The Princess Blog

There are only a few short days before  The Nutcracker and the Four Realms  comes to theaters. In anticipation of this event, I read a recent adaptation of the classic fairy tale  called Clara's Soldier   by Brittany Fichter , the author  The Autumn Fairy . Before I begin, though, I'd like to acknowledge that today is Halloween. I hope everyone reading this is planning to dress up as their favorite princess! While we're mimicking princess fashions of old , the Disney Princesses are dressing down to look like us in Ralph Breaks the Internet . Disney is already cashing in on the princesses' new modern styles making screen-accurate replicas Ariel, Aurora, and Pocahontas's modern clothing available to grown-up women on their site as well as figurine and doll sets of their upcoming Millennial looks. Okay, back to Clara's Soldier . I wasn't sure what to expect from Clara's Soldier  because many of the previous books  I've read by Brittany Fichter

It took a lot of patience, but I finally had an opportunity to watch  3QU Media 's animated film, Charming , which still has no known release date in America. The movie was exactly what it looked like from the trailer --a mildly entertaining and predictable Shrek  wannabe with very little replay value. Considering that it was 3QU Media is still struggling with distribution on their first attempt at a film, I doubt we'll be seeing much else from them. The rudimentary animation was a dead giveaway for the studio's lack of experience. The fact that they incorporated watered down versions of Disney Princesses also shows that they didn't have enough faith in their own story. Even though the princesses did draw me in, I was hoping for a more fulfilling experience than this movie was able to provide. To its credit, the story behind Charming  is pretty original. Most fairy tales of old portray princes rescuing princesses and marrying them with the automatic assumption tha

Of all the books I've read  from Melanie Cellier's Four Kingdoms and Beyond the Four Kingdoms series, I have to say that A Dream of Ebony and White  is by far my favorite. This modern adaptation of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" combines all the best things about the original version of the story and contemporary versions such as Snow White and the Huntsman , Mirror Mirror , and Once Upon a Time . The main character's name is Blanche, with means "white," but her nickname is "Snow," allowing her to feel like an organic addition to Melanie Cellier's massive fairy tale world while still paying tribute to the beloved classic character. She is shy and sweet like the Disney version but gains confidence and inner strength throughout the course of the story like in recent adaptations. What I liked the most about A Dream of Ebony and White  is that it took all of the aspects of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" that we already

Long before the bumbling fairy godfather Mortimer bestowed troublesome magical gifts on his changes in the Entwined Tales series ,  Gail Carson Levine  graced us with the incompetent fairy godmother Lucinda in her captivating "Cinderella" adaptation, Ella Enchanted . Today, she is writing as much as ever . Last week, she released a prequel to Ella Enchanted called Ogre Enchanted , which explores some of Lucinda's previous magical follies. The story is a very loose reverse adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast"  about a healer named Mistress Evora who doesn't believe in getting married too young. When the troublesome fairy Lucinda overhears her turn down her friend Wormy's marriage proposal, she is cursed to live as an ogre with a time limit of roughly two months to agree to a marriage proposal if she does not wish to remain in this state forever. Evie took some time to grow on me as a protagonist. Unlike Aza from my favorite Gail Carson Levine book,

Yesterday, my husband and I attended Mickey's Halloween Party at Disneyland to meet up with some friends. It wasn't my first time attending this event, but they had changed a few things since the last time I went. A ticket to Mickey's Halloween Party now grants admission to both Disneyland Park  and Disney's California Adventure  from three hours before the start time of the party until both parks close. The Florida equivalent of the event is Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party , which I've also been to several times. One of the biggest benefits of these events was that they used to cover a half day in the parks including parking for slightly over half the price of a full-day ticket. Thanks to some unfortunate changes Disney has been making , admission is now practically the same as a full-day ticket and no longer includes parking. At least it gets you into both parks. The event itself is just as fun as ever. My husband and I attended dressed up as Fairytale

Did you know that today is International Day of the Girl ? It's a great day to be a modern princess , and Disney is promoting it in a very big way. When the Disney Princess toy line was bought out by Hasbro in 2016, they began their "Dream Big, Princess" campaign , which focused on girls being active and working toward difficult goals to achieve great accomplishments. The campaign was promoted with several new Disney Princess anthems , leading up to the most recent, "Live Your Story," performed by Auli'i Cravalho. Around this time every year since the campaign started, Disney promotes International Day of the Girl with their princess line by supporting Girl Up , a United Nations organization that started the day. Last year, they celebrated with a photo shoot of girls being active while wearing Disney Princess Halloween costumes, and this year, they did a series of videos of young women from all over the world interviewing women who have accomplished what

After falling madly in love with J. M. Stengl's Faraway Castle series , I signed up for her Advance Reader List and had the pleasure of previewing her upcoming novel, The Rose and the Briar . This "Sleeping Beauty" adaptation is the third book from Faraway Castle with a few subtle nods to Ellie and the Prince , the first book in the series. It tells the story of Rosa, a young lady with the ability to control plants who is burdened with the task of caring for Zafira, a sleeping princess with dangerous latent powers. Zafira reminded me of the title character from the 2016 horror movie The Curse of Sleeping Beauty , which also featured a powerful Sleeping Beauty character that turned out to be best left asleep! However, this book had a much better protagonist and a far more interesting story. Rosa's unique abilities were a pleasure to explore. They were reminiscent of Poison Ivy from Batman. The love story in the book was also clever and sweet. There are two version

The upcoming Netflix reboot , She-Ra and the Princesses of Power , made a big appearance at New York Comic Con this week. Along with the previews offered to fans who attended the convention, the series also released several new stills, toys, and posters on their Facebook page  as well as a brand new full-length trailer  that reveals a lot more of the story and characters than the teaser we got a few weeks ago. We now have a comprehensive look at the animation, style, and design of the series. It has a very clean look to it with bold colors and round outlines with no sharp edges. We also got a brief look at She-Ra's flying unicorn , Swift Wind, who she rides gleefully over the forest. Netflix shows don't always get a lot of promotion, so I was very pleased to be able to get a glimpse at this many scenes from the series before its release on November 16th . The trailer begins with clips of Adora hanging out with her best friend, Catra, before she learns that they are both

Creativity is in the air this month with new episodes of our favorite TV shows and  Halloween just around the corner. Princess fans everywhere are getting into the spirit with cosplay and collaborative music videos . PattyCake Productions , known for their fantastic movie and pop song mashups recently teased an upcoming villain music video on their Facebook page . In the meantime, the wait is over for Traci Hines's  latest collaboration with a large group of princess cosplayers recreating the famous trailer scene  from Wreck-It Ralph 2  to the song "When Can I See You Again?" by Owl City from the first Wreck-It Ralph . The song is upbeat and peppy in the spirit of   the scene it is attempting to recreate, making it a terrific choice for the video. The lyrics about having a great time hanging out with someone and then needing to leave blend perfectly with the plot where Vanellope sneaks into the Disney Princesses' secret dressing room and has some fun with them befo