The Princess Blog

In late 2019, ABC greenlit a new romance drama  produced by  Eddy Kitsis  and  Adam Horowitz  about Disney and fairy tale characters living in an enchanted forest. If that sounds familiar to you, that's because it is the exact formula that was used to create the 2011 ABC drama, Once Upon a Time , and by the same producers, no less. Once Upon a Time's seventh season was treated as a reboot of sorts and was, in many people's opinion, when the Disney-owned fairy tale drama finally jumped the shark . Why, then, would they think it's a good idea to do it all over again? Disney's  behavior in recent years  shows a dearth of creativity, as does  Hollywood in general , so it isn't all that surprising that they would want to recreate a show that already has a fanbase, just as they've been tirelessly recreating their classic movies . However, the question remains that just because they can, does that mean they should? From an objective standpoint, Onc...

Sky Dancer dolls were one of the most popular toys for girls in the '90s. They weren't princesses per se, but the dolls granted the fantasy of becoming a faery princess  and flying over a magical kingdom. Each one had a set of pastel dragonfly-like wings that spun around to launch the doll into the air at the pull of a string. The toys were so popular that they launched an animated series in 1996 under the same name. However, the dolls were more of a concept than a story, which made it difficult to streamline into one succinct set of characters with a direct conflict that they could resolve each week. In contrast, my favorite magical girl show  from that time period, Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders , had a fleshed cast that allowed it to tell a strong story with an intriguing beginning, middle, and end. Though I collected toys from both series, I have much clearer memories of the plot and characters from Jewel Riders than Sky Dancers. Thanks to my friends at the Jewe...

It turns out I wasn't the only one who was excited to learn that the 1997 version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella  was coming to Disney+ last week. Everyone involved in the making of this classic film from over 20 years ago got together for interviews , a live watch party on Twitter , and more. The biggest surprise of this celebration was a brand new music video  from Disney aficionado Todrick Hall  featuring the leading lady herself, Brandy Norwood . It starts out as a fun little singing session between Brandy and Todrick as they serenade each other with songs from the classic musical. Then, something magical happens as Brandy is transformed into a slightly updated version of her princess look from the 1997 film and returns to the ball with Todrick as her prince. The video comes to a "happily ever after" with socially distanced cameos from several of the other cast members in the film. Todrick Hall is no stranger to producing professional-quality Disney fan...

Since I enjoyed  The Scarred Prince  by Erika Everest as much as I did, I was eager to read and review the next book in the Kingdoms of Fable series,  The Golden Ball . This book is a charming novella that combines several fairy tales with the main spotlight on  "The Frog Prince" and "Swan Lake."  It is every bit as compelling as The Scarred Prince,  though it was a different story with a different type of protagonist. I thought it was an interesting choice to combine two fairy tales that both involve transformation sequences . To avoid having a bunch of sentient animals running around, the author only kept the physical transformation from one of these fairy tales. I think that was the right decision, though it would have been fun to see a swan and a frog interact together like Odette and Jean-Bob did in the animated Swan Princess  movies . Another magical twist to the tale is that the main character in The Golden Ball  also happens to be the da...

"Cinderella"  is quite possibly the most well-known fairy tale of all time. Every culture has its own version of the story, and it has had more movie adaptations than any other fairy tale, which says something about its timelessness and popularity. Andrew Lloyd Webber is even working on a new musical of it to open whenever we're allowed to go to the theaters again. Of all the "Cinderella"s out there, there is one project that has been kept so under wraps that it hasn't even had a trailer even though it was supposed to come out today. That project is Sony's Cinderella  starring one of the most adorable pop stars of our time, Camila Cabello . The movie was meant to celebrate diversity and feature the first gender neutral Fairy Godmother along with an array of modern pop songs. Like so many other movies  that were supposed to come out over the past year, its release today never happened . It just might be more likely for a plain yellow pumpkin to become ...