolutely a good thing. However, the setting was incredibly confusing, and the prince felt like a robot that was built entirely for the purpose of making Misty feel good about herself. I think the book would have been much better if it cut out the muddled Trovella sequence entirely and started out with Misty living in the castle with Derrick and wanting to help Kara find a family. Portraying Misty as a married handicap princess from the beginning would have done a better job of showing disabled girls that there's nothing wrong with them than by having her pretend to be something she isn't. If you are interested in reading a book about a disabled princess with a much more believable world and characters, I highly recommend Pirouette by Kenley Davidson.
Before I get started with my review, I have to say that the cover of this book is absolutely gorgeous. It portrays a romantic couple dancing in the moonlight with a fairy tale castle in the background as the elegantly dressed woman leans back on a silver wheelchair. I was hoping that the story would be just as magical and romantic as the imagery on the cover, but as the idiom goes, you should never judge a book by its cover. I knew I was in for a rough ride when the first page made direct comparisons of the book's protagonist to specific Disney Princesses instead of building its own mythology. Misty Miles is a princess living in a kingdom called Starryton, which exists in an anachronistic universe that contains monarchies, movie theaters, phonographs, and trolls. The more I read of this book, the more displaced the world felt in terms of time and space. There are many other things in the story that don't make sense, such as the specifics of how Misty is able to escape her castle tower in a wheelchair. I doubt she managed to build an accessible ramp all the way from her tower window to the ground.
The first half of the book reads like a butchered version of Disney's The Little Mermaid . Misty runs away from her overprotective parents to make a deal with Trovella, an evil troll, to have a pair of functional legs so she can ditch her wheelchair and make Prince Derrick, a man she has never seen in person, fall in love with her. Some of the dialogue in this section is lifted straight out of the Disney classic. She meets Prince Derrick in a similar manner to Ariel except that instead of falling off a rock into his arms, she falls into a pond, and he pulls her out. Derrick is by far the worst thing about this book. He uses the old cliché "You're not like other girls, are you?" not even a minute after meeting her and invites her to live with him in the castle despite knowing absolutely nothing about her. He only refers to her as "sweetie" or "beautiful" from the moment they meet, which made me want to gag every time. I know she told him her name at some point, but he never actually uses it. His love is not earned by any capacity, and he constantly showers her with compliments for seemingly no reason.
The story improves dramatically in the second half after Misty returns to her wheelchair and starts an honest relationship with Derrick, even though I still couldn't stand him because he was flatter than a piece of cardboard. At one point, he places her in charge of attending to his kingdom's commoners, and she sends all of them away after meeting a little girl who is also in a wheelchair instead of listening to everyone's problems, even though they all traveled there just to report them. This doesn't seem like the best decision for someone in a position of power, but it does support the author's intentions for the needs of those with disabilities to come first. Kara, the girl in the wheelchair, was hoping to wish her disability away like Misty did, but she lost her chance because Misty defeated Trovella earlier in the book using the abilities that she only had because of the wish that Trovella granted her. Misty and Derrick agree to help Kara find a loving family who accepts her the way she is. I think the book would have been much stronger if it was about Misty taking Kara in from the very beginning instead of the weird Little Mermaid mash-up. There aren't nearly as many stories about princesses adopting disabled children as there are about princesses using magic to find love.
I definitely appreciated what this book was trying to do. More positive representation of disabilities in the media is absolutely a good thing. However, the setting was incredibly confusing, and the prince felt like a robot that was built entirely for the purpose of making Misty feel good about herself. I think the book would have been much better if it cut out the muddled Trovella sequence entirely and started out with Misty living in the castle with Derrick and wanting to help Kara find a family. Portraying Misty as a married handicap princess from the beginning would have done a better job of showing disabled girls that there's nothing wrong with them than by having her pretend to be something she isn't. If you are interested in reading a book about a disabled princess with a much more believable world and characters, I highly recommend Pirouette by Kenley Davidson.
March 31, 2019
Season 2 of She-Ra Is Coming!
It feels like just yesterday that the new animated She-Ra reboot premiered on Netflix with its masterfully executed premiere season. Just a few months later, the show's Facebook page posted an announcement that the second season would drop on April 26th. That's less than a month away! The page had also been heavily promoting their presence at WonderCon this weekend. Last night, I finally found out why. As it turns out, the WonderCon panel for She-Ra and the Princesses of Power premiered the trailer for the second season! The trailer doesn't reveal a whole lot of the new season's story, but since it is reported to have a scant seven episodes, there might not be much that they could reveal in a minute and a half. Reports from the panel reveal that an additional five clips that were previewed there as well. Hopefully, these clips will also be released to the public as the second season grows closer.
The majority of the trailer's visuals consist of traditional cartoon battle scenes that you would expect to see in an action-packed show like this. We see the return of many familiar faces in the Princess Alliance, including Mermista, Perfuma, and Frosta. Entrapta appears to have joined forces with Catra and Scorpia as a member of the wicked Horde, something that was foreshadowed in the first season. There are absolutely no clips in the trailer of Netossa and Spinerella, the confirmed lesbian couple of the show, who were barely even in it before. In the first season, they didn't do anything to show off their ability until the final minutes of the finale. Of course, the trailer also features the four main protagonists--Adora, Glimmer, Bow, and Swift Wind, Adora's winged unicorn who I almost forgot had the ability to talk. Bow awkwardly refers to the foursome as the "best friend quad."
According to reports from the WonderCon panel, series creator Noelle Stevenson honed in on her Dungeons and Dragons skills to work on the show. One of the clips previewed at the panel was reported to portray Bow and the princesses planning a battle strategy over a DnD style table map with sculpted figurines. Other clips that debuted there include a scene showing the world from Swift Wind's perspective and another about Scorpia longing for Catra's approval in the Horde. Both Adora and Catra are going to be placed in leadership positions in these episodes, something that both teenagers got a taste of in the first season when Catra took on Adora's promotion as a Horde force captain and Adora unexpectedly transformed into the ancient hero She-Ra. The trailer also contains a clip of the sorceress Light Hope telling She-Ra that she still has room for improvement, implying that we might join Adora for a few training sessions.
There were quite a few things left unresolved in the show's nine-episode premiere season, and I'm a little leery of being able to accomplish those resolutions with only seven episodes in this run. The troublemaker Entrapta got left behind with the Horde after the princesses thought she had died. I'm eager to see their reaction when they learn their abandoned party member has joined the dark side as well as whether or not they will be able to convince her to come back. Also still up in the air is the "frenemy" relationship between Adora and Catra. They were forced to become rivals after Adora left the Horde to join the Rebellion as She-Ra, but that doesn't erase the years of friendship between them before that point. Judging by what was discussed at the WonderCon panel, it sounds like Scorpia longs for the friendship and approval from Catra that Adora once had. We'll just have to wait and see if Catra realizes that her old friend is a lost cause as far as fighting for evil goes and accepts Scorpia as her new bestie.
This trailer was a disappointment for me. I learned nothing new about the upcoming season, and it was so generic that could have just as easily been a trailer for season 1. I hope the reason for this is that the creators didn't want to spoil any of the fast-paced and shocking plot twists that will take place over the exceptionally short second season and not that the show is going to be nothing but battle sequences. I wish we could have more than seven episodes to further develop the plot and relationships between the show's large cast, but I do have faith in the writers after seeing the incredible first season that they delivered. April 26th will be here sooner than you know it, so keep an eye on those Netflix queues as well as the official social media pages for She-Ra and the Princesses of Power in case they release the other clips that were previewed at WonderCon.
The majority of the trailer's visuals consist of traditional cartoon battle scenes that you would expect to see in an action-packed show like this. We see the return of many familiar faces in the Princess Alliance, including Mermista, Perfuma, and Frosta. Entrapta appears to have joined forces with Catra and Scorpia as a member of the wicked Horde, something that was foreshadowed in the first season. There are absolutely no clips in the trailer of Netossa and Spinerella, the confirmed lesbian couple of the show, who were barely even in it before. In the first season, they didn't do anything to show off their ability until the final minutes of the finale. Of course, the trailer also features the four main protagonists--Adora, Glimmer, Bow, and Swift Wind, Adora's winged unicorn who I almost forgot had the ability to talk. Bow awkwardly refers to the foursome as the "best friend quad."
According to reports from the WonderCon panel, series creator Noelle Stevenson honed in on her Dungeons and Dragons skills to work on the show. One of the clips previewed at the panel was reported to portray Bow and the princesses planning a battle strategy over a DnD style table map with sculpted figurines. Other clips that debuted there include a scene showing the world from Swift Wind's perspective and another about Scorpia longing for Catra's approval in the Horde. Both Adora and Catra are going to be placed in leadership positions in these episodes, something that both teenagers got a taste of in the first season when Catra took on Adora's promotion as a Horde force captain and Adora unexpectedly transformed into the ancient hero She-Ra. The trailer also contains a clip of the sorceress Light Hope telling She-Ra that she still has room for improvement, implying that we might join Adora for a few training sessions.
There were quite a few things left unresolved in the show's nine-episode premiere season, and I'm a little leery of being able to accomplish those resolutions with only seven episodes in this run. The troublemaker Entrapta got left behind with the Horde after the princesses thought she had died. I'm eager to see their reaction when they learn their abandoned party member has joined the dark side as well as whether or not they will be able to convince her to come back. Also still up in the air is the "frenemy" relationship between Adora and Catra. They were forced to become rivals after Adora left the Horde to join the Rebellion as She-Ra, but that doesn't erase the years of friendship between them before that point. Judging by what was discussed at the WonderCon panel, it sounds like Scorpia longs for the friendship and approval from Catra that Adora once had. We'll just have to wait and see if Catra realizes that her old friend is a lost cause as far as fighting for evil goes and accepts Scorpia as her new bestie.
This trailer was a disappointment for me. I learned nothing new about the upcoming season, and it was so generic that could have just as easily been a trailer for season 1. I hope the reason for this is that the creators didn't want to spoil any of the fast-paced and shocking plot twists that will take place over the exceptionally short second season and not that the show is going to be nothing but battle sequences. I wish we could have more than seven episodes to further develop the plot and relationships between the show's large cast, but I do have faith in the writers after seeing the incredible first season that they delivered. April 26th will be here sooner than you know it, so keep an eye on those Netflix queues as well as the official social media pages for She-Ra and the Princesses of Power in case they release the other clips that were previewed at WonderCon.
March 29, 2019
Review: The Frog Prince by A.G. Marshall
I was so impressed with A.G. Marshall's adaptation of The Princess and the Pea that I simply could not wait to dive into the next book in the Fairy Tale Adventures series. The Frog Prince takes place immediately after the events of The Princess and the Pea, so it's best to read these two in order. The book starts out with Prince Alaric's brother, Prince Stefan, sneaking away to find Princess Carina so that she can be Lina's maid of honor in her wedding. Carina is the only friend Lina made after being asleep for a hundred years and waking up to find that everyone she knew was gone. Once Stefan sets off on his quest, the book becomes a whirlwind adventure of magic, romance, and fun that is every bit as engaging as its predecessor. I was amazed by how well A.G. Marshall was able to combine the elements of the original "Frog Prince" with mermaids, sea monsters, and more.
If you recall from my review of The Princess and the Pea, Princess Carina is from a fierce warrior kingdom and is much smarter than she lets on She goes around in frilly dresses acting like a vapid blonde with no common sense when in truth, she is a spy working for her father, who forces her to keep her true identity a secret, even from the rest of her family. This duel identity that she is forced to live makes her miserable because she can never be her true self in front of anyone. Because of this, it is very difficult to make friends or feel comfortable around anyone. When she met Lina in The Princess and the Pea, she revealed a bit of her true self and earned Lina's trust as a friend. She would have been more than happy to attend Lina's wedding if her father hadn't already sent her regrets behind her back.
Prince Stefan, the prince who gets turned into a frog, is Alaric's scheming prankster of a brother with a heart of gold. In the first book, Stefan produced a play that Alaric wrote behind his back, humiliating him, but he did so with the best of intentions. In The Frog Prince, Stefan disguises himself as a sailor to travel to Carina's kingdom to bring her to Alaric and Lina's wedding so that Lina can be a happy bride. Despite his good intentions, he leaves without telling anyone, has an accidental encounter with some mermaids, and ends up getting turned into a frog. A.G. Marshall is very good at blending humor into her stories, so a wise-cracking goofball like Stefan is the perfect candidate for a hilariously entertaining talking frog. His confidence and bluntness is exactly what Carina needs to break through her guarded exterior.
Another thing I love about this book is how many obscure elements A.G. Marshall incorporates from the Grimm fairy tale, originally known as "The Frog King" or "Iron Heinrich." Unlike the Disney version, which changed a lot of the story, Marshall's book includes the princess's prized golden ball that the frog recovers for her from the pond, but this time with a twist. Carina's golden ball is far from just a toy. It's an enchanted device that she uses to spy for her father. When she drops it, she could have gotten in a lot of trouble if Stefan hadn't recovered it for her. The story even incorporated the prince's servant, Heinrich, who is excluded from most adaptations of the tale. At the end of the Grimm story, it is revealed that Heinrich had three iron bands around his heart that grew from his sympathy toward the prince's curse. In this version, Heinrich is Stefan's tailor who is cursed with three iron bands around his heart by the mermaids in order to prevent Stefan from telling anyone how to break the spell.
The romance in this book was handled so flawlessly that I practically felt myself falling for Stefan through Carina's eyes. In the beginning, Stefan doesn't care for Carina at all because of her vapid facade and only wants to bring her to his brother's wedding to make Lina happy. The more he gets to know her by hiding in her pocket and listening to her private conversations with her father, the more he realizes how much she has to hide from the world and longs to take her away from such a miserable existence. Likewise, Carina has little interest in getting to know a talking frog, but she is intrigued by the potential of using Stefan to prove to her father that magic exists in order to maintain her role as a spy. However, after spending more time with Stefan, she learns what it feels like to be able to talk to someone with no pretenses and starts to develop feelings for him as more than an animal companion. It doesn't hurt that she also loves solving mysteries and is intrigued by his true identity and how he was cursed.
I have to say that A.G. Marshall has quickly worked her way into my heart as one of my favorite fairy tale authors. I love how she stays so loyal to the original stories while breathing new life into them with deeply complex characters and worlds. Both of the books I read by her incorporate a certain level of humor and fun into every chapter to never allow the story get too depressing and always bring a smile to my face. She incorporates magic into her stories in a way that is both believable an captivating. I've never imagined how "The Frog Prince" would work if it had mermaids and sea monsters in it, but after reading this version, I can't imagine it without them! If you love fairy tales and princesses, both The Princess and the Pea and The Frog Prince by A.G. Marshall are must-reads.
If you recall from my review of The Princess and the Pea, Princess Carina is from a fierce warrior kingdom and is much smarter than she lets on She goes around in frilly dresses acting like a vapid blonde with no common sense when in truth, she is a spy working for her father, who forces her to keep her true identity a secret, even from the rest of her family. This duel identity that she is forced to live makes her miserable because she can never be her true self in front of anyone. Because of this, it is very difficult to make friends or feel comfortable around anyone. When she met Lina in The Princess and the Pea, she revealed a bit of her true self and earned Lina's trust as a friend. She would have been more than happy to attend Lina's wedding if her father hadn't already sent her regrets behind her back.
Prince Stefan, the prince who gets turned into a frog, is Alaric's scheming prankster of a brother with a heart of gold. In the first book, Stefan produced a play that Alaric wrote behind his back, humiliating him, but he did so with the best of intentions. In The Frog Prince, Stefan disguises himself as a sailor to travel to Carina's kingdom to bring her to Alaric and Lina's wedding so that Lina can be a happy bride. Despite his good intentions, he leaves without telling anyone, has an accidental encounter with some mermaids, and ends up getting turned into a frog. A.G. Marshall is very good at blending humor into her stories, so a wise-cracking goofball like Stefan is the perfect candidate for a hilariously entertaining talking frog. His confidence and bluntness is exactly what Carina needs to break through her guarded exterior.
Another thing I love about this book is how many obscure elements A.G. Marshall incorporates from the Grimm fairy tale, originally known as "The Frog King" or "Iron Heinrich." Unlike the Disney version, which changed a lot of the story, Marshall's book includes the princess's prized golden ball that the frog recovers for her from the pond, but this time with a twist. Carina's golden ball is far from just a toy. It's an enchanted device that she uses to spy for her father. When she drops it, she could have gotten in a lot of trouble if Stefan hadn't recovered it for her. The story even incorporated the prince's servant, Heinrich, who is excluded from most adaptations of the tale. At the end of the Grimm story, it is revealed that Heinrich had three iron bands around his heart that grew from his sympathy toward the prince's curse. In this version, Heinrich is Stefan's tailor who is cursed with three iron bands around his heart by the mermaids in order to prevent Stefan from telling anyone how to break the spell.
The romance in this book was handled so flawlessly that I practically felt myself falling for Stefan through Carina's eyes. In the beginning, Stefan doesn't care for Carina at all because of her vapid facade and only wants to bring her to his brother's wedding to make Lina happy. The more he gets to know her by hiding in her pocket and listening to her private conversations with her father, the more he realizes how much she has to hide from the world and longs to take her away from such a miserable existence. Likewise, Carina has little interest in getting to know a talking frog, but she is intrigued by the potential of using Stefan to prove to her father that magic exists in order to maintain her role as a spy. However, after spending more time with Stefan, she learns what it feels like to be able to talk to someone with no pretenses and starts to develop feelings for him as more than an animal companion. It doesn't hurt that she also loves solving mysteries and is intrigued by his true identity and how he was cursed.
I have to say that A.G. Marshall has quickly worked her way into my heart as one of my favorite fairy tale authors. I love how she stays so loyal to the original stories while breathing new life into them with deeply complex characters and worlds. Both of the books I read by her incorporate a certain level of humor and fun into every chapter to never allow the story get too depressing and always bring a smile to my face. She incorporates magic into her stories in a way that is both believable an captivating. I've never imagined how "The Frog Prince" would work if it had mermaids and sea monsters in it, but after reading this version, I can't imagine it without them! If you love fairy tales and princesses, both The Princess and the Pea and The Frog Prince by A.G. Marshall are must-reads.
March 26, 2019
What Writing an Original Princess Screenplay Taught Me
Some time ago, I promised that I would turn my story
The Stolen Jewel
into an original full-length screenplay under the UCLA Professional Program for Screenwriting. I am pleased to announce that I successfully completed my polished first draft a few weeks ago. The Stolen Jewel is not the first princess story I have ever written, but it is one of the few that was not adapted from a pre-existing fairy tale. Through the program, I received incredibly valuable feedback that carried my writing to a level that I didn't even realize was possible. I also learned a lot about how people respond to modern princess stories and how that attitude has changed over the years. I am so happy with how The Stolen Jewel has turned out, and I would like to share some of my experience working on it with you.
My intention with The Stolen Jewel was to reverse the tired old "Cinderella" formula of "rags to riches" by telling the story of a princess who starts out having everything she could possibly want and losing her crown and title due to the rash actions she takes to try to protect her kingdom. Princess Charlotte is clever, hard-working and dedicated to her people. After the death of her parents in the Magic War, she became more determined than ever to become the perfect queen when she comes of age to take over for the acting regent, her crippled aunt, Denise. Little does she know that Denise plans for her to marry Prince Braydon to form an alliance with her kingdom's worst enemy before passing on the crown. Charlotte feels backed into a corner and takes some questionable measures to break up the alliance that backfire in the worst way possible as her world comes crashing down around her.
The most popular "Cinderella" adaptations were made in the '50s when it was common for people to struggle as children and teens before finding overwhelming success later in life. I hate to throw around the term "millennial," but people born in the '80s and '90s grew up with amazing animated princess heroines and successful parents who told us we could do anything if we put our mind to it. Most people from my generation grew up feeling like princesses or princes living in a magical world of wishes and dreams. Many reached adulthood to learn that it was a lot harder to find success than it was for our parents and lost that feeling of magic and wonder. That's why I think a story about a princess who loses it all and has to deal with the harshness of reality would be easier for today's generation to relate to than one who starts with nothing and ends up with everything. However, The Stolen Jewel isn't meant to be a downer. After losing everything she hold dear, Charlotte spends the rest of the script fighting to restore magic to the world, which represents the hope that we all have deep down that one day things will get better.
What surprised me the most about presenting this story to my class is that today's audience has become hardened against the concept of fictionalized romance. Princes are certainly a dying breed when it comes to the film industry, but they are still quite prevalent in fairy tale-themed books. Much of the feedback I received was adamantly opposed to any scene I wrote that progressed the budding relationship between Princess Charlotte and Prince Braydon. Fairy tales have a tendency to develop relationships at unrealistically accelerated rate, but no one had much of a problem with that until the past decade or so when Disney feebly attempted to push back against this trope with Frozen . It's difficult these days to tell a story about a strong woman in power needing help from a man because it perpetuates the Damsel in Distress stigma that Hollywood is fighting against like a plague right now. I refuse to have a character who is so invulnerable that she never needs support and refuses to believe in love. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and need to be able to lean on each other during difficult times.
Something else learned when working on this screenplay is that ladies-in-waiting make the best princess sidekicks. Prior to this, I had written a book about a lady-in-waiting, so I was all too happy to give a few to my heroine. Lily, Charlotte's bubbly but sometimes oblivious best friend, added a light-hearted innocence that the story could not have had if it only focused on Charlotte's downfall. Lily also had a love interest in Charlotte's cousin Henry because sidekicks are allowed to fall in love too. Charlotte's other cousin, Krystal, is a jealous lady-in-waiting who causes all sorts of trouble for her. It is definitely beneficial to have human companions in the story instead of animal sidekicks because humans provide a dynamic insight to palace life that animals cannot. The decision to make Krystal the daughter of the regent queen was one that I came up with after a suggestion from my teacher, and I think it helped a lot with the jealousy factor and why it took Charlotte so long to realize she couldn't trust her.
Would you like to see me convert The Stolen Jewel into a novella to add to my roster of books? Let me know in the comments. I will definitely consider it if I get enough interest. I converted my novella Rebirth: A Faery's Tale into a screenplay a few years ago, but this would be my first time doing that in reverse. The feedback I got from the program at UCLA was invaluable in helping me to create the perfect princess movie for my generation. I learned a lot about how differently people perceive female characters and romance today than they did when I was growing up. It also made me long for more originality from the princess content that is being produced in Hollywood today. Charlotte is a princess that could not have existed when I was growing up because the generation that inspired her is so different from the ones that inspired my favorite princess stories from my childhood.
My intention with The Stolen Jewel was to reverse the tired old "Cinderella" formula of "rags to riches" by telling the story of a princess who starts out having everything she could possibly want and losing her crown and title due to the rash actions she takes to try to protect her kingdom. Princess Charlotte is clever, hard-working and dedicated to her people. After the death of her parents in the Magic War, she became more determined than ever to become the perfect queen when she comes of age to take over for the acting regent, her crippled aunt, Denise. Little does she know that Denise plans for her to marry Prince Braydon to form an alliance with her kingdom's worst enemy before passing on the crown. Charlotte feels backed into a corner and takes some questionable measures to break up the alliance that backfire in the worst way possible as her world comes crashing down around her.
The most popular "Cinderella" adaptations were made in the '50s when it was common for people to struggle as children and teens before finding overwhelming success later in life. I hate to throw around the term "millennial," but people born in the '80s and '90s grew up with amazing animated princess heroines and successful parents who told us we could do anything if we put our mind to it. Most people from my generation grew up feeling like princesses or princes living in a magical world of wishes and dreams. Many reached adulthood to learn that it was a lot harder to find success than it was for our parents and lost that feeling of magic and wonder. That's why I think a story about a princess who loses it all and has to deal with the harshness of reality would be easier for today's generation to relate to than one who starts with nothing and ends up with everything. However, The Stolen Jewel isn't meant to be a downer. After losing everything she hold dear, Charlotte spends the rest of the script fighting to restore magic to the world, which represents the hope that we all have deep down that one day things will get better.
What surprised me the most about presenting this story to my class is that today's audience has become hardened against the concept of fictionalized romance. Princes are certainly a dying breed when it comes to the film industry, but they are still quite prevalent in fairy tale-themed books. Much of the feedback I received was adamantly opposed to any scene I wrote that progressed the budding relationship between Princess Charlotte and Prince Braydon. Fairy tales have a tendency to develop relationships at unrealistically accelerated rate, but no one had much of a problem with that until the past decade or so when Disney feebly attempted to push back against this trope with Frozen . It's difficult these days to tell a story about a strong woman in power needing help from a man because it perpetuates the Damsel in Distress stigma that Hollywood is fighting against like a plague right now. I refuse to have a character who is so invulnerable that she never needs support and refuses to believe in love. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and need to be able to lean on each other during difficult times.
Something else learned when working on this screenplay is that ladies-in-waiting make the best princess sidekicks. Prior to this, I had written a book about a lady-in-waiting, so I was all too happy to give a few to my heroine. Lily, Charlotte's bubbly but sometimes oblivious best friend, added a light-hearted innocence that the story could not have had if it only focused on Charlotte's downfall. Lily also had a love interest in Charlotte's cousin Henry because sidekicks are allowed to fall in love too. Charlotte's other cousin, Krystal, is a jealous lady-in-waiting who causes all sorts of trouble for her. It is definitely beneficial to have human companions in the story instead of animal sidekicks because humans provide a dynamic insight to palace life that animals cannot. The decision to make Krystal the daughter of the regent queen was one that I came up with after a suggestion from my teacher, and I think it helped a lot with the jealousy factor and why it took Charlotte so long to realize she couldn't trust her.
Would you like to see me convert The Stolen Jewel into a novella to add to my roster of books? Let me know in the comments. I will definitely consider it if I get enough interest. I converted my novella Rebirth: A Faery's Tale into a screenplay a few years ago, but this would be my first time doing that in reverse. The feedback I got from the program at UCLA was invaluable in helping me to create the perfect princess movie for my generation. I learned a lot about how differently people perceive female characters and romance today than they did when I was growing up. It also made me long for more originality from the princess content that is being produced in Hollywood today. Charlotte is a princess that could not have existed when I was growing up because the generation that inspired her is so different from the ones that inspired my favorite princess stories from my childhood.
March 24, 2019
Review: Thief of Cahraman Trilogy
Lucy Tempest is the hottest new author among the indie fairy tale adaptation scene. I was a little hesitant to read her premiere gender-bent "Aladdin" novel
Thief of Cahraman
because it required me to purchase and read two other novels,
Prince of Cahraman
and
Queen of Cahraman
just to find out how it ends. I've enjoyed other trilogies that told a complete story within each book while just leaving one thing unresolved at the end to make way for a sequel, but that was not the case here. It was a bit of a struggle for me to complete all three books within the course of a week so that I could write a review, especially when so few important things happened in the story until the end. In fact, I would even say it would be possible to skip over the second book entirely without missing too much of the overall story. Of course, this is speaking from my own personal preference. If you're the type of person who doesn't like your stories to end in a single book, you might love this trilogy.
The Thief of Cahraman trilogy tells the story of Adelaide, who is a female version of Aladdin. While she does start out as a thief who steals to survive, her story doesn't involve many genies or wishes until it gets toward the end. I was hoping that the gender swap would give Adelaide a chance to go after her prince and win him over with the help of a little magic instead of needing to compete for him with a bunch of catty noble girls like in so many other princess books. Sadly, that turned out to be the exact plot of Thief of Cahraman and Prince of Cahraman. Even though I've never read another adaptation of "Aladdin," the first two books in this trilogy did not feel fresh or original because they shared more traits with "Cinderella" or "The Princess and the Pea," in which a young woman must prove herself worthy of a prince's hand and does so in an unexpected way, than the story of "Aladdin." Many authors use these competitions as a way of introducing other princesses whose stories they intend to write about in future books, but that doesn't make it any less of a cliché.
Adelaide is tossed into the competition for Prince Cyaxares by a wicked sorceress named Nariman who sends her to steal back a lamp that she claims the king stole from her. She threatens to harm Adelaide's best friend, Bonnie, who appears to be this universe's version of Belle from "Beauty and the Beast," if she is unsuccessful in her task. There were several other fairy tale references casually sprinkled in throughout the books such as Ella from "Cinderella" and another character who turned out to be this universe's Sleeping Beauty, but most of the books focused on gradually revealing the backstory of Adelaide and Prince Cyaxares's parents from before they were born. All three books are fairly fast-paced, but there are so many intricate details about what happened to Nariman and everyone's parents decades earlier that it does get kind of tedious toward the end. At a certain point, I wanted to yell "Can we just get back to the present already?"
The "Aladdin" story elements finally start to pop up in the last book, Queen of Cahraman. There is a very strong theme of "Be careful what you wish for." Some elements that were specific to the Disney version appear in this book as well such as the Cave of Wonders and the magic carpet (which originally only appeared in other stories from 1,001 Arabian Nights). The villainess Nariman shares many traits with Disney's Jafar. Adelaide eventually gets her hands on the ring from the original tale, which contains a less powerful genie than the one in the lamp. I really enjoyed the reveal of the ring's powers in this book because it only works sometimes and only for specific wishes, so Adelaide is able to use it as a helpful tool while still needing to do most of the work herself. The reveal of where the ring's powers come from was also very entertaining. I only wish she had recovered it earlier because waiting for her to go through the generic princess bride contest in the first two books was pretty bland.
Though a gender-bent "Aladdin" story is an innovative concept for a princess book, there were a few things I wish the Thief of Cahraman books had done a little differently. Lucy Tempest's Fairy Tales of Folkshore series is already going to contain multiple books about different princesses, so I don't think it was necessary to require readers to purchase three books just for the first story. I would have loved to see a wily female thief fall in love with a prince whom she feels unworthy of and wins him over through her own volition instead of being forced into a sexist contest with a bunch of stuck-up princesses. It also would have been nice if the magical wish-granting elements had come into play sooner than they did. There were several typos throughout all three books, which is more of a sign of poor editing than poor writing, but it wasn't enough to distract too much from the story. If you like long drawn-out backstories with clever heroines, this trilogy is for you. If you prefer a quick and easy read, I'd go with one of the many other fairy tale authors out there instead.
The Thief of Cahraman trilogy tells the story of Adelaide, who is a female version of Aladdin. While she does start out as a thief who steals to survive, her story doesn't involve many genies or wishes until it gets toward the end. I was hoping that the gender swap would give Adelaide a chance to go after her prince and win him over with the help of a little magic instead of needing to compete for him with a bunch of catty noble girls like in so many other princess books. Sadly, that turned out to be the exact plot of Thief of Cahraman and Prince of Cahraman. Even though I've never read another adaptation of "Aladdin," the first two books in this trilogy did not feel fresh or original because they shared more traits with "Cinderella" or "The Princess and the Pea," in which a young woman must prove herself worthy of a prince's hand and does so in an unexpected way, than the story of "Aladdin." Many authors use these competitions as a way of introducing other princesses whose stories they intend to write about in future books, but that doesn't make it any less of a cliché.
Adelaide is tossed into the competition for Prince Cyaxares by a wicked sorceress named Nariman who sends her to steal back a lamp that she claims the king stole from her. She threatens to harm Adelaide's best friend, Bonnie, who appears to be this universe's version of Belle from "Beauty and the Beast," if she is unsuccessful in her task. There were several other fairy tale references casually sprinkled in throughout the books such as Ella from "Cinderella" and another character who turned out to be this universe's Sleeping Beauty, but most of the books focused on gradually revealing the backstory of Adelaide and Prince Cyaxares's parents from before they were born. All three books are fairly fast-paced, but there are so many intricate details about what happened to Nariman and everyone's parents decades earlier that it does get kind of tedious toward the end. At a certain point, I wanted to yell "Can we just get back to the present already?"
The "Aladdin" story elements finally start to pop up in the last book, Queen of Cahraman. There is a very strong theme of "Be careful what you wish for." Some elements that were specific to the Disney version appear in this book as well such as the Cave of Wonders and the magic carpet (which originally only appeared in other stories from 1,001 Arabian Nights). The villainess Nariman shares many traits with Disney's Jafar. Adelaide eventually gets her hands on the ring from the original tale, which contains a less powerful genie than the one in the lamp. I really enjoyed the reveal of the ring's powers in this book because it only works sometimes and only for specific wishes, so Adelaide is able to use it as a helpful tool while still needing to do most of the work herself. The reveal of where the ring's powers come from was also very entertaining. I only wish she had recovered it earlier because waiting for her to go through the generic princess bride contest in the first two books was pretty bland.
Though a gender-bent "Aladdin" story is an innovative concept for a princess book, there were a few things I wish the Thief of Cahraman books had done a little differently. Lucy Tempest's Fairy Tales of Folkshore series is already going to contain multiple books about different princesses, so I don't think it was necessary to require readers to purchase three books just for the first story. I would have loved to see a wily female thief fall in love with a prince whom she feels unworthy of and wins him over through her own volition instead of being forced into a sexist contest with a bunch of stuck-up princesses. It also would have been nice if the magical wish-granting elements had come into play sooner than they did. There were several typos throughout all three books, which is more of a sign of poor editing than poor writing, but it wasn't enough to distract too much from the story. If you like long drawn-out backstories with clever heroines, this trilogy is for you. If you prefer a quick and easy read, I'd go with one of the many other fairy tale authors out there instead.
March 18, 2019
Has Rapunzel Gone Goth?
It would be impossible for me to write this post without spoiling the latest episode, so go ahead and watch Rapunzel and the Great Tree if you haven't seen it yet before reading on. I was surprised that this hour-long episode was not promoted as a major special at all as far as I could tell. Rapunzel and the Great Tree was a crucial turning point in the plot and should have been treated as such. It brought back all of the things that we have been waiting since the season premiere to learn more about, such as the character of Adira, the significance of Varian's father, the meaning of the moon symbol next to the Sun Drop symbol on Adira's scroll, and the black rocks, which created the events that kicked off the series from the very beginning. Rapunzel and her friends are traveling to a place called the Dark Kingdom, which is where the mysterious rocks originate from. If that doesn't sound foreboding enough already, Disney also took some pretty big risks in the latest special that might make some people question if Rapunzel is really as innocent and happy-go-lucky as she appears.
Brace yourselves, folks. We are now entering spoiler territory from whence there is no return. One of the biggest revelations in this special is the Moonstone, the opposing force of Rapunzel's Sun Drop Flower that gave her hair its magical properties in the original movie. Since the Sun Drop contains healing magic, it should come as no surprise that Moonstone's power brings death and destruction. What does come as a surprise is that as soon as Rapunzel learns the incantation for the Moonstone, she decides to try it, without even considering what it might do to the people traveling with her that she cares about so dearly. The incantation turns her hair black and takes full control over her body so that she is unable to stop casting the spell of her own volition. It is a little disturbing and hard to swallow that such a happy-go-lucky princess who believes in love, peace, and the good in all people would want to try out a magical incantation that begins with the words "wither and decay," but who am I to judge?
Another centralized theme of this special was the relationship between Rapunzel and her badass lady-in-waiting, Cassandra. Cassandra started out as more of a foil character to both Rapunzel and Eugene, but in Rapunzel and the Great Tree, Rapunzel proves that she has more in common with Cass than anyone had anticipated, and I don't just mean her new hair color. In the beginning, Rapunzel followed Cassandra's guidance to learn about the ways of the world outside her tower, but now that she has been traveling for so long, she finally decides to exert her power as the princess and future queen of Corona. This leads to a beautiful new anthem for Cassandra called "Waiting in the Wings" about all of the hardships of being a lady-in-waiting. In addition to her take-charge attitude, Cassandra had always been the pessimist/realist of the group while Rapunzel was an unapologetic optimist who insisted on finding the most altruistic solution to any problem. Not anymore. In this episode, she willingly chooses to recite the deadly incantation again at a pivotal moment despite now being fully aware of the consequences. It looks like Cassandra has some competition for the role of the dark and brooding goth girl in the Tangled universe.
I have to say that I was not expecting such a light and cheerful series to take a turn in this direction. By Disney standards, this episode was quite dark. It was revealed from the beginning that Rapunzel's impossibly long hair took new and mysterious properties from the healing magic it had before, but they could have found a way to reveal those properties without making Rapunzel channel dark magic through her own free will. Cassandra warns her not to make reckless decisions at the beginning the special, but a princess being reckless is more akin to her trading her voice to the sea witch for legs than casting magic that will inevitably destroy everything in her path. Yes, change is a necessary part of life, but one of the things that make princesses so timeless is that they never lose that innocence and optimism that so many of the rest of us do as we grow older. It seemed like far too drastic of a change to transform Rapunzel from a bright sun into a poisonous moon.
Has Rapunzel gone from Starfire to Raven overnight? Even though the black hair is not a permanent change, it is a deadly power that she can call upon whenever she sees fit. I'm sure there will be plenty of light-hearted filler episodes between now and the finale where the moon magic isn't even mentioned, but it will be sure to come up again in the next special. As the characters approach the foreboding Dark Kingdom, more deadly secrets will likely be revealed. I hope that our starry-eyed princess hearts will be able to handle them.
Brace yourselves, folks. We are now entering spoiler territory from whence there is no return. One of the biggest revelations in this special is the Moonstone, the opposing force of Rapunzel's Sun Drop Flower that gave her hair its magical properties in the original movie. Since the Sun Drop contains healing magic, it should come as no surprise that Moonstone's power brings death and destruction. What does come as a surprise is that as soon as Rapunzel learns the incantation for the Moonstone, she decides to try it, without even considering what it might do to the people traveling with her that she cares about so dearly. The incantation turns her hair black and takes full control over her body so that she is unable to stop casting the spell of her own volition. It is a little disturbing and hard to swallow that such a happy-go-lucky princess who believes in love, peace, and the good in all people would want to try out a magical incantation that begins with the words "wither and decay," but who am I to judge?
Another centralized theme of this special was the relationship between Rapunzel and her badass lady-in-waiting, Cassandra. Cassandra started out as more of a foil character to both Rapunzel and Eugene, but in Rapunzel and the Great Tree, Rapunzel proves that she has more in common with Cass than anyone had anticipated, and I don't just mean her new hair color. In the beginning, Rapunzel followed Cassandra's guidance to learn about the ways of the world outside her tower, but now that she has been traveling for so long, she finally decides to exert her power as the princess and future queen of Corona. This leads to a beautiful new anthem for Cassandra called "Waiting in the Wings" about all of the hardships of being a lady-in-waiting. In addition to her take-charge attitude, Cassandra had always been the pessimist/realist of the group while Rapunzel was an unapologetic optimist who insisted on finding the most altruistic solution to any problem. Not anymore. In this episode, she willingly chooses to recite the deadly incantation again at a pivotal moment despite now being fully aware of the consequences. It looks like Cassandra has some competition for the role of the dark and brooding goth girl in the Tangled universe.
I have to say that I was not expecting such a light and cheerful series to take a turn in this direction. By Disney standards, this episode was quite dark. It was revealed from the beginning that Rapunzel's impossibly long hair took new and mysterious properties from the healing magic it had before, but they could have found a way to reveal those properties without making Rapunzel channel dark magic through her own free will. Cassandra warns her not to make reckless decisions at the beginning the special, but a princess being reckless is more akin to her trading her voice to the sea witch for legs than casting magic that will inevitably destroy everything in her path. Yes, change is a necessary part of life, but one of the things that make princesses so timeless is that they never lose that innocence and optimism that so many of the rest of us do as we grow older. It seemed like far too drastic of a change to transform Rapunzel from a bright sun into a poisonous moon.
Has Rapunzel gone from Starfire to Raven overnight? Even though the black hair is not a permanent change, it is a deadly power that she can call upon whenever she sees fit. I'm sure there will be plenty of light-hearted filler episodes between now and the finale where the moon magic isn't even mentioned, but it will be sure to come up again in the next special. As the characters approach the foreboding Dark Kingdom, more deadly secrets will likely be revealed. I hope that our starry-eyed princess hearts will be able to handle them.
March 17, 2019
Review: The Princess and the Pea by A.G. Marshall
I was fortunate enough to receive a free ebook of The Princess and the Pea by up-and-coming fairy tale author A.G. Marshall from a promotion on Facebook. Since the book was named directly after the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, I was expecting a fairly direct adaptation. Instead, I was blown away by A.G. Marshall's originality. The book is a "fish out of water" story that delves into the creation of mythology and legend. The protagonist wakes up in another time that she knows nothing about, which allows the reader to explore this new world with her. I am a huge proponent of "fish out of water" stories, so the Fairy Tale Adventures series is one that I will be following closely from this point on.
A.G. Marshall's The Princess and the Pea tells the story of a girl named Lina who wields a magic ring and fights goblins in the shadow world. Due to a sleeping spell that allowed her to stay in the protect the world from some dangerous threats, she wakes up to find that a century has passed and everyone she knew is gone. When she tries to dig into her own past, she learns that her story has become the myth of Evangelina Shadow-Storm, a bastardized version of the events that she had actually lived through. She gets involved in the competition to find a bride for the prince because she sees it as the only way for her to deliver her report about the dangers in the shadow world to the grand council, the only people who might still be aware that she exists.
Many of the characters in this book have more knowledge than they let on. When Lina learns that her past has become fiction, she must do her best to pretend to blend in so that she won't be seen as crazy. Prince Alaric, who is obsessed with the story of Evangelina Shadow-Storm, notices Lina regularly skulking around the castle and searching the library for clues of what has happened while she was asleep. He knows that she is after something other than his hand in marriage, but he keeps her secrets in an attempt to earn her trust. Carina, one of the princesses that Lina befriends in the contest, puts on a completely different facade in public than she does in private. She has no interest in winning Prince Alaric, so she attempts to be as vapid and boring as possible, resulting in some hilarious antics. She is secretly a fierce warrior, who is all too happy to learn more about Lina's quest. The queen, a former goat herder, turns out to be hiding the biggest secrets of all much later in the book.
What I love the most about Marshall's adaptation of The Princess and the Pea is that it portrays the way that people respond to fairy tales in a fairy tale setting, giving its audience a new perspective of the impact that these types of stories have on people. Prince Alaric is obsessed with what he believes to be the myth of Evangelina Shadow-Storm just as many of us find inspiration from stories about fictional princesses. It also acknowledges that many legendary characters such as King Arthur or Snow White may have originated as actual historical figures whose tales were exaggerated and fictionalized over time. Some of the changes that Lina learns were made to her story are horrifying to her but quite humorous in the context of the book. A lot of silly touches Marshall included such as Lina's password to the grand council and Carina's vapid acting skills made it a fun and light read, which was a welcome contrast to the dark turn the story could have taken if it placed more focus on Lina's family being dead when she woke up.
A.G. Marshall's adaptation of "The Princess and the Pea" overwhelmed me with its sharp and exciting storytelling. It delves into the making of a hero and how some parts of a legend can stem from reality. I loved that Lina was a confused and lonely girl first and foremost and an epic war heroine second. The ability to do great acts does not require perfection. We are all capable of great deeds if we are willing to make the effort. The Princess and the Pea was thoroughly enjoyable from beginning to end thanks to its pristine pacing and perfect balance between comedy and drama. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading princess stories.
A.G. Marshall's The Princess and the Pea tells the story of a girl named Lina who wields a magic ring and fights goblins in the shadow world. Due to a sleeping spell that allowed her to stay in the protect the world from some dangerous threats, she wakes up to find that a century has passed and everyone she knew is gone. When she tries to dig into her own past, she learns that her story has become the myth of Evangelina Shadow-Storm, a bastardized version of the events that she had actually lived through. She gets involved in the competition to find a bride for the prince because she sees it as the only way for her to deliver her report about the dangers in the shadow world to the grand council, the only people who might still be aware that she exists.
Many of the characters in this book have more knowledge than they let on. When Lina learns that her past has become fiction, she must do her best to pretend to blend in so that she won't be seen as crazy. Prince Alaric, who is obsessed with the story of Evangelina Shadow-Storm, notices Lina regularly skulking around the castle and searching the library for clues of what has happened while she was asleep. He knows that she is after something other than his hand in marriage, but he keeps her secrets in an attempt to earn her trust. Carina, one of the princesses that Lina befriends in the contest, puts on a completely different facade in public than she does in private. She has no interest in winning Prince Alaric, so she attempts to be as vapid and boring as possible, resulting in some hilarious antics. She is secretly a fierce warrior, who is all too happy to learn more about Lina's quest. The queen, a former goat herder, turns out to be hiding the biggest secrets of all much later in the book.
What I love the most about Marshall's adaptation of The Princess and the Pea is that it portrays the way that people respond to fairy tales in a fairy tale setting, giving its audience a new perspective of the impact that these types of stories have on people. Prince Alaric is obsessed with what he believes to be the myth of Evangelina Shadow-Storm just as many of us find inspiration from stories about fictional princesses. It also acknowledges that many legendary characters such as King Arthur or Snow White may have originated as actual historical figures whose tales were exaggerated and fictionalized over time. Some of the changes that Lina learns were made to her story are horrifying to her but quite humorous in the context of the book. A lot of silly touches Marshall included such as Lina's password to the grand council and Carina's vapid acting skills made it a fun and light read, which was a welcome contrast to the dark turn the story could have taken if it placed more focus on Lina's family being dead when she woke up.
A.G. Marshall's adaptation of "The Princess and the Pea" overwhelmed me with its sharp and exciting storytelling. It delves into the making of a hero and how some parts of a legend can stem from reality. I loved that Lina was a confused and lonely girl first and foremost and an epic war heroine second. The ability to do great acts does not require perfection. We are all capable of great deeds if we are willing to make the effort. The Princess and the Pea was thoroughly enjoyable from beginning to end thanks to its pristine pacing and perfect balance between comedy and drama. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading princess stories.
March 12, 2019
Sequels and Remakes and Trailers, Oh My!
Is Disney ever going to slow down? You would think with all the live-action remakes and sequels that they are releasing this year, they would want to save something for the next year or two, but you would be wrong. It isn't enough that 2019 is jam-packed with live-action remakes and animated sequels because Disney announced last week that they are pushing up the release date for a sequel to one of their live-action remakes. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, the next chapter to their 2014 flick that told the story of
S
leeping Beaut
y
from an new perspective, is coming this October. To be fair,
Maleficent
is different from Disney's other live-action remakes because it is not an unapologetic carbon copy that is doomed from to be inferior to the original from conception. With a script by the Disney Princess of screenwriting,
The overwhelming lack of creativity in Hollywood as of late seems to be taking its toll on the House of Mouse this year more than ever. Virtually every Disney movie coming out in 2019 is either a sequel or a remake. I'm not saying I won't be running to theaters on opening weekend to catch Maleficent: Mistress of Evil because I definitely will, but the fact that its release date got pushed up by a year solidifies the fact that Disney is valuing quantity over quality. Will we have anything to look forward to after 2020 begins? Ever The Nutcracker and the Four Realms , their first original movie in ages, was a huge disappointment. Between the new Dumbo , Aladdin , The Lion King , Toy Story 4 , Frozen 2 , and now this, there's barely any room to come up for air. All of this happened after the cancellation of Disney's refreshingly original animated feature Gigantic. Personally, I'd rather wait a couple of years between movies if it means my patience will be rewarded with engaging stories and high production values than get jaded by seeing the same thing over and over again. How about a new Disney Princess?
I know I sound a bit like a Debbie Downer right now, and I'm not trying to be. Of all the live-action Disney remakes that could get a sequel, this is the one I would be the most interested in seeing. The first story was so different from its source material that there's still a lot of this new world we have yet to explore. Maleficent is a faery who had her wings restored at the end of the first movie, which is pretty awesome. This version of Princess Aurora became queen of the Moors at the end, which was also awesome. We rarely get to see a beloved Disney Princesses become queen after her story ends unless you count Ariel in The Little Mermaid 2. Plus, Maleficent spent most of her movie feigning hatred for Aurora, so there's a lot of new ground we can cover with their newly formed mother/daughter relationship. This movie has a ton of potential, but I'm going to keep my expectations low.
Speaking of low expectations, when I was about to wrap this blog post, Disney dropped a brand new trailer for their live-action Aladdin remake that's coming out on May 24th. This trailer focuses more on the music from the original film than the last one. Though a lot of it is a rehash of clips we've already seen, it features small tastes of
The Disney market is so over-saturated with sequels and remakes right now that we have no choice but to look forward them because there's nothing else to look forward to. In my opinion, Moana was the last great princess movie. It feels like 2016 was so long ago now. I would love to see them put a new spin on a fairy tale they haven't attempted yet such as "The Princess and the Pea" or "The Twelve Dancing Princesses." Instead they continue to celebrate their own accomplishments from the past instead of moving forward. As a result, we now have a ton of sequels and live-action remakes coming out this year along with a sequel to a live-action. It may sound like I've lost my sense of wonder, but a part of me is still eager to see if they will surprise us by taking these stories in a new and unexpected direction or if it will just be more of the same.
The overwhelming lack of creativity in Hollywood as of late seems to be taking its toll on the House of Mouse this year more than ever. Virtually every Disney movie coming out in 2019 is either a sequel or a remake. I'm not saying I won't be running to theaters on opening weekend to catch Maleficent: Mistress of Evil because I definitely will, but the fact that its release date got pushed up by a year solidifies the fact that Disney is valuing quantity over quality. Will we have anything to look forward to after 2020 begins? Ever The Nutcracker and the Four Realms , their first original movie in ages, was a huge disappointment. Between the new Dumbo , Aladdin , The Lion King , Toy Story 4 , Frozen 2 , and now this, there's barely any room to come up for air. All of this happened after the cancellation of Disney's refreshingly original animated feature Gigantic. Personally, I'd rather wait a couple of years between movies if it means my patience will be rewarded with engaging stories and high production values than get jaded by seeing the same thing over and over again. How about a new Disney Princess?
I know I sound a bit like a Debbie Downer right now, and I'm not trying to be. Of all the live-action Disney remakes that could get a sequel, this is the one I would be the most interested in seeing. The first story was so different from its source material that there's still a lot of this new world we have yet to explore. Maleficent is a faery who had her wings restored at the end of the first movie, which is pretty awesome. This version of Princess Aurora became queen of the Moors at the end, which was also awesome. We rarely get to see a beloved Disney Princesses become queen after her story ends unless you count Ariel in The Little Mermaid 2. Plus, Maleficent spent most of her movie feigning hatred for Aurora, so there's a lot of new ground we can cover with their newly formed mother/daughter relationship. This movie has a ton of potential, but I'm going to keep my expectations low.
Speaking of low expectations, when I was about to wrap this blog post, Disney dropped a brand new trailer for their live-action Aladdin remake that's coming out on May 24th. This trailer focuses more on the music from the original film than the last one. Though a lot of it is a rehash of clips we've already seen, it features small tastes of
The Disney market is so over-saturated with sequels and remakes right now that we have no choice but to look forward them because there's nothing else to look forward to. In my opinion, Moana was the last great princess movie. It feels like 2016 was so long ago now. I would love to see them put a new spin on a fairy tale they haven't attempted yet such as "The Princess and the Pea" or "The Twelve Dancing Princesses." Instead they continue to celebrate their own accomplishments from the past instead of moving forward. As a result, we now have a ton of sequels and live-action remakes coming out this year along with a sequel to a live-action. It may sound like I've lost my sense of wonder, but a part of me is still eager to see if they will surprise us by taking these stories in a new and unexpected direction or if it will just be more of the same.
March 10, 2019
Review: The Tower Princess
The Tower Princess by Shonna Slayton turns the Shakespearean story of "Romeo and Juliet" into a beautiful fairy tale. Outside of a certain famous Taylor Swift music video, Shakespeare is not the first place most writers turn to when looking to adapt a fairytale, so it was a breath of fresh air for me. Shonna is a huge fan of fairy tales in general and has a wonderful Facebook group for other fairy tale lovers. Her passion is clear in this book through her intricately fleshed out medieval world and original mythology surrounding it. The prologue alone told an expertly crafted fable that developed an intriguing backstory for the troubled kingdom of Morlaix and those who reside within it. Her poetic use of language and world-building drew me into the story before I even met the main characters.
The setting of The Tower Princess reminded me a bit of Neil Gaiman's Stardust. Both stories have protagonists whose lands are blocked by a mysterious forbidden wall. In this story, the wall separates the two halves of the Kingdom of Morlaix so that two rival kings can each rule their half the way that they see fit without the need to compromise. For this reason, they make every effort to separate the prince of South Morlaix and princess of North Morlaix to prevent an alliance that would reunite the land. Of course, the wall is not enough to keep the two star-crossed lovers apart. Something magical within it causes it to open up for Gressa, the princess of North Morlaix, and Manny, the secret prince of South Morlaix, revealing a meadow that they use as a private sanctuary to escape the very different struggles in their lives. Through their secret meetings, they learn the truth about the divide between their separate halves of the kingdom.
Aside from the "Romeo and Juliet" setting, Shonna draws inspiration from other fairy tales to weave together the separate day-to-day lives of Gressa and Manny. Gressa leads a life that is vaguely similar to Rapunzel, but without the magical long hair or being separated from her family. As the youngest child of the king and queen and the only girl, her parents choose to keep her in a tower for most of her life because they can't think of a better way to protect her from the outside world or the possibility of her falling in love, especially with the prince of South Morlaix. She is not quite a prisoner, though. Princess Gressa is allowed to leave on occasion to explore the palace gardens, where she discovers the secret entrance to the wall. Manny's story draws inspiration from the tale of The Prince and the Pauper. In order to prevent his son from falling in love with the princess of North Morlaix, the king has him switched at birth with a peasant baby to act as a decoy. Manny is raised by a kind tailor and his wife, who hide the truth about his birth. Even though he does not know he is the prince, Manny is favored by the king and has great accolades bestowed upon his adoptive father's shop, ensuring that he has a good life. This inspires him to train as a squire so that he can one day become a knight and serve the king who was so kind to him.
The premise of two unlikely lovers being brought together by a magical meadow is similar to Pathways , the last book I read, but The Tower Princess does this in a more engaging way by giving both protagonists lots of obstacles that try to them apart. The very circumstances that bring them together occur only because of the actions their parents take in fear that they might one day meet and fall in love. In addition to that, Gressa's wicked brother, Herrick, is the heir to her parents' throne. He always has her worst interests at heart, forcing her to watch her back for him whenever she leaves the tower in case he learns her secret and tries to use it against her. Manny always has hands full at the tailor shop trying to cover for Hoxham, the tailor's lazy apprentice. As much as he looks forward to his visits with Gressa, he often has to perform the work of two people at the shop in addition to his training to become a squire. He has all this on his plate before he even learns about his true destiny.
The Tower Princess is an expertly crafted work of fiction. It draws many elements from other stories while creating a rich and original world that is full of romance, adventure, and poetry. I was a bit surprised to learn that the Fairy Tale Inheritance series was also written by Shonna Slayton because I was never quite able to make it through the first book, Snow White's Mirror . The Tower Princess appears to be part of a new series called Lost Fairy Tales that should hold more appeal for lovers of old-timey fantasy like me. If you adore fairy tales and stories about star-crossed lovers, you should definitely give The Tower Princess a try.
The setting of The Tower Princess reminded me a bit of Neil Gaiman's Stardust. Both stories have protagonists whose lands are blocked by a mysterious forbidden wall. In this story, the wall separates the two halves of the Kingdom of Morlaix so that two rival kings can each rule their half the way that they see fit without the need to compromise. For this reason, they make every effort to separate the prince of South Morlaix and princess of North Morlaix to prevent an alliance that would reunite the land. Of course, the wall is not enough to keep the two star-crossed lovers apart. Something magical within it causes it to open up for Gressa, the princess of North Morlaix, and Manny, the secret prince of South Morlaix, revealing a meadow that they use as a private sanctuary to escape the very different struggles in their lives. Through their secret meetings, they learn the truth about the divide between their separate halves of the kingdom.
Aside from the "Romeo and Juliet" setting, Shonna draws inspiration from other fairy tales to weave together the separate day-to-day lives of Gressa and Manny. Gressa leads a life that is vaguely similar to Rapunzel, but without the magical long hair or being separated from her family. As the youngest child of the king and queen and the only girl, her parents choose to keep her in a tower for most of her life because they can't think of a better way to protect her from the outside world or the possibility of her falling in love, especially with the prince of South Morlaix. She is not quite a prisoner, though. Princess Gressa is allowed to leave on occasion to explore the palace gardens, where she discovers the secret entrance to the wall. Manny's story draws inspiration from the tale of The Prince and the Pauper. In order to prevent his son from falling in love with the princess of North Morlaix, the king has him switched at birth with a peasant baby to act as a decoy. Manny is raised by a kind tailor and his wife, who hide the truth about his birth. Even though he does not know he is the prince, Manny is favored by the king and has great accolades bestowed upon his adoptive father's shop, ensuring that he has a good life. This inspires him to train as a squire so that he can one day become a knight and serve the king who was so kind to him.
The premise of two unlikely lovers being brought together by a magical meadow is similar to Pathways , the last book I read, but The Tower Princess does this in a more engaging way by giving both protagonists lots of obstacles that try to them apart. The very circumstances that bring them together occur only because of the actions their parents take in fear that they might one day meet and fall in love. In addition to that, Gressa's wicked brother, Herrick, is the heir to her parents' throne. He always has her worst interests at heart, forcing her to watch her back for him whenever she leaves the tower in case he learns her secret and tries to use it against her. Manny always has hands full at the tailor shop trying to cover for Hoxham, the tailor's lazy apprentice. As much as he looks forward to his visits with Gressa, he often has to perform the work of two people at the shop in addition to his training to become a squire. He has all this on his plate before he even learns about his true destiny.
The Tower Princess is an expertly crafted work of fiction. It draws many elements from other stories while creating a rich and original world that is full of romance, adventure, and poetry. I was a bit surprised to learn that the Fairy Tale Inheritance series was also written by Shonna Slayton because I was never quite able to make it through the first book, Snow White's Mirror . The Tower Princess appears to be part of a new series called Lost Fairy Tales that should hold more appeal for lovers of old-timey fantasy like me. If you adore fairy tales and stories about star-crossed lovers, you should definitely give The Tower Princess a try.
March 3, 2019
Rapunzel Is Back!
At long last, today marked the return of Tangled: The Series or Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure or whatever they've decided to call it this month. This show has a history of taking long breaks with no rhyme or reason. It's a shame because it's such an engaging series that surpasses some of Disney's previous movie spin-off shows by miles. The last episode to air until now was "Happiness Is..." which was over six months ago! Today's episode, "Peril on the High Seas" finally saw the main cast escape from the weird island they were trapped with the silly talking German leaves. After leaving its audience stranded at sea for so many months, Disney has finally thrown Rapunzel a bone. Instead of just one episode a week, most Sundays in March will boast two new episodes of the show, allowing us to quickly catch up with the rest of the second season. I assume this is due to their production schedule being so far ahead of the episodes that have actually aired. Believe it or not, the writers have already submitted the final script of the series, which is still another entire season away!
The release schedule for the Tangled series is even more frustrating than Once Upon a Time, which also often went weeks between new episodes when it was at the height of its run. Today's episode reminded me of just how much time has passed between airings by featuring throwbacks to villains that have shown up throughout the course of the series and all the way back to the original film from 2010! In "Peril on the High Seas," Eugene and Maximus find themselves stranded at sea on a prison ship with nearly all the foes they had ever faced in the past. Lady Caine from the series premiere led the group of misfits in their attempted mutiny. As pleased as I was to see her again after all this time, it felt too little too late for me to welcome her back into the story after hearing no mention of her for so long. When the show came out, I had already concocted some theories about her character that went nowhere because we heard about her again for over a year. The same thing applies to the Stabbington Brothers from the original film. They were a far more minor threat than Mother Gothel that feels almost irrelevant now. I would have preferred more than a B-plot villain reunion after going so long without Rapunzel's adventures, but I suppose beggars can't be choosers.
Noticeably missing from the group of fallen nemeses was Varian, who was last seen riding away in a prison cart at the end of the spectacular first season finale, The Secret of the Sun Drop . Varian was a particularly complex villain because he started out as a friend to the group and was forced to lash out against them due to circumstances behind Rapunzel's control. He was also quite young and naive compared to most cartoon villains. As much I would have loved to see him return on the prison ship, his presence would have probably stretched the episode out beyond its 22-minute run time. Still, I doubt we've seen the last of him if even Maximus's horse nemesis could make a comeback. Leaked summaries of other episodes airing this month include hints of even more throwbacks from both the movie and the series, including Hook Hand (the series has only featured his brother, Hook Foot), Stalyan (Eugene's Ex-Fiancée from a previous episode), and an amnesia spell that will revert Rapunzel to her less adventuresome movie persona. The fact that many of these episodes will be airing two at a time throughout March will hopefully make it easier to keep track of references to things that happened earlier in the show without falling off the radar again.
Even though the Tangled series has better continuity overall than some of Disney's older cartoons, the episodic formula has been pretty strong this season. We've gotten to meet lots of colorful characters and explore new locales outside, but I do miss the precious moments of bonding that Rapunzel shared with her parents, King Frederic and Queen Arianna. The show is all about her enjoying her freedom now that she's no longer trapped in a tower, but the fact still stands that she never knew her real parents for most of her life. It's a shame for her to have to leave them so soon after their beautiful reunion at the end of the film. Most of this season has also had surprisingly little mention of the mysterious black rocks that Rapunzel journeyed out of her kingdom to track. It could be that they are saving all the biggest reveals for the third and final season, but that makes us fans feel even more anxious, especially after waiting so many months between episodes. Hopefully, we'll see a lot more story and character growth this month now that its schedule is getting back on track.
The release schedule for the Tangled series is even more frustrating than Once Upon a Time, which also often went weeks between new episodes when it was at the height of its run. Today's episode reminded me of just how much time has passed between airings by featuring throwbacks to villains that have shown up throughout the course of the series and all the way back to the original film from 2010! In "Peril on the High Seas," Eugene and Maximus find themselves stranded at sea on a prison ship with nearly all the foes they had ever faced in the past. Lady Caine from the series premiere led the group of misfits in their attempted mutiny. As pleased as I was to see her again after all this time, it felt too little too late for me to welcome her back into the story after hearing no mention of her for so long. When the show came out, I had already concocted some theories about her character that went nowhere because we heard about her again for over a year. The same thing applies to the Stabbington Brothers from the original film. They were a far more minor threat than Mother Gothel that feels almost irrelevant now. I would have preferred more than a B-plot villain reunion after going so long without Rapunzel's adventures, but I suppose beggars can't be choosers.
Noticeably missing from the group of fallen nemeses was Varian, who was last seen riding away in a prison cart at the end of the spectacular first season finale, The Secret of the Sun Drop . Varian was a particularly complex villain because he started out as a friend to the group and was forced to lash out against them due to circumstances behind Rapunzel's control. He was also quite young and naive compared to most cartoon villains. As much I would have loved to see him return on the prison ship, his presence would have probably stretched the episode out beyond its 22-minute run time. Still, I doubt we've seen the last of him if even Maximus's horse nemesis could make a comeback. Leaked summaries of other episodes airing this month include hints of even more throwbacks from both the movie and the series, including Hook Hand (the series has only featured his brother, Hook Foot), Stalyan (Eugene's Ex-Fiancée from a previous episode), and an amnesia spell that will revert Rapunzel to her less adventuresome movie persona. The fact that many of these episodes will be airing two at a time throughout March will hopefully make it easier to keep track of references to things that happened earlier in the show without falling off the radar again.
Even though the Tangled series has better continuity overall than some of Disney's older cartoons, the episodic formula has been pretty strong this season. We've gotten to meet lots of colorful characters and explore new locales outside, but I do miss the precious moments of bonding that Rapunzel shared with her parents, King Frederic and Queen Arianna. The show is all about her enjoying her freedom now that she's no longer trapped in a tower, but the fact still stands that she never knew her real parents for most of her life. It's a shame for her to have to leave them so soon after their beautiful reunion at the end of the film. Most of this season has also had surprisingly little mention of the mysterious black rocks that Rapunzel journeyed out of her kingdom to track. It could be that they are saving all the biggest reveals for the third and final season, but that makes us fans feel even more anxious, especially after waiting so many months between episodes. Hopefully, we'll see a lot more story and character growth this month now that its schedule is getting back on track.
