Over school vacation I took my 10-year-old daughter to see “Cinderella,” curious about how they would update this “timeless fairytale.” After all, we’ve been seeing charismatic and outspoken princesses like Anna from “Frozen” and Rapunzel from “Tangled”; I figured Cinderella might swap her glass slippers for Converse high-tops, start a wish-making business with her fairy …

Movie Notes: Disney’s Frozen

Disney’s Frozen isn’t your typical princess movie. Shannon discusses the strengths and shortcomings of the mega-hit animated film.

Princesses isolated in a castle, magical powers, absent parents, and a handsome prince who proposes after a giddy night of romance. Check, check, check, check. Frozen starts by fulfilling many of our expectations for a Disney feature. However, there is a twist: All of the above occurs in the first twenty or so minutes of the movie. Rather than a wedding and a slow fade to happily ever after, the movie spends its remainder telling a story about love that is quite different from what we’ve come to expect from the company that’s made its fortune selling little girls the idea of falling in love at first sight.

Cheering ‘Brave’

Shannon discusses the many reasons why she is now obsessed with Pixar’s Brave.

When Pixar released the first teasers for Brave a year ago, I got goosebumps. First, there was the title. Then, there was a glimpse of a main character with seriously wild red hair. On top of all this, she was an archer! Not a gardener or a reader or a singer. No, this girl, Merida, was a …

Ever since my daughter Winnie was born three years ago, I’ve been struggling with princesses. Well, with princesses and with all that seems to come along with them. The emphasis on beauty, the focus on being desired/getting married, the assertion that girls can’t (or wouldn’t want to) do the same things as boys. And, the …

In light of certain events in the news lately – namely, the attacks on collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin and the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire – the time seems ripe to highlight the struggle for workers’ rights in America. I do so while holding up a gloriously flawed female role-model whose …

I have a love/hate relationship with princesses. I love them out of nostalgia. As a child, my cousin, sister, friends, and I spent many afternoons at the public pool swimming around pretending to be mermaids. We were all Ariels – a legion of them – singing, undulating our “tails,” and whipping our long, wet hair …