It turns out I wasn't the only one who was excited to learn that the 1997 version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella was coming to Disney+ last week. Everyone involved in the making of this classic film from over 20 years ago got together for interviews, a live watch party on Twitter, and more. The biggest surprise of this celebration was a brand new music video from Disney aficionado Todrick Hall featuring the leading lady herself, Brandy Norwood. It starts out as a fun little singing session between Brandy and Todrick as they serenade each other with songs from the classic musical. Then, something magical happens as Brandy is transformed into a slightly updated version of her princess look from the 1997 film and returns to the ball with Todrick as her prince. The video comes to a "happily ever after" with socially distanced cameos from several of the other cast members in the film.
Todrick Hall is no stranger to producing professional-quality Disney fan videos. I was particularly impressed by his "Spell Block Tango" mash-up video of Disney villains with the musical Chicago back in the day. It's evident that his "Cinderella" video was a labor of love by all the wonderful little touches in the background of his studio. There are countless Broadway posters lining the walls, a classic storybook from Disney's animated 1950 version of the story, and dolls of both Brandy and Whitney Houston in their iconic gowns from the 1997 movie. The costume that Brandy wears when she transforms into Cinderella at the ball is slightly different from the in the original film. It is a darker shade of blue and made of more shimmery material, adding to the magic of the music video. Her crown is also larger, implying that she has evolved from a princess into a full-blown queen. The choreography during this scene is on point and every bit as magical as it was in the original film.
What I enjoyed the most about this video was the look of sheer delight on Brandy and Todrick's faces as they performed these classic songs. You could tell that the video was made as a result of love and enjoyment for the original and not as a forced promotion for Disney (even though Whoopi Goldberg throws one in at the end). It's adorable how amazed Todrick Hall looks when Brandy walks into the room. She also seems to be having the time of her life adding her own soulful spin on iconic songs like "In My Own Little Corner" and "Impossible." The rest of the cast, including Bernadette Peters, Jason Alexander, and Paolo Montalban, who dressed up for his cameo, show their appreciation for the movie by appearing in the "Cinderella" storybook at the end. It was delightful to see that all of these performers still remember their roles in this gorgeous movie.
Todrick Hall isn't the only one who blessed us with new "Cinderella" music last week. On the same day that Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella launched on Disney+, Andrew Lloyd Webber released another song from his Cinderella musical called "I Know I Have a Heart." This song is thematically similar to "Far Too Late." It expands upon Cinderella's regrets toward not telling Prince Sebastian about her feelings for him and running away from the ball. The song emphasizes her heartbreak after he picks a different woman to be his bride with the line "I know I have a heart because you broke it" and deconstructs today's feminist princess trope that encourages girls to suppress their femininity and hide their emotions. This version of Cinderella embodies the modern princess trope of being rebellious and independent and denying her feelings for the prince. "I Know I Have a Heart" enunciates the dangers of this attitude by showing us that no matter how tough a woman may act on the outside, she is just susceptible to pain and heartbreak on the inside.
"Cinderella" is a story that was once considered outdated. With these two musical revivals, it seems to be back in fashion. It makes sense that all of the people falling on hard times due to the current state of the world would want to embrace the fantasy of having their problems magically disappear. Personally, I've never grown tired of this story and am happy to see it make a comeback in any form. I think that the currently airing Disney+ series, WandaVision, is another example of a modern deconstruction of the "Cinderella" trope, but I will expand on that after the season ends.
Yesterday, the Starz network released the series finale of The Spanish Princess , concluding The White Queen trilogy of miniseries that began in 2013. Based on a book series called The Cousins' War by Phillippa Gregory , the trilogy covers the women who stood behind the men in power in the English monarchy from 1464 to the 1530s, preceding the first sovereign queen, Elizabeth, in 1558. The White Queen , The White Princess , and The Spanish Princess grant us a rare opportunity to see what life was like for medieval monarchs. Watching them reminded me of why I prefer the fairy tale versions of royalty. Those stories do not contain the gory deaths, gruesome births, and invasive politics that historical dramatizations like these exemplify. In fact, I had very little interest in watching the second season of The Spanish Princess until I watched some historical videos and learned that the king that Catherine of Aragon was married to was none other than King Henry VIII, who was famo
Experiences targeted toward Millennials are very different from the social gatherings of earlier generations that didn't have social media. Millennials' tastes are usually rooted in nostalgia, resulting in events created for adults that can look quite similar to ones made for children . That's where we get things like The Alice Cocktail Experience , an Alice in Wonderland -themed character dining escape room without the dining or escaping parts. I had a pretty good idea of what I was getting myself into after reading numerous reviews and decided to try it out to celebrate my unbirthday/ blogiversary even though I knew it was overpriced. It also gave me an excuse to wear my old Alice costume from the 2010 live-action Tim Burton remake . This experience is happening in venues all around the world, so if you live close to a big city, there might be one near you. In fact, you may be reading this post just to see if it's worth it. If you decide to go in the hopes of a de
Barbie: Mermaid Power is a direct sequel to two of the four Barbie movies from the new generation, Dolphin Magic and Big City Dreams . For full disclosure, I have not seen Big City Dreams or Barbie and Chelsea: The Lost Birthday , which came out before it. I also haven't seen Dolphin Magic in five years, so my memory of it is patchy. Like most people from my generation, I am a bigger fan of the Barbie movies from the early to mid-2000s , which focused primarily on fairy tales and roleplay. However, since this one had mermaids in it, I had to check it out since I quite enjoyed the Mermaid Tale films . Since the Barbie movies have moved to Netflix, their runtimes have gotten shorter. Both Mermaid Power and Princess Adventure come in at a little over an hour, but Mermaid Power does a lot more to fill that time. The plot is similar to Avatar: The Last Airbender , only with mermaids. Due to a natural phenomenon that occurs once every hundred years, all the mermaids in the sea ga
Time Princess has really done it this time. What have they done? They've created a pirate story that I actually enjoyed. In fact, but it just might be one of the best visual novels in the entire game! The Perfect Storm is similar in plot to Hela's Compass as both are about a young woman who journeys to sea to find a supernatural artifact that is tied to a deceased relative, but The Perfect Storm blew it out of the water literally and figuratively with its worldbuilding, story, characters, and music. Pirates are often presented as the male-oriented alternative to princesses, and while both are occasionally paired together , the genres are rarely combined. One exception is ab obscure Broadway musical called The Pirate Queen that tells the story of a real-life female pirate named Grace O'Malley , but I liked this one better. The Perfect Storm is a pure fantasy that is unapologetically female and removes the less desirable aspects of pirating like the drinking, womanizing,
I've shared my love of Disney's animated Little Mermaid series on here many times in the past. My favorite episode of the show is called "Wish Upon a Starfish." In it, Ariel meets a deaf mermaid named Gabriella, and they go on a quest together to find a magic wishing starfish so Ariel can have legs to dance and Gabriella can have a voice to sing. The episode contained one of the best songs from the series, "Daring to Dance," and has a fascinating backstory behind it. Gabriella was not selected at random to give Ariel another mermaid to be friends with. She was actually based on a two-year-old girl, who was one of the show's biggest fans, named Gabriella Angelina Bommino . When the episode went into production, Gabriella was dying of leukemia. Through the Make a Wish Foundation , the Disney animators designed a mermaid based on Gabriella's image to show her family what she would have looked like if she hadn't passed away so tragically young. T
When Time Princess released Hela's Compass , I expressed my desire for them to do a more complete science fiction story. That wish was granted with the newest visual novel release, Code: Whalefall. This story takes place in a cyberpunk-like world with lots of fun robots and cyborgs and the usual sci-fi theme of speculating what the future of humanity might be. There is a bit of controversy involving arguments between religion and technology, but I don't think it gets expanded upon enough to offend any zealots. The story also has an insane amount of sci-fi-themed clothing that draws inspiration from so many different sources that it's difficult to pinpoint them all. As a result, trying to unlock all the clothing in this story requires an insane amount of resources that will cut through your supply of gold and clothing materials like a chainsaw. The story begins with our protagonist, Maya, waking up on a strange planet and trying to figure out why she's there and how to
Golden Age, the newest visual novel in Time Princess is a celebration of the game's massive collaboration with the Louvre Museum in Paris. It is the second story since Queen Marie to take place in France and covers three different time periods. Even though it involves time travel in Paris, it doesn't have much in common with other time travel stories like Find Me in Paris because the main character spends half the book as one person in one time period and the other half as a different person in another time period, so she doesn't jump around forming contradictions in the timeline. The story has a lot in common with Time Princess itself in that it involves a girl who lives in different people's bodies during a significant turning point in their life. Art is the main focus of this novel, which is why the modern incarnation of the protagonist is an art curator, similar to the main character in Whispers of the Rain . Golden Age begins with an art curator named Anais try
Mulan is a wonderful animated feature that was released by Disney in 1998 . Showcasing a young woman who broke tradition by disguising herself as a male soldier and saved all of China in the process, it is, in my opinion, one of the most empowering films for girls on the market. Yet, with my reputation as a self-proclaimed princess expert, there is one burning question that people are always asking me: "Is Mulan a princess?" She was not born to a king or queen, nor did she marry a prince, so why is her visage so often plastered alongside the other royal heroines ? The short answer is that she's not a princess, but she is a Disney Princess. Why aren't the two mutually exclusive? The answer to that is a bit more complicated. When the Disney Princess line was launched in 2001 , it initially focused on the main six--Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, and Jasmine. However, since Jasmine was the only heroine of color in the line, it expanded shortly therea
Today is the day! Disney's new streaming service, Disney+ , is now available on smart devices everywhere. The highly anticipated launch did not go as smoothly as planned with the servers crashing earlier this morning, probably due to everyone wanting to be the first to access its content. That snag got fixed in a timely manner, but I can't say the same for the password issue. It seems like I need to reset my password almost every time I log on from a new device. Putting all of that aside, the app works exactly as advertised but with somewhat less content than expected. Initially, Disney claimed that they would be releasing their full library of movies, televisions shows, and specials, but it looks like we're going to have to settle for a decent-sized chunk of them instead. There were a few movies and shows added since the preview that launched in the Netherlands a couple months ago, but not quite as much as I was hoping for. I don't consider myself a Disney expert by
I wasn't sure what to expect from the latest visual novel in Time Princess called Moving Mountains. This game releases new stories so often that there isn't always enough time to read up about them to get excited, which was the case here. This story is pretty typical of a visual novel from this game. It focuses on a particular historical period and features a heroine with the ability to make decisions that have the potential to change history. Moving Mountains is the most generic story I've played in this game so far. It didn't introduce me to a new culture since there have already been several stories set in China , most of which were more interesting than this one. Unlike many of my favorites from this game, the story was not rooted in mythology or legend . Instead, it was your average tale about a woman who was ahead of her time and wanted to avoid an arranged marriage and find independence. There was nothing particularly wrong with Moving Mountains story per se, b
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