h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Disney Princes - A87818971
Author: Bluebottle - U43530

Some Day My Prince Will Come to Peer Review.

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Excellent

I enjoyed reading this - it has developed nicely since May

I'm not clear about what you mean in relation to the Beast being a lion

Interesting about Snow White's prince - I seem to recall that he had a name, but that could be because Disney gave him a name for marketing purposes in the 1990s...

What does it mean in the table that Bambi is a young child?

I think it should be Valkyries in the Adolf table

What is the significance of Karaoke in the tables? Is it just that the Prince does the singing?

I haven't seen Frozen yet, either, which is a film I should watch somewhen... Are there princesses in that?

You should certainly watch Frozen, Saha.

I've reworded the Beast lion section so hopefully that is clearer now.

I've had a look around and apparently Snow White's Prince has also, over the years, been called Prince Charming, Prince Florian, Prince Frederick, Prince Ferdinand and Prince David. As none of those names are used in the film, I'm going to stick to 'A Prince'.

Yes, the Karaoke section is just basically the songs the Prince sings - I could call it 'Song Sung' if you think that would be clearer?

Yes, there are two Princesses in 'Frozen', which I recommend. It is probably the strongest Disney film of the 21st Century to date. Catchy tunes, well-written lyrics and the plot is basically about a woman named Elsa who, unable to conform, hides herself away with the effect that she and her sister both suffer. There's a cold spell for a bit which involves incredible animation, and at the end despite having spent all her life being afraid that if people knew the truth about her, they'd despise her, actually everyone accepts Elsa for who she is (baddies excepted, but then they’re baddies). Incredibly positive messages (acceptance and the importance of familial love) wrapped up in a catchy film that mocks Disney stereotypes, has effective comic relief characters and the song 'Let It Go', which has quickly become a mainstay of children's birthday parties and weddings.

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Hello this is an interesting entry

Songs sung may confuse a little as it could mean all the so GS in the film, the prince's songs may be better

Entry A - The Disney Princes

Hi Bluebottle. This is an excellent entry - factual with a sprinkling of humour.

Do you think it might be too easy to confuse the "Princes" of the title with "Princess"? Would it be better to use a title with the word Prince in the singular? You could try "What It Takes to be a Disney Prince" or something like that.



"Although marrying a prince makes a woman a princess, marrying a princess does not make a man a prince (although marrying a woman of a higher rank, such as Queen or Empress can)."
-- this should be reworded to avoid the two sections starting with "although". I suggest:

Marrying a prince makes a woman a princess, but marrying a princess does not make a man a prince (although marrying a woman of a higher rank, such as Queen or Empress can).

"princes on their own just cannot get the girl without considerable help" -- the "on their own" isn't needed because of "without considerable help". Reword as:

"a woman wearing new high-heeled glass slippers and a big dress descending a staircase"

"princes just cannot get the girl without considerable help"

"Perhaps the reason why Disney's princes so enjoy kissing women others consider to be corpses, such as Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Meg and Giselle, is because they know that breeding is something to do with lying down?"

-- this seems not to fit in to the rest of the section. It doesn't follow on from anything, and doesn't seem to make much sense anyway. Breeding is connected with lying down. I suggest you think of some other way of presenting the fact that the princes like to kiss sleeping or apparently dead princesses.

You say "Another way to tell whether or not the prince is a goody or baddy is by how much fighting they do." but you don't actually tell us how to tell this, and in fact further confuse us by telling that good princes may do a lot of fighting or very little, which suggests that this is not in fact a reliable way of telling whether they are good or bad.

In your table of princes, the names of the princes themselves are centred while everything else in that column is left aligned. I think it would look better if the prince names were also left aligned. Your choice. You can do this by putting TH ALIGN="LEFT in the tag (I think).

The suddenly appearance of Hitler in the list stretches incredulity somewhat. I suggest you prepare the reader in advance, before the list, by saying something like:

"Most of the Disney princes are fictional characters, but two are based on real-life historical figures. Readers will certainly have heard of at least one of these, unless they have spent their lives under a rock."

When you say that Hitler appears as himself, do you mean that the voice of Hitler was used for the character, or merely that the character was drawn to resemble Hitler?

Valkeries --> Valkyries

If balls are held in honour of Prince Charming, then Holding Balls is not really one of his hobbies; it's more "attending balls".

his fiancé --> his fiancée

Is "Something There" a Karaoke number? I don't remember the Beast singing it. Isn't it rather a "Song About"? (It's a while since I've seen this film)

Some of that is slightly jumbled, but I'm sure you'll figure it out.

Thanks for your in-depth comments, Gnomon - have I accidentally written something you liked? I suppose with the amount of rubbish I churn out it was bound to happen one day, just like infinite monkeys and Shakespeare

At the moment I'll stick with the current title. I hope that people don't misread 'Princes' for 'Princess', after all, if this was about princesses, the title would be 'The Disney Princesses' as it is well known that there have been more than one Disney Princess. But I am happy to see what other people think - if other readers think that 'Princes' is confusing, I'll change it.

I've added a bit about real-life princes and that they used archive footage to ensure that Adolf Hitler is actually voiced by Adolf Hitler.

'Something There' is a karaoke number - technically it also counts as a 'Song About', but I've put 'Beauty and the Beast' in that box, and want to keep both. It gets sung by pretty much everyone, and the Beast starts singing about his paws. Hang on, I'll look up the lyrics...

She glanced this way, I thought I saw
And when we touched she didn't shudder at my paw
No it can't be, I'll just ignore
But then she's never looked at me that way before

What were you asking about:
"a woman wearing new high-heeled glass slippers and a big dress descending a staircase"

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I do like this entry, BB. When I don't like an entry, I will explicitly say so.

Never mind about the woman on the staircase. I tried rewording it and only made it more ambiguous, so I changed my mind. Leave it as it is.

This entry made me laugh - a lot. And I assiduously avoid Disney animation, so that's saying something.

However, reading this as a naive audience member, I couldn't understand this paragraph at all:

>>Although most Disney princes are heroic, fictional characters, two are based on notorious historical figures. One of whom was never a prince and was still alive at the time the short film featuring him was made. Extracts from his speeches were used so that the character is actually voiced by him.<<

From this thread, I'm guessing you meant Hitler? Could you say so, explicitly, for us dummies who don't get it?

Glad you enjoyed the entry - I've re-written that sentence so hopefully it makes more sense now.

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Much clearer, thanks!

This is looking good

I read it again, and there are a few minor points I spotted.

In Bambi section, I think the one table with a blank line between the two princes makes them merge together too much, so two tables might look clearer. The same for Lion King and Hercules

For the Great Prince of the Forest, his character is "Not much of a husband or a father." - is that a bit harsh?

Prince Charming doesn't have a voice actor listed - does he not speak at all in the film?!

Why is Prince Adam in inverted commas?

"a frog, a well-established regal animal for princes to become" - what does that mean? Is it just that the animal is well-established because there's a fairytale about a frog prince?

I've tried the article with two tables in the sections mentioned, but it doesn't really look clearer - without any content between the tables they more-or-less merge together anyway. I've tweaked the tables, though.

I don't think that I was harsh about the Great Prince of the Forest's character. The film 'Bambi' is seen from Bambi's point of view. Bambi barely sees his dad growing up, and doesn't spend any quality time with him. From that, what more can we say about the Great Prince other than that he doesn't spend any time with his wife or child?

The Beast is never called 'Prince Adam' in the film, but that name was used by Disney for merchandising purposes. I've also reworded the regal animal bit too.

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Facts and Content

Under hobbies of Beast, you might like to add "Growling" and "Brooding".

Wasn't Simba voiced by two different people?

Phrasing

"Charming not only fails to get his love interest's name and address"

This sentence may confuse the reader because "Charming" is not a normal name, and you have not previously mentioned it. You could say "Prince Charming in _Cinderella_ not only fails..."

"the most unexpected Disney prince of all is Adolf Hitler, despite never actually being a prince" -- when you say "actually" here, do you mean "in real life"? The word actually could refer to what happens in the film. I'd reword it as "despite never being a prince in real life".

Spelling and Punctuation

romantic atmospheric --> romantic atmosphere

hyenas --> hyaenas (I think... check this)

Bambi - (1942) ... remove the hyphen

Thanks for your contributions there!

I can't deny that Beast liked "Growling" and "Brooding", so I've added those to the list.

I've also added young Simba's actor, an explanation of Charming

"the most unexpected Disney prince of all is Adolf Hitler, despite never actually being a prince" -- when you say "actually" here, do you mean "in real life"? The word actually could refer to what happens in the film. I'd reword it as "despite never being a prince in real life".

My dictionary has both hyenas and hyaenas, but without implying that the spelling difference is a UK/US divide Hmmm....

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Don't worry about the hyenas. It's not often I get to type that sentence.

I won't worry about hyænas when the wolves are running...

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I watched The Princess and the Frog today, and now understand what you mean by a frog being a well established animal - fascinating reflexive story that is aware of its own story...

I didn't realise it was quite so moving though (wasn't prepared for that...) but I'm allowed to have a little cry if I want to

As many Disney films are now going out of their way to tug at your heart strings and are deliberately adding layers of emotional resonance, that's fine I myself may have had something in my eye while watching 'Frozen' the first few dozen times...

I've expanded the footnote to clarify that this article is looking purely at Disney's animated films, and excludes live-action films and all television series - simply because otherwise the entry would never end!

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