The Princess Blog

It has been a long and fruitful day at the D23 Expo in Anaheim . This weekend was the sixth biennial expo where Disney showcases all of their movies and merchandise that they have planned for the next two years. I skipped the previous expo in 2017, but I decided to stop by on the final day for this one to celebrate the 30th anniversary of my favorite movie, The Little Mermaid . I was fortunate enough to get a seat at this morning's anniversary celebration panel hosted by the voice of Ariel herself, Jodi Benson . The panel kicked off with a group of adorable little girls in Ariel costumes singing "Part of Your World" on faux rocks that lined the beautifully lit coral stage. Jodi Benson made a dramatic entrance in the middle of the song and accompanied the tiny Ariels. Then she interacted with a puppet version of Sebastian before introducing several of the people behind the film, including direct Ron Clements and animator Mark Henn, to share their stories. The pane...

Unicorns of Balinor is a series of children's books by Mary Stanton , who was one of the writers for my favorite cartoon,  Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders . I learned about it after reading a review on the Jewel Riders Archive . The unfinished series consists of eight short chapter books about a girl named Ari who leans she was once a princess from a magical land called Balinor. The story contains elements of Anastasia , Jewel Riders, and Wicked . Though it helps to read them in order, any of the books can easily be enjoyed on its own. Each one tells a complete adventure story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. This is not the only Jewel Riders-inspired book series from the turn of the millennium. Avalon: Web of Magic  by Rachel Roberts  was another series of chapter books about girls from the real world who also learn that unicorns and magic exist in a different realm. Her books incorporated lyrics directly from the original Jewel Riders soundtra...

The Swan Princess  has released yet another sequel  in their never-ending franchise . Fortunately, the last one  was such an unfathomable disaster that the story had nowhere to go but up. I was pleased to find that Kingdom of Music  was an improvement over the last few CGI direct-to-DVD sequels. This is in part thanks to its throwbacks to the original "Swan Lake" inspired story  as well as cultural diversity, which is trending right now in the world of fairy tale princesses , and the coming of age for Alise, Odette and Derek's adopted daughter. Actually, I think they could have generated more interest among the Swan Princess  crowd if they had made her grow into a teenager a bit earlier, since that is the classic age for fairy tale princesses. They decided to go the Sofia the First route instead by making her an ordinary little girl who falls into royalty without the obstacle of romance getting in the way. However, Lucas, the orphan boy Alise met in Pri...

Two years ago today, I thought about how far my professional career had strayed from my true passion now that I was in my 30s . What was I doing to create my own happy ending? Sure, I had written a few books  and had recently gotten married , but I didn't feel like I was living my life to the fullest and celebrating my love of fairy tales and storytelling. That's when I decided to start a blog. The topic for my blog was obvious. I've loved princess stories my entire life, and there are more of them out there now than ever. Starting The Princess Blog  not only gave me an excuse to continue indulging in my fandoms, but it also forced me to write every day. I now have over 300 posts about everything from movies to books to lifestyle guides . It's gone through a few changes over the past couple of years, such as posting every week instead of every day as well as one major cosmetic makeover, but its basic philosophies remain the same as they have always been for the last ...

It's hard to get excited about something as cringe-worthy as Descendants , which premiered on Disney Channel in 2015 as a blatant ripoff of Mattel's Ever After High . It was followed up with an even more cringe-worthy sequel in 2017 that barely had any semblance of a plot. These movies seemed like an easy cash-grab to show off the singing and dancing talents of various Disney Channel teens by turning them into rebellious offspring of classic animated Disney characters  who jump around in leather '90s grunge and brightly colored hair. They focused mainly on the villains' kids, with the cliché message that you shouldn't judge people by first impressions. That's all well and good, but there weren't many royal children to demonstrate that princesses aren't always sugar sweet either. The only token princess to fill this role was Audrey, the daughter of Princess Aurora from Disney's  Sleeping Beauty . Instead of being polite and loving, Audrey comes off...

I have some good news and some bad news about the third season of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power . Remember how I said this would only be six episodes long if it got split from the first half of the second season ? It turns out that it was. That's the bad news. The good news is that this season is everything that season 2 was not. There is no filler or cheap laughs. The season is an action-packed rush of story and character development, even if that means sacrificing screen time for many of the lesser princesses. Every episode is filled with raw emotion and suspense that had me on the edge of my seat until the very end. If you were disappointed with the last set of episodes, this one will restore your faith in the series tenfold. The third season of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power revolves around Hordak's latest scheme to open a portal that would let countless Horde soldiers into Etheria to commence their wicked takeover. However, things don't go quite as plann...