The Princess Blog

Belle  is the first movie I had the pleasure of seeing in theaters since the lockdown, and it was absolutely worth it! This is an anime film that I watched in the original Japanese with English subtitles, so I can't comment on the dub, but the Japanese voices were great. Though it is not exactly a retelling of "Beauty and the Beast,"  there are many references to the animated Disney version in particular, including several shots that looked like they were copied directly from the film. The story is still unique in its own way, however. It feels fresh and modern without forcing strong feminist stereotypes onto its audience. The animation is visually stunning and is accompanied by a beautiful soundtrack. The story incorporates modern technology  in a way that doesn't demean it and shows how we can take advantage of the digital era to turn our own lives into a fairy tale. Like many Magical Girl anime stories, Belle  focuses on an ordinary schoolgirl named Suzu who ge...

Earlier this year, Disney launched the Ultimate Princess Celebration , a year-long event to honor all things princess. In August, the event culminated with World Princess Week , during which they premiered the music video for  "Starting Now,"  the newest Disney Princess anthem. However, the festivities did not end there. To continue the celebration, Disney just released the first doll from their new set of designer princess dolls , the Ultimate Glamorous Collection . Instagram has also been abuzz with upcoming Disney Princess goodies including a sneak peek at Disney Princess: The Concert  and the 30th anniversary of the classic animated Disney version of "Beauty and the Beast."  Let's dive in to explore the latest announcements from the Ultimate Princess Celebration! Princess Jasmine takes the spotlight this month with the first release from the Ultimate Glamorous Collection, the newest set of Disney Princess designer dolls. I was hoping that Disney would relea...

If you haven't heard the news, Disney is celebrating its princesses all year long with the Ultimate Princess Celebration . They took things a step further this week with the first ever World Princess Week, a week-long celebration dripping with princess merchandise, videos, specials, and music. Disney is a master of grand finales, so the festivities conclude today with a 30-minute special called Disney Princess Remixed: An Ultimate Princess Celebration airing on Disney Channel at 7:30PM PT/ET. The special is available to watch right now on both the Disney Now and Disney Plus apps. It consists of four remixed Disney Princess songs performed by teen Disney Channel stars and ends with the premiere of the official music video for the newest Disney Princess anthem, "Starting Now." Even if you're not a fan modernized Disney remakes , there were still plenty of fun princess things released this week to brighten our day. My favorite aspect of the Ultimate Princess Celebrat...

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...

When I attended the D23 Expo last month , one of the things I was most excited about was the chance to play a demo of the new Match 3 cell phone app, Disney Princess Majestic Quest . The ads for this game taunted me on social media for months, dating back to before they had even selected a title. I took an online survey to share my opinion on which of three titles I thought would work best--Disney Princess Gems, Disney Princess Match, or Disney Princess Majestic Quest. It was a long wait before I could finally download the game on my own smart device, and I am pleased to say it was well worth it. The game was advertised to only include Jasmine and Belle at launch, even though there was a big Ariel billboard for it on display at the D23 Expo. When it became available, I was surprised to see that not only was Ariel included in the launch, but she was also featured the game's menu icon. If you're not familiar with Match 3 games, they are a digital craze that was made popula...

There are many ways to find immersive princess experiences at the Disney Parks . The most common way is through meet'n'greets. They let you interact with the princess in real life, allowing you to ask them any question you can think of and learn how they might respond, not to mention the terrific photo ops. Another way is through dark rides, which is the official term for the slower rides at the parks that allow you to travel through movie scenes that are recreated by  animatronics , a revolutionary technology that bring sculptures to live with mechanical movement and programming. All of the dark rides at the Disney Parks use animatronics for their constantly moving characters. Until a few years ago, the only Disney Princess dark ride that could be experienced in this way was Snow White's Scary Adventures . This ride was overseen by Walt Disney himself and is one of the few remaining rides that opened with Disneyland's launch in 1955. Even though it feels a little dat...

One of the most common criticisms that princesses get from adults is that they encourage little girls to be vain. It's a separate issue from  body image  because it's about their delicate features and not their shape. In fairy tales, there is always an emphasis on the princess character's striking beauty. She is fair-skinned and raven-haired with big eyes and glittering jewels. Take for instance the '90s board game  "Pretty Pretty Princess,"  in which the goal is to have all of the jewelry in the game and win the jewel-studded crown in order to become the princess. As we all know, being a princess is not just about jewelry. Newer Disney Princess movies tend to place more emphasis on inner beauty than many of the older ones. Fairest  is a book by Gail Carson Levine  about a girl named Aza who wishes more than anything to be beautiful. It is a twist on the classic "Snow White" tale, changing her defining trait from physical beauty to a be...

Computer animation has a complicated history. When it was first introduced around the mid-90s, it was amazing and innovative. Then, as it slowly started to take over our favorite princess movies and shows, it felt more like an invasion of art. Michael Eisner did not with this when he claimed that traditional animation was no longer relevant in the early 2000s. Today, the medium has advanced so much that it blends seamlessly with live-action movies, blurring the lines between animated and live-action features. Most modern sci-fi movies lie somewhere in the middle. Which medium do we prefer for our princesses? It's undeniable that traditional animation came first, starting with Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs  in 1937. Today, it's rare to see an animated feature that's not made by a computer. Disney is taking advantage of this technology to transform all of their animated princesses into flesh and blood actresses with mixed results. Pictured above are th...

Rumpelstiltskin and Belle, known to fans as "Rumbelle," are by far the most complex couple on Once Upon a Time . Taking great liberties on the classic "Beauty and the Beast" story , their relationship was introduced in the episode "Skin Deep" in the first season. In "Skin Deep," Belle agrees to become a live-in maid for Rumpelstiltskin in exchange for him using his powers as the Dark One to protect her kingdom during a war. During the time that she spends with him, she sees his softer side and nearly saves him from being the Dark One using the power of true love's kiss. However, Rumpel's love for power is equal to his love for Belle, and so he refuses to let her break his curse. Ever since then, they have suffered through a rocky relationship full of lies and deceit all so that he could maintain both his power and his true love. In the midst of the chaos, the two were married in the third season finale, followed up with numerous break-ups...

The Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade , one of the best princess events in existence, was inspired by the 1986 Jim Henson movie, Labyrinth . Though the protagonist Sarah is not a princess, the most iconic scene is when David Bowie 's character brings her to a royal masquerade ball where her dress is transformed into a magnificent ballgown. Throughout the movie, Sarah interacts with puppet characters on her quest to recover her baby brother from the Goblin King's labyrinth. Jim Henson has always shown muppets interacting with humans, but it is not too common to see them in princess stories and even less common for princesses to be portrayed as puppets. Jim Henson made a handful of fairy tale muppet specials with mixed results. The best by far is  Tales from Muppetland: The Frog Prince  from 1971 based on the classic fairy tale with a few fun twists. Melora is a beautiful human princess who is cursed to have her words twisted so her father can't understand her when speaks. ...

In 2007, Disney decided to create a direct-to-DVD animated series to supplement their Disney Princess brand called Disney Princess Enchanted Tales . The series was supposed to include two new half-hour princess stories per volume with original animation, songs, and stories. They initially planned three volumes with stories about  Aurora , Belle , Jasmine , Mulan , and Cinderella . The series immediately got the shaft after the first volume, "Follow Your Dreams" was released, causing other stories that had already released teasers of clips and songs to never reach completion. Why was it such a massive failure? There are a number of factors that play into this. I don't consider Enchanted Tales to be a series of sequels  because it was not marketed as part two of anything, but I also don't exactly consider it an animated series either because it wasn't on TV and does not follow a continuing storyline. Instead, it is a bunch of random one-off specials meant to te...