The Princess Blog

Princess Month  is still going strong with movie anniversaries galore. Did you know that November 18th was National Princess Day ? Creative fans have been getting in on the action  this month as well. To that effect, PattyCake Productions , the team that brought us the Unexpected Musicals and Villains Lair  series, introduced  Princess Academy , their newest web series, last week. Not to be confused with an unproduced Fantasia  short of the same name , Princess Academy is a live-action web series featuring original songs and stories about our favorite Disney Princesses. PattyCake Production had previously impressed me with their gorgeous Little Mermaid  video,  "The Grande Mermaid," so I was excited about their latest endeavor. The premiere episode, "Happily Ever After," was launched on the release date of Wreck-It Ralph 2 , though subscribers to their Patreon page gained early access to it. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting. The main cha...

Today is the day we have been waiting for since last year's D23 Expo , where it was revealed that the original voices of the Disney Princesses would be reunited for the Wreck-It Ralph  sequel, Ralph Breaks the Internet . There are a lot of different things I want to comment on after seeing this movie last night, so my review is going to cover two very different aspects. Since this is a princess blog, the first half of my review will cover the Disney Princess scenes in the film, which is the reason that many of us were excited about seeing it in the first place. If you just want to know about the movie itself, feel free to scroll down to the second half of my review, where I will discuss the plot and my overall enjoyment of it. Ralph Breaks the Internet  foreshadows its big princess reveal by showing two generic video game princess characters in the background of the opening scenes. Is  Wreck-It Ralph  a Disney Princess movie? Technically, yes. Vanellope is reve...

Today, Netflix dropped The Princess Switch , a low-budget modern-day knockoff of Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper . Was it just as cheesy and predictable as it looked in the trailer ? Well, yes. Does that make it completely unwatchable? Surprisingly, no. It's normal to see a lot of fluffy feel-good family movies out around the holidays, so setting the film during Christmastime and releasing it right at the start of the holiday season  may have been just the right touch to prevent it from being a huge disaster . Since we've already seen movies about twins or lookalikes switching places so many times, it's the perfect flick to play if you're busy cleaning or doing your nails or reading articles online and want to have something on in the background.. Trust me, you won't miss anything if you need to run to the microwave and grab your popcorn. No need to pause it. Thanks to the magic of green screen technology, Vaness Hudgens plays both Stacy De Novo, a baker ...

We are right in the middle of Princess Month  with Netflix's release of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power , an updated reimagining of the '80s classic, She-Ra: Princess of Power . The first season of the DreamWorks Animation series  dropped yesterday with 13 magical action-packed episodes. The captivating story drew me in from the very beginning and never wavered once. Even though the cast was altered to be more diverse by giving the characters different shapes, colors, and sizes, the focus was never placed on their diversity and instead on their desires and stories, just as it should be. The daily character guides  that the show's creators unveiled on social media before its release were a big help in keeping track of their names and attributes so that I could place all of my focus on the evolving the story. Adora, the main character in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, is voiced by Aimee Carrero , who is already known for her role as Elena of Avalor . Even ...

Last November, I posted about all of the festivities that took place for various princess movie anniversaries . Did you know that an overwhelming majority of Disney Princess movies were released in November of their corresponding year? That makes it a huge month for celebrating many of our favorite theatrical releases. Sometimes people ask why that is, and I think it's mainly about accessibility. Disney likes to release their biggest blockbusters right before holiday vacations so that parents and kids will be available to go out and see them, guaranteeing a successful run. You might be wondering why these movies don't open in December so they're closer to the bigger holidays , but most blockbusters stay in theaters for at least two months, which means that opening in November will bring in both the Thanksgiving and Christmas vacation crowds. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms , which came out last week, and even though it was somewhat disappointing, Disney's most antici...

When I learned that Disney was making a movie based on "The Nutcracker," I did some research to become more acquainted with the original fairy tale by E.T.A. Hoffman . That research may have gotten in the way my future enjoyment of the movie. Then again, I'm not sure there's much in it for adults to enjoy regardless of how much they know about the original story. That said, I think I may have liked it if I saw it as a kid even though it would not have been one of my favorites because I'm a sucker for stories about girls who journey to fantasy worlds and discover that they're princesses . It has the same sort of whimsical charm as The Wizard of Oz  or Alice in Wonderland , but without the emotion or heart that would have made it a true classic. By far, the movie's greatest strength is its visuals. This film has one of the most beautiful posters I've ever seen, filled with varying shades of pink, lavender, teal, and blue with the characters blosso...

There are only a few short days before  The Nutcracker and the Four Realms  comes to theaters. In anticipation of this event, I read a recent adaptation of the classic fairy tale  called Clara's Soldier   by Brittany Fichter , the author  The Autumn Fairy . Before I begin, though, I'd like to acknowledge that today is Halloween. I hope everyone reading this is planning to dress up as their favorite princess! While we're mimicking princess fashions of old , the Disney Princesses are dressing down to look like us in Ralph Breaks the Internet . Disney is already cashing in on the princesses' new modern styles making screen-accurate replicas Ariel, Aurora, and Pocahontas's modern clothing available to grown-up women on their site as well as figurine and doll sets of their upcoming Millennial looks. Okay, back to Clara's Soldier . I wasn't sure what to expect from Clara's Soldier  because many of the previous books  I've read by Brittany...

It took a lot of patience, but I finally had an opportunity to watch  3QU Media 's animated film, Charming , which still has no known release date in America. The movie was exactly what it looked like from the trailer --a mildly entertaining and predictable Shrek  wannabe with very little replay value. Considering that it was 3QU Media is still struggling with distribution on their first attempt at a film, I doubt we'll be seeing much else from them. The rudimentary animation was a dead giveaway for the studio's lack of experience. The fact that they incorporated watered down versions of Disney Princesses also shows that they didn't have enough faith in their own story. Even though the princesses did draw me in, I was hoping for a more fulfilling experience than this movie was able to provide. To its credit, the story behind Charming  is pretty original. Most fairy tales of old portray princes rescuing princesses and marrying them with the automatic assumption tha...

Of all the books I've read  from Melanie Cellier's Four Kingdoms and Beyond the Four Kingdoms series, I have to say that A Dream of Ebony and White  is by far my favorite. This modern adaptation of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" combines all the best things about the original version of the story and contemporary versions such as Snow White and the Huntsman , Mirror Mirror , and Once Upon a Time . The main character's name is Blanche, with means "white," but her nickname is "Snow," allowing her to feel like an organic addition to Melanie Cellier's massive fairy tale world while still paying tribute to the beloved classic character. She is shy and sweet like the Disney version but gains confidence and inner strength throughout the course of the story like in recent adaptations. What I liked the most about A Dream of Ebony and White  is that it took all of the aspects of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" that we already...

Long before the bumbling fairy godfather Mortimer bestowed troublesome magical gifts on his changes in the Entwined Tales series ,  Gail Carson Levine  graced us with the incompetent fairy godmother Lucinda in her captivating "Cinderella" adaptation, Ella Enchanted . Today, she is writing as much as ever . Last week, she released a prequel to Ella Enchanted called Ogre Enchanted , which explores some of Lucinda's previous magical follies. The story is a very loose reverse adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast"  about a healer named Mistress Evora who doesn't believe in getting married too young. When the troublesome fairy Lucinda overhears her turn down her friend Wormy's marriage proposal, she is cursed to live as an ogre with a time limit of roughly two months to agree to a marriage proposal if she does not wish to remain in this state forever. Evie took some time to grow on me as a protagonist. Unlike Aza from my favorite Gail Carson Levine book,...

Yesterday, my husband and I attended Mickey's Halloween Party at Disneyland to meet up with some friends. It wasn't my first time attending this event, but they had changed a few things since the last time I went. A ticket to Mickey's Halloween Party now grants admission to both Disneyland Park  and Disney's California Adventure  from three hours before the start time of the party until both parks close. The Florida equivalent of the event is Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party , which I've also been to several times. One of the biggest benefits of these events was that they used to cover a half day in the parks including parking for slightly over half the price of a full-day ticket. Thanks to some unfortunate changes Disney has been making , admission is now practically the same as a full-day ticket and no longer includes parking. At least it gets you into both parks. The event itself is just as fun as ever. My husband and I attended dressed up as Fairytale...

Did you know that today is International Day of the Girl ? It's a great day to be a modern princess , and Disney is promoting it in a very big way. When the Disney Princess toy line was bought out by Hasbro in 2016, they began their "Dream Big, Princess" campaign , which focused on girls being active and working toward difficult goals to achieve great accomplishments. The campaign was promoted with several new Disney Princess anthems , leading up to the most recent, "Live Your Story," performed by Auli'i Cravalho. Around this time every year since the campaign started, Disney promotes International Day of the Girl with their princess line by supporting Girl Up , a United Nations organization that started the day. Last year, they celebrated with a photo shoot of girls being active while wearing Disney Princess Halloween costumes, and this year, they did a series of videos of young women from all over the world interviewing women who have accomplished what ...