Family tickets to opening night of "Disney on Ice: Dare to Dream"?
Free, courtesy of a local magazine drawing!
Snazzy princess dress? $6 from a local children's clothing resale store...minor alterations and repairs were needed, but, since I happen to know my way around a sewing machine, it was well worth the bargain price!
Red cape for the girl and new black cape for the boy?
$6 in fabric...and scraps were turned into a big red hair bow!
Kickass princess shoes? $1.50 from another resale shop!
Entertaining ourselves with the phone camera during intermission? $0
And $0 spent on Disney merchandise!
Daring to dream? Priceless!
The thing is, we were going to buy tickets--but just for the wee girl and her dad. Call it an early birthday present. And they probably would have been the cheap, suck section tickets as well. I always enter contest for stuff we/I want and I never win. Ever. And then, somehow, in the past month? Just about everything I've entered for the kiddos we've won! So from now on, I'm totally entering their names on everything.
I've held a love/hate relationship with Disney for years. They've totally and completely screwed up every single fairy tale they've touched and it pisses me off. And don't even get me started on the whole needy, non-self rescuing princess crap. Ariel, not only changing species, but giving up her voice for a man? The biggest, stinky-est load of bull ever sold to little girls. In the past couple of years, however, there's been a change in the wind. A new crop of strong, independent leading ladies with actual personalities has come up.
Proof that the 'verse has a sense of humor? I spawned a princess loving girlie girl. I don't fight it. After all, I was given the freedom to be the tomboy when my own mother (Hi, Mama!) would have much preferred a girlie girl. We will, however, equip her with the tools she needs to be strong, independent and self rescuing. Wanting a prince to come rescue you is all together different from needing the rescue. And learning how to kick a little butt along the way certainly doesn't hurt either!
2 comments:
To be fair to Disney, the Hans Christian Andersen original also had our heroine changing species and giving up her voice for the man she loved. Only in the original, she also experienced constant excruciating pain walking on her new feet, like being lanced with knives. Oh, and of course her sacrifice ended up being in vain, as the prince ended up marrying someone else. When offered a choice between killing him (and regaining her mermaid form in the process) or dying, she chose death -- and in return received an immortal soul.
Left that part out of the Disney version, for some reason. Hmm.
I think it's the changing of the Little Mermaid on Disney's part that has always bothered me the most! We've been slowly introducing our kiddos to the original Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales as well as George MacDonald. I've searched and searched, but I have yet to find the version of Beauty and the Beast that I grew up with--the one where her name is Rose. It has a much clearer message about love, acceptance and stewardship.
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