Of frogs and princesses
15,000 words on the rewrite. Also, I've figured out the outline for the unwritten part of the book, but as I've promised a friend that she can read the first part over her spring break I'm going to finish the rewrite first.
I have the best friends. How many people are not only willing but eager to read their friends amateur literary efforts?
***
Also! Yesterday I finally got to see The Princess and the Frog!
I liked it. Not quite as much as I liked Mulan, which might be my favorite Disney movie, but it was a solid, funny, light-footed entrance into the Disney canon.
I love Prince Naveen with his ukelele and his funny comments (though I can't blame his butler for wanting shut of him), and sweet, clueless Charlotte, who is everything movies usually make fun of but is redeemed by her essential decency. She isn't high on empathy - she doesn't see problems unless you actually shove them beneath her nose - but once she sees she wants to help.
Compared to Naveen and Charlotte Tiana is a bit flatter. She's hampered by her hard-working Everygirl role, and - while making the restaurant a dream she inherited from her father is sweet - the fact that not merely the idea of a restaurant, but its particulars, seem to be inherited makes it less personally revealing.
On the other hand, I adored the art deco restaurant daydream sequence. Just beautiful! I loved the scene where the fireflies led them through the swamp, too. (I wonder what Cajuns think of the Cajun frog-hunters, though.)
I wasn't convinced that a single session of mushroom-mincing would convince Naveen to give up his playboy ways and dreams of rich bride - or rather, I believe he would fall for Tiana, but I can't imagine that the reality of working didn't test their marriage to the limit.
I prefer romances where the characters realize or reveal each others' excellence, rather than creating it from whole cloth. Mulan and Shang each learn to see in each other the bravery and strength they admire, and by falling in love strengthen their best selves rather than becoming someone new.
I have the best friends. How many people are not only willing but eager to read their friends amateur literary efforts?
***
Also! Yesterday I finally got to see The Princess and the Frog!
I liked it. Not quite as much as I liked Mulan, which might be my favorite Disney movie, but it was a solid, funny, light-footed entrance into the Disney canon.
I love Prince Naveen with his ukelele and his funny comments (though I can't blame his butler for wanting shut of him), and sweet, clueless Charlotte, who is everything movies usually make fun of but is redeemed by her essential decency. She isn't high on empathy - she doesn't see problems unless you actually shove them beneath her nose - but once she sees she wants to help.
Compared to Naveen and Charlotte Tiana is a bit flatter. She's hampered by her hard-working Everygirl role, and - while making the restaurant a dream she inherited from her father is sweet - the fact that not merely the idea of a restaurant, but its particulars, seem to be inherited makes it less personally revealing.
On the other hand, I adored the art deco restaurant daydream sequence. Just beautiful! I loved the scene where the fireflies led them through the swamp, too. (I wonder what Cajuns think of the Cajun frog-hunters, though.)
I wasn't convinced that a single session of mushroom-mincing would convince Naveen to give up his playboy ways and dreams of rich bride - or rather, I believe he would fall for Tiana, but I can't imagine that the reality of working didn't test their marriage to the limit.
I prefer romances where the characters realize or reveal each others' excellence, rather than creating it from whole cloth. Mulan and Shang each learn to see in each other the bravery and strength they admire, and by falling in love strengthen their best selves rather than becoming someone new.