We've got a new Beauty and the Beast coming up with a star-studded cast, Tangled's got a new series coming out this spring, and we've got more princesses coming back to the big screen and the Great White Way! There's a lot to cheer on, and we've got some wallpapers to keep that princess pride on your home screen while you wait for your favorite royals' returns.
Our favorite frying pan-wielding couple is back for new hair-raising (and hair-growing) hijinks in the first series based on a Disney Princess film in almost twenty years. Rapunzel is getting back her beautiful blonde locks, and this time they're scissor-proof.
That said, I'm not that excited about the hair: I'm excited about seeing Flynn and Rapunzel figuring out their place in castle life and in each other's lives. Seeing someone who was raised in complete isolation and a wanted and nearly executed criminal learn to live in the castle is great material. We just need to see if Disney Channel is willing to make the most of it.
Are you excited? 'Cause I'm excited. I promised myself I wouldn't get too excited, and then they started slipping us tastes of Emma Watson singing and I couldn't help it. Like many Beauty and the Beast fans, I was so apprehensive about this project because it's ridiculously easy to screw up so many parts of this story and this world, but I think they nailed it, and that's great, because as many issues as people take with this story, I still love Belle and Prince Adam's story.
I love the idea of love being able to see past the exterior and see the truth within. Within Belle's beauty, we see intelligence and compassion. Within Beast's rage, we see fear, confusion, and inexperience.
And I look forward to seeing through the beauty in the new film and seeing something more, something there that wasn't there before.
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Frozen isn't coming to Broadway until next year, but if you live in Denver, good news! The previews start there in August, and with essentially an extra hour to fill, we can look forward to new musical numbers, new icy magic, and even more importantly, we can look forward to more sisterly love and drama.
Frozen is a story about two sisters, even if we spend half the film treating it like a traditional princess love story with Anna, Hans, and Kristoff's love triangle. The hug Anna and Elsa share during the thaw isn't just relief at Elsa not killing Anna with her icy magic, it's heart-wrenching relief and joy for two sisters who were separated for so long being truly reunited.
Mulan is slated for late next year, and while they're still in the process of casting the film, I'm excited anyway. While we'd already been introduced to princesses that took their fate into their own hands (or tried to), Mulan was the first 'princess' who fought for what she wanted on the battlefield. What's more, she was willing to risk everything on and off the battlefield for strategies she didn't know would succeed. She set off an avalanche without knowing if she'd be able to outrun it. She fought the leader of the Hun army without any plan at all! She's awesome, and I can't wait to see her kick butt on the big screen again!
Ariel is my favorite princess (shocking, I know), and I have no qualms telling you the new live-action film in early production for her makes me antsy as all get out. Even diehard fans will tell you that this is gonna be a monumental undertaking. Remember how easy I mentioned it was to mess up things in Beauty and the Beast? The Little Mermaid bumps that difficulty up about three or four magnitudes because half the film has to be believably underwater.
Technical difficulty aside, Ariel is a princess that deserves to be back on the big screen with more time to flesh out her personality and motivation. Ariel is a princess that dreams of another world, a woman with curiosity and passion that she'll follow anywhere. She's a princess who taught me so much — about the power of a woman's voice, about determination and about how much hair in movies is a LIE.
Look at that hair! LOOK AT IT! Even in the darkness of the deep ocean, that hair seems to shine, it bobs and curls in the currents but never gets in her face and never, ever tangles! Even Rapunzel's 70-foot glowing, golden locks would tangle and snag when she left her ivory tower, but Ariel's hair is never unkempt, never unruly, it is perfect. And I don't know what magic the Trident cast on it to get it that perfect, but can I get some of that?
