cinematic romance. heart-pounding adventure.
My favourite Disney Princess soundtrack is Beauty and the Beast.
I love the songs and I love the score.
I love the music so much that not only do I own the original motion picture soundtrack, but I also own the original Australian cast recording with Rachael Beck as Belle and Hugh Jackman as Gaston. And yes, he’s brilliant.
I’m ridiculously looking forward to the score for the live action version being released in 2017 as well.
For me, Princess Aurora and her alias Briar Rose are truly lovely names, but I have to choose Flynnigan Rider, otherwise known as Eugene Fitzherbert, orphan-turned-thief-turned-hero from Tangled.
I love both of his names. I love how he named himself after an adventurer and shortened it to Flynn. I like how he admits the original Flynnigan Rider wasn’t a thief, as he was rich enough he could do anywhere and do anything he wants, and that’s his inspiration for trying to make quick money.
Eugene Fitzherbert has the ring of Engelbert Humperdinck to it, which ironically enough is actually a pseudonym for Arnold George Dorsey. I like how as soon as Flynn tells Rapunzel his real name she starts calling him by that name. I think Eugene Fitzherbert is meant to be a slightly ridiculous name, or at least not halfway as cool as Flynnigan Rider, but i think it has a nice ring to it as well.
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I think it’s undeniable that Prince Adam, otherwise known as the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, has the most incredible eyes of any Disney prince.
It’s a plot point that his eyes are so identifiable. Belle recognises his eyes in the painting in the West Wing that he slashed when he was first turned into the Beast. As the Beast, the eyes are the only thing he has that hints at or even remains of his humanity. And then when the Beast transforms back into Prince Adam, Belle only has to look into his eyes to recognise him.
As for the princesses, I think Rapunzel has the most incredible eyes. They are larger than even your typical Disney princess, and a beautiful shade of green, a colour not often used. Rapunzel’s eyes are not a plot point, but I almost feel like they should be, since they are the same as a baby and as a young adult. There’s a mosaic of the baby Rapunzel in the city, and I’m pretty sure adult Rapunzel recognises something about her eyes being similar before she’s distracted.
My favourite Disney Princess singing voice is Ariel from The Little Mermaid!
Canonically, Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty is supposed to be the best singer? But considering she has, like, seventeen lines in her whole film, I’m ignoring her. After all, Ariel’s voice is a major plot point!
Where would be in, both in Disney and in musical theatre, if it weren’t for the first film of the Disney Renaissance styling itself on a Broadway musical?
And then becoming a Broadway musical?
My favourite romantic moment in any Disney Princess film is the moment when the Beast changes into Prince Adam because Belle says “I love you” just before the final rose petal falls in Beauty and the Beast.
They’re outside the tower in the rain and the Beast is wounded and dying from his battle with Gaston, and Belle’s exhausted from her wild ride back to the castle, and all she wants is for him to live because she realises she doesn’t want to be without him.
That’s love.
And then the rain changes colour and the music swells and some magical force raises the Beast up like he’s Jesus rising from the tomb and then BAM he’s this ridiculously good-looking HUMAN man.
Literally the power of her love transforms him.
Which, unfortunately, as romantic as that is, is a terrible trope that no one is real life should ever expect to happen.
Lissa Bilyk