Disney Concludes World Princess Week with a Star-Studded Concert!

World Princess Week is almost over, and Disney decided to go out in a big way. In honor of the 70th anniversary of Disneyland Park, a star-studded princess concert was held in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle, complete with princess character performers and several of the original Disney Princess voice actresse,s including Jodi Benson, Paige O'Hara, Anika Noni Rose, and Auli'i Cravalho. The event was hosted by the incredibly talented Susan Egan, of Broadway and Hercules fame, and Ginnifer Goodwin, Once Upon a Time's Snow White. I've heard many of these sirens of the stage and screen perform live at several events, and it was nothing short of magical.


For last year's World Princess Week, Disneyland hosted a performance from a brand new girl group introducing the new Disney Princess anthem, "Create Your World." Although the slogan stuck, the anthem itself was never heard again, despite this concert being a perfect opportunity to perform it. Instead, park attendees were treated to a medley of Disney Princess songs performed by the original artists, which is every bit as magical as it sounds. The four songstresses looked strunning in color-coded glittering gowns inspired by their respective princesses, concluding with a tour de force with all the park princesses reacting to their songs. That said, the concert itself was barely longer than ten minutes.

In some ways, this micro-concert was closer to the experience that parents were hoping to give their children when they attended Disney Princess - The Concert a couple of years ago. I received feedback in my review of the show from a mother who was disappointed that the princess character performers were not present for that show. This performance gave the people what they wanted with just about every park princess in attendance to present the performers. While I don't expect a free concert to be as long as a Broadway show, ten minutes seems a bit short to gather so many A-list princess stars in one place only to send them on their way. The video release had a countdown timer set up for its YouTube and Disney+ launch, implying that it was a much bigger special.

Overall, this year's World Princess Week is a reminder of the modern generation's shorter attention spans. The LEGO Disney Princess special was half the length of the previous one, and the grand finale was over in the blink of an eye. Last year's 2C2A Dream group got a multi-episode web series that aired throughout the week. Don't get me wrong. I love that the Disney Princess brand is still alive and well. Yet, it seems to have gone from feature-length masterpieces to short bursts of bite-sized content. Even next year's upcoming Sofia the First: Royal Magic sequel series will feature episodes that are half the length of the original.

World Princess Week may be coming to a close, but its impact won't soon be forgotten. Disney's grand princess concert, featuring iconic voice actresses and stunning performances, was a testament to the enduring magic of the Disney Princess brand. Though the brief concert length left some wanting more, the event's sparkle and shine reminded fans of all ages why these beloved characters continue to captivate audiences worldwide. Here's to hoping future celebrations will build on this momentum, bringing even more Disney Princess magic to fans everywhere.
I have always dreamed of being a writer and creating the next great fairy tale princess heroine. Princesses inspire us to be our best selves. While you're here, feel free to follow my page on Facebook, subscribe to my YouTube channel, and check out my books. I'm also on Instagram and Twitter.

Would you like to contribute to The Princess Blog? Become a patron, and you could pick the topic for my next post!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Find Me in Paris Has Its Last Dance

Image
Only one month after my recent obsession with Find Me in Paris , the time-traveling ballerina princess drama dropped its third and final season on Hulu today. Though somewhat predictable, this season offered a satisfying conclusion to the show's unique concept that combined dance with science fiction and tied up all remaining loose ends from the previous seasons. We finally learned the truth about Lena's birth and why she's always being chased by anyone remotely interested in time travel. Nearly every character got paired off at the end, even if it meant some questionable decisions on behalf of the writers. The season also offered some of the most beautiful dance sequences in the show yet for its key story moments. While I could have done without the repetitive recap sequences, the final episodes made it clear that this was always meant to be the end and gave the cast and crew many happy memories to look back upon. The final season of Find Me in Paris incorporated the ...
Read more

Review: The Spanish Princess/White Queen Trilogy

Image
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 two sovereign queens, Mary and Elizabeth. 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...
Read more

Review: Time Princess - Mirror of Masks

Image
Since I have a tendency to binge things, it's difficult for me to keep track of newer visual novels in Time Princess  when they keep getting split into two separate releases. Even though I completed the Mirror of Masks story, I had a hard time following it. Still, I have received positive feedback on my other Time Princess reviews, so I will cover this one as well. If nothing else, I love the overall vibe that Mirror of Masks gives off. Its 2D cover is a work of art, and it does a great job of creating a metaphor for espionage under the guise of  fake and pretentious  Hollywood glamour. That said, this story bit off more than it could chew by attempting to cover too many genres at once. Leila Federer is a young ingenue who just got her big break in a major motion picture. Nothing on set is what it seems when an actress is mysteriously murdered, and Leila is recruited to join a secret organization investigating the scandal. Suddenly, her ambitious quest for stardom turns i...
Read more

Review: Yes, Your Grace: Snowfall

Image
Four years ago, I shared a review of a cozy strategy game called Yes, Your Grace , in which players take on the role of a king who must wisely distribute resources to protect his family and his kingdom. Now, the game has released a sequel called Yes, Your Grace: Snowfall, in which the stakes have been raised exponentially. Snowfall features similar graphics and gameplay to the original, albeit with some small updates, along with a significantly darker tone. Players begin as King Eryk, the protagonist from the first game, but things quickly take a turn for the worse with his circumstances and health, and Queen Aurelea must step in to protect what's most dear to them. The game begins by allowing players to input over their story decisions from the first Yes, Your Grace. For those of us who played it almost five years ago, it might be hard to remember what those decisions were. This task can be bypassed by asking the advisor to make the best decisions, or just give it your best guess....
Read more

Disney Announces Sofia the First: Royal Magic!

Image
Almost two years ago, Disney announced  that they were working on a spinoff series to Sofia the First . The best place to reveal new updates about this mysterious series would have been the D23 Expo , which took place in Anaheim last weekend. Instead, Disney Jr. quietly posted on Instagram  today that we can expect to see the new series, Sofia the First: Royal Magic  on Disney+ in 2026. This is fantastic news if it's true, but Disney has broken promises on many  other upcoming shows  over the upcoming years, so it's a good idea to take all their announcements with a grain of salt until there is something more substantial like a trailer or release date. Still, it's exciting to have a title and more information about the series. Unlike the original announcement about it being a spinoff like Elena of Avalor , the show will now be a direct sequel that continues Sofia's adventures after graduating from Royal Prep . The official summary is as follows: "Sofia the Firs...
Read more

Review: Disenchanted! The Musical

Image
Disenchanted the Musical is a project that began in 2009 and made its way to off-Broadway theaters in 2012. Not to be confused with  the upcoming Disney+ sequel to  Enchanted , this stage show is a parody  of the Disney Princess brand that is in no way sanctioned by Disney, as proven by the public domain-approved character autographs on the poster. The show contains far too many Disney-specific references to be an interpretative musical about fairy tales in the vein of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods . Disenchanted! is far less sophisticated than Into the Woods with a focus on low-brow humor and an overall lack of plot, which explains why it never could have been a contender for the elite world of Broadway . It must instead settle for off-Broadway and low-budget local productions like the one I streamed over the weekend. The show's childish humor about cartoon princesses might imply that it is meant for very young audiences , but the light swearing and song abou...
Read more

Winx Club and Other Upcoming Princess Releases

Image
The transformation sequences  from the upcoming Winx Club reboot were released a few months ago with a tease of the show coming "this fall." Now, the full trailer is available along with the official release date. We can expect to see this new iteration of the 2004 Italian Magical Girl series streaming on Netflix on October 2nd. To the best of my knowledge, this is the fourth time the show has been rebooted in the last twenty years, and hopefully it will be better than the previous attempts . The trailer reveals footage that is more reminiscent of the original series with some modern updates to the animation and characters, such as the transition from hand-drawn to CGI  and the soft-spoken Flora's Spanish accent in an obvious attempt to add more diversity to the show. A lot of the footage in the new Winx Club trailer had been leaked previously over the years that the reboot was in development, but the official trailer shows the finalized animation and designs, which lo...
Read more

Magical Girl Princesses

Image
It's the premiere week of  Mysticons , so let's talk about magical girls and their impact on princess mythology. The magical girl craze began in Japan as a genre of anime called  "mahou shoujo."  No one knows exactly how it started, but it is believed that the first magical girl appeared in 1966 as  Sally the Witch . Though individual stories vary, all the series in the mahou shoujo genre contain grade school-aged girls who receive sparkly trinkets that allow them to transform into pretty superheroes. They fight bad guys by screaming magical words and releasing different types of spells, usually in a pretty sequence of recycled animation. The concept seems rather silly from an outside perspective, but it definitely sells. Not all magical girls are princesses, but it is a common overlying theme, most likely because the genre was created for the same target audience. The most princessy magical girl anime would probably have to be  Go! Princess Prett...
Read more

One Hundred Princesses for My 100th Post

Image
Today is a major accomplishment for me. I started this blog 100 days ago, and I've managed to write a new post in it every day since then. Some of the topics were easier to come up with than others. I also had to go back and edit some after the fact due to poor proofreading. Speaking of which, I'm really sorry about the disastrous short story from my first Story Saturday post . The whole thing was written on my phone on the way to a Mermaid Art Show event in San Diego, so I was a little distracted. I promise to put more effort into future Story Saturdays, which should be easier now that I will no longer be writing new posts every day. Don't worry, though. I will still keep everyone informed of the latest princess news and review all the new princess movies and specials. Without further ado, in celebration of my 100th post, here is a list of 100 princesses with all of the posts I've made about them (in no particular order). Thank you so much for reading my blog. 1-11:...
Read more

Review: Mermaid Magic

Image
It's been a bit of a wait, but Rainbow SpA  has delivered on their promise of an original animated mermaid show ! From the creators of Winx Club ,  Mermaid Magic  premiered on Netflix a few days ago with ten fun-filled episodes. Although the show didn't have quite as much underwater content as I was hoping for, it's a solid new Magical Girl series with beautiful animation and a female-empowering plot. I was thrilled to dive into the world of Merlinda, Sasha, and Nerissa and learn about their incredible powers on their journey to save Mertropia (originally called Mertropolis) pirates, witches, and toxic waste. The first season ended on a satisfying note with the potential for new adventures in future seasons. Merlinda is the sheltered princess of Mertropia who leaps into action when she overhears a conversation about her father using up his life force to protect the kingdom. If she can travel to the dangerous surface world through a magic portal and recover five Neptune P...
Read more