The Princess Blog

WandaVision may seem like an unusual topic for a princess blog since it is a Marvel superhero show ( featuring an unusual couple ), but I have been in love with this show for the past few months and would argue that it has more in common with what the Disney Princess brand used to represent  than many recent Disney Princess movies . In fact, Wanda Maximoff acts more like a Disney Princess than the last original princess who graced the screen exclusively for  Disney+ .  Secret Society of Second-Born Royals  was Disney's attempt to combine their princess and superhero genres by introducing a world of superpowered royals. They missed the mark with Sam, who hated being a princess and just wanted to play punk rock music and fight bad guys, kind of like Raya from Raya and the Last Dragon , which also premiered today on Disney+. Wanda is a refreshing return to an older archetype that is almost never featured anymore of a troubled but well-meaning young woman who wants to l...

I was so pleased to be selected as an advance reader for Aya Ling's upcoming fantasy novel, Power Born . I've been a huge fan of Aya Ling ever since reading her Unfinished Fairy Tales series about a time traveler who ends up in the world of "Cinderella"  and falls for the prince.  Power Born  is a spin-off of Aya's  Reversed Retellings series  that takes place in the same world but does not follow the same format of gender-bending popular fairy tales. Instead, it focuses on what she does best by  challenging gender stereotypes in a unique fantasy setting. Similar to the Entwined Tales series  that Aya participated in  about a bumbling fairy godfather who messed up everyone's magical gifts, Power Born  is about two siblings whose magical gifts are accidentally reversed. Chiara, who was supposed to receive the gift of beauty, got the supernatural strength that her brother, Cristian, was supposed to receive instead. What follows is a Jessic...

After an annoying two-month delay , Secret Society of Second-Born Royals  finally dropped on Disney+ today, marking the streaming service's first original princess movie . Secret Society  was teased all the way back in January  with a clip of Andi Mack's Peyton Elizabeth Lee  in a gorgeous ice blue princess gown running for her life on some sort of important mission. That sequence was featured as promised, but the rest of the film had little to offer in terms of princess content. Secret Society  is the first princess/superhero movie since Barbie's  Princess Power  in 2015 and is a far cry from the animated heroine who received her powers from a magic butterfly and went by the alias Super Sparkle. Oddly enough, I found the lack of humor or camp in Secret Society  mildly disappointing. It takes itself too seriously to fall into the "so bad it's good"  category and comes off instead as a high end Disney Channel Original Movie , which makes...

Reports of recent production delays  made me question whether or not the upcoming Disney+ original movie  Secret Society of Second-Born Royals  was far enough along to premiere this summer as initially promised . Two days ago, I received my answer when a long-anticipated trailer for the action-packed princess flick was finally dropped alongside a release date of July 17th. I was excited about this movie not because I have a preference for princesses who kick butt , but instead because of its lead actress, Peyton Elizabeth Lee , who starred in the brilliant Disney Channel sitcom Andi Mack . Peyton is an endearing and talented actress who will take on the role of Sam, the younger sister of the crown princess of Illyria. Another familiar face in the Secret Society is its teacher,  Skylar Astin , the second actor to take on the role of Greg in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend  that currently portrays the character of Max in another musical drama, Zoey's Extraordinary Pla...

Well, the verdict is in. "Black Vortex, Part One"  is out on Disney XD, and we finally have the full story of that clip where Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy  gets trapped in a Disney Princess nightmare. The "Black Vortex" arc is likely inspired by the Netflix series Black Mirror . It portrays the famous Marvel guardians getting trapped in worlds that look familiar at first but have something that's a more malicious just below the surface. Unlike Black Mirror, these are worlds that remind us of different types of classic animated media instead of the world we live in. Each episode is split into two vignettes, so the princess storyline does not cover the entire 20 minutes. The second half of "Black Vortex, Part One" covers the Guardians of the Galaxy  character Drax, who gets trapped in a motion comic that contains pokes fun at several other well-known superheroes including Spider-Man and Superman. The Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout! ca...

Just when I thought I wouldn't have anything else to talk about until the Aladdin  remake  comes out, the magical world of the internet surprised me yet again with two charming new YouTube shorts. Technically, neither of them are about princesses, but both are related to some of the most well-known Disney Princesses . The first is a new music video  from PattyCake Productions , the dream team that brought us "Princess Academy" and "The Grande Mermaid."  The second video is a clip from an upcoming episode of the animated  Guardians of the Galaxy  series on Disney XD called Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout! (not to be confused with the ride at Disneyland of the same name). This episode will premiere this Sunday with the clip below featuring Gamora, the green-skinned Avenger. Just in time for Mothers Day, "Tough Love"  is the second episode of PattyCake Productions' Villains Lair web series. It features three of the most ...