Giselle, Aida, Amneris, and Ignored Princesses

So, Cinderella and my cousin and his wife’s Disney World vacation pictures haunting my facebook (Hi Sean and Christie! Looks like you guys were having a blast. I’m jealous!) have prompted a Disney binge. You’ll recall that the last one brought up songs that I felt were under appreciated, but this one led to something else.

Why isn’t Giselle from Enchanted counted among the “Disney Princesses?” We all know there are female characters excluded for logical reasons. (Alice & Wendy because of their preteen status, Tinkerbell because she’s a fairy, Esmerelda because her movie is terrible etc.) But then there’s Giselle.

Giselle is engaged to a prince, runs around in a ballgown, sings her feelings and well, is just generally everything a Disney Princess should be.

Is it just because she’s live action for most of her time? I’m not sure why Enchanted seems to have been so quickly forgotten? (Or has it been? I’m not really ever around children…)

The decision to keep Giselle out the clique seems inexplicable from an official standpoint and from a fan perspective I really don’t understand it. I’ve never seen her cosplayed, and no one talks about her, despite the fact that Amy Adams did really incredible work with the character and “That’s How You Know,” is an amazing song and an even more amazing number. Plus she gets to choose between Patrick Dempsey and James Marsden and how great is that?

Oh, and Idina Menzel plays her romantic rival, because the universe is awesome.

But there are two other Disney Princesses, that I feel like people should talk about more, and not surprisingly, they come from Broadway.

Mary and I often talk about how we wish more people would talk about Aida and Amneris when discussing Disney Princesses as Aida was in fact managed by Disney Theatrical, and the score was written by Disney sanctioned (and kind of perfect) writing team Sirs Elton John and Tim Rice. And they’re both Princesses, hell, by the end Amneris is the ruler of Egypt and ushers in a golden age, or whatever.

And Aida dies for love, which, is kind of lame, when you think about it, but it’s for Adam Pascal, so I forgive it.

Never Forget

So I guess, I’m feeling like my live action ladies need to get some love from the Disney fandom. Also more people should talk about Aida because it’s really pretty great, for a self indulgent Broadway Pop love story. Which you know I love more than just about anything.

The Other Guy

I think I was about ten when I realized that the third wheel of a love triangle was usually the most interesting character. It came to me in a musical (surprising no one). It was Eponine from Les Mis who did it. Like most little girls who listen to and love musicals, I was initially enchanted by “Castle On A Cloud” the lullaby that Cosette sings to herself as a child.

But after listening to my mom’s Original London Cast Recording over and over and over, I quickly realized how little I cared about Cosette. Yes, her songs were pretty, but beyond that, there just wasn’t a lot to her.

They beat you and refuse to feed you because you’re boring, kid.

Eponine, on the other hand, who is hopelessly in love with the young student Marius, who is in turn in love with Cosette, she got me, and I got her.

I’m pretty sure if I never sing “On My Own,” ever again my parents, siblings and friends would probably be OK with it. I listened to and sang that song so many times between the ages of ten and sixteen. I never performed it seriously, because by the time I got around to serious performance I knew the song wasn’t right for me vocally. But I’ve always loved it, it’s always meant a great deal to me. (As, to be fair, does most of the music from Les Mis.) 

I started thinking about this today because I was going to visit Chrissy in her new apartment and the song from Wicked, “I’m Not That Girl” came on. Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of The West, can hardly be considered an “other guy,” (the entire show is about her), but “I’m Not That Girl,” is a very “other-guy ish” song, where she pushes out the idea of loving Fiyero, the dashing prince who dates her friend, Galinda.

“Don’t wish, don’t start,
Wishing only wounds the heart.
I wasn’t born for the rose and pearl,
There’s a girl I know, he loves her so,
I’m not that girl.”

This is such an amazing verse, and I’ve always loved it. To me it sums up the deires of “the other guy.” (Of course in the end Elphaba gets the guy, and then Galinda sings the verse in reprise.) This verse could have been sung by any “other guy” from a love triangle. And I’ve always loved that other guy.

I’m a sucker for it. Jacob Black in Twilight, I wanted that to happen. On One Tree Hill, where the creator of the show even said, “this entire universe exists so that Lucas and Peyton can be together,” I still wanted Lucas to be with Brooke.

Brooke just wins. All the time.

My favorite love triangle resolution in the history of the world was on Lost, where they solved the Jack/Kate/Sawyer triangle and the Kate/Jack/Juliet triangle by having Sawyer and Juliet end up being soul mates. Yup, because it took literally, the two of them looking at each other on the beach at the end of season 4, for me to say “Oh my God! Sawyer and Juliet belong together! Because Kate and Jack are so boring and mopey and awful, and Sawyer and Juliet are so badass and awesome, and yes make this happen, happy yay squee forever!”

I don’t care what your overall opinion of the Lost finale was. This was possibly the best moment ever.

It took me a while to trace this back to Eponine, but once I did, I was so entirely happy, it gave these other characters I loved an added dimension, a history in my cultural psyche. Any of the characters I talked about could have used her words:

I love him, I love him, I love him
But only on my own…

Eponine also taught me what emo was before emo was even a thing

It breaks the heart, but it’s so much more beautiful and interesting (in fiction. I’ve also played this role in real life and it sucks.) It’s why James Marsden left X-Men for Superman Returns, at least in my head. He was the Cosette in the Cyclops/Jean/Wolverine triangle, and that’s boring…of course everything about Superman Returns was boring, but that’s why he went on to do this again in Enchanted, and it was epicly awesome.

Anyone who did not find this movie completely adorable may be missing a part of their soul.

Jay Gatsby is “the other guy” and the book is named after him, it’s not called, The Boorish Loud Obnoxious Buchanan but The Great Gatsby.

He’s more interesting, more captivating. And, when it comes to musicals, he or she almost always gets the better songs.