The New Disney Princess Book Tag!

I saw Deanna @ Deanna Reads Books do this tag and, being the Disney nerd that I am, I couldn't resist doing it myself.

THE RULES

• Mention where you saw the tag/thank whoever tagged you!
• Tag Zuky and Mandy's posts (the awesome creators of the tag) so they can check out the wonderful Princess fun throughout the blog world (Mandy @ Book Princess Reviews & Zuky @ Book Bum)
• Play a game of tag at the end!

SNOW WHITE

This book (like the movie) started it all

Favorite Debut Book from an Author

I know you're all so shocked, but of course it's Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Signal to Noise. This debut took me completely by surprise in 2015 and it's one of my favourite novels of all time.

CINDERELLA

A Diamond In The Rough

Just Like Cinderella, You Either Didn’t Expect Much Out of This Character in the Beginning But They Turned Out to Be a Total Gem

Neville Longbottom. What a precious bean. I don't think anyone really expected much from Neville, not even his own grandmother, and then he grew into one of the best characters in the Harry Potter series. I love Neville.

AURORA

Sleeping Beauty

A Book That Makes You Sleepy, or Just Could Not Hold Your Attention

I'm sorry to say it's Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, knowing how beloved it is. I did like it but it took me so long to get through; the circus itself fascinated me, but I actually found Celia, Marco and their relationship really boring. I might try rereading it at some point, though, because my tastes have changed a lot since I last read it.

ARIEL

Under the Sea

A Book With a Water/ Ocean Setting

I'm really looking forward to reading Julia Ember's The Seafarer's Kiss, a lesbian retelling of The Little Mermaid with vikings. All the yes. I'm saving my copy for the winter months because I'm going to Iceland in the first weekend of December, so I think Reykjavik will be the perfect setting to read about vikings.

BELLE

Beauty and the Books

Name A Book With The Best Bookworm/ Booklover

Hermione Granger is the obvious answer, and I do adore her, but instead I'm going to go with Catherine from Austen's Northanger Abbey, who loves Gothic fiction so much she wrongly accuses her future father-in-law of murder. Oops.

JASMINE

The Thief and the Princess

Name A Book With An Unlikely Love Story (Either in Terms of Romance, or a Book You Didn’t Expect To Love So Much)

I think I'm going to go with Agnieszka and The Dragon from Naomi Novik's Uprooted. Heteronormativity is real, so whenever a book is released with one female and one male protagonist we can be certain they're probably going to fall in love at some point, but when I started reading Uprooted I began to think there wasn't going to be a romantic relationship, after all. What surprised me most, though, was that when their relationship did become romantic, I actually really liked their chemistry. So kudos to you, Naomi Novik, you did a good job!

POCAHONTAS

The Real Life Princess

Name A Book That is Based On a Real Life Person You Want to Read or Have Read

It's been on my TBR for a while now and I still haven't read it simply because, when it comes to historical fiction, I don't tend to read many books set in the medieval period, but I really want to give Sharon Penman's Here Be Dragons a try. Penman is such a huge name in the realms of historical fiction, so I need to read some of her anyway, and Here Be Dragons follows Joan, Lady of Wales, also known by her Welsh name Siwan, who was an illegitimate daughter of King John and was married off to the Welsh Prince Llywelyn ap Iorwerth. I've always been fascinated by her, it's a shame we know so little about her.

MULAN

The Princess That Saved Her Country

Name the Fiercest Heroine You Know

That has to be Saba from Moira Young's Blood Red Road. I adore her, she's a real survivor and I wouldn't want to cross her.

TIANA

The Princess With the Coolest and Most Diverse Crew

Name A Diverse Book, Whether it is a Diverse Set of Characters (Like Tiana’s Group of Naveen, Louis, Ray, and More)or Just Diverse In General

That has to be Becky Chambers' The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, whose entire cast of characters are different species and genders and sexes and sexualities and nationalities and races whom Chambers uses to explore what makes us different and, more importantly, what makes us similar. It's often compared to Firefly and I can understand why, but honestly I think I'd much rather watch a TV adaptation of this.

RAPUNZEL 

Let Your Longggggg Hair Down

Name the Longest Book You Have Ever Read

I had a look on Goodreads and was surprised to realise that the longest book I've read so far is Winter by Marissa Meyer. I don't know why I was surprised because I never read books that are 800 pages long or more (my edition of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is only 766 pages long) although I'd like to read more long books in future, because I certainly own plenty to get through.

MERIDA

I Determine My Own Fate

A Book Where There is No Love Story/ Interest or Isn’t Needed

I'm going to go with Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor, which is one of my favourite books ever. Our protagonist, Maia, becomes betrothed in this book and we do get a hint that he and his fiancee will be happy together and might even love each other one day, but there's no life-altering romance getting in the way of what is already a wonderful story.

ELSA & ANNA

Frozen Hearts

A Book in a Winter/ Cold Setting

No book has ever made me feel as cold as Hannah Kent's fantastic descriptions of the Icelandic landscape in Burial Rites.

MOANA

How Far I’ll Go

A Character That Goes On a Journey

I have to go with Nan King. Tipping the Velvet isn't my favourite of Sarah Waters' novels, but it's a true coming of age novel and such a fun, saucy romp through Victorian London. While reading it I got the feeling that Waters had a lot of fun writing it - there isn't much that poor Nan doesn't go through, and by the end of the novel she's a completely different person to who she was at the beginning.

If you'd like to do this tag, consider yourself tagged!

My Top 10 Disney Songs!

Happy Friday!

When this post goes live I'll be on my way to Disneyland Paris! I'm so unbelievably excited, so to get into the mood I thought I'd share my top ten Disney songs with you. I dare you to try not to sing along...

Number Ten: I'll Make a Man Out of You from Mulan (1998)

Number Nine: I Am Moana from Moana (2016)

Number Eight: Substitutiary Locomotion from Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)

Number Seven: Be Prepared from The Lion King (1994)

Number Six: Prince Ali from Aladdin (1992)

Number Five: Poor Unfortunate Souls from The Little Mermaid (1989)

Number Four: Zero to Hero from Hercules (1997)

Number Three: This is Halloween from The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Number Two: Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Number One: Out There from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

Enjoy! I'll be back next week after a Disney-filled weekend!

Should Disney's First Openly Gay Character Be Celebrated?

Disclaimer: Some mild spoilers for the Beauty and the Beast remake. Yes I do take Disney movies too seriously, no I’m not sorry for it. These are my own thoughts, views and opinions etc. – in no way am I presuming to speak for the LGBT+ community and I apologise in advance if I come across that way at any point in this discussion, it’s not my intention. This post was first posted on my other blog, which I'm considering moving over to permanently in future.

As Disney goes through its remake phase, just like it went through its sequel phase, it was only a matter of time before 1991’s Beauty and the Beast was given a fresh lick of live action paint.

News stories started asking if the fairy tale promotes bestiality or Stockholm syndrome as though this were the first time those questions had been asked – seriously, do they not realise how often fairy tales have been studied over the years? This isn’t a shock revelation – until it was revealed that LeFou, played by Josh Gad of Frozen fame, was going to be reimagined and portrayed as an LGBT+ character. Naturally, that was all the press could focus on and, in some ways, I can’t really blame them. LeFou’s hardly the hero of Beauty and the Beast, but that Disney were actually going to acknowledge someone as openly gay in one of their movies was a big deal – especially to the LGBT+ community who have been waiting for this kind of representation for years.

Now that I’ve seen the film (and I won’t talk about my thoughts on it here, because this  blog post would turn into a book) I can say that, yes, I certainly got the impression that LeFou is a member of the LGBT+ community, but at no point did he use the all important sentence: I’m gay (or however else he might choose to identify himself). This is a real shame considering the director of the remake, Bill Condon, is an openly gay man himself. If LeFou being gay was the director’s intention then why not just come out and say it? Would including a piece of dialogue like that take too much attention away from the main storyline?

Well, it shouldn’t. We need to start getting to a point where it’s not a shock for someone to reveal they aren’t heterosexual, if they’re comfortable enough to discuss their sexuality. If attention can be taken away from the main storyline by something like that then that’s the fault of the creators and of the audience, because people talking openly and safely about their sexuality in the media, whatever their sexuality is, isn’t going to seem normal until we make it normal, and we need more creators who are willing to take that risk – especially with media that is largely consumed by children. What better way to make children realise, from a young age, that people are deserving of respect regardless of who they choose to take to bed (or choose not to, in some cases).

So, should Disney be praised for their decision to make LeFou an LGBT+ character?

Honestly, I don’t think so. We don’t really know for certain that he is gay because he never tells us that he is. Sure, at the end of the movie there’s about two seconds of screen time when we see him dancing with another man and we’re led to believe his adoration of Gaston is more along the lines of wanting to be with him than like him, but this feels a little like the Dumbledore fiasco all over again. When Rowling revealed Dumbledore was gay there was an outcry from the LGBT+ community because it wasn’t blatantly said outright. At the time I wasn’t sure what people were expecting – was Dumbledore’s sexuality really revelant to Harry’s story? – but I don’t think we can ignore so many voices, from the very community Dumbledore is supposed to be a part of, telling us they weren’t satisfied with the years of only hinting at non-heterosexuality.

Whenever we watch a film or read a book, we’re programmed to automatically assume that everyone is heterosexual, and that’s why it’s important for creators to just come out and say when someone is gay or bisexual or pansexual or demisexual or asexual – sexuality is fluid and all members of every sexuality deserve to see themselves reflected in the stories they immerse themselves in. That’s why it was so important for LeFou to come out and say: ‘I’m gay.’

I can already hear people’s counter-arguments: ‘The story’s set in 18th century France, LeFou would have been executed for sodomy if he’d come out as gay’. Hm. Yeah, but I don’t remember many stories of 18th century French villages having their own royal families who they’ve forgotten about because an enchantress has turned their prince into a beast. It’s a bit like saying the sexual violence in Game of Thrones is historically accurate even though Westeros is entirely fictional and its own rules could apply. There are dragons in Game of Thrones, too, but no one argues that they’re historically inaccurate. This is exactly the same for our nameless French village; there’s no reason why this one village, with its own royal family they clearly decided not to send to the guillotine, couldn’t be a far more liberal place than the rest of the country.

Also, LeFou doesn’t necessarily have to come out to the people who could potentially cause him harm. Belle is portrayed as forward-thinking and you can guarantee the Beast knew someone in his circle of aristocratic friends who wasn’t straight, what’s important is that LeFou comes out to people who accept him in front of the audience. What’s important is that children see him not being used as comic relief, but as someone who questions the constraints of traditional masculinity and is rewarded for it.

On the one hand, I want to praise Disney for taking another step closer to one day having openly non-heterosexual protagonists, to encourage them to take further steps like this one, but on the other I find it difficult to praise a movie for having Disney’s first ‘openly gay character’ when we don’t know for certain that he is gay, and it’s certainly not openly if he is, and when we remember that Disney was founded in 1923. This is far too long a wait for representation that has come in the form of a side character who still isn’t really given the kind of voice that the LGBT+ community deserves.

Review | A Sister More Like Me by Barbara Jean Hicks and Brittney Lee

A Sister More Like Me

by Barbara Jean Hicks and Brittney Lee

My Rating: 

When they were very young, royal sisters Anna and Elsa were as close as could be. But then everything changed, and now they couldn't be more different. They agree on just one thing: they both wish they had a sister more like them....

Featuring the princesses of Disney's Frozen, this spirited look at sibling relationships is told in verse and features beautiful illustrations by an artist from the film.

I'm a humungous Disney fan - I know way too many songs by heart, and Beauty and the Beast will always be my favourite film of all time - but I have to admit to being one of those bitter people who wasn't all that impressed with Frozen. The art's stunning, but personally I don't think the music's all that great, it doesn't feel like Disney music to me, and the story is full of plotholes that I'm not going to bother getting into now.

If that's the case, Jess, then why on earth are you reviewing a Frozen children's picture book?

Well, reader, I have four nieces, two of whom are the ripe old ages of seven and four. This means they're the ideal age to be swept up in the Frozen frenzy, which means I've now had to listen to 'Let It Go' so many times in the car that I twitch whenever I hear it on the radio.

Earlier this year, the younger of those two nieces became a big sister to a little sister, and when I came across this book I couldn't resist picking it up for her for Christmas. She's a wonderful big sister, she loves her little sister to bits and she's always eager to help out, and I wanted to get her a little something that she can read, but that she and her little sister can also read together in a few years' time.

Despite not being a Frozen fanatic, this book is gorgeous. Too many people dismiss children's fiction, and in particular picture books like these, but so much effort goes into producing beautiful children's books, and this one is no exception. It's told entirely in rhyme, making it a lot of fun to read aloud which is perfect for bedtime, and both Elsa and Anna are given the chance to have their say, with alternating fonts so smaller children will always be able to figure out who's saying what.

What I love most about this little book, however, are Brittney Lee's stunning illustrations. Lee actually worked on the film itself, so this book is not only ideal for children, but also for anyone interested in illustration or animation, or anyone who just likes collecting Disney and/or Frozen art. I love the colours she uses - blues, purples and pinks - and how there isn't a single page devoid of some sort of colour or illustration. It's just a very beautiful book.

So whether you know a child who would love this, have a child you'd like to read this with, or you just happen to be or know someone who likes Disney art, this book is very cute and would make for a lovely gift under the Christmas tree!

The Versatile Blogger Award!

I was nominated by Mallory @ The Local Muse for the Versatile Blogger Award - thanks Mallory!

Rules:

1. Nominate 15 other bloggers relatively new to blogging.

2. Let the bloggers know that you've nominated them.

3. Share ten random facts about yourself.

4. Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to their blog.

5. Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your post.

I'm going to be very naughty and not nominate anyone specific because I'm lazy I honestly don't think I know 15 relatively new bloggers, which means I need to discover some new bloggers! So if you want to do this then consider yourself nominated!

1. I've broken four bones, but I've never dislocated anything and I hope I never do.
2. I'd love to one day work as a staff writer for a magazine like SciFiNow.
3. I loathe indecisiveness. Especially when it comes from myself.
4. I deeply regret never taking any music lessons while I was at school. In fact I feel like I regret a few too many things for someone who's only 23.
5. I'm bad at watching TV.
6. Disney's Beauty and the Beast is my favourite film of all time.
7. I'd like to pass my driving test this year, even though the thought of getting behind the wheel of a car terrifies me.
8. I'm going to see Imagine Dragons in November and I'm very excited!
9. One year I'd love to go to a Halloween party dressed as Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas, I just need to convince someone to dress up as Jack and go with me first!
10. Speaking of The Nightmare Before Christmas, I think it's thanks to watching films like that one, Hocus Pocus and Beetlejuice that made me interested in spooky stories from a very early age...

Thanks again for the nomination, Mallory!

Review | Pixar's Brave

My Rating: ***

Well last autumn I finally got the chance to see Brave at my campus cinema. As a Disney fanatic I'm usually first in line to see one of their new releases when it first comes out but, alas, I was unable to see Brave during the summer. (Yes, I realise how ridiculously late this is in terms of reviews - sorry about that!)
     So, what did I think of it?
     First and foremost I was ecstatic to finally have a Pixar film with a heroine. That's not to say Pixar films are usually a sausage-fest, in fact their female characters are, more often than not, instant favourites. What would Monsters Inc. be without Boo? How would UP tug at our heartstrings without Ellie? Where would the Toy Story franchise be without Jessie? Even so it was great to sit back and watch a Pixar film with a leading lady. A leading lady with fantastic hair.
     If starring Pixar's first heroine isn't enough, the movie should also be praised for giving its viewers a Disney princess whose mother is alive. It's a miracle! Merida isn't the first princess to have a mother, of course. In Sleeping Beauty Aurora is eventually reunited with her mother just as Rapunzel is eventually reunited with hers in Tangled, Tiana has only a mother in The Princess and the Frog,  and, as she is listed as a Disney princess, Mulan also has a mother. Out of eleven princesses, only four have a mother.
     What makes Brave really special in this respect, however, is that the entire film is centered around Merida's relationship with her mother. Unlike the other princesses who are with their mothers for a moment and then married off, Merida refuses this stereotype which is so often thrust upon Disney's heroines. In fact an arranged marriage is proposed, but no romance ensues; there is no chemistry between Merida and any of her suitors. I was a little suspicious that perhaps instead she'd have a best friend in a stable boy who was in love with her or something along those lines but, luckily for me, there was no such relationship present in the film. It was a refreshing change. Though I was a little disappointed that Merida's only friend appeared to be her horse; aside from her little brothers it seemed as though she was the only child in her clan but as friendship wasn't integral to the plot we can overlook that.
     As we can always expect with a Pixar film the animation was superb. Every time Merida moved her head I was mesmerised by each of her curls; I've always been absolutely rubbish at art, so when I see art like that so perfectly executed it fills me with awe. When it comes to the Disney films you can always find the odd snob who believes that only the animators who work on 2D films are worth appreciating. That is nonsense. It's impossible to argue that the animators who work for Pixar aren't talented, each one of them is ridiculously good at what they do and the films just wouldn't be the same without their skills. That being said I found myself appreciating the film's animation a lot more than the plot which, considering I went to see a story and not just a series of pictures, was rather disappointing.
     The beginning of the film was rather nicely paced, but the scene in which Queen Elinor - Merida's mother - helped Merida with her public speaking and changed her mind about the betrothal seemed too nice for a film which was initially marketed as a return to the darker fairy/folk tales. In fact any darkness at all was pretty much lost when the decision to include Merida's three mischeivous little brothers was made; throughout the film it felt as though there was completely unnecessary humour, even the witch with whom Merida strikes the deal was surprisingly comic. Of course the fact these films are made for children should be taken into account, but Disney and Pixar are well known for incorporating other elements which include all members of the family of all ages and for a large portion of this film I personally felt as though the wider audience had been forgotten.
     Even so I still enjoyed the film and I'm sure I'll buy my own copy of it eventually, but if I'm completely honest I was a little disappointed with Pixar's first female-led film. Not because of the female lead, but because of the juvenile way in which a lot of the story was handled; I was hoping for a return to the dark stories of my childhood and instead I was given a story which ended abruptly and was constantly interrupted by three wee boys with ginger perms.