The Princess Blog

After nine seasons, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has finally ended . This show had a lengthy history and a tremendous impact on princess culture . It concluded with a flash forward of an adult Princess Twilight Sparkle taking on the role and physical attributes of her mentor, Princess Celestia. The finale taught us that it's still possible to keep in touch with our friends after we get older and go our separate ways, a message that resonates more with the adult fans of the series than it would for its target audience . That makes sense because someone who started watching the series as a child would be a teenager or an adult by the end of its nine-year run. However, Friendship Is Magic has always had a surprisingly large adult fanbase, which is different from earlier incarnations of The My Little Pony franchise that date back the '80s. What is about this version that attracted such a wide and diverse audience? One reason that 2010 incarnation of My Little Pony stood...

The countdown to the final episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic  has begun. The premiere of the show's ninth season, entitled "The Beginning of the End," aired over the weekend with some pretty big revelations about what to expect for the finale. This is still far from the end of the My Little Pony franchise as the series has been rebooted many times since the '80s. It's just that this particular iteration of it that began in 2010 was by far the most popular and lasted the longest. It's hard to believe it's been going for almost a decade now. The series was incredibly intricate in building it's vast world of Equestria and wove tons of fun new mythology into the franchise. It also placed heavy focus on princesses and princess culture in general. The pony kingdom of Canterlot is run by Princess Celestia. Showrunner Lauren Faust wanted to her make a queen  but got turned down by the studio when they claimed that girls see princesses as good...

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic  recently began its eighth season, making the unfortunate decision to focus more on the plot of the sub-par movie  than the epic new characters that were introduced in the season finale . Even though this colorful series about winged unicorn princesses has been losing some traction over the past few years, the incorporation of unicorns into everyday life has not. Within the past month, I have seen promotions for a unicorn cereal , unicorn ice cream , and even unicorn nail art . There have also been many unicorn-themed makeup kits that popping up over the past few years. Who can forget all the fuss last year over Starbuck's limited edition Unicorn Frappuccino ? When it comes to unicorns, you either get it or you don't. There is no in between. If you're wondering why does this generation seem to leap at the chance to add some sparkly pastel-colored magic to their everyday lives, please read on. For many, it simply comes down to feelin...

Princesses can't be damsels in distress all the time. One day, they will need to rule an entire kingdom. Though many princesses start out sheltered and powerless dreaming of freedom , some of our favorite animated princesses start out early and learn how to lead their companions in the fight against evil. Though these stories do give princesses more freedom than they would probably realistically have, they also open up the range of female-targeted entertainment to different types of girls.  Magical Girl  groups usually have a princess leading them, but it's becoming more common among Disney Princesses as well. This is a tribute to all the princesses who can wear pretty dresses  and still be strong and powerful leaders at the same time. For me, Princess Gwenevere  from Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders was the first one to show me that a princess can be a great leader. Even though she l oves dressing up and flirting , she aggressively refuses to wait aro...

The seventh season finale of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is everything that the movie should have been . Like in the movie, Twilight Sparkle must come to terms with a mistake she made, but this time, it was one that makes perfect sense for her character. After obsessively studying the journal of her idol, Starswirl the Bearded, Twilight finds a way to bring him back from Limbo along with five other legendary ponies who had mysteriously disappeared with him a thousand years ago. In her neurotically endearing eagerness to try a new spell, Twilight wastes no time in bringing back all six legendary ponies without considering the consequences. Instead of the of the happy interaction she was hoping for, Starswirl has a very low opinion of Twilight upon learning that she inadvertently brought back the dangerous Pony of Shadows who he had banished a thousand years earlier along with himself and his friends. "Shadow Play," the two-part season finale, is a cautionary ta...

Today is the day! Everyone's  favorite unicorn princesses  are finally out on the big screen. Based on the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic reboot series that began in 2010, Hasbro has finally released its biggest franchise to theaters. Does it live up to the cartoon? I have to say I was a little concerned when I noticed that the movie's trailer and promos seemed to focus more on star power than plot. Now that I've seen it, I can safely say that my concerns were justified. The movie introduced a ton of new characters voiced by big-name actors with very little time to get to know them. It was a whirlwind of magic, morals, and songs, with very little meaningful or memorable content. Let's start with the positive. The movie looked gorgeous. It brought together everything great about traditional animation and computer animation. Everypony was consistently on model, and the shading was gorgeous. It looked like the colors were going to be eye-piercingly bright bas...

In  my "Animal Princesses" post , I mentioned that Lauren Faust was coerced by Hasbro to change Queen Celestia into Princess Celestia because little girls see queens as evil and princesses as good. Why is that? Surely, there were many benevolent queens throughout history and mythology. Have the  Disney Princesses  taken over the world so much that people believe that princesses ran the monarchy? I think it's more complicated than that. Wicked queens are usually stepmothers who seduce the king to gain power. Most princesses don't have mothers, and the few that do are very loving. What is the root of the problem behind all the queen hate? The Evil Queen from the  ever evolving tale of "Snow White"  strikes fear into children's hearts at the mere mention of her name, if she has one, of course. Since  Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs  was the first animated feature film ever, it had the side effect of setting the groundwork for certain archetypes in a...

One trait that is synonymous among nearly every animated princess is her beautiful voice. I have wanted to do a tribute to some of my favorite princess actresses every since I started this blog. Princesses have inspired me to sing loud and proud throughout the course my life and have also gotten me through some difficult times. Their sweet and powerful voices were full of emotion and helped me relate to them and feel more deeply than I would have ever thought possible. These are some of my favorite rock star voice artists who have each voiced multiple princesses and have had the biggest impact on what a modern princess should sound like. Leading the pack is the legendary Tara Strong  who has voiced an insanely large library of iconic characters, including not one, not two, not three, but four princesses. Currently, she is most famous for her work as Twilight Sparkle, who became a princess in the third season of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic . I'm looking forward to he...

I'm not a huge fan of talking animals. To me, most animal stories come off as silly or out of place. However, there are some stories that do such a great job at building full-fledged animal societies that I can't help but appreciate them. Of course, it helps if they also manage to incorporate some princess mythology. The best show to do this that I've seen is  My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic . Unicorns are the next best thing to  faeries  and  mermaids , and no one does unicorn princesses better than Hasbro Studios . The vast world of Equestria is just as beautiful and magical as any fairy tale princess kingdom. The My Little Pony franchise began in the 1980s as a toy line for girls. I even had a couple of them as a kid, myself. The  My Little Pony 'n Friends  cartoon ran for two seasons in 1986 largely to promote the toy line. It was a bit of a mess, with inconsistent characters and stories. There were a few decent specials, but it wasn't until...