The Princess Blog

I recently received an ARC of The Thirteenth Princess  by Nina Clare , a retelling of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," one of my favorite fairy tales . Most adaptations of this story present the magical underground world and magnificent nightly balls as a curse  that needs to be broken, a trend that began with Jessica Day George's Princess of the Midnight Ball . Although this is one viable interpretation of the fairy tale, I prefer to think of the enchanting balls as a form of escapism that the princesses use to escape their stressful lives, as in  the Barbie interpretation . This version takes a middle ground. Although there is a curse involved, the princesses are happy for the opportunity to enter the enchanted realm and dance with their beloved princes until they can be together without the confines of a curse. As the title suggests, this book is told from the perspective of the unknown thirteenth princess, who shares the other princesses' experiences in the fairy...

There are nearly as many "Cinderella" retellings as there are stars in the sky , but only a select few explore the hardships this abused peasant girl would have inevitably faced after her rags were turned to riches overnight. Disney attempted to do this with Cinderella II: Dreams Come True  and failed miserably. Just Ella  by Margaret Peterson Haddix portrays a much more engaging depiction of Ella's difficult adjustment to palace life, which spawned two excellent sequels . More recently, Lissa Sloan  took on this harrowing task with Glass and Feathers , a dark take on what happened after "happily ever after" that is heavily rooted in the Brothers Grimm adaptation of the tale. Glass and Feathers  is a darker take on "Cinderella" that isn't suitable for all readers. Although the book contains no spice, there is some body horror reminiscent of the ending of the Brothers Grimm adaptation , in which the stepsisters cut off pieces of their feet to fit...

In the eight years that I've had this blog , I've written about all sorts of magical fairy tale princesses from various types of media , but I rarely focus on real people . That's because the combination of kindness , beauty , and popularity , while still remaining genuine enough to avoid spreading  toxic positivity , is nearly impossible to embody in a real-life role model. That is, however, unless your name is Taylor Alison Swift , a woman who makes her money being pretty and witty. I have been a Swifty since the first time I heard "Teardrops on My Guitar" on the radio around 2008, and I am so proud of everything she has accomplished, particularly with her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl , which I think is one of her best yet. I cannot begin to tell you the number of ways this woman has inspired me in my creative endeavors, relationships, and difficult periods of my life, but that doesn't make me special. She's done the same for millions of people ...

Bye Sweet Carole  is a horror adventure game  that is entirely hand-drawn  in the style of classic Disney movies. It has been in the works for about four years, which seems reasonable, considering how time-consuming it is to draw every frame by hand in the style of Dragon's Lair . The gameplay is inspired by an old Super Nintendo game called Clock Tower , but its plot, themes, and overall vibe resemble a more obscure point-and-click adventure game called Tsioque . Although Bye Sweet Carole is classified as horror, it is not particularly scary and is made to appeal to the Disney Princess crowd, which has a tepid relationship with horror . A better description of the game's genre would be "psychological thriller," which tends to be reserved for movies and books, even though many games fit this genre as well. Bye Sweet Carole tells the story of Lana, who lives in a Gothic-inspired orphanage called Bunny Hall in Victorian England. She spends the majority of the game chas...

It seems like everyone was talking about the new Winx Club reboot  prior to its release. Now that it's finally out, no one seems to care anymore. If you're looking for a place to discuss your favorite fairy princesses (and some awesome non-princess fairies), I've got you covered. Winx Club: The Magic Is Back uses a tongue-in-cheek tagline as a promise that this show will deliver more of the original magic of Winx  than the horrendous live-action Fate: The Winx Saga , which was both a commercial and technical failure. Does it deliver on that promise? For the most part, yes. This reboot starts over from the beginning of Bloom's story, with lots of Easter eggs for fans of the original 2004 Italian cartoon, along with new characters and plot points to keep it feeling fresh. Since Winx Club has been around for over 20 years, it's been rebooted a few times to prevent the characters from aging out of their target age group. Yet, none of the reboots thus far have successfu...

When I decided to play a fan translation  of an old 1997 Sega Saturn RPG called Princess Crown , I was expecting something cute and simple along the lines of Disney Princess Enchanted Journey  or maybe even Rhapsody . What I was not expecting was an unforgiving full-length fighter RPG with story elements like demon possession taking place in a Barbie movie-like world  of fairies, mermaids, and unicorns. This game simply does not care about pinning down a target audience, and I both love and hate it for that at the same time. Developed by Atlus , the game never received an official Western release, and, having played it, I can completely understand why. It suffers from a massive identity crisis that even some of the darker princess games I've played are more straightforward about. Truly, this game would have no market in the West. The fact that it exists at all is amazing. It all begins so innocently. A little girl asks her grandmother to read her a story, and she pulls ...

A Frigid Hope  by Amanda Thompson  is the latest book I've read from the multi-author Hope Ever After series . This book is a pleasant retelling of "The Snow Queen"  that combines elements of the original story with other traditional fairy tale tropes. Like many "Snow Queen" adaptations, it is more faithful to Hans Christian Andersen's original work  than Frozen  was . It also features a traditional fairy tale romance by aging up the protagonists and transforming them into royalty. It was a quick and easy read that felt both nostalgic and refreshing. Princess Bianca has no shortage of suitors, but she only has eyes for one prince, who she doesn't believe would even be willing to offer her his hand. When she learns that her parents convinced Prince Percival to be a contender, she is over the moon. Unfortunately, the very next day, he is selected to be a tribute for the wicked snow queen, Kira. Every man selected for this task must live in her ice palace u...

Disney has had a double feature in the works  for a few years now to conclude the Frozen  saga. What's better than one sequel but two? New plot details  were recently revealed about Frozen 3 , which is set to debut in November 2027, the month of Disney Princess movies . Per a translated Twitter post from Disney China , “In this new chapter, witness the wedding of the century in Arendelle as Queen Anna walks down the aisle and joins Elsa on a new magical journey filled with unknown challenges. And what’s even more exciting: the royal family is about to welcome a mysterious new member!” This sounds like a return to classic princess movies of the past, which have become rarer in the modern Disney canon  and may represent a nostalgic return. However, it also proves that Disney still prefers to milk franchises that are over a decade old rather than create new ones for modern generations. When Frozen  first premiered in 2013, I fell headfirst for all the hype a...

The Glass Gate  by Hanna Sandvig  is a lovely portal fantasy from her Faerie Tale Romance series of fae retellings about characters from the real world who enter gateways to the land of the fae where they live out classic fairy tales. This book is similar to others I've read  from this series and includes a few fun cameos. Hanna's books are unique because they all feature modern protagonists who are relatable to us as readers, allowing us to vicariously live out their fairy tales. This story draws inspiration from "Cinderella,"  though it has many unique elements that stand apart from other retellings. Ella is an aspiring fashion designer who wants a break from her daily grind of helping out her stepfamily. Her mixed Japanese heritage has always made her feel like an outsider in the real world. It seemed like a no-brainer when her bestie Amber took her out for a nighttime getaway to the hidden land of Tír Na nÓg  to party with the fae and finally have a chance t...

It's been a rough decade for faery princess media . With the exception of the upcoming Winx Club reboot , the hyperfeminine fae aesthetic  has all but faded away into a lost relic of the 1980s and early '90s. Hidden in the depths of cinema history is a treasure trove of lost media that has been sealed away in the depths of old memories. Most studios don't have the motive or budget to reintroduce their old franchises to new audiences the way Disney does . One animated fantasy movie from the '80s that made a comeback a decade ago is The Last Unicorn , which premiered in 1982 with its tragic story, moving soundtrack, and beautifully dark imagery that came straight from the pages of Peter S. Beagle 's novel. On the Eastern front, a tonally similar anime movie came out in 1981 that I only learned about recently. Sea Prince and the Fire Child , also known as Legend of Sirius , is a visual and emotional spectacle of epic proportions from a time when creativity was celebrat...

Ice and the Elves  is the latest book in  Anabelle Raven 's Elves & Legends series. Like the other books in this series, it is an extremely loose fairy tale retelling that is essentially an original story. This particular book draws inspiration from "Sleeping Beauty"  by incorporating themes of dream magic. It takes place in the same high fantasy world as the other Elves & Legends books, in which there is a rivalry between humans and elves. This book directly follows the events of Nolan and the Elf , in which an elf and a human fall in love, and explores the fallout of their actions. It is a dark story centered around a war setting, which may not be every fairy tale fan's cup of tea. Ice and the Elves  is a second-chance romance that begins after a lot of important events have already taken place, which requires the reader to catch up through expository dialogue and description. Kendrick is an elf prince seeking revenge for his parents' murder by a king a...

When I first heard there would be a new anime about singing princess  Magical Girls , I was stoked. I love all of those things, so how could combining them  go wrong? I couldn't wait to write about Princession Orchestra . I waited with baited breath for the first episode to air. Then I watched it and realized I had very little to say about it. Now, I am 20 episodes in, and I still don't have a lot to say. The series fulfills its promise on a most basic level. However, the majority of its charm comes from aesthetics and very little else. Despite what the title would lead you to believe, Princession Orchestra pays more homage to Alice in Wonderland  than it does to princess stories. In fact, there are so many Wonderland references peppered throughout the show that I personally think Wonderland Orchestra would have been a more appropriate title. The show takes place in a beautiful fantasy world called Alicepia, which is powered by an app that only girls can access. When the...

The first time I saw preview footage from Bye Sweet Carole , I thought it had been rotoscoped from Disney's Beauty and the Beast . It wasn't, but this perception was a result of the game's distinct look that is reminiscent of hand-drawn films from Disney's Renaissance and Golden Age eras. The nostalgic aesthetic  is a huge selling point for the game. It is difficult to find anything in the modern era  that recreates this style so perfectly. The game's protagonist, Lana, bears features that are similar to the character models for both Belle and Snow White. It is not unheard of for a video game to use hand-drawn animation. Dragon's Lair  and Cuphead are some examples of this. However, it is an exceptionally rare medium for interactive storytelling due to the amount of time it takes to animate every possible player scenario. Few people are willing to put this amount of time and effort into modern games because of how much easier it is to take advantage of new tec...

Abigail Manning  is one of the most prolific fairy tale authors in the market right now, so I jumped at the chance to read an ARC of the latest book from her inspired Once Upon a Rhyme series. Twinkle Twinkle Little Scars  is a clever princess-themed interpretation of my favorite nursery rhyme that adds layers of depth behind the innocent childhood jingle. Set in a world where magic jewels  are a hot-button issue, this original fairy tale features a princess who is not what she seems and a rogue who hides behind numerous identities to prevent the world from seeing his true self. Princess Lyra has a big secret. By day, she's a model royal, following all the procedures her high status requires with grace and dignity. By night, she is the inventor, a mysterious supplier of magical tools powered by enchanted stones that are highly coveted on the black market. Her dealer is Stirling, a boy she met as a child when he snuck into the castle through her window and continued to do...

World Princess Week  is almost over, and Disney decided to go out in a big way. In honor of the 70th anniversary of Disneyland Park , a star-studded princess concert was held in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle, complete with princess character performers  and several of the original Disney Princess voice actresse,s  including Jodi Benson , Paige O'Hara , Anika Noni Rose , and Auli'i Cravalho . The event was hosted by the incredibly talented Susan Egan , of Broadway and Hercules  fame, and Ginnifer Goodwin , Once Upon a Time's Snow White . I've heard many of these sirens of the stage and screen  perform live at several events , and it was nothing short of magical. For last year's World Princess Week, Disneyland hosted a performance from a brand new girl group  introducing the new Disney Princess anthem , "Create Your World." Although the slogan stuck, the anthem itself was never heard again, despite this concert being a perfect opportunity to perform ...