Introducing: Sophia the First

“Princesses aren’t real!,” my daughter exclaimed. Which is kind of awesome if you think about it. At least she realizes that the idea of a perfectly pink existence is bunk. Apparently she’s not alone in questioning princess lore; my pal Jeanne Sager’s kid recently asked if they were real, too. I forget exactly how we got on the subject, but when I told my daughter there are some real princesses in the world, I could hear her eyeballs dropping out of her skull. ”GUH?!”

“Yeah. Do you want to hear a story about a real princess?,” I asked.

Of course she did. I’m sure she thought it was going to be the most amazing adventure tale about a girl as sexy as Jasmine and as fierce as Mulan, but instead I told her the story of Britain’s two Elizabeth’s all the way down the line to Prince William and Kate Middleton. SNOOZE FEST! (No wonder everybody likes Pippa better. At least she has an exciting name.)

So what about this new Disney princess, Sophia the First? What’s the point, really? Jezebel says, “Since Snow White is 74 years old, Aurora from Sleeping Beauty is 52 and Belle from Beauty And The Beast is a decrepit 20 years old, Disney, the font of all things princessy, has created a new princess, just for little girls.” It makes sense that – since the princess market is so hot – Disney would try to inject it with some young blood to prevent sales from stagnating. But Disney execs say Sophia is more than a marketing gimmick; her story will focus on things like “the importance of getting along with siblings and how to be a kind and generous person.”

What interests me most about the way Sophia is being pitched is that she’s meant to reach 2- to 7-year-olds. But, uh, what princess isn’t meant to reach 2- to 7-year-olds? Do you know any 8- to 12-year-olds that prance around the house in plastic high heels covered in marabou feathers and fake gems? I don’t. Continue reading »

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Disney Princess magazine cover art is amazing!

Disney Princess fans, take note – your favorite ladies of Disney are gracing women’s magazines in these clever fake cover photos.

Part of the fun is seeing the Disney Princesses so perfectly matched with the appropriate magazine, while part of the magic lies in their poses… the remaining fun is found in the cover headlines.

Brilliant! Continue reading »

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Ariel, brought to life with Photoshop.

You’ve always wondered what the Disney princesses would look like if they were human, haven’t you? I know I did as a little girl and, again, as an adult, after falling in love with the movie Enchanted and the adorable Princess Giselle made so fantastically incarnate by Amy Adams.

Well, wonder no more.

Buzzfeed has discovered a Finnish graphic design student, Jirka Vinse Jonatan Väätäinen, who has created stunning portraits of some of our favorite Disney princesses. The student at the Arts University College at Bournemouth, in England, has created the real-life princesses through a technique that combines photo manipulation and retouching, presumably in Photoshop.

The results are astonishing and even lovelier that the cartoon versions that we already know and adore.

Continue reading »

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The voices of the Disney Princesses perform in Anaheim, CA, August 2011.

The 2011 Disney fan expo D23 was held last week at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California and included a ceremony honoring Disney Legends.  According to InsidetheMagic.net, among the honorees were Regis Philbin, Guy Williams, Jack and Bonita Wrather, Ray Watson, and Bo Boyd, “but it was the line-up of voices of Disney Princesses and a tribute to Jim Henson that stole the show, entertaining an audience of fans with familiar songs.”

Jezebel posted footage today of the singers behind Belle, Mulan, Jasmine, Tiana and Ariel belting out their respective Disney classics, and listening made it clear that some of their voices are living happily ever after… while others’ pipes have rusted.  Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the Disney Princesses, then and now: Continue reading »

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Ariel Gets Tattooed

When you think of Disney Princesses you probably think of squeaky clean icons of girly-girl-ness – sweet, innocent, and pure as the driven snow. But that’s not how artist Timothy John Shumate sees them. Instead he envisions them more like sultry seductresses with cleavage, come hither yet coy stares and, most notable of all, tattoos.

Think Ariel adorned with an anchor, Snow White inked with her beloved birds, or Jasmine with a full back tribute to pet tiger Rajah.  Shumate made sure to keep their tattoos thematic and fitting to their storyline. And the results are very un-Disney-esque.

These are not your daughter’s Princesses but rather more racy and risqué versions for the adult set.  And the over 18 set seems to really enjoy these images, so much so that they are getting these tattooed Princesses tattooed on their bodies, the most popular being Ariel.

Check out Jasmine, Ariel and Snow White in all their tattooed glory here and some of the tattooed homage’s here. Continue reading »

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Wouldn't it be nice if the Disney Princesses could let their hair down once in a while?

I know I can’t be the only mother who’s riled up about the radical transformation the Disney Princesses have gone through since most of us were children.  Peggy Orenstein talks a bit about how princesses have gotten sexier over the years in her book Cinderella Ate My Daughter, noting that the later additions to the Princess family like Ariel and Tiana are drawn with wider eyes – and rounder breasts – than Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, who (in their original iterations) conform to the more demure vision of femininity the American public held from 1937 to 1959.  Our Rebecca noted recently that Disney’s Tinker Bell “has undergone a body revamp on par with Barbie’s,” but she’s not the only one.

Snow White and Sleeping Beauty – or Aurora, as she’s more commonly referred to now – were given a massive makeover in 2000, when the Disney Princesses were first pimped as a girl gang.  A decade ago, the Princesses had already begun to look “sexier” than they ever had, but on a recent shopping trip to Target, as I buzzed quickly by the Pepto Bismol-pink aisle where the “girl toys” are sold, I noticed that the ladies have started to look downright Xtina-level drrty, not to mention just plain old weird.  (Those Princess & Me 18-inch dolls, anyone?)

So I thought I’d compile for you some side by side comparisons of Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and even Belle, then and now, so we can all see exactly what’s happening to our females of Disney folklore.  (Botox, blow-outs and boob jobs, oh my!) Continue reading »

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Geena Davis knew there was something wrong with media for kids when she started watching what her daughter was watching. With her two year old on her lap, she would watch G-rated videos and children’s television, getting increasingly disturbed. Where were all the female characters? And what was with the few there were? When she brought this up with people in Hollywood, they all dismissed her concerns. She’d say,  ”Hey, have you ever noticed how few female characters there seem to be in G-rated movies and things for kids?” And they pretty much across the board would say, “No. No, that’s not true anymore. That’s been fixed.”

That’s when Davis realized her personal views weren’t going to change any minds. She wanted to show people it wasn’t about subjective impressions, but real numbers: data that could not be ignored. So she raised some cash and started The Geena Davis Institute For Gender and Media. The institute recently released a major study, and the results aren’t pretty.

The characters, on the other hand… Continue reading »

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