The Princess Blog

It's been a while since I read Beast of Rosemead  by Lucy Tempest . By the time I got around to its sequel, Beauty of Rosemead , I remembered very little except that the first book was very similar to the Disney adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast."  Thankfully,  Beauty of Rosemead  had more than enough exposition to refresh my memory. As the fifth book in the Fairy Tales of Folkshore series and conclusion of Bonibel's story, I found it pretty enjoyable for what it was. I liked that Lucy shortened this story to two books since the Thief of Cahraman trilogy , her gender-swapped retelling of "Aladdin,"  ran a little too long with three books to tell a single story filled with exposition. She continues to shrink her garrulity with  Princess of Midnight , the next book in the series, which is going to be a single standalone book. Beauty of Rosemead  contained some of the same unnecessary exposition as the Thief of Cahraman  and put too much focus on the eastern

It's a good year for princess holiday specials . Shortly after Elena of Avalor  released a Hanukkah episode , PattyCake Productions  premiered their latest Princess Academy short. I've always loved the incredible talent and attention to detail that goes into each one of PattyCake Productions' crowdsourced videos, and this was one of the best ones yet. Not only does it contain two completely original princess songs, but it also had a short storytelling session with gorgeous Disney quality illustrations. I also liked that they kept the story mostly secular since princess fans come from all backgrounds. Even though there was a Christmas tree and a mention of Christmas day in one of the songs, the princesses came together to celebrate an original holiday called the Winter Wishing Solstice and described some traditions that sounded very plausible for a fairytale-inspired religion. The short also featured an enormous cast with many characters that you don't see very often i

Kingdom Hearts 3 , which came out at the beginning of the year, was an enjoyable enough sequel if you could overlook some rushed storylines and underdeveloped characters. The character that got screwed over the most was Kairi, the series' only Princess of Heart that wasn't from a Disney movie. Kairi's development within the Kingdom Hearts series is important because she doesn't have a movie or spin-off to tell her story while Sora, Riku, and Roxas are all playable in various other games. We know that she grew up in Radiant Garden where her grandmother told her stories about the ancient Keyblade War and that she eventually found herself stranded on the Destiny Islands where she met Sora and Riku, but that is where her story ends. Kairi made multiple claims about wanting to help Sora after she got her own keyblade at the end of Kingdom Hearts 2, but we barely ever saw her use it. Even when she did during one of the final battles in Kingdom Hearts 3, she was highly unski

Aya Ling  recently released  The Cursed Prince , the third and final book in her Reversed Retellings series. Of the three fairy tales that she covered, I think the "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tale lends itself to gender-reversal the best without changing the themes of the original story because the roles of the protagonists have are not affected by their physical strength or conventional beauty stereotypes. Till Midnight , the first book in the Reversed Retellings series, changed the plot of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" by requiring the princes to battle trolls at night instead of dance at a ball, which made them more conventionally masculine. In  The Beast and the Beauty , Lady Sybil attempted to use magic, fashion, and makeup to make herself look more presentable to suitors in spite of her monstrous appearance, which are conventionally feminine things that we never saw the Beast do in "Beauty and the Beast." In contrast, the main character in "Sleep

When I first learned that Elena of Avalor was going to do a Hanukkah episode , I was hoping for a two-part special like The Magic Within  that would provide enough time for the first Jewish Disney Princess to assert her individual identity outside of being Jewish. However,  just like the Maccabees , I will make the most of what I've been given.  "Festival of Lights"  came out today as a single episode that focused almost entirely on Jewish characters celebrating Hanukkah, and I do not want to downplay the historical significance of it in any way, shape, or form. I've seen many holiday princess specials , and this is the first one that Disney has released about characters who grew up with the same traditions as me. This is so important because it normalizes Judaism for today's audience of children by showing them that not all fairy tale princesses celebrate Christmas . "Festival of Lights" had a similar story to most Christmas specials except that it

Disney released the new trailer  for their live-action remake of Mulan  today, and it's... fine, I guess. The trailer confirmed many of the rumors that were flying around since the movie began production  such as how Mushu will be replaced with a silent phoenix and Shan Yu would be replaced with a new villain. We hear an instrumental track of "Reflections" throughout the trailer, but none of the actors drop their serious expressions to break into song at any point. That's because this movie is not going to be a musical. Even though the original movie  had only four songs in it, they took place at four of the most memorable points in the story and carried the story in a fun and entertaining manner. Without Mulan singing her heart out about how her reflection doesn't show who she is inside or Shang belting out "I'll Make a Man Out of You" as he trains his troops, the movie loses many of the elements that made it so nostalgic, and without Mushu's

The "Little Mermaid"  nerd in me could not resist reviewing another adaptation of my favorite fairy tale. The Siren Princess  is the second book in The Forgotten Kingdom series by Lichelle Slater . Its prequel,  The Dragon Princess , had very little to do with "Sleeping Beauty," so I wasn't too surprised to find that The Siren Princess  also had very little to do with the fairy tale it was based on. In fact, it had more in common with Peter Pan than it did with "The Little Mermaid" with a love interest who was none other than Captain Hook himself. This romantic version of Captain Hook was polite and heroic unlike Emma Swan's rough-around-the-edges beau from  Once Upon a Time . There were a lot of random name references to Disney's The Little Mermaid ,  J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan , and Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , but the characters' personalities bore no resemblance to the ones they were named after. Like its predecesso