Magical Movies Tour: Frozen 2

I have so much to say about Frozen 2, that I started, stopped and restarted, reworked and rethought what I wanted to say with this essay.

Did I want to talk about this movie is really, super gay? Did I want to talk about Kristoff as a model of positive masculinity? (“My love is not fragile” is incredible) Did I want to talk about Queen Anna? Or Olaf modeling working through an existential crisis for the children? Colonialism? There’s so much! It’s a movie that’s packed full of stuff.

I couldn’t pick so instead here’s what I have to say. Frozen 2 is very good. The animation is cool and great. The story is fantastic. The songs are very good. Idina Menzel, good singer. Jonathan Groff, also good singer. Kristen Bell and Josh Gad, do less singing this time around, but they also good. Sterling K. Brown is around too. He’s great. There’s not really a villain which is good because Hans might be the weakest part of Frozen.

I love the idea of Anna and Elsa as a bridge between the people of Arrendell and the indigneous Northaldra. It’s a nice piece of symmetry. I really love the set piece in the glacier that goes along with my favorite song in the movie, “Show Yourself.” I sob each and everytime I watch it.

It’s really a surprise that I’m having trouble wrapping up, as I am TERRIBLE at endings. And this brings us to the end of the road here. I have watched ALL of the Walt Disney Animation Studios films.

It was a very fun project that I’m glad I did. I learned a lot and found some new favorites. (Bambi, Lady And The Tramp, Treasure Planet!) But now it’s time for something completely different! I considered plowing forward with animation and going into Pixar, and I still might, but I need a break from that kind of world and maybe to feel a little more grown up. And So! Starting next Monday, I will be watching all of the James Bond movies! I think it’s going to be really fun. I’ll also be checking in with more of The Weird Bits That Made Me, and of course on October 30, it’s the exciting return of Fangirl Loves Star Wars with The Mandolorian Season 2. (Ahsoka Lives! #WheresEzra? BABY YODA RETURNS!) After that, The 007 Project will move to Wednesdays. We cool? Great!

Thanks for coming along on the magical movie tour, this was an exciting thing for me. It made me miss Disney less. (I HAVE MY TRIP IN MARCH BOOKED AND I AM SO AFRAID)

The Next Right Thing

If Disney is going to keep throwing out movies where Princesses sing awesome songs and fulfill the hero’s journey, I’m gonna keep watching them. Or watch what I can of them through the tears.

Frozen 2 follows through on the first movies promise in a number of ways. For one thing, Anna and Elsa are front and center, telling their own story, feeling their own feelings, saving each other and everyone around them with the power of their love and bond. Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell are to be commended for the work they’ve done with these characters. The songs are very good. Nothing quite as catchy as “For The First Time In Forever” or “Let It Go,” but “Into The Unknown,” “Show Yourself,” and “The Next Right Thing,” have more narrative power. And hey! Kristoff got a song all to himself. “Lost In The Woods” is delightful but I’d listen to Jonathan Groff sing scales for three minutes so I might be too receptive an audience for that one.

The rest of the movie is very good. It’s visually stunning, and like I said, hero’s journey, for both sisters. I’m into it. There’s also a scene where Elsa sings about embracing your true self and stops the destruction fueled by colonialist lies with a flurry of rainbow glitter.

Which is the gayest shit ever and I’m so happy it exists.

Rankings!

1. Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood
2. Jo Jo Rabbit
3. Frozen 2
4. Spider-Man: Far From Home
5. Avengers: Endgame
6. Rocketman
7. Detective Pikachu
8. Zombieland: Double Tap
9. Godzilla: King Of The Monsters
10. Downton Abbey
11. Joker

Trailers

Onward looks DOPE AS HELL. Seriously. I’m a sucker for “what happens when fantasy societies evolve” as a conceit.

Soul also looks great. I’m down for what’s going on at Pixar these days it seems.

Trolls: World Tour: I am every distracted whenever I see this trailer because I keep trying to figure out if that “Drop Button” is a McElroy. Do we know yet? I believe people thought it was Griffin. (This shows how much I care about this movie. Which is not at all, if there aren’t McElroys.)

There were others but nothing really stuck…

 

Revenge Of Dapper Day 4/29: A Dream Can Be A Dream Come True

I don’t know why I ever even tell myself that I’m going to go to Studios for Extra Magic Hour on Sunday. I never wind up doing it. It just doesn’t happen. This time, I was actually ready, but missed the bus and I decided rather than rush it when the next bus came, I’d take my time, get some breakfast and rope drop at Epcot.

This wound up being a much better choice, in the long run, I think. While waiting at the turnstiles I made some friends (YAY!) with two girls who were bounding as Rey and Kylo Ren, we parted ways quickly, but I was happy to have talked to them. Once we got in to the doors, I reconnected with them and there was again, a bunch of chatting, giggling and explaining of dapper ware. We wound up riding Soarin together, before I was off to Norway, ready to redeem my Frozen 9:30 fast pass.

There wasn’t much of a line, so I decided to wait for it on standby and then ride again with the fast pass. This worked awesomely, and by 10 I’d ridden the ride twice.

I had a bunch of time to kill, since I was waiting to meet up with Michael and Megan, and with our friend Nick, and his brother in law and his girlfriend (We had quite a crew), so I decided to wander around a bit. I stopped for photopass pictures, I met Baymax, I rode Spaceship Earth & Imagination (had to, you know, the bound..) Then I heard from Nick, and we met up with him and his baby daughter Eva. (His son Matty was sick, so Matty and his wife Jen stayed home). We rode Nemo, which was Eva’s first Disney ride. (She’s not even 1, she was such a trooper all day.) We then met up with Nick’s brother in law Mike and Mike’s girlfriend Gabby, headed to Mexico to get La Cava Margaritas, before Mike and Megan finally got to the park.

So, we were supposed to eat at Biergarten at 2, but by the time we’d met up with everyone, it was closer to 3. (Notes on a theme) Luckily, we still got our table. The German buffet was delicious, the music was really fun, and I heartily reccomend this restaurant for larger groups. (We were seven including baby…) especially if you like meat. Pork in particular.

Then we just got to wandering in World Showcase, stopping for drinks in Italy, France and The UK, before the locals decided to split. We took some group pictures in front of Spaceship Earth, and then Mike, Megan and I decided to ride it.

I teased Mike that this felt exceptionally like when we were kids and our dad always took us on Spaceship Earth in the evening before the fireworks. He nodded, “Dad, really loves this ride.” After our trip through time (I should note both times I rode, no breakdowns. HOORAY!) Then we decided to go for Margaritas (TWICE IN ONE DAY! BLESS!) then Mike said he wanted to try for Frozen.

Wait was about a half hour, and we got right on. (3 times, I rode Frozen 3 times this day, if you’re keeping track.) Then we headed to Morocco to check in for our Spice Road Table reservation. We settled at a table, ordered Hummus Fries, (YESSSS) Rasberrie Brie, Fish Croquettes and a pitcher of Sangria, and watched Illuminations. It was lovely. As always.

Next stop was The Beach Club to grab a Minnie Van to Springs, where we had drinks at Enzo’s Hideaway and then Raglan Road before heading back to the room and basically pass out.

Stay tuned for Animal Kingdom, light Studios, and a quick AF trip home!

Cosplay Corner: March Disneybound Challenge Week 4

4 weeks! We’re almost done! Seriously, while I’m probably going to go back to my old trick of closet cosplaying once a week, it will be nice to go back to my old toss a little black dress on and run out the door in the morning ways. It’s just less time consuming.

Anyhoodle! Let’s talk this week in Disneybounding!

March 21st

Theme: Moana Character

Character: Ta Fiti

It snowed.

Again.

So, my planned outfit for the day, (it was Maui and it was pretty great!) which was much springier got jettisoned. I came up with this Ta Fiti look quickly instead. I’m wearing a green sweater over my pink dress, and uh, that’s it. It’s actually a cute look that I kind of intend to repeat.

March 22nd

Theme: Frozen

Character: Anna (Olaf’s Frozen Adventure Version)

Anna might be the character I’ve Disneybounded the most, because I love her and find her clothes adorable. Anyway, this one was sorta lazy, but this blue top was the right shade, and again, it had snowed and I was staying at my mom’s so, my choices were limited.

March 23rd

Theme: Rule Breaker

Character: Anya from Anastasia

I love the movie Anastasia, and so I decided to do my rule breaker as Anya, the lost amnesiac orphan girl who is actually a lost princess. Anyway, I’m wearing jeans, and a brown tee shirt and my big baggy trenchcoat/blazer. I think it works.

March 24th

Theme: Disney Dogs

Character: Jock from Lady And The Tramp

I didn’t post this one because I forgot, but I uh, managed to throw this together. The tee shirt is a Beatles tee (so, Northern English, not Scottish, but I thought it was cute.) with some black and grey in it. I’m also wearing red yoga pants, though you can’t see them here. I don’t have a picture though because my phone was being weird this morning.

March 25th

Theme: Alice in Wonderland

Character: The White Rabbit

I didn’t get off my couch much on Sunday, so I decided to just skip it and for this section of the blog, throwback to my Fall Dapper Day outfit as the White Rabbit. I’m wearing a large white circle skirt, a gold tank top, red belt and sweater, I have my hair up in buns to be ears, and I’m wearing a “pocket watch” necklace. TADA! (Also, that’s Juli as the Chesire Cat!)

March 26th

Theme: Cinderella Characters

Character: Cinderella

I was obviously going to do Cinderella for this one. I decided to lean into the 2014 gown, since I have that blue top with the flower cut outs all over it. I went with brown for the base because of Cinderella’s “servant” outfit having a brown base.

March 27th

Theme: 90’s Style

Character: Julie “The Cat” Gaffney from D2: The Mighty Ducks & D3: The Mighty Ducks 

OK, so I initially ordered a tee shirt that was meant to look like a Duck Jersey with Julie’s number (96) on the back. But it was out of stock and wasn’t going to make it here in time. But here’s the thing: D2 is my favorite movie of all time. I’ve watched it about 10,000 times. And Julie “The Cat” Gaffney is my favorite character in said movie. So this was kind of a no brainer.

Even though she only has like 5 lines. But really except for Charlie Conway none of the kids have like huge roles in that movie.

Anyway, I decided to lean into the “Team USA” aspect of the movie, because Julie was brought in as a ringer when The Ducks headed to the Junior Goodwill games. She then spent most of the tournament on the bench because Goldberg or whatever. BUT she is instrumental in the win of the final game, blocking a shot in the final shootout with Iceland, by hotshot Gunnar Stahl. (FUN FACT! The same actor who played Gunnar came back in D3 to play the goalie of the varsity team the Ducks challenge, Scooter Vanderbilt, who hits on Julie a couple of times there.) But you all know this because you’ve all seen the movie.

So, I’m wearing a blue tank top and skirt and a red cardigan, which, actually are kind of 90’s looking, but mostly just are USA colors. Julie is actually only a Duck for like 2 scenes. (In D3, when they go to prep school, they become The Warriors for the first 2/3s of the movie) Anyway, DUCKS FLY TOGETHER!

Remember Me

You know how sometimes you see something at just the right moment in your life? Like there’s a weird confluence of events that leads to you sitting in a theater with a bottle of Miller Lite crying like baby on a Saturday morning?

That’s kind of what’s happening with me and Coco…

You guys know at this point that stories about art, family and faith are heavy hitters for me, so like, I was primed for Coco to begin with, but there’s also a deeply touching subplot about aging family members, which given some personal stuff these past few years absolutely destroyed me.

From a purely objective standpoint Coco is a brilliant work. It’s tightly scripted, stunningly animated with delightful music and memorable characters. It may be my new favorite Pixar flick, it’s certainly in the top 3.

But regardless of where it sits in canon, it’s a wonderful movie about figuring out your place, and the price of dreams.

Bonus: Olaf’s Frozen Adventure is very cute with some good jokes and some OK songs. It is WAYYYY too long to be placed in front of a feature. Also, I’d imagine if you weren’t just back from Disney World where “That Time Of Year” was played at least once an hour…you might find the song more amusing and less groan inducing.

Rankings:

1. Wonder Woman
2. The Big Sick
3. Coco
4. Battle Of The Sexes
5. Dunkirk
6. Spider-Man: Homecoming
7. Guardians of The Galaxy: Volume 2
8. Thor: Ragnarok
9. Justice League
10. King Arthur: Legend of The Sword
11. The Dark Tower
12. Cars 3
13. Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

Trailers:

Duck Duck Goose: No.

Ferdinand: MMmm… Maybe? Seriously, it looks quite charming, and I can’t get over how good a pick for Ferdinand John Cena is.

 

Top 5 Disney Character Songs

As I get ready for my next trip to Disney World, I’ve been listening to a lot of Disney music and since I spent a large amount of time thinking about my relationship to musical theater this summer, I decided to talk about the way Disney songs fit into the general Musical Theater song categories.

A Character song is a song that basically sets up a character’s thesis statement. Sometimes, an “I Want” song (chronicled here) is a character song, but not all character songs are “I Want” songs. (You know, it’s a squares and rectangles sort of a situation.) So I’m trying to steer clear of “I Wants,” here. Some classic character songs include, “I’m Just A Girl Who Can’t Say No,” “The Worst Pies In London,” ” “Popular,” “Master Of The House,” “I Am What I Am,” and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.”

5. “Why Should I Worry” from Oliver And Company

Oliver features a couple of great character songs, and one of them is going to be in runners up, but “Why Should I Worry,” got the spot because, I mean, it’s a Billy Joel song, sung by a dog, who then plays piano with his tail. The song introduces us to Dodger, a too cool for school mutt, who recruits adorable kitty Oliver into the life of an animal of the streets. Also, he plays the piano with his tail. 

4. “Poor Unfortunate Souls” from The Little Mermaid

I love The Little Mermaid, fiercely, and this song, the introduction of Ursula The Sea Witch is such an integral part of what makes it amazing. Ursula lays out her whole deal on the line in this song, which she still manages to use to trick Ariel into going along with her plan. Also, like every from The Little Mermaid, it is masterfully and brightly performed.

3. “Let It Go” from Frozen

One of my favorite things is when the rest of the world catches on to something that subcultures have known for a long time. And “Let It Go,” gave theater people that when the rest of the world realized that Idina Menzel is amazing, and we should listen to her belt high d’s for always and forever. Also, “Let It Go,” gives Elsa her grand moment, the moment where she realizes that her power, while terrifying is also beautiful, and that she can’t hide from what’s inside of her anymore.

2. “Hakuna Matata” from The Lion King

We get two character’s life statements in this song, both Timon and Pumbaa lay out their “problem free philosophy,” as they teach Simba about life with “no worries,” and hey, this song introduced us to what would later be one of the greatest song and dance teams ever, as the song finishes up with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick harmonizing.

1. “Friend Like Me” from Aladdin

Not only would my brother stop speaking to me if I didn’t choose this one, (His favorite Disney song from his favorite Disney Movie) I happen to agree that it’s the best in this section. Tailor made to it’s performer, as many character songs are, laying out who the character is and relentlessly catchy. Robin Williams gave us a lifetime of amazing performances, but this is probably my favorite.

Runners Up: “Perfect” from Oliver And Company, “Mother Knows Best” from Tangled, “You’re Welcome” from Moana

Things I’m Obsessed With Right Now: Part 2

Hey everyone! So I’m pooped from the weekend, and writing a full post wasn’t likely so here are some of the things I’m obsessed with right now. (No repeats!)

1. Working on my costumes for the various events I have this fall. I have amazingly fun stuff planned for Lead East, New York Comic Con, Halloween and my birthday party! This weekend is going to be about shopping, sewing and getting most of them together!
2. Ben Folds. I listened to Rockin The Suburbs again on a whim, and wow, I always forget how good that album is.
3. Songs For A New World, by Jason Robert Brown. This one comes around every once in a while.
4. Outlander. I’m still having trouble getting into the book, but once I have a chance to really sit and read it I know that I’m going to love it. But the show, Holy Crap! I love this show.
5. Jenna Coleman’s wardrobe on the Doctor Who world tour. She looks amazing in every picture and I want all of her dresses.
6. Babs Tarr’s twitter, tumblr and everything. I can’t believe we have to wait almost two months for new Batgirl.
7. The “Ultimate”  Doctor Who specials that BBC America has been airing. I’ve watched Companion and Time Lord. They’re fun.
8. The TARDIS glasses that my cast gave me as a thank you gift. They’re good eggs.
9. X-23/Angel. LOVE THEM! Every X-Men comic should somehow spotlight this relationship. I would then read more of them.
10. Brian Michael Bendis. Between Guardians and Miles Morales, he’s writing my two favorite non Kamala Marvel titles at the moment.
11. Leaked pictures of the Frozen cast from Once Upon A Time. They look good right? I miss that show.
12. The new Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. billboard, with the formula on it. Sunday night, fangirl friend Jon and I discussed that Avengers was nerds winning “the war” to conquer mainstream pop culture, Guardians was signing the treaty of victory, and I think that billboard is like, when you camp troops out in a country you conquered, maybe?
13. Zero Year. EEEHHH!! I finally got my hands on a copy of Secret City. I’m halfway through it as of this writing and reading it is all I want to be doing.
14. David Tennant’s beard.
15. Harper Row and Stephanie Brown.
16. The In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth 3 reissue box set. I don’t buy vinyl, but I might make an exception because this set is SO GORGEOUS.
17. Being in complete denial that there’s only 1 issue of Translucid left.
18. Will & Grace binge-a-thons on WE or LOGO. It’s always on now, which is weird because about a year ago, I mentioned that I missed Will & Grace, I no longer miss it.
19. Play It Again Dick. If you don’t know what it is, learn what it is. You will be grateful! (OK, so anticipating it…whatever)
20. Sleep. I am obsessed with it. I miss it. I used to sleep A LOT, lately, I feel like I sleep barely at all. I’m at the point where I’m PLANNING my sleep. This is new for me. It’s glorious, but new.

So that’s where I am right now!

“All Men Do It:” The Tao of Cappie & Some Perfect Casting

Yesterday it was announced who was going to be taking on the roles of Anna and Kristoff in the Frozen arc of Once Upon A Time. 

I don’t recognize the actress playing Anna and it wouldn’t matter anyway because Scott Michael Foster is going to be playing Kristoff.

Now, in order to fully understand the enormity of this to me, I have to explain the pure unadulterated perfection that is the character of Cappie from Greek.

Cappie was everything right about a young adult soap character. (I can’t properly call Greek a teen soap because half the characters were over 20 even when the show began.) Cappie was like if you wrapped Pacey Witter, Seth Cohen, and Brooke Davis wrapped up in a Jess Mariano blanket and cooked in a Ferris Buehller oven of sarcasm and satire.

He was pretty great. That’s my point. And frankly, this experience will serve him well, for playing Kristoff, who, as you may all remember was played by the equally experienced Teen Soap brilliant Jonathan Groff. (Jesse St. James was probably the best Glee character.) And who asks Anna what she’ll do if it turns out Hans picks his nose and eats it, because “all men do it.” Cappie would have said that.

Also there was that time that he dressed up as a prince for the ZBZ Fairy Tale Party, right when he and Casey had gotten back together and it was perfect.

Remember that episode? It’s the one where all the ZBZ’s pledged to never reveal that they burned down the IKI house?

God, that show was the best.

 

Pick a Prince, Any Prince

Last week I went to go see Frozen, and while I thoroughly enjoyed it, (I’m actually already planning on being Elsa for Halloween because I have a dress that would work perfectly) it of course got me thinking about Disney and Princesses and Princes and wanting more than anything to get back to Orlando and go to Disney World Again.

Granted, it takes someone saying “Disney” for me to think about how much I want to go back to Disney World…

But add that to a popular Buzzfeed quiz that’s been going around where it chooses not which Disney Princess you are, but which Disney Prince is most suited to you and my decision to start revising my own princess story this week, I’ve been thinking a whole lot about the princes and princess that have haunted and defined so many childhoods. So I’m going through the Disney Princes one by one. Some of these will be cheats because they aren’t technically princes until the end of the movie, or maybe not at all. Also, there are spoilers for all of the older Disney movies, and for Frozen, but not until the very end.

When I took the quiz I got Aladdin, which wasn’t like totally out there, I’ve mentioned before how the earliest princes had little to recommend them personality wise, so to me, that rules out both Snow White and Cinderella’s princes. Prince Charming and The Prince are their names respectively.

Cinderella’s actually looks a lot like Dick Grayson…I may have just had a fangirl epiphany.

They both just don’t have much going on in the personality department. But they are excellent singers and pretty dedicated to finding their lady loves, so there’s that.

But then came Prince Phillip.

I know you…

Unlike his two predecessors, Phillip had an actual personality and stuff to do. He’s willing to rebel against his father to marry the girl he loves instead of his betrothed (turns out, conveniently for him, they’re the same person) then he fights a dragon to save her and granted the whole “kiss while asleep” thing is vaguely date rapey, but hey, it was the only way to break the spell and at least unlike Charming up there, no one thought that Rose/Aurora was dead.

Of course, it would be 50 years before we met the next Prince, and he’d be the prince to beat them all. I’m talking about the one, the only, Prince Eric.

*Sigh*, *Swoon*

I love Eric. It might be because I’ve known him since I was two and my Aunt Mary took me to see The Little Mermaid in the theater. It might be because he has a boat. (I like boats. It’s the prep in me.) It might be because he and Ariel rescue each other. All I know is that I’m crazy about Prince Eric. He’s the freaking best.

Then comes the Beast/Chet

I’ll explain Chet in a minute

OK, according to the interwebs, the Beast’s actual name is Prince Adam, but according to my friends and I after several glasses of wine in college his name is Chet, because doesn’t he look like a Chet? Anyway, a gruff exterior that shelters a heart of gold, I’ve never particularly loved him per se, but I do love Beauty and The Beast, even if it made me weep like a baby because I was terrified of The Beast the first five times I saw it as a child. I’ve learned to love it, especially as a theater geek, because it’s one of the greatest musicals of all time. It was also the first animated film ever nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. It lost to Dances With Wolves, which I doubt anyone knows by heart, because I’ve never met anyone who’s stayed awake through the whole thing.

Then comes my match (apparently) and that’s Aladdin.

Look at that smile!

He’s kind of the man. He shares his limited food with starving children. He wins the heart of Princess Jasmine with his adorable personality. (And some hijinks and a genie.) He’s got ridonkulous abs, and he’s voiced by DJ Tanner’s perfect boyfriend Steve. Honestly, there wasn’t much else a girl from the mid 90’s could want in a guy. Plus he has the distinction of being the only guy on this list who’s movie is named exclusively after him. (Beast gets half credit.)

Now we’re entering some murky teritory since after Jasmine there was a stretch of not really princesses who still get counted in Disney’s count. But they had some stellar dudes after them, so let’s talk about John Smith for a second.

Meh

John Smith barely counts and not just because Pocahontas is a subpar Disney flick. He’s an actual historical dude, who lived and junk. Also he’s voiced by Mel Gibson, who’s hunk cred was already wearing thin in the late 90’s. But, Ally over at Fandom Obsessed casts Chris Hemsworh as him, and I’m inclined to agree so that earns him some points.

But seriously folks, let’s get down to business and talk about General Li Shang, who, is again, not a prince and Mulan is not technically a princess, but they’re pretty great so I want to talk about them anyway.

I’ll make a man out of yooouuuu!

Shang might have the best character song (musical theater term!) of any Disney character ever. You know just about everything you need to know about Shang from “I’ll Make A Man Out of You.” It doesn’t hurt that it’s being delivered by the great Mr. Donny Osmond. And you’ve got to love the Shakespearean style of falling for Mulan while she’s dressed as boy Ping. And the fact that they’re both warriors and enter into their relationship as equals. It’s a pretty cool deal, as far as everything goes.

Speaking of entering a relationship as equals, that’s kind of the theme moving into the new millenium, or in the case of Prince Naveen, Tiana is just his superior in every way, but she puts up with him because he’s pretty cute and makes her lighten up.

He plays a ukulele! It’s adorable.

Whether it’s being transformed into a frog together, or eventually running their restaurant down on the bayou, there’s something very special about the way that Tiana and Naveen fall in love. Also, I kind of love that he’s clearly North African and she’s African America. It’s just a super cool dynamic and so Louisiana.

But when I really think about the “new age” Disney Princes, there’s only one guy who makes the cut. Like Prince Eric before him, there’s Flynn Rider, and then there’s everyone else.

Being voiced by Zachary Levi doesn’t really hurt his case either.

Yes, he’s a theif and a scoundrel. (But as a fangirl raised on Han Solo, I don’t see much of a problem with that.) Yes, his actual name is Eugene Fitzherbert. Yes, he kind of takes major advantage of Rupunzel’s naivete, at least at first. But he comes around and sacrifices himself to save her from Goethel, and then she saves him. And do I need to reiterate the awesome Zachary Levi-ness?

I couldn’t find any pictures of the various princes who come to win Princess Merida’s hand, which frankly, is kind of awesome, but here’s some equally as awesome fan art by Paola F, known on deviant art as Irrel of Merida and Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon, which is actually a brillaint couple.

Cute

And then we have, well, Frozen had two princes (kind of) and I’m going to talk about them both. Let’s start with the first, Prince Hans.

The uniform is a nice touch

What’s kind of cool about Prince Hans, aside from the fact that he’s the bad guy in the most obvious twist ever, is that he’s a deconstruction of a Disney Prince. He’s shallow, dresses the part, Prince Anna falls in love with him at first sight and they get engaged after having the interaction of one evening. Basically, everyone else in the movie thinks this is insane. In fact it’s what sets off the whole plot, because it’s what sends Anna’s sister Queen Elsa over the edge. Also, he’s voiced by Santino Fontana, who also played Prince Topher in the Broadway Cinderella. So he’s not new to this party.

Then of course there’s the real deal in Frozen, and that’s Kristoff, an ice merchant who was raised by trolls and has a pet reindeer named Sven, who is his best friend.

This is the single greatest origin story since Batman

I wasn’t totally sold on Kristoff, and mostly figured he would get by on the inherent charm that Jonathan Groff brings to everything he does and Flynn Rider goodwill. Then he sang “Reindeers are Better Than People,” and it was all over. I was Team Kristoff. Then he reluctantly takes Anna to Elsa and is blown away by Elsa’s powers. He takes Anna to the trolls to try to save her life and eventually battles his way through Elsa’s storm to do it. (Anna winds up saving her self and her sister and it’s fantastic.) In the end, Anna buys him a new sled, they kiss and presumably get married.

So, that’s my tour through the princes of Disney. And if anyone feels like giving me about $1500 so that I can go to Disney World, I’d really super appreciate it!