The Princess Blog

Promoted on Sony's website as "Part One of the thrilling conclusion to the Swan Princess series," The Swan Princess: A FairyTale Is Born  marks the 11th film in the franchise  since The Swan Princess  came out in 1994, meaning it is expected to end with a total of 12 movies. That's still not as many as The Land Before Time , but it's close! With all the experience that Richard Rich and his team have making Swan Princess films, they had plenty of time to hone their skills with animation and plot development, which is why the last few movies have not been as nightmarish as some of the earlier CGI ones . This movie serves as a nice homage to its roots as a partial prequel that ties up any loose ends long-time fans of the series may have had about Queen Uberta's origins and the absence of Odette's mother and Derek's father along with some nostalgic orchestrations of memorable songs from the original film. Do you ever get the feeling that you've jus...

There has been much rumor and speculation about the upcoming prequel to The Swan Princess , and the wait is finally over. The Swan Princess social media team announced this morning that the latest installment will be released in exactly three weeks on May 23rd. That means we don't have much longer to wait to learn about the events leading up to Derek and Odette's birth. There's something a little fishy about that date, and that is it is the same week that Disney will premiere their live-action remake of The Little Mermaid  in theaters. Maybe that's just a coincidence, but honestly, I don't think so. Direct-to-DVD sequels like this have a lot less buildup, and it seems like they are trying to ride off the coattails of another popular princess fandom to get people to watch this while they're waiting. Either that or someone has a lot more faith in a direct-to-DVD sequel outshining what is probably the most highly anticipated Disney remake of all time than they pr...

As a lifelong fan of Disney's adaptation of "The Little Mermaid,"  I was curious when I learned that the upcoming live-action remake  would have a prequel novel. For a fan like me, it seemed like required reading prior to the upcoming movie on May 26th. Would the book be a love letter to fans that expands upon the musical and colorful world that was depicted in the animated series , or would it rewrite history and change everything that Disney has established about their underwater fantasy world? As it turns out, Against the Tide  by J. Elle is very much the latter. Though the author touts herself as a childhood fan of Disney's The Little Mermaid  in the Acknowledgements section at the back of the book, the story proceeds to tear apart everything that Disney has built  over the last 30 years  about the characters, world, and backstory in favor of a more original and darker take. One year before the events of The Little Mermaid , Ariel was a 15-year-old re...