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Children Movies

Disney Project 2014: The Princess and the Frog

Movie: The Princess and the Frog

Release year: 2009

Yay, another good old-fashioned traditional-animation princess movie! I really like this one, even if the music isn’t my favorite. This is a great twist on the classic Grimm tale, “The Frog Prince.” The main character, Tiana, is upgraded from a bratty princess to a hardworking young woman in New Orleans. The prince in this case is the spoiled one, and maybe sorta deserves getting turned into a frog. The villain, Dr. Facilier, is super creepy, but even creepier are all the voodoo masks that represent his “friends on the other side” and end up taking revenge on him for a broken promise.

(Side note: Listen, everyone. Don’t mess around with dark magic. Just don’t do it. It never ends well. No voodoo, no ouija boards, no summoning spirits. It MIGHT just be silly, but it also might not be. Why risk it?)

According to the internet, the animators said they modeled the animation for this film along the lines of Lady and the Tramp, which they said is “so classically Disney.” Maybe that’s why I like it so much!

Even B liked it – at least he watched more of it than usual.

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Being a girl Children Drew Love Movies Sentiment

Disney Project 2014: The Little Mermaid

FINALLY!

Movie: The Little Mermaid

Release year: 1989

My reaction: I probably don’t need to explain myself to any girls born from 1980-1985. This is one of the best. Movies. Ever. I love every frame, every weird facial expression, every little quirk in this movie. It’s so good.

We were in Tahoe last weekend with two of my best girlfriends – fun fact, the three of us went to see a sing-along version of The Little Mermaid for a bachelorette party a couple years ago. So this was actually a pretty special coincidence, that it was the next movie in our line-up.

We ended up watching it twice last weekend: once on Saturday night, and then again on Sunday morning. I loved it each time. I would love it every time. I’m just saying.

To everyone who has little “But why don’t they just? But why doesn’t she? But she should just?” I say HUSH. This is the epitome of princess movies, to me. Ariel’s voice is THE Disney princess voice. It’s all wonderful. I’ve been waiting a long time to get to this one. =D

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Categories
Being a girl Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: Sleeping Beauty

Movie: Sleeping Beauty

Release year: 1959

My reaction: Ahh, Sleeping Beauty. One of my all-time faves. I love the music (and the way it underscores so much of the movie), I love that they return multiple times to the “book” framing device, I love that Maleficent’s evil plan is to keep Prince Philip hostage until he’s old (too old for love?), and then to just let him go. I mean, that is devious. And this is all because she didn’t get invited to the party? I love all the repeat of voices we’ve heard before – Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Barbara Luddy, Bill Thompson, etc.

Fun Sleeping Beauty facts: The character of Aurora has a total of 18 minutes of screen time. The only Disney main character with fewer lines than Aurora is Dumbo, who doesn’t speak at all. Aurora’s mother doesn’t have a name (just “Stefan’s Queen”) although apparently some of the promo materials called her “Queen Leah.” What the what? Also, according to one site I looked at, there is apparently no record of who was her voice, although Wikipedia lists Verna Felton (who also plays Flora). The joke about “Pink or blue” was actually originally the filmmakers’ argument over whether her dress should be pink or blue.

 

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Categories
Children Drew Movies Sentiment

Disney Project 2014: Cinderella

Movie: Cinderella

Release year: 1950

My reaction: This is one of those good, solid movies that we have both seen a million times, so we can spend the whole time showing each other our childhood favorite parts and laughing over the inadvertently funny parts.

Fave moment: Do you remember the end where Lucifer (the cat) is keeping the mice from giving Cinderella the key to her door? And Bruno runs up the stairs and chases Lucifer out the window of the tower? And Lucifer falls like 10 stories to his almost certain death? Just saying. That’s pretty gruesome. (If you don’t remember, watch it here.)

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