Elena Is Crowned Queen of Avalor
It's been four years since Disney introduced us to their first Latina princess, Elena of Avalor. Today, her reign on Disney Channel ends as she takes her place on the throne as queen. Elena's show had a rocky start for me, but it hit its peak somewhere around the second season. Today's finale movie, Coronation Day, serves as an excellent reminder of all the things it did right. Elena of Avalor has an enormous revolving cast of diverse characters, which can make the show hard to follow for a casual observer. Everyone in the series showed up to celebrate Elena's coronation, reminding us how much work went into building this enormous extended universe of kingdoms that began with Sofia the First. In addition to its evergrowing familia, the show introduced lots of Aztec mythology that I was not familiar with and some fun new mythological creatures like the jaquins, Avalor's answer to Enchancia's flying horses. This is truly the end of an era as it marks the last animated princess show to conclude this year.
My favorite character in Elena of Avalor was Princess Marisa, the mermaid princess played by Jane the Virgin's
Coronation Day was a fitting finale for our new queen. It began with a song summarizing all of Elena's adventures so far and ended with a surprise appearance from the princess who first freed her from the Amulet of Avalor. The special followed in the footsteps of all the other princess shows that ended this year with an important message about the magic of forgiveness. Elena's conflict with her cousin Esteban was elevated in The Magic Within special and came to a close during the finale's climax. Just like She-Ra (who happens to share
Today, the last current animated princess show has come to an end. It's a bittersweet feeling to know that I won't be able to look forward to new episodes of animated princess cartoons fo the foreseeable future. I am grateful for all of the ground-breaking accomplishments that Elena has achieved for princess culture. She shows us that a true leader trusts her peers to help her make decisions and to balance out her shortcomings. Though the series was less action-packed than the commercials and opening animation initially led me to believe, it established a rich world and mythology that had a lot of passion and heart behind it. I was pleased to see a Disney Princess show incorporate the Latina tradition of quinceaneras, something that I would have loved to be a part of. Ending a Disney Princess series with a coronation is a fantastic way to introduce the next generation of princess fans to female empowerment by letting them know that nothing is beyond their reach.
