#but special mention to jasmine and aurora as well

[necroticboop]

✦ Festival of Pirates and Princesses at Disneyland Paris [x]

[asexualone]

(pls take the time to read)

Signs I should have known I was aro: Disney edition

I think this topic has been stressed a lot already. But here is my take, anyway.

Of course, romantic love had been, is and will always be one of the main themes in kids' movies. Why, I can never fully understand. I'll explain below how I like other themes more.

Some time ago, I did a post on the kiss/hug scenes in Rapunzel which depicts how much more I value acts of showing love that don't include kissing.

Not only those two. I have a history of hating Disney on-screen smooches. As a kid, I thought, "Well, maybe, I don't like seeing these characters kiss because it's a grownup thing."

Could you blame me? When my parents were in the room and a kissing scene appeared on the screen, they changed the channel. So my toddler brain concluded that the reason I didn't like watching kisses was because I wasn't of age to like it. Or something.

At the time, I had no idea that I was hand-picking my favorite movies by the level of romance they had in. Or lack thereof. And I was a very judgemental kid. Let's go through my original thoughts on some Disney classics.

Snow White — No. Just no. She's a child, fourteen. Marrying an older guy she doesn't even know. After he kisses her corpse. NO.

Cinderella — The age difference is a little better, I guess. So is the age of consent. But they only talked one (1) night and he relied on that slipper to find her instead of asking to meet all women and see for himself. Fairytale logic I guess. I didn't like how she called it love immediately and kissed the prince at least once that same night. Or how they got married immediately.

The Sleeping Beauty — Must I even explain? Aurora didn't even know Philip that much, had only met him once (if you exclude the "dreams"). And yet, he's her true love, the only one who can revive her corpse. Ridiculous. And yes, kissing a comatose body, ew. Also, the arranged marriage trope pisses me off, royalty or not. Aurora was engaged as a newborn baby, come on.

Mulan — Cinematic gold. I didn't know it back then, but the fact that romantic love is such a pushed-aside aspect in this movie gives me life. The songs give me life. Especially when the trio dresses as concubines and "Be a Man" plays in the background. An absolute gem, lmao. The sequel however ruined the story somewhat for me, too much lovey-dovey stuff. I like Mulan more when she's fighting than when she's acting all sappy towards Shang, sorry not sorry.

Peter Pan — Loved it, still do. But I did dislike the mermaids, the image of fangirls who are petty towards other girls. And Pan's brief "relationship" with Tiger Lily was nauseating to me. I couldn't explain it but when Pan blushed at her nose-nuzzling thing, I always pulled a face.

The Princess and the Frog — In my opinion, (remember, always my opinion): Tiana, this hard-working girl who doesn't belong to anyone, was lost to love. Well, not lost. But falling for Naveen in the course of three days? Unrealistic and kinda unnecessary. Sweet, but still. I adored the "relationship" between Ray and Evangeline more. Either way, it's a movie that I enjoyed when love wasn't that prominent on screen.

Aladdin — I love this movie because of the Genie. The relationship between Jasmine and Aladdin is meh. She forgot his face and didn't recognize him until later. Their coming together is a lot like that trope "first guy who treats her right sets the expectations and wins her heart". Usually that's a thing, not only in Disney movies but media in general. The female lead settles for the first guy that treats her right because the bar is that low. A good movie, all in all. Love how Jasmine stands up for herself at least. Not a lot of princesses fight against the objectification of women.

Pocahontas — I used to hate this movie. I didn't sit right with me: the racism in it, the manipulation, the murders. And the romance, yes. Pocahontas fell for the strange man who tickled her curiosity in the span of two days. I also hated how her father just sold her to marry Kocoum like that. I know it's tradition. Heck, that's a tradition that still goes on in my country. Maybe that's why I didn't like seeing it on screen. And Pocahontas doesn't even end up with John Smith. The second movie definitely ruined the story. So yes, she's the first princess who fell for a man in three days, TWICE. Needless to say, only the songs kept me from blacklisting the movie entirely.

The Little Mermaid — I actually loved this movie for some reason. I can't explain why, maybe it was my obsession with mermaids. Yeah, that was probably it. But I was pissed when Ariel exchanged her tail for legs. Not to mention human periods and overall, all the bad in the world, for a man she'd only seen once. As I grew up I realized just how f*cked up that story was: Ariel giving her entire lifestyle, family and identity up for a guy she hadn't even spoken to. I don't know why I loved that movie, alright? Hell I still do a little. The sequel too. Say what you want.

Brave — (I know this is technically Pixar, shut up) Much like the paradox with Ariel, I didn't like this movie. I can't explain it. Maybe because Merida wasn't the typical Disney princess I had been used to seeing. Now though, I ADORE that story. No, it's not because Merida knows archery... Okay, yes maybe a little. I love the aro-arrow word play, alright? Anyway, the way Merida fights against being shipped to a husband like the "tradition" I aforementioned asks her to, has always had my heart, even when I didn't like the movie. The focus on the mother-daughter relationship is special, I love it. Stellar movie.

Tangled — One of my favorite Disney movies, my favorite princess. But her relationship with Eugene.... Well. Again, three days. That's all it takes to fall in love. Classic of Disney. Not only that, but Eugene is literally the first man person Raps has ever since, besides Gothel. The bar is nonexistent for her, she would have fallen for anyone. He lied to her and she still... Well, I won't stress that any longer. Their relationship in the end is sweet, one of the few cases where we are actually shown that they would risk their lives to save each other. Respect that. Mostly, I love her magical hair and Pascal. And the guys of Snuggly Duckling.

Moana — EPIC MOVIE. The story, the culture, the character growth, the plot twist, everything! Loved it at first sight, at second and forever. Even more when I became aware that there's no romance in it. I don't think I need to say more.

Frozen — My opinions on this movie have always been changing, accompanied by mixed feelings. So the relationship between sisters was cute, but Lilo and Stitch made that more realistic. Anna's relationship with Hans, ugh. I think that for a long time I used the fact that he was the antagonist to justify my absolute hate for the way Anna "fell" for him in one evening. Again, Anna sweetheart. This is the first man you've met. The bar is nonexistent for you too. God bless Elsa for forbidding her to marry Hans. And while it's cute to think Elsa as a lesbian, she has aromantic vibes. Sorry not sorry, but she's also a God by the end of Frozen 2. Gods are beyond attraction, I said what I said.

Raya and the Last Dragon — Loved it, still do. Say what you will about "dragon Elsa". Sisu is her own character, and I adore her. And yes, I love the lack of romance in the movie. Make no mistake, I shipped Raya and Namaari from the first moment they smiled at each other. I swear on my name that I paused the movie and screamed, GAYYYY, at the top of my lungs. Luckily, I was home alone. If only Disney directors would do the right fcking thing and give me a queer main couple!! I swear I wouldn't mind the lovey-dovey romance one bit.

Of course, I've left dozens of movies out. This post is already way longer than I wanted it to be. But I think that was enough to make a point.

While I'm not romance-repulsed, seeing animated kisses (and unnecessary relationships) on screen makes me uncomfortable. As a child and as a grownup. It just doesn't sit right with me. Not to mention all these princesses who identify with their princes and specifically their relationships with said princes when they're perfect on their. Wreck it Ralph 2 made them a favor, I think, by making them work together and showing their strengths. Another movie I love.

Friendship just makes an overall better theme to apply to kids shows, my opinion. Family, work, self-discovery, mental health, happiness. These are all better themes to portray in media dedicated for children. Which is, again, my opinion.

And yes, Disney has been getting better. They've fixed the age difference and the age of consent. The female characters no longer depend on the male ones, at least not as often. They understand the assignment, alright. There are still many questionable things about Disney's reputation though, things we all choose to overlook for the sake of the good movies. But who knows? They might change. Hopefully soon we'll also have an obviously queer couple in a movie. Hope dies last.

[cinanamon]

idk if you've done this before, but: tag your mutuals as disney royalty!💞

I’ve done this a while ago for fairytales, so let’s do this 😳 I’ll try to be accurate but I’ll probably include my closer moots first

Snow White — no one fits her for me I’m sorry lol she’s a really. Basic and naive princess

Cinderella — @jenuminous I know it’s like a really basic kind of story, but I think I’ve said it before that it holds that classic, dreamy vibe that reminds me of you? I feel like you’d fit the underdog role, the fairytale romance, how sweet she is, and personally I’d want to be the godmother who pampers you but you know 😔

Ariel — @1ove1ies her curiosity and determination def strikes out to me as you bc you’re constantly learning and working at stuff just bc you want to and it matches her character rather well

Belle — @jaesmintea I think I’ve decided this before too, haven’t I? But belle is so intelligent and strong-willed and kind, and I think that compares to you rather well! I could easily see you fighting to free your father and then how you slowly develop to care for the beast and help him change :(

Aurora — @najaeminloveclub sort of like Cinderella, it’s a v v dreamy type of story in the way of romance and fantasy plot building. Ngl I’m just imagining the “once upon a dream” song, when she wakes up (such a pretty shot), and where the fairies bicker about the dress and idk, it fits you so well to me!

Jasmine — @henderysegirl as I’ve said before, you always seem so self-confident to me and so ofc you’d be the most confident and capable jasmine! She’s such an icon

Mulan — @vampjae I know. You have the best princess of all. But I must say ik a lot of people want to be Mulan but you have to be a really specific kind of person to fit it? And maybe I just don’t know enough about you but lol, I feel like you give off that special strong-willed vibe

Tiana — @sofhyuck I feel like you’re pretty hard-working and realistic, and so I could really see you being done with all of the guy’s shit and trying to actually fix everything haha

Rapunzel — @bitchendery this took some more thought but I settled on Rapunzel (tangled version) bc she’s so!!! optimistic and creative or at least tries to be/outwardly and you give off those vibes (if not a little more mischievous) of wanting to be a positive place for others :)

Merida — @totwentymv this was. Lowkey ah instinct lol like I think I could just see you in that scene where she shoots through the arrow with her own and she’s so smug about it like just that daringness linked itself to you

Anna — @natoyuta you have this kind of youthfulness, hope, and natural joy about you that reminds me of her!

Elsa — @krwiak I was also lowkey thinking jasmine, but I settled on Elsa bc I was really thinking about her confidence (trying really hard to be what you needed to, fleeing, coming back out on top) and like. If you really think about it, her story was really dark lol so ig your dark aes somewhat settled here. It’s hard to imagine you as a Disney Princess I’m sorry

Moana — @nothaechan the scene my mind kept going back to was when she was trying to convince the god (I can’t remember his name) to come with her and he just kept mocking her and how determined and frustrated she got and idk, I feel like you’d be able to have the attitude needed to get him in line and do what you need to!!

Tinkerbell — @renjunsegirl look. I know she’s not technically, but the website I checked for a list of all princesses said she was an honorable mention, SO I had to include her! And ofc ria is her bc they’re both fairies and cute and brimming with emotions of all sorts and trying their best and I just 🥺 perfect comparison. This was the only one I was sure about lol

[the-ink-bottle]

Only Brunettes Can be Smart - a novel by Disney

Being born blonde and having later dyed my hair, I can say from experience that people’s attitudes towards me differ most when they meet me as a blonde vs as a redhead. I can only imagine how skewed their perceptions would be were I a brunette. As a blonde, I was the butt of “dumb blonde” jokes; I was compared to a doll; I was told that people were unsurprised whenever I did something silly, clumsy, or stupid. After dying my hair red, people described me as “fiery,” and other terms of the like. Nobody doubted my strength or intelligence, at least to my face. And through all of this, I couldn’t help but notice that these stereotypes to which I was being compared were largely encouraged by media. We won’t even get started on the difference it made when I got rid of my glasses...that’s a post for another time.

In my writing & media class we have spent the last week or so discussing in-depth the ways that Disney has adopted and adapted fairy tales. We focused, in part, on the 1991 film, Beauty and the Beast.  After class  I approached my professor and announced: “I’m pretty sure Belle is the only disney princess who likes to read. Of course she’S also the first brunette…”

Of course I don’t want to make such a critical statement without providing some evidence, so here is a list of who the people commonly agree to be the “disney princesses,”and the number of times each princess is seen reading a book. I will concede that if we’re being historically accurate, very few of our princesses would have been educated or literate during their time period.

Snow White (1937) -  I’ll allow that in the 1930s, women were still facing the dilemma of rampant misogyny. Women weren’t thought of as intellectuals, no matter their hair color. We never see Snow White crack open a book, as she’s far too busy cleaning up after men and sleeping in the woods.

Cinderella (1950) - Cinderella is blonde, impoverished, and basically enslaved. While she can clean, cook, and sew, we never see her perusing the pages of a novel either.

Aurora (aka “Sleeping Beauty”) (1959) - My professor makes the point that Aurora doesn’t have much of a personality at all, but I’ll let you decide that yourself. No matter the depth of her character, Aurora (another blonde) also spends most of her time sleeping rather than reading.

Ariel (aka “The Little Mermaid”) (1989) - a redheaded mermaid! Ariel is found to be just as fiery and stubborn as my friends said I was after my hair was dyed. While curious and adventuresome, Ariel’s underwater home doesn’t make it easy for book storage.

Belle (aka “Beauty” from “Beauty and the Beast”) (1991) She’s brunette, she’s edgy, she hates gaston! Belle is a special snowflake and hated by the town not because of her looks (she’s quite beautiful) but because of the singular, unforgivable crime she has committed - she can read. I can't count how many books are seen in the film, but in Belle’s opening scene she is shown to have finished one novel and started another.

Princess Jasmine (from “Aladdin”) (1992) Though Jasmine is out first princess of color and has a refreshing temperament, she fails to show any sign of literacy during the course of Aladdin.

Pocahontas (1995) Again, I know, we have to remember that most of the princesses would not have been taught how to read or write. I suppose I can’t really complain about Pocahontas not being shown with any kind of text in hand.

Mulan (1998) She can read! Mulan is seen writing notes on her arm before her meeting with the matchmaker. While she would far rather use her quick wit to save China, Mulan does carry with her a summons for her father: a scroll which she clearly has the ability to read.

Tiana (aka “Princess” from “The Princess and The Frog”) (2009) Tiana is our first black princess, our only princess with multiple jobs, and overall a fantastic character. To add to this, she is seen reading books and magazines in the beginning of the film.

Rapunzel (from “Tangled”) (2010) In Rapunzel’s songologue about her life in the tower, she mentions reading a book or two, and rereading them if she has time to spare. This is the only time we see her reading, and it seems to be one of her many hobbies.

Merida (from “Brave”) (2012) Merida is yet another FIERY redhead who won’t be told what to do. She is well-educated due to her noble status, but she’s too busy firing arrows to read.

Elsa & Anna (“Frozen” 2013) We can assume that Elsa and Anna are literate, being royalty, but reading certainly doesn’t take place in the case of either princess.

Moana (2016): Books don’t seem to exist on Moana’s island, so we can’t fault her for a lack of literacy. 

So now that I’ve finished compiling this list, here are our numbers: 4 out of the 13 have been shown with some form of literacy, yet only one REALLY seems to have a passion for books. Rapunzel, I would argue, only reads out of boredom. I’m not going to talk about the live actions Disney movies or the countless Disney Channel shows, but by looking at the animated films it is clear that smart, colorful, little girls are valued as next to nothing in comparison to the beautiful blonde princesses.

[chikoriita]

Blessing

This was my submission to the Ties That Bind Zine. Thank you again to @destiny-islanders and @novallion for putting this together! 

Sunlight poured through the tall windows of the library. It was the first time since he sealed the Keyhole he returned to Hollow Bastion. He received a summons from the Princesses of Heart while in the gummi ship, and despite Donald’s complaints, Sora accepted the invitation. He owed them a meeting after everything they experienced.  

The Princesses sat around a large table in a corner of the library. Snow White, Cinderella, Alice, Aurora, Belle, and Jasmine. He smiled at the chair sitting empty between Jasmine and Snow White. The others agreed that it was for Kairi despite her absence. Yuffie and Aerith had agreed to keep guard over the Grand Hall and the Keyhole to allow the Princesses a break. Even Beast allowed them their privacy and patrolled the exterior with Leon. Ever since he reunited with Belle, Beast was far more accommodating.

Donald and Goofy sat at a small table near the staircase with a teapot between them. Sora opted to lean against the window, giving the Princesses space. Imagining any time in a stasis chamber gave him anxiety, not to mention each of them were kidnapped from their homes.

The Princesses sat in silence. He wanted to cut through the tension but held himself back. They would speak when they were ready.

“What happens to us now?” Cinderella asks first. “That is, once you stop Ansem, what will happen?”

Sora did not answer immediately. Did he even have an answer? What would happen to the Princesses once they defeated Ansem? What would happen to any of them when they defeated Ansem?

Goofy came to the rescue. “Leon said that once the worlds are restored, you’ll return to your homes. Everyone should.”

This did not ease the tension on any of their faces. Alice and Snow, the youngest Princesses, looked exhausted. Sora knew that protecting the realm of light was no easy task. Yet the Princesses wholeheartedly agreed to protect the castle from the leaking darkness.

Belle cleared her throat. “I appreciate that. However, I am more concerned about our memories. Will we retain our memories of this world and the fact that there are others out there?”

“There goes the world order,” Donald squawked. Goofy crossed his arms and pondered his statement as did Sora. He doubted that whoever set the world order had the foresight to see a villain kidnapping young ladies throughout the worlds for their hearts. It was insane.

Sora asked, "Do you want to remember all this? I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to forget.” Five out of seven lost their homes along with their kidnapping. Only Jasmine and Alice’s worlds were spared.

“It is odd, but I don’t want to lose this memory,” Aurora said, twining a piece of her golden hair around her finger nervously. “If my heart is strong enough to protect my world from Maleficent’s evil, then I want to be ready.”

Alice stood up angrily. "I am tired of being confused and scared! Confusion landed me in the Queen’s Court and on trial. I don’t want to be scared anymore!” She stamped her foot. The others voiced their agreement.

He empathized with that thought. The Princesses were not weak or timid by any means. He remembered Alice’s trial well. But after this harrowing experience, how could they not change? All of them were around the same age as him more or less, and he was terrified when he didn’t have the Keyblade.

“If nothing else, I don’t want to forget you.” Jasmine’s words were nothing more than a whisper, but the murmur of agreement from the others hit Sora like a shout. He was dumbfounded.

“I am not that special,” Sora said quietly facing the window once more with a blush. If he didn’t face them, he might not have to acknowledge what he heard.

Jasmine did not allow him to wave away her words. “If not for you three, we would not be here! Our hearts were used to create that awful weapon. What kind of friends would we be if we chose to forget you?” Jasmine cried, dropping her head into her hands.

Both Belle and Alice patted her on the shoulder. “You might have sacrificed your heart for Kairi’s, but you saved ours too. That connects our hearts to yours as well,” Belle said to Sora.

What could he say to these brave women that would suffice? Thank you was not nearly enough. Not only did they believe in him, but the Princesses also recognized him as a friend.

The Princesses stood together and smiled at him. Snow White stepped a little closer and cleared her throat. “We did summon you for a reason. We wanted to give you a gift to help you along with our blessings. Will you accept it?” He could only nod as he tried to keep a tear from escaping. He closed his eyes tightly against a bright light.

“We know you have the power inside of you. All we did was enhance it a little,” Cinderella giggled. “It is a surefire way to teach that Ansem a lesson.” She winked at her little pun.

All six of them looked at him with hope in their eyes. What if he failed their trust? What if he failed, and all the worlds fell to darkness? The tear he had tried so hard to hold in fell at the thought.

“Aw, Sora, don’t cry,” He heard Donald tease. “The Princesses won’t like that.” His words were the magic cue the Princesses needed to pull Sora, Donald, and Goofy into a group hug. Donald’s indignant squawking eased all of their tension, and they all shared a laugh. He knew that the Princesses of Heart contained hearts of pure light, but no one told him that their hugs were also light incarnate. Their embrace filled his own worried heart with hope. Sora knew the battle ahead would be harder than anything he faced yet. Still, as long as he knew he had the support of his friends in his heart, there was no way he would fail.

[pedrobrvs]

Wreck-it Ralph 2 Analysis

  With almost all the Disney princesses (that belong in the "Disney Princess" line) appearing in Disney's newest movie, many people went crazy, many more went "oh. that's neat i guess", but it caused some discussion. The changes done to all the characters to fit with the Wreck-it Ralph universe were disappointing to those who were looking forward to see a more faithful recreation (like me), and some people even brought up the argument of "Same face syndrome" again. 

 Since I absolutely adore Disney animation (It being the job of my dreams and all), I'm making this post in hopes of shining light on the resemblances and differences and arguing that maybe these adaptions are more respectful to the originals than people give them credit for. 

For that I'm comparing most of them with the originals, for obvious reasons, and when applicable I'll also compare with the gaming franchise Kingdom Hearts, since rather than adapting the models to fit an uniform style, Square-Enix decided to recreate them as closely as they could. Head under the cut to see all of them!

SNOW WHITE (1937)

 Before I explain the similarities, I want to point out something about the first 3 princesses. Snow White, Cinderella and to a lesser extent Aurora were all animated with heavy help of a method called rotoscoping (where you draw on top of live-action footage) and consequentially have more realistic proportions than almost every other princess.  Sleeping Beauty would be one of the first movies where they'd start experimenting more their human characters, but it is still restrained. 

 Anyway. Snow White has chubby cheeks, very round eyes with softer corners and 3 larger eyelashes that are very characteristic of her.  Her lower lip is large and round, and her eyebrows are simple curves. She has a button nose. She is animated as a comedic, exaggerated version of her original self, mainly symbolized by the way she holds her hands (pictured) and the little head shakes she does when singing.

CINDERELLA (1950) 

Personally out of the 3 original princesses I find Cinderella to be the most different from the cartoon. Not just because, well, she has ears now but because I don't seem to get any cues of her original version from the animation. Then again the original Cinderella is animated with gentle, delicate slower movements movements while this one is making a shiv out of her shoe. However, she does keep some of the original design in the model itself. Her eyes are a bit round, with the upper eyelid being rounder than the lower, but the corners of her eyes are evident without causing the eye to look almond-shaped. I'd pull her outer corner a little bit more outwards or at least add an eyeliner but nobody is perfect. Her nose is slightly pointy but mostly round. I'm hoping that when we get to see more of her she'll demonstrate more of her slower, graceful nature. I don't mind that all those characters are more energetic and cartoony in this movie, but in Cinderella's case it seems to go against her very personality.

AURORA - SLEEPING BEAUTY (1959)

Aurora has a very diamond-shaped jaw, and while she appears to have a rounder one in this movie screencap, she demonstrates this diamond-shaped jaw whenever she's not facing straight forward.  Her lower eyelid has a very prominent "corner" to it like the original, making it kinda look like she has two outer eye corners. Her nose is pointy and thin. Her inner eyebrows could go lower and be closer together but the general thickness is very close. Her mouth isn't as wide as the others and her smile is V-shaped.  My gripe with her design is her hair, because IT SHOULD CURL THE OTHER WAY.  Her body language captures a lot of the gracious, romantic behavior she exhibits while awake in the movie. It differs from Cinderella's posture because Cinderella behaves more in a motherly, warm and kind fashion while Aurora behaves more "professionally" and in a more reserved way. 

ARIEL - THE LITTLE MERMAID (1989) 

 Ariel is one of the closest to the original IMO, but she has subtle differences. Her eyes keep the same general curves, with the upper eyelids being more curved and bending more towards the inner face. However, in the new version they are less vertical. Her nose is small, pointy and turned a little bit upwards, her lips are thin and don't have a cupid's bow. She has big cheeks but they are not as round as Snow White's, and her forehead is more forward, giving her the curve seen in the 2D version. For her the biggest difference is the eyelashes, that are way less uniform and are way thinner in the 2D version.  She still keeps the bright-eyed, curious expression, being very similar to Rapunzel in behavior.

In a side topic, I'm extremely glad to see her hair being done properly in 3D, by comparison with Kingdom Hearts 3. Her hair is a huge part of her animation and what made it impressive (as important to her body language as Rapunzel's hair is. Strange how much the two of them have in common) I was disappointed that in Kingdom Hearts 3 she kept the stiff hair she had in the first games even with the advance in technology. Her eyes are also closer in shape to the original than the Kingdom Hearts edition even if that one got the general face proportions right.  KH is closer in proportion while Wreck-it Ralph is closer in specific shapes. 

BELLE - BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1991)

Belle is also one who I didn't see a lot of her original personality, though she was very gentle and gracious in the original as well, which contrasts with her more cartoony animation here.

She has a larger nose than most princesses and it's also one of the most round, and her lips, while they have a cupid's bow, are less defined.

Her eyes are more almond-shaped, having the outer corner being higher up than the lower. Her eyebrows are pretty close in shape, thickness and distance to the original (considering the change of art style).

One thing that could be done was to make her laugh lines more prominent in the 3D model, since they tend to appear when she's grinning in the original. Going back to Kingdom Hearts, i must say that Belle's appearance there is not very accurate. I think that something is off with her face in Kingdom Hearts 2, like her face looks squashed, longer and different from the original.

JASMINE - ALADDIN (1992) 

Jasmine for me is one of the most accurate to the originals, with her almond shaped eyes, characteristic nose, sculpted lips and more oval shaped face. Her eyebrows also look slightly more accurate to the original than the KH counterpart, with the inner edge not being round (though they should be thicker). She shares a lot of the posture of the original, specially with the tendency of stopping with one leg in front of the other and bending her torso in a way that kinda highlights her butt (but you do you Jasmine) 

POCAHONTAS (1995)

So, Pocahontas is one of the most unique-looking movies in the Disney canon, having the most realistic body proportions of Disney canon in decades.

Her movie is also characterized by having stronger edges and a more angular shape. That entire proportional yet angular look is mostly out of the window, but her face still has the most geometric features of them all. 

A strong chin, a big triangular upper lip, a nose with up-turned nostrils that has a kind of v-shaped outline... Also even with the change of art style she has a slightly stronger build than the rest of the princesses. 

In terms of animation she has that classic impossible hair, and keeps the dignified and mysterious attitude she has most of the time when she's not trying to see what's just around the riverbend. 

MULAN (1998)

She is definitely really close to the original, though the proportions got shifted around for the art style. 

Her round face, almond shaped eyes with a single eyelash going outwards in the corrner, and her very caracteristic lips are there (her lips are one thing they did more accurately than Kingdom Hearts as well). Though I think her nose should be slightly flatter to be closer to the Original and the Kingdom Hearts rendition. 

 I haven't seen enough of her facial animation to form an opinion on expressions, but she does enter the scene with that jump kick she does in the end of "Be a Man" so there's that.

TIANA - THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG (2009)

Same case with Mulan, the biggest differences are just to accommodate for the art style. Her characteristic smile looks pretty great in 3D, dimples and all (though I think Coco did a better looking dimple for Miguel, those look a bit fake) 

Since the movies are so close together, being technically released in the same "Disney era" with way more artist overlap than previously (as in, more people who worked in the two movies), the animators already have a lot of practice animating her so I expect that she'll be pretty accurate.

RAPUNZEL - TANGLED (2010)

Speaking of accuracy, we're finally on the realm of 3D disney princesses. I like this comparison that @constable-frozen made (I apologize for not asking first/Lo siento no haber pedido antes/Desculpa por não ter perguntado primeiro). It shows that even the 3D princess got changed to fit the movie so it's not the 3D that is to blame for this change and that it was very much intentional rather than just lack of skill from the artists. But back to the comparison, I find it amazing how apparent the improvement in technology is, with Rapunzel having more natural skin and more strands in her hair (as well as the hair also looking more natural). Like i mentioned before, Rapunzel's hair was ground-breaking for Disney, since they spent years perfecting the technology for it. 8 years later and it looks greater than ever.  The whole lighting in the scene looks more natural as well, taking away the slight "PS3 game cutscene" feel the original gives me. Speaking of her hair, Kingdom Hearts 3 still didn't give us a look at her face, but the developers keep telling us of how much work they put into making her hair and turning it into a gameplay element as well. Seems fitting that a story about a girl with long hair would cause innovation in hair simulation for both animation and games.

MERIDA - BRAVE (2012)

Ok so this will definitely take some using to. In this pic specially she looks a bit like a baby. Though from other pics I think they at least nailed the facial expressions. Still, seeing her with those big bright eyes makes her almost look like Jessie from Toy Story, both having red hair and a very round face.

MOANA (2016)

To finish, here's Moana, from their last movie, to exemplify again that the change in art style is pretty much intentional. Larger eyes and eyebrows, smaller nose and mouth. Thin neck. Pretty much what happened to everyone else. Wreck-it Ralph stylized them to make them fit with each other and with the place they appear in. Otherwise they keep the basic shapes and ideas of the originals, only following the general style of the current artists. I hoped they'd keep the proportions and styles as close to the original as possible, but I won't pretend they didn't put any effort. All characters presented in those images belong to Walt Disney Animation Studio and Pixar Animation Studio.

PS: ANNA AND ELSA - FROZEN (2013)

I couldn’t get decent enough pictures for the both of them for me to make a comparison while I was writing. Might edit the post with the pic tomorrow.

In the original, their eyes are larger than most princesses and their noses are pointier. The two of them look really alike because they're sisters but there's differences:

Anna has chubbier cheeks and curved eyebrows while Elsa's eyes have a drooping lower eyelid common in smug/sexy characters, as well as L-shaped eyebrows.

The changes from the movie to the Wreck-it Ralph 2 version are essentially the same as Moana's (larger upper face, smaller lower face), plus an extra difference of them having bigger, more voluminous hairdos than what they had. 

PS: PS: On the off chance Tumblr messes up the images, I posted this entire thing on Imgur

[otnesse]

Reply to @AuroraQueenOfDreams

Replying here because, for some reason, her blog post cannot be reblogged (I suspect shadow-banning of the post itself).

“I'd say the "meanest" thing is the "poor provincial town" comment. Or the kind of snotty way she judges others as "little people" because... they have to work?”

Don’t forget her repeatedly saying “There must be more than this provincial life!”, doing so twice, three times if we count the reprise shortly after she gave Gaston a mudbath.

“Like, it's great you have the luxury of reading all day, Belle, but not everyone else has that privilege. Not everyone even has your education!”

Ironically, I’d argue the other villagers actually DO have her level of education, and I don’t mean that as a compliment on Belle’s part, since in the original film (pre-Special Edition that is), she’s only shown to be reading fairy tales, something which literally anyone who’s literate could read (and I absolutely refuse to believe that the other villagers are illiterate, since that bookshop would have gone out of business long ago if everyone save for Belle were illiterate.). Seriously, if you’re going to boast about having the luxury of reading all day, at least try to boast about reading advanced books like, I don’t know, Chaucer for example.

“I think a lot of fans see themselves in Belle- because that was almost certainly Disney's intention- and maybe that can make it hard to see her attitude as rude or snobby, but I don't see what's wrong with that as a flaw. We have reckless Ariel, temperamental Jasmine, overly trusting Snow, passive Aurora- I see other DPs get dragged all the time for their flaws but Belle's flaws or lack of always seems to be a controversial topic (along with Mulan, and Rapunzel, and Tia, and Elsa) even now while the Revival Princesses have largely taken her place as the best role models in critics' eyes.”

There wouldn’t be a problem with being rude or snobbish as a flaw... IF the story actually TREATED it as a genuine flaw on Belle’s part. Unfortunately, the story ALWAYS treats Belle as being in the right even when she actually isn’t (well, okay, probably the only real exception was when she exposed the Beast to the mob, though even there, I suspect that’s more because there was no way to justify it). Ironically, though, I’d argue Belle was a LOT more reckless than Ariel was overall. At least Ariel was shown to at least have some degree of street smarts when doing otherwise reckless actions (like when she implied she was fully aware of the risk of encountering sharks before plundering a ship when using reverse psychology on Flounder when he tried to fake sick), not to mention came across as exceedingly reluctant to enter that deal with Ursula (who had to fake reform just to convince Ariel to make the deal). Jasmine I’ll admit was temperamental regarding suitors, though at least there she had something of an excuse due to the suitors she got just being horrible, AND on top of that having to worry about an arranged marriage to worry about. Belle on the other hand was literally free to refuse Gaston due to not having to worry about an arranged marriage, yet STILL acted like a jerk to Gaston anyways.

“Although totally agreed she's definitely an angel compared to EmmaBelle, who is supposed to look better despite being very openly snobbish by way of comparison to the mean old bumpkin sexist villagers, which I just hate, because if you have to make someone cartoonishly bad to make me like your hero, maybe your hero isn't that nice. (Also, reading was NOT uncommon for women back then, Disney!)”

I wasn’t too happy with how they did the villagers in the remake, either (even if it DID at least give Belle an actual reason to want to leave the village beyond it being too provincial for her tastes). But on the other hand... the original film pushed that same crap with the villagers (even if not to the same degree), where they viewed Belle as “odd” simply because she read books (despite the fact that a fully functioning bookstore would suggest that most of the villagers were literate at least to some degree. Heck, them being implied to be Christians kind of makes literacy kind of required for them to even read the Bible). It really does irritate me especially when I had a history professor, Heather Lucas, I believe her name was, basically imply during one of her lectures that women weren’t even literate, let alone able to get an education or get jobs, until the 1960s when they “took power” on college campuses. Did I mention Lucas was a huge radical feminist almost to the degree of Linda Woolverton?

Besides, at least the remake actually avoids tarring Christianity as being advocates for keeping women illiterate (based on Pere Robert’s genuinely respectful treatment of EmmaBelle’s desire to read), unlike the original, where there isn’t really anything like that with any of the characters.

[cutiecrates]

Cutie Reviews: NMNL Jan 20

It still feels weird knowing there won’t be a KiraKira review following this one, but I am really excited because soon I’ll be able to do my Tokyo Treat review :D I was so disappointed not having the December box, so I’m very eager to get to it!

Btw, the booklet got wrinkled because a product leaked. I’m not sure how or why, it just happened.

“We always like to start to think of the new year as the perfect time to leave behind old habits and start fresh! To get you started, we’ve included skin care, hair care and makeup that will make you feel like a brand new version of yourself.“

Glam Gift

I guess NMNL wanted to include some Disney items to blend better with January’s YumeTwins. I would have loved to get the Aurora hand cream x3 she’s my favorite Disney Princess, but I love Marie too and face masks are nice. It all looks very cute and fun.

Contest

Disney continues to trend with these fun prizes for this months contest. The Ariel perfume stick and Rapunzel lotion look so pretty~

Horoscope

This month’s were special, being based on our Star Signs and showing their luck for this year. For example, mine (Libra) says:

This years luck: 4 stars

Love: 3 hearts

Career: 5 suitcases

Best Month: December

Mystery Item & Hair Cream

Our first item is a bonus that could either be something new to us or an “old favorite“. I got this before, it’s a water-like misting spray for the face made from really good ingredients to help improve the skin’s state. It has a lovely rose scent.

I like it but I had a tendency to forget to use it, so I can throw away my old one now since it might not still be good- plus I ripped the plastic wrapper around it after I got it. It bugs me so much.

- - - - -

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you may recognize this next item, we’ve seen it before in hand cream form. This time it’s a hair cream, it has the exact same Jasmine scent. In comparison to the thicker hand cream, this product is watery.

It’s very easy to use, you just run it through the ends of dried hair, giving it a lustrous, healthy look perfect for those days when you might be running late or just want a pick-me-up. It feels nice but the effects are fairly temporary, the scent fades quick too, which is kind of a shame. 

Rose Candy

I don’t believe I knew Kracie made health oriented snacks/candies, but here we are. I wish we got these more often because I think they’re so fun! Last time we had delicious gummy lips for lip health, this time we have this fancy-looking pack of rose candies. They include collegen, vitamin C, and Hyaluronic Acid to improve ones skin, and because it’s made with geranial, you will actually smell like a rose!

These has a very floral perfumish rose flavor, so if you’re not into that you probably won’t like these. I love roses, and apparently I like eating them too because so far, I’ve not found one thing made with rose I disliked.

Lucky Wink Hair Curlers

Gotta be honest, I was a little terrified of this because again, you might recognize it. For anyone who doesn’t though, we’ve had very similar curlers a few months back and they caused me a LOT of pain >3< I’m not used to using hair curlers but I don’t think they’re supposed to hurt so badly, and my natural curl looks better than what these things managed to do...

I haven’t really put any use into these other than on my bangs. Those are always a mess and for some reason they don’t tangle in the curlers. Peach also likes it when I brush her with them.

Bombee Honey Mask

I actually used this one this morning, right before doing this review. Papa Recipe face masks are very popular, so popular in fact that they have managed to sell at least 500 million worldwide. For the box, they come in pink/rose gold, green, and gold packs. The scent is of light honey, with a slight floral note.

What makes these mask a lot of fun is that they have a pretty gold honeycomb pattern on them. The scent was decent but once on my face it seemed to be faint. I don’t really like honey that much so it didn’t bother me very much. It stuck to the skin very well though, and my face feels really nice. 

Princess Waterproof Eyeliner

You know, I never understoond waterproof mascara or eyeliner, because water does remove them. Is it just durable enough to withstand small amounts of water, like if you went swimming or got caught in the rain?

As usual I’m completely inept at using this. Even one so tiny, I just can’t do it. I tried, and it came out in a solid line, but it still had splotches. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to eyeliner DX

Yogurt Face Pack & Cleansing Foam

Yet another item I recognize (and some of you really old, long-time readers might), but this time it’s bigger. These are yogurt based refreshing face packs available in yuzu, peach, or strawberry. It’s recommended to use these 2-3 times weekly, and you should keep it on the skin for 5-10 minutes.

 - - - - -

Our next item is by Pure Vivi and is made with ingredients such as Amino acid to moisturize the skin and remove things such as dirt in the pores, and makeup. It has a scent, but it’s a basic face cleanser scent. It’s not really that appealing to me but it’s not that bad. The only problem is, I believe this is the culprit behind the leakage in my box <_<

In terms of both items their scents were pretty light and unnoticeable when applied. I did a half job, putting the yuzu yogurt pack on one side and rubbing the other side with the cleansing foam. Each side felt the same afterwards, but I kind of like the foam a little bit more- just because I feel like it works into the skin more and it’s a bit fizzy. I don’t know, it’s just my preference.

♥ Cutie Ranking ♥

Content - 3 out of 5. The items are nice and I like them, but I did have 2 issues. 1: an item leaked as I mentioned and I don’t know why. It had a piece on it for that purpose but it did nothing. Items had the product on them but nothing was damaged other than my booklet, but none of the pages were ripped or ruined so I can still enjoy looking through it. 2: this box feels kinda boring in comparison to last months. It’s missing that flair that made me fall in love with the other one.

Theme: 4 out of 5. I like the refreshing vibe, but I’m not sure what hair curlers and eyeliner have to do with it. I feel like the rest of the items did well though.

Total Rank: 7.5 out of 10. This box didn’t really offer any thrills in my opinion, so it’s a bit bland in comparison to past boxes. It didn’t really feel fun or cute like they usually are, but the items are good and I like using them. I didn’t hate this box or even dislike it.

♥ Cutie Scale ♥

Rose Candies - not only do they look cute, but they smell and taste good! I really like them! 

Cleansing Foam - it doesn’t smell great but I like how it feels on my skin. I could see myself using it once a day, or maybe every other day. It’s also pretty sticky from the leak, which is annoying.

Honey Mask - I don’t like honey but the packaging and mask are fun, it also feels really nice on the skin. 

Yogurt Face Pack - smells okay, but it didn’t really wow me or feel like anything special. Packaging is cute though. 

Hair Cream -  smells nice and it feels good, I can see a difference when I use it. But the effects are short-lasting, unless I’m doing something wrong? 

Hair Curlers - They’re cute but they hurt a lot. I’d like to be able to use them but for right now, I think they will be kitty brushes.

Mystery Item - It’s something I already have. I like it enough.  

Eyeliner - It’s so fancy looking, but I’m pretty convinced I’ll never get the hang of it. I hate getting it so frequently because for me, they’re just going to waste.

[freelygrandwasteland-blog]

Teens dating. Write only if you are serious! Anastasia. Age 27 My new photos and sexy videos here >>>

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[readexplorerepeat]

Disney's Magic Kingdom: Travel tips

Magic Kingdom is everything you've imagined since you were a kid.  At least that's how I see it.  When we first walked through those doors (after passing a thorough security check) and you walk down Main Street U.S.A, at the very back your eyes spot the magnificence of Cinderella's castle...THE castle. The castle that is featured in the introduction to every single Disney movie you've ever seen.  That moment, was just priceless. 

We prepared, read, and planned our trip fairly well, however, there are things that we were glad we knew in advance and others that we wished we knew.  I put together a list of my favorite "must do" things and other tips that can help you navigate this world of magic.

But First, READ THIS: PREPARATION STAGE: MY FIRST DISNEY TRIP.

 1. TAKE THE MONORAIL OR BUS. 

Parking is a nightmare.  The parking lot is sooooooo huge that you can literally lose your car if you don't pay attention.  If you are staying in a Disney Resort, you will have complimentary transportation to the parks.  Use it! the buses are reliable and the monorail is fast.  The bus stops are easy to find and secure.  If you are not staying inside Disney, consider Uber or a taxi service like Mears.  

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2. GET THERE EARLY

Our first day at Magic Kingdom we decided to be there before the park opened so we had time to do everything we wanted to do.  Their opening times vary depending on the season, so make sure you check online or at your hotel for the weekly schedules.  The bus service picked us up at 6:45 a.m. and we got to the park a little after 7 a.m. for a 8 a.m. opening.  You go through security faster and get prime viewing for the opening show at the Cinderella Castle.

3. PLAN AHEAD

Get the Disney Experience App on your phone if you can.  It's free and it will help you navigate the parks via GPS location (it's great when you have to find a bathroom fast).  It will also allow you to view your fast pass itinerary and manage any reservations you have.  I recommend that you have a list of the rides you would like to ride and pick them in advance.  Remember, you can't possibly ride everything unless you are going to the same park multiple days.  So, plan ahead, use your fast passes wisely and don't get overwhelmed.  

you might want to also READ  THE DO'S AND DON'TS WHEN VISITING DISNEY (HERE).

 4. STAY FOR THE FIREWORKS

One of the most magical moments while visiting Magic Kingdom was to see the fireworks at the end of the night.  They were absolutely beautiful and, well, magical.  I know that after a LONG day of walking, riding, walking, and more walking, you and the little ones will be exhausted...BUT please, believe me when I tell you...go to your hotel and take a nap in the afternoon and come back for the fireworks at night! You'll be glad you did.

 5. DINE AT CINDERELLA CASTLE

Make your reservations in advance for Cinderella's Royal Table.  This was one of the best meals we had, not to mention it was super fun for the little one!  When you come in, you get to meet Cinderella herself and take a picture with her while you wait for your table.  When they call your name, they will escort your royal family up to the Royal table (this is all inside the iconic Disney Castle).  The room is spectacular.  You really feel as if you are in a real castle, dining with real royalty.  Once you are seated, the other princesses will come to your table to greet you, take pictures and sign your autograph book.  One by one, we met Snow White, Ariel, Jasmine, and Aurora.  It was fantastic.

6. HAVE A CINNAMON ROLL AT GASTON'S TAVERN

Just delicious! Stop by Gaston's Tavern when you are in Fantasyland and order their giant, succulent cinnamon rolls.  You can share one or two with your group (they are big).  Don't forget some coffee! Even though this is a "tavern" it's still alcohol free.  Sorry folks.  

 7. GET LOST IN TOM SAWYER'S ISLAND IN FRONTIERLAND

This is not really a ride, but I thought it was pretty great.  You are taken to this little island (literally) by riding on a raft (literally) across the river. Once there, you can take your time to explore on your own.  Get lost.  Yeah, simply get lost and imagine your own adventure.  There are several caves and secret passages to fuel your imagination to high speed.  Be brave and go across the barrel bridge, or simply just hang out and people watch while playing checkers and watching the riverboat go by.  

RIDES YOU SHOULDN'T MISS

Everyone is always going to have different favorite rides, but for me, here's my list of favorites:

THE HAUNTED MANSION

This ride was simply breathtaking, and just amazing.  It could be a little scary for small children, but if they can take seeing some ghosts and ghouls, do it! I waited since I was a child to do this ride, and it was everything I dreamed.

PETER PAN'S FLIGHT

was really beautiful and magical.  You feel as if Tinker Bell for real gave you some pixie dust and you fly! You fly above London and towards Neverland.  Beautiful animations and special effects. Get fast passes for these as they fill out fast and lines are long, hours long.  

Obviously, you still have to check out the classical rides like:

 Splash Mountain

Definitely wear a rain poncho when riding this one! you'll thank me later!

 The Seven Dwarfs mine

A family favorite.  This is a trip down the Seven Dwarfs mine, where you can see them working, and singing merrily.  The movement and facial expressions of are lifelike, and you are transported to their world in a way you don't expected.  A combination of a somewhat fast roller coaster with the sweetness of Snow White's story.  You can actually see her dancing inside their house if you pay close attention at the very end!

Big Thunder Mountain

It's a Small World

Ever since I can remember, I've known the tune of "It's a Small World"...don't ask me why; so when I saw the line was slightly shorter than normal (it was late and raining... it's usually a couple of hours wait) we jumped in and enjoyed the ride.  It's a classic! yeah, the animated characters are obviously old and you can tell the ride has been there for many years, but it was absolutely beautiful.  A must do. 

 Mad Tea Party

Another spinning classic you can't leave without riding! I have to admit... the teacups are small to fit 4 people.  It was tight and spinning quite fast.  Next time, we'll do two per cup.

 Pirates of the Caribbean

You'll be surprise where you can spot Captain Jack Sparrow.  That guy is everywhere! have fun riding and searching for Jack.  It was actually very nice and well done.

 Space Mountain and of course, the Disney Railroad.  

Sorry folks, I didn't get a good picture of the train or Space Mountain.  But, my daughter loved both.  Space mountain is VERY fast, dark and goes around ... in space... or so it's supposed to feel.  Pretty nice thrill ride. The train is just a train that goes from station to station, slowly crawling it's way around the park.  

Tomorrowland was fun too, especially Monsters Inc Laughing Floor (yeah, I was chosen to speak up with the microphone while talking to a cartoon character on the stage... my daughter thought it was quite funny as my face turned tomato red), I also enjoyed Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress; a quiet little ride that takes you on journey throughout the decades of progress and how technology has evolved.

Oh I almost forgot! we LOVED dining at Belle's Castle and riding the little Mermaid Undersea Adventure. 

 LEAST FAVORITE RIDE:

Although most things in Tomorrowland were OK, the Tomorrowland Speedway -where you ride the little go-carts and race other people- is NOT my idea of fun.  The whole place smells like smoke and burnt rubber, the carts are very difficult to control, and the pedal is very hard to press.  My whole body was hurting after riding that go-cart.  Wouldn't recommend it at all. 

 Overall, Magic Kingdom was fantastic.  Something that I wish everyone could experience at least once.  We were fortunate to visit when Christmas decorations had started in late November so we got to experience the extra magic...it was also Mickey's birthday! so it made it even more special.  

Tell me your tips and your favorites too! Please comment below. 

*** If you found this information helpful, please share it with your friends! 

Always, 

Mia

[snowembrace]

Same KH Anon. No, spoilers are fine. I won't be able to play the game anyway. What is the basic concept behind KH like, what's the essential thing one has to know to understand the KH universe? And could you tell the story of the very first KH? (You can skip this one if you find this too tasking.)

Aahh alright then!!

Well, to be fair there are many different things that one has to know to understand the KH universe fully. I’ve been into KH since 2002 when the first game was released, and after 15 years there are still things that we all, as a fandom, hope will be cleared up in the future.

I would say that playing the games (or watching the cutscenes online) is essential to understand KH, but there are also a few key concepts that I’m going to list here to give you an idea of what its universe is like. This might get a bit long since you also asked for the story of the very first game, but I hope you won’t mind! That being said, lets start with the list. I’ll put everything under the Read More due to its length.

→ Hearts are a very important (if not the most important) element of the game. As I’ve explained in the previous answer they can give birth to the main enemies, but they can be also used for other purposes. They are the main source of emotions and feelings, other than life to some extent. No one as of now knows exactly what this “Kingdom Hearts” (the one mentioned in-game) is, but it is said that we will eventually discover it in KH3 next year. Hearts are usually made up of both Light and Darkness, although some are either completely pure or completely dark.

→Another very important element of the game, other than its main weapon, are the Keyblades. They are big keys similar to swords that are used to fight. Not everyone can wield a Keyblade - it is said that only people with a strong heart and the memory of wielding one in the past can do so. This connection will be further explained later on in the following chapters of the story though. The Keyblades are a lot and each one has different abilities. Also, a Keyblade wielder can wield more than just one Keyblade by collecting the various keyholders. The Keyblade is the only weapon able to defeat the main enemies in each game as well.

→ The KH universe is divided into many different Worlds floating in something similar to our space, where the stars are the Worlds themselves and they shine thanks to the fact that they are made of Light - each World is populated by different characters (not only Disney characters), and it can be invaded/destroyed by the Darkness. If that happens, its inhabitants all end up in the so called Traverse Town, while the old World falls into the Realm of Darkness until its Keyhole is sealed and its Light gets restored by the Keyblade wielders.

→ KH gathers many original characters, as well as Disney and other Square-Enix characters. Mickey is the king that rules over the Worlds and is in charge to preserve the balance between Light and Dark. He’s a Keyblade wielder.

Tbh there is a whole lot to say still, but I don’t want to make this too long. However, if you’re interested, you can always ask me more specific questions. As you can see there’s not only just one essential thing to know to understand the KH universe - KH is very complicated but that’s what makes it interesting and special to many of as well.

That being said, I’ll try to answer your second question now without adding content that is not fundamental to understand the story.

It all starts in a World called the Destiny Islands, where we get introduced to our protagonists: Sora, Kairi and Riku. They are best friends and always spend time together - among them, Kairi is the only one that comes from a different World and therefore she’s the reason Sora and Riku wish to leave the islands as well to explore the universe. One night a storm hits the islands and Heartless start to invade them, taking Riku away in the Darkness. In an attempt to save him, Sora discovers that he’s able to wield this weird weapon he has never heard of before - the Keyblade. Meanwhile, Kairi disappears as well, and Sora is taken to Traverse Town while his World falls to pieces. There he meets Donald and Goofy, who are looking for their King Mickey and the person able to wield the Keyblade.

The trio leaves the town together to go free the other Worlds from the Heartless that have invaded them, and eventually run into Riku, who has seemingly surrended to Maleficent’s control - the witch uses a lifeless/sleeping Kairi as bait for him to obey her orders (as of KH1 both Sora and Riku have a major crush on Kairi). Maleficent’s aim is to gather the Seven Princesses of Heart (Alice, Cinderella, Jasmine, Belle, Snow White, Aurora and Kairi herself) to unlock the door to Kingdom Hearts, which appears to be the source of all knowledge and the place all the hearts go to. The hearts of the Princesses, once released from their bodies, all end up in a special Keyblade that Riku now wields.

After restoring the Light of many Worlds, Sora, Donald and Goofy reach Maleficent’s lair. Here we discover that right when the Darkness was about to take Kairi away back at the islands, her heart chose Sora as its protector (there is a logical explanation as to how this happened but it has to do with another game of the series) and Kairi fell into a deep sleep, just like the other princesses captured by Maleficent: only by sacrificing himself with Riku’s Keyblade Sora will be able to wake them all up. 

As you can easily imagine, Sora obviously stabs himself with Riku’s Keyblade right after and frees both his and Kairi’s heart, other than the hearts of the other six Princesses, but he then turns into a Heartless. This, until Kairi recognizes him while escaping the fortress and is able to bring him back.

We also discover that Riku was actually under someone else’s control, someone seemingly more powerful than Maleficent - a humanoid Heartless named Ansem.

He’s the last boss of the game and you fight him at the End of the World, a World made up of fragments of the other Worlds that were destroyed by the Darkness. 

Once you defeat him, he explains that the Darkness is the heart’s true essence, while Sora is convinced that Kingdom Hearts is actually made up of Light. At his words, the big door to Kingdom Hearts (the one Maleficent was looking for) finally opens and “kills” Ansem with its Light. However, behind this door there are also many Heartless. King Mickey and Riku appear behind it to seal it, but of course this means that they will be lost again until they eventually find a way to escape and go back to their Worlds. We never get to really see what’s behind the door in the first game.

Mickey reassures Sora that there will always be a door to Light, aka a way to see his friend again, and while Sora closes the door from the outside with the help of Donald and Goofy, Riku asks him to take care of Kairi before disappearing. Sora then locks the door with his Keyblade. He eventually finds Kairi again, but as the Worlds start to reconstruct themselves, the girl is pulled back to the Destiny Islands. Sora promises her that they will see each other again soon, and the game ends with Kairi wandering around the islands and discovering a drawing that Sora left for her before the Darkness took over their World.

The one that Sora holds and offers to Kairi is a Paopu fruit, a fruit that grows on the islands and that is said to intertwine two people’s destinies if they share it. We are left with this last shot of Kairi crying while smiling and offering another Paopu back to Sora, seemingly returning his feelings for her. This is probably one of the most powerful scenes in the game, and it doesn’t even need words to work, just the background music and this gorgeous CGI (even after 15 years it still looks amazing).

And this is pretty much it! I’m sorry if it came out this long, but there isn’t a way to sum up the plot without giving away all the informations I wrote down here. I hope that you found this interesting to read though! Thanks again for the ask!

One thing I did not add (other than how and why Kairi’s heart “merged” with Sora’s), is the fact that when Sora stabs himself and, as I said in the previous ask, creates his Nobody Roxas by losing his heart, he also inevitably creates Kairi’s Nobody too, Naminé. I might expand this more another time if you (or someone else) asks for it.

[jewelridersarchive]

Greg Autore & The Toy Design of Jewel Riders - Part Two

We’ve got a really special interview to share with all of you today! You may remember back in December we had the opportunity to feature several of the toy designs for the never-produced third wave of toys (http://www.jewelridersarchive.com/posts/greg-autore-and-the-toy-design-of-jewel-riders/). We reached out to Greg Autore, the Art Director behind Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders, with a few more questions after featuring the designs, and are so, so excited to share his responses with you. Please enjoy!

The Jewel Riders Archive: First off, can you tell us about your history as a toy designer?

Greg Autore: I started in 1984 as an intern with Mattel and am still designing toys and children’s products. Toys I have worked on (a short list): All of Sabrina the Teenage witch, All Disney fashion dolls from 1989 to 1994 (that is a bigger story to tell sometime), first year of Disney Musical Princesses (I used those bodies and heads for the first Gwen dolls), Star Wars, Popples, Hooks, Peppermint Rose, GI Joe, Trolls…and tons more. In those cases I had a major impact on all those lines. But there are many other smaller things, for instance, I created the very first Barbie’s little sister doll Stacie. I saw a gap in the play pattern since there was no child doll close to the age of the children buying Barbie. (Skipper was a young teen and the babies from Heart Family were toddlers.) So, when I was put on a short term team of cross functional designers to come up with new concepts, Stacie is one thing I did. I used the body from Lady Lovely Locks and took the head from Skipper and chemically shrunk the head to fit. After it was accepted, one of the Barbie designers cleaned it up. She was originally designed to be wearing her big sister Barbie’s pink letter jacket. It still has the basic look from what I designed.

JRA: Wow, that’s an incredible background in toy design. But how did you get involved with Jewel Riders?

GA: Part of the Kenner process is to always look for new properties or inventions. When they arrive, Design and Marketing review them and some are picked to go to the next step to make test models and get early consumer feedback. I was given several scripts and loved “Enchanted Camelot” when I first read it. So, I pushed for getting it into the tests and was assigned to adapt it into a viable toy line. I was told that the production company was willing to work with us (Kenner) to make it better. It was not until after the test results came back favorable and we decided to push forward that I met Robert Mandell and really dug into the project.

Incidentally, “Princess Tenko” was in the same round of testing, and I did make the models for that also, but it did not score as high. Later, Mattel picked up that line but it did not perform well.

Other reasons why I was given the line was probably due to my work with Disney dolls at Mattel. At that time, Disney NEVER cross branded their properties. I was given the assignment to turn Cinderella into a fashion doll. After I had been working on it a little while it occurred to me it could work well for 2 to 3 years but it would be even better if we could rotate the characters through a line in the same way Disney was re-releasing its movies to video – every 7 years. So, with the backing of the Design VP, I pitched the concept to Disney with glorious models. They were very apprehensive at first when I showed them the first two (Cinderella and Snow White) but by the time I showed them all 10 female properties together – they were hooked. The next year after Mattel’s successful launch of Cinderella and Snow White, Disney launched a new branding program “Disney Princesses.” My fingerprints are still on Disney Princesses every time you see Sleeping Beauty wearing pink. I presented a doll to them with a dress that transformed from pink to blue so the kids could replay that scene from the film. They liked it but wanted it blue in the package. Having all the models in front of me I showed them how many Disney female characters they had that were blond with blue dresses and won them over. Now you almost never see Princess Aurora depicted in blue.

There were many unproduced models for the original Disney Classics (purple box) dolls. There are many very cool ones. A centaurette from Fantasia, all the other Peter Pan characters, transforming soft catapillar/butterfly, the original wax model of the white rabbit that I sculpted.

JRA: Very awesome! You also mentioned the Disney Musical Princesses and their connection to PGJR, we were wondering if you could expand on that a little?

GA: The bodies for the musical princesses were originally sculpted and tooled for the “Wonder Woman and the Star Riders.” But it died at toy fair and never shipped. Most of [the Wonder Woman and the Star Riders] doll samples were destroyed because I made the Musical Princesses out of them.

Gwen is the same size as musical princesses but different tools (Editor’s note: Tools are steel molds created from prototypes that are used to manufacture the toy in the factory) since they were made by Mattel’s biggest competitor. If you look carefully, all the Mattel poses are straight and rigid (like a super heroine) but Gwen bodies all have one cocked knee and bent arms for a more natural stance.

JRA: Fun! This looks like it was made from the pre-existing Jasmine Musical Princess Doll. Did Jasmine have that style shoes? Or are those a Jewel Riders exclusive design?

GA: Jasmine would not have worn those shoes. Most likely, I sculpted those onto the existing legs with Sculpy, the heated them with a fine point heat gun. That was one of my typical techniques.

JRA: Were there any other pre-existing toys that fed into Jewel Riders toy design?

GA: The Gwen horses were Fashion Star Fillies with the rump jewels added to the tooling.

JRA: Can you describe your creative process?

The other thing I had going for me [in addition to having worked on Disney dolls] was my imagination. When I mentioned to my supervisor one day about, “Can’t you see there must be a Fair that Gwenevere is going to right over that hill?” I thought everyone could do that. My supervisor informed me, “Uh… No… that is not how MOST people think.”

This came in very handy for Gwenevere. When the second set of episodes was turned on, the only two directions to start with were – 1) Search for wild magic jewels since the first set was all found 2) Use Morgana as the ultimate villainess instead of Lady Kale. One thing I wanted to do was to create a visible use of jewel power other than just shining. I wanted something more like what certain superheroes can do with their power rings and create shapes to solve the issue. This lead directly to suggesting the trio has an episode underwater to find a wild water jewel and use that opportunity to have them use jewel power mermaid fins. Fortunately, Director Robert Mandell was open to many of my suggestions. That second season had many episodes that grew from my concepts and a very rough storyline suggestion.

JRA: We love that “Jewel of the Sea” sprung from one of your concepts. It has long been a fan favorite episode judging by the social media reactions! Next, we’d love to know what your favorite product that you designed for Jewel Riders is?

My favorite Princess Gwenevere toy was probably the Zebracorn. Gwen and Fallon already had special animals. I know Tamara had her small animal friends but she was always limited to having to ride in the carriage. I wanted her to have a special animal friend like Sunstar – but how do you compete with a unicorn and a flying horse. I wanted the new friend to be totally unique and stunning in its own way. Somehow the idea of a Zebra striped unicorn came to me and we made a rough model. The model was especially cool. One of my goals was to try to get as many of the really fun toy ideas into the show. Since Robert Mandell was still working through the rest of the scripts, I suggested the idea. He was unsure but when I suggested the story line to go with it, then he saw the magic and emotion of it and had a script written based on my basic plot outline. There were many other features I was able to convince Robert and the writers to add in, but that character and episode were still my favorite. The whole concept that “some things are more special than you can possibly imagine if you take time to care” was dear to my heart and I hoped others would get it also.

JRA: That’s really touching, and we definitely think your message got across in the fan-favorite episode “Shadowsong.” So we’ve talked about your favorite product – now we’re curious which provided the greatest challenge?

GA: I noticed that Fallon was very popular also. This is gratifying as we put much work into her so she would not be just a tag along character with a different skin tone. During the time I was at Mattel since they did so many dolls that they were very restrictive on flesh tones. They had only 3 – pink flesh, suntan and black. The black skin tone Mattel used, I thought, was very dull, chalky and lifeless. Kenner did not have set skin tones so I worked very hard to find just the right skin tone for her. I did not want her to look specifically African American since we were in a fantasy setting. I also wanted her to appeal to more people. So the skin tone I picked could have made her Caribbean, North African or many other darker skin tones. But the color was alive and vibrant. Robert bought into the idea and gave her an accent that was hard to place – more like Creole. She was one of my favorites to design for since she did not have to look pink and pretty. She was more mysterious and really was the smartest of the three. Tamara was the most empathetic. Gwen was the leader – trying to find her way.

My hard work to get Fallon just right paid off for me personally when I found the Deluxe Fallon doll on a list of “The 10 Best Black Dolls Every Made.” Ironically, a second one on that list was the mother/Queen from Prince of Egypt which I also worked very hard to get right. Both took the time and energy to fight to get them unique and just right.

JRA: To your knowledge, was there any development done for a third season of Jewel Riders beyond your toy design work?

GA: There was never a plan to do more episodes… yet. If anything was done on it, I never saw or heard of it. Originally, they were just going to do the first 13. Then Bohbot wanted European distribution which required 26. So they made the next 13. They would have made more but were waiting to see how it succeeded.

JRA: Do you know why Gwenevere was renamed Starla outside of North America?

GA: Two reasons for the question: 1) international names often have to have minor spelling changes or conjunction changes so a simple less specific name translates better (too many ways to translate “princess”). 2) Guenevere was probably being used legally in a country they wanted to release it in.

Tamara was supposed to be Melody but that name was trademarked in the US

JRA: We were wondering if you could speak to rumors that any possible playsets were in development?

GA: 1) The castle playset shown to consumers in the original testing. Very cool model and design (even if I hand made most of it). It was more like a castle keep but expanded up and out to make a good backdrop for play. But the castle eventually designed for the show did not match it all. I know for a fact that it was destroyed along with many things just before I left. (People starting digging through the Kenner garbage cans looking for Star Wars discarded samples so a grinder was put in place to destroy all trash).

2) Carriage playset – It was okay. A real plastic model was never made of it. 90% sure it was destroyed.

3) Enchanted Forest playset – very basic clamshell sculpted magical trees that open up with jewels to add that would work like a combination of light-pipes (in basic Gwen figures) and light brite. Nothing exists from it that I know of. It was only a foam core model.

4) Pavilion Playset – the only one management ever took seriously. It was approved to move forward but the line was dropped soon after that decision (since the show could never be found and kept moving its time slot and not notifying TV and other publications). Only one model ever existed.

JRA: Very cool! We would have loved any one of those to be produced.

Next, we were wondering about the color scheme for the show. Tamara as a pink-haired magical girl was an inspired choice, as it has been one of the things people remember most vividly from the show. Were you involved in this aspect at all?

GA: Tamara – I would have to double check but she either started with red hair and I made it pink or it was pink to start. The teal color was the best color to balance her hair. Pink was a cuter way to depict a red-head. It also gave me, two pink characters – one with pink hair and one with pink clothing -Win/Win!

Gwen – As the main character, she needed to be in pink. Girls OVERWHELMINGLY prefer pink. But I chose her skin tones and hair color to be as golden as I could as if she was infused with the sunstone’s power. (Side note: when we were trying to determine the colors for Popples, they pulled in about 10 designers and we used the same sketch, then created as many color variations/styles as we could. Then 100 were shown to consumers. The top 3 chosen were all different shades of pink.)

Purple/lavender is the second best selling color so I used it for Fallon’s primary accent. It also led to her mysterious quality.

When I met with the Aladdin TV show team to do some product, they mentioned that very young kids would have a hard time following a character if they changed outfits. For instance, when Jasmine was put in her brown townsperson clothes, the younger viewers did not get it was her. So when I had the chance to do Jewel Riders, I specifically created a palette for each character and stayed with it religiously so the hair color and costume color would always make it easier for younger viewers to follow. It was absolutely intentional.

JRA: Greg, we absolutely can’t thank you for taking the time to speak with us about all your amazing memories of Jewel Riders. We really can’t thank you enough for your generosity in sharing so many amazing insights with the fan community. Any special message you’d like to share?

GA: I just went through the work you and Chris have been putting into the Jewel Riders Archive site. It is nicely done. Reading the comments of what it meant to others is touching. For what it is worth, the day I was told the line was officially dropped and I no longer was allowed to play and build in that world, was a very sad day for me. There was so much more I wanted to do with those characters.

JRA: Thank you Greg. That means a lot to us too! Even though we aren’t the creators of the series, we definitely feel invested in the characters, the story, and the integrity of the show. What started out as just a love for a cartoon turned into a dedicated… passionate to say the least, commitment that we get a great joy from.

Read the complete blog at The Jewel Riders Archive! http://www.jewelridersarchive.com/posts/greg-autore-and-the-toy-design-of-jewel-riders-part-two/

[cutiecrates]

Review: Doki Doki Crate 16 March 2017

I am in LOVE with this cover art. Next to the Halloween and September cover and artists, this is another of my favorites. The artist is Princess Misery, who has her own Tumblr blog you can check out: but be warned- her art is cute but fairly dark and may disturb some light-hearted viewers/readers!

I admit this is coming a bit later than I would have liked. However, this is with good reason. All I have left to do for this month is the Tokyo Treat Box (and Candysan whenever I get it; fingers crossed ♡), and as I mentioned in a previous post I have also been working on making space cause Cutie Towers has really expanded into a full apartment complex!

For the approaching spring season (along with celebrating Hinamatsuri/Girls Day this month), this months Suteki Crate hit the theme right on its mark! You may also notice Punipuni and Pyonpyon on the next page, all ready for Hinamatsuri as well. 

Before I begin I would like to take a moment to explain Hinamatsuri/Girls Day.

Hinamatsuri is a holiday celebrated in Japan at the first sign of spring, when everything is cute, flowery, and best of all- PINK!!! In home, Hinamatsuri dolls are placed to bring good luck for the households daughter/daughters, and once it ends the dolls must be put away or else it could bring bad luck. In this time everyone enjoys adorable, pretty pink food and dress in pretty kimono for flower viewing ✿

For this crate I decided to start with the two ‘plush‘ items I got:

I was delighted to see I obtained Punipuni. Dressed as an empress doll she rests on a leaf to resemble spring mochi. She is fairly stiff compared to normal stuffed dolls and although I really wanted to love her, I found it a little difficult. To name a few issues...

1. Her head piece is held by too much glue and isn’t as detailed as I would hope accurately possible.

2. The cotton tail has a huge clump of glue on it and on the fur where it was.

3. The clothy texture of the leaf doesn’t go with the hard stuffed bunny at all. It feels like a random piece of cloth someone sewn to the bottom.

Now please keep in mind, I’m not trying to be mean or rude. I do like Puni, but I’m wondering if her quality borders on that of the first Julie so many subscribers hated, or if it was just mine. Unfortunately I have to rate her a 2.5 out of 5. She’s cute but I feel like there is a quality issue about her.

Next to Puni is the adorable Sasurai No Tabineco Fuwa Mocchi Plush, an adorable fluffy and fat kitty-cat that almost put Tsum-Tsum to shame (almost!), there was 4 possible to get:

I adore cats- especially black cats. But I would have been happy with any of them. Like well cooked mochi (or a warm marshmallow~), this kitty is squishy and stretchy. I love to smoosh and pull it, and squish it’s tummy ♡ I’m obsessed with this kitty. Not only is it really cute, but it’s a perfect stress relief toy. 5 out of 5!

I have a feeling this little guy is going to receive quite the workout from me.

Now for my two little items (not counting Hoppechan) in this box. I’ve noticed the Neko Atsume craze seems to be dying down; but the merchandise is still extremely popular. I see it all the time, and I get items related to it in the Crates fairly often (my favorite kitty is Odd). This month we get a Neko Atsume charm.

I have to admit, out of all the charms I get this is probably not one I’d choose for my phone (mainly because I’m addicted to my vampire hello kitty charm ♡). I will admit the detailing is really nice, fairly simple but clean and accurate (if you don’t know Neko Atsume, this is accurate for the cat I got. It’s not dirty.) I’ll give it a 3 out of 5. I like it, but...

The item clipped to it is the Pote Usa Loppy Clip, perfect for any opened snacks or little bags but not suggested for hair (unless attached to another accessory maybe), or finger play! It’s practical and adorable, which already earns an A+ from me.

Besides, who doesn’t love Usa Loppy? U(•ㅅ•)U 4 out of 5.

I was pretty happy to see this adorable cup in the box. The Disney Cup resembles a non-glass porcelain with beautiful water color art depicting Ariel, Jasmine, Cinderella, Bell, Snow White, or Mickey and Minnie. The character is detailed up close on the front, with an artistic coloring design and name detail on the back:

I have to admit, I would have loved to get the Mickey/Minnie one to see what it looked like. I’ve yet to find anyone who got it. I also wish they included Aurora/Sleeping Beauty- who was always my favorite Disney Princesses, or maybe even Marie. She’s really popular and would have been perfect for this series.

Despite those opinions, I LOVE this cup! I’m not sure what it’s made out of it, but it is durable. It fell off of my desk and didn’t chip or anything, showing how durable it is before I even used it. This is something I appreciate, considering I own pets (including a few mischievous kitties). It’s pretty and come on, who doesn’t love disney? 5 out of 5!

Lastly, we receive our monthly Hoppe-chan (Known as “Hishimochi Hoppe-chan” for this month). As usual, the deco bits and cake itself are made from plastic, while Hoppe-chan and the cream are soft and rubbery. As much as I love normal size/big Hoppe-chan, I adore little food ones too! I don’t really have anything special or unique to remark upon this one. I love it like always ♡  5 out of 5.

With Hoppe-chan I put the final item in the box, a slim pen case. This is a perfect little item for school, work, or just a purse to keep your pens or pencils in order. For this crate it was possible to get one based on Sumikko Gurashi or Rilakkuma. They’re also double-sided (but I couldn’t manage a pic due to limit).

For this particular case, I’m not sure if they were racing or if this is some sort of popularity ranking. Either way I was happy because my two favorite both ranked 1st. Look how cute and shy they are~♡ Honestly, I’m not sure I’ll use this, but I really like it! 4 out of 5.

♡ Cutie Ranking ♡

Quality  - 4 out of 5. Besides the confusing Puni plush, everything was fine.

Content - 3 out of 5. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked everything, but it only sorta/half-fit the theme. I also didn’t like that some items were kind of on the cheap and small side (like the usa loppy clip).

Practicality - Besides the 2 stuffed animals everything is practical. I’ll probably only use 2 or 3 of the items though...   4 out of 5

Total Rank: 11 out of 15 Cuties. I loved most of the items and found myself unable to rank anything super low, but at the same time, I think the few previous boxes were better. I certainly did not hate it though.

♡ Cutie Scale ♡

1. Sasurai no tabineco plush - I had to give it first place. It has a large tummy you can squish and poke and cuddle-wuddle~

2. Pen Case - I love Sumikko Gurashi and everyone looks so cute!

3. Hoppe-chan - tiny Hoppe-chan is always precious, She was simply sweet ♡

4. Pote Usa Loppy Clip - She is kawaii precious, but I wish we got the entire body, or maybe that it was bigger?

5. PuniPuni - Like Mango from the last box, I found it hard to be all that attached... She is cute, but there was some little issues.

6. Disney Cup - With it’s water coloring method, it borders on extravagantly beautiful! But not cute.

7. Neko Atsume Charm - I’m sorry but I just didn’t find it very cute.

Okay Cuties, be sure to get your appetites ready! Next is the Tokyo Treat crate, also celebrating Hinamatsuri with Sakura and Green Tea flavors. Until next time, Stay Cute!