Thursday, December 2, 2010

Disney Princess Month

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Disney's incredibly beautiful masterpiece, Sleeping Beauty

I have been remiss in not posting this sooner! As many of you know, I love cooking, but my rather shocking memory can be a great hindrance in the kitchen. ;-) Burnt biscuits, wrong measurements of ingredients, leaving ingredients out - I can't tell you how many scrapes I've gotten into in my baking escapades. Well - my memory (or lack thereof) can also be a jolly nuisance when it comes to blogging, too.

Ahem, so yes, I meant to post about this a long time ago, but hey, better late than never!

In celebration of the release of Disney's latest "Princess" offering, Tangled, the team @ Worthy of Note recently hosted a "Disney Princess Month", featuring reviews of 13 Disney classics.

They are also considering having a "Shakespeare" month (partly in honour of the upcoming film version of "The Tempest"). This will be similar, I presume, to the Disney Princess month, only featuring reviews of Shakespeare film adaptations instead. Sounds like fun! I actually haven't seen that many Shakespeare movies yet. Part of what puts me off is the fact that the Bard incorporated a good deal of bawdiness in his plays, and naturally, modern filmmakers tend to play up that element of his works as much as possible! But there are a few Shakespeare adaptations that I would really like to see sometime, including:

As You Like It - partly because it has a couple of my favourite actors in it (Romola Garai and Alfred Molina), and partly because the poster just looks so darn gorgeous; Twefth Night - because Helena Bonham Carter is amazing; and Much Ado About Nothing - though I gather there are couple of scenes in this one that will probably warrant fast-forwarding through.

So - if you have a weakness for Disney Princess films (like yours truly), head right over here

And about Shakespeare - any Shakespeare-based films that you love - or loathe?

8 comments:

Anna Maria said...

I love reading the play Twelfth Night, I have to watch the movie. I am so disappointed about Disney no longer doing Princess movies. Even now I'm older I still enjoy watching Cinderella and Ariel.

The Editrix said...

Maybe we could watch it together sometime!

Yes, I am also bitterly disappointed by Disney's decision. There was a 40 years gap between Sleeping Beauty and the next Disney Princess movie - The Little Mermaid. Let's hope we don't have to wait until 2050 for the next princess/fairytale film from Disney!!

Miss Laurie said...

I'm saddened about no more Princess films too. I do love fairy tales and Disney usually does a good job with them. Thanks for the link to the movie review, a run down memory lane. Make me want to curl up with an animated film and a big bowl of popcorn!

I do enjoy Shakespeare! I've had the privilege of seeing 'A Winter's Tale' and 'Twelfth Night' done by a local theater and they were excellent. I also saw a home school group do 'Twelfth Night' and that is definitely my favorite of Shakespeare's plays. I love the film version, the acting is incredible and even the Victorian settings and costumes are delightful! :)
'Much Ado About Nothing' has always been a family favorite and there are two scenes that we usually do fast forward through and we know right when to push the button. The acting in that is also superior to any I've seen, that's a film my family quotes often!
I recently saw 'As You Like It' and it was good but the settings and costumes are still strange to me. I do also enjoy the two 'Hamlet' adaptations (starring actors Kenneth Branagh and Mel Gibson) but those both have a few scenes that are questionable and the storyline of Hamlet is also a bit intense.
There are 3 older black and white adaptations of Shakespeare that I like fairly well. Laurence Olivier in 'Hamlet' and 'As You Like It'. Also 'Romeo and Juliet' starring John Barrymore is very good!
There really hasn't been any very good 'Romeo and Juliet' film adaptations, but that's alright because I don't really like the story anyway.
I've seen the 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' that has Christian Bale in it, it was alright but there's some scenes in it that aren't good. I do want to see 'The Merchant of Venice' (Jeremy Irons), that has an interesting story line.

I didn't know there was a new Tempest film! And Felicity Jones is Miranda! A little sci-fi/fantasy looking with all the special effects but it looks interesting! Thanks for this post, it was fun! :)

Elinor Dashwood/Melanie said...

Oh my word... 2050? Let's definitely hope they don't wait that long!! (I can't even imagine that long away....)

Thanks for the link to the reviews! I enjoyed reading them.

Unknown said...

I adore Sleeping Beauty, that is my all-time favorite Disney animated film. And I have GOT to make time to see Tangled this weekend! I am so looking forward to that one! Thanks for the link.

As You Like It is a very enjoyable film, I need to rewatch it sometime soon! I also love Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing, as well as Branagh's Hamlet and Love's Labours Lost.

Alex Binz said...

Thanks for the link! At this point it looks like we'll be doing "Shakespeare Month" in January, focusing on film adaptations of all stripes (including, for instance, "The Lion King" as an adaptation of Hamlet). If anyone has a blog and would like to participate, or would like to contribute reviews to be posted on "Worthy of Note," contact me and we can get it set up.

The Editrix said...

Great! Thanks for that, Publius.

Hayden said...

I nearly had a fit when I learned Disney wasn't planning on doing any more princess movies!! My all-time favorite is Beauty and the Beast, followed by Sleeping Beauty. I saw Tangled last night and though it wasn't quite as good as I was hoping, I really enjoyed it, and it's now #3 on my princess movies list! (I'm also working on a review of the movie at the moment on my blog, everystory-storygirl.blogspot.com)

Actually, when we saw Tangled they had a preview for a movie called "Gnomeo and Juliet" which is an animated film based on... well obviously Romeo and Juliet, and obviously with Gnomes. I hate to be judgemental over a movie I haven't seen, but I thought it just looked strange. What do you think? Could combining Shakespeare and garden gnomes actually work??