The Princess Blog

I've made some posts in the past about how more often than not, princesses are portrayed as good and queens as evil . Since this is so often the case, does that mean that the storybook princesses we love are not willing to fulfill their royal destiny as the hope for their kingdom's future ? While it's true that princesses often seek freedom from the confines of palace life, they don't necessarily want to run away from their responsibilities either. The problem is that princess stories usually reveal only a brief period from their heroine's life that takes place before the biggest trials and tribulations of reaching full adulthood. I expanded upon this briefly in my "Confessions of a Grown-Up Princess Fan" post, where I discussed how even though I still relate to certain aspects of being a princess, I have developed a sense of cynicism that I did not have the first time I watched their movies. Seeing the world through the eyes of a princess now feels mor...

It's no secret I love mermaid princess stories . Mermaids have the ability to transport us to another world where everything is calm, serene, and the impossible becomes possible. When I heard that Elena of Avalor  was doing a special called Song of the Sirenas , my mermaid heart lit up with joy. I was even more excited to learn that one of my favorite actresses,  Gina Rodriguez  of  Jane the Virgin  fame, was playing the new mermaid princess, Marisa! This was actually not the first time that Gina got her fins wet, as she donned a mermaid tail in the very first episode of Jane the Virgin. Elena's predecessor  Sofia the First had a special about mermaids called The Floating Palace  that featured mermaid princesses who made a few additional guest appearances in future episodes, but Song of the Sirenas  was far from a rehash of The Floating Palace . Elena of Avalor has really found its footing this season , and this latest special did not disapp...

It's barely been over a year since I reviewed "Sisters in Arms," the series premiere of Mysticons , and we've already arrived at the show's short-lived finale. They've been dropping like flies lately, haven't they? Sofia the First just ended last week, and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is on its final run next month along with several other popular shows . Many of my favorite television series in the past have only lasted for two seasons, but they usually take some time in between for the writers to figure out where the story will go next. That, unfortunately, was not the case for Mysticons. It jumped through two seasons containing a total of forty episodes with virtually no downtime in between, leading up to this weekend's series finale "The Age of Dragons." Before I start, I feel obliged to apologize that this review is coming out a bit later than I had hoped as Nickelodeon has always been very inconsistent when it comes to updating shows on  their...

I was recently offered an opportunity to read an advance copy of The Last Dragon Princess  by Cynthia Payne . It's a good time to read about dragon royalty considering that Netflix is releasing their original animated series The Dragon Prince later this week. The Last Dragon Princess  currently has a release date of October 2nd. I think it will have a lot of appeal to people who enjoy dragon lore. It's not exactly written in the format of a fairy tale, but it instead incorporates Greek mythology and a lot of fantasy style world building. I think it would be most enjoyed most by people who liked stories such as  The Handmaid's Tale and Game of Thrones . Though not nearly as explicit, the book incorporates similar themes of conquering kingdoms and using women as a tool to continue important lineages. The Last Dragon Princess  takes place in a world of people known as "hisgeii." Those among them who are "shifters" have the ability to transform into d...

Back around 2012, a friend of mine sent me a press release about how Disney was making a new princess show about a little girl from a poor village who becomes a princess overnight when her mother marries the king. The endearing image of the little girl on the press release instantly caught my attention with her unique reddish-brown curls, playful expression, and gorgeous lavender dress that was dripping with pearl accents. Something about this description and image got me so excited for the series that I got to work right away on making a grown-up sized cosplay of Sofia's elegant gown. The series premiered on Disney Junior with a TV special called Once Upon a Princess  in which Sofia received her legendary Amulet of Avalor and sang about her insecurities for her future life as a princess heroine in the song "Not Ready To Be a Princess."  I loved her instantly. Over the next six years, she took me on a four season-long journey filled with Disney Princesses , fairies , me...

The final trailer  was just released for Disney's latest fairy tale endeavor, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms . This trailer gives audiences more insight to the content of the four realms of snowflakes, flowers, sweets, and the creepy distorted land that was taken over by the movie's villain, Mother Ginger. The trailer also confirmed that the man with the eyepatch from the previous trailer was in fact Clara's godfather, Drosselmeyer. While it still hasn't been confirmed in the dialogue that the soldier accompanying Clara in the trailers is Drosselmeyer's nephew, the Nutcracker turned human, it's fairly obvious at this point. Some people have commented that this movie looks like a remake of Tim Burton's 2010 live-action Alice in Wonderland . Both portray a classic heroine donning the uniform of a soldier to save an enchanted realm from evil. This feminist answer to the "one man's journey" trope brings in a new era that shifts the method in w...