Brave

Well, Pixar...you've done it again! Brave was so incredible, I absolutely loved it.

It has been too long since I've seen a Disney movie in theaters that has made me happy (please, don't even get me started on Tangled). The music, the animation...everything was spot on. The story was fantastic, to have a movie not focus on the "love story" aspect, but the mother-daughter relationship...specifically the mother-daughter relationship where the mother is trying to change her daughter. It hits a bit close to home, and seems very familiar. (Interesting that my own mother -who was sitting next to me at the movie- didn't pick up on that at all. Go figure.) 

The main character is Merida and despite her mother's insistence that "a lady does not place her weapons on the table," Merida remains a free-spirited Scottish princess who prefers archery over romance, much to her mother's chagrin. 

After Queen Elinor's attempt to marry off her first born goes awry, Merida follows her heart (and a will o' the whisp) in hopes that changing her mother may lead to changing her own fate. The princess procures a spell that ends up changing her mother into a bear. (Just for the record, if my mother got turned into a bear, she would be very mad at me...but probably still love me. I know because I asked.)

One of my favorite things about this movie is that it is set in Scotland. I love Celtic/Gaelic culture (being Ir-ish myself). I love the how whimsical it seems, centered around fairy tales and folk lore. I feel like I'd fit right in with all of that. I can see Princess Merida and I being good friends!

White Horse

I may be 25 years old...but I'm convinced that there is a teenager inside of me. And she listens to Taylor Swift!! My inner teenager relates to TSwizzle's music and feels as though these songs were written specifically for me. My outer adult realizes that this is ridiculous and is slightly ashamed to share an iTunes account with the younger version. I like her sassy 'I don't need you' songs, I like her fun, upbeat 'I have a crush on you' songs, and I like her 'I love you, but you love someone else' songs...like this one:

Are adults not allowed to have or express these feelings? Are teenage girls the only ones allowed to be sulky and moody (or sassy or upbeat or whatever) when it comes to boys? I guess by now, as an adult my life (which one would assume includes my 'love life') should be more together than this...

It's not

'Cause this ain't a fairytale

It's my life!

Once Upon a Time

Day 17-Favorite mini series
I've never been a big mini series person, therefore my favorite is the only one I've ever seen. But it's good!
Sometime during my freshman year of college I got sick. Like, sick-sick, not just the sniffles. Luckily it was a weekend, and my horrible roommate was out of town...so y'know...silver lining and all that. This was my first experience being sick away from home, and I didn't much care for it. I didn't know how to take care of myself when I was sick, that was always mommy's job. So here I am, this pathetic sick mess of a person when my friend who lived across the hall came over to like, hang out or something, and she ended up taking awesome care of me. She brought me ginger ale and introduced me to The 10th Kingdom to help me feel better. I love how well she knows me.

It is a mini series that follows a father-daughter combo from NYC through a portal to fairy tale world. The trolls are trying to take over, and are in league with the evil queen who has turned her princely step-son into a dog. They are joined by a wolf-man (half man, half wolf, all handsome) and they have to stop the evil queen and the trolls and get the prince-dog back in his human body. A myriad of fairy tales and nursery rhymes are incorporated or alluded to, such as Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, The Emperor's New Clothes, Little Red Riding Hood, The Story of King Midas, Rumpelstiltskin, Little Bo Peep, Jack and the Beanstalk...and several others that I can't remember right now...they are all jumbled together and mixed up and thrust into a somewhat modern word...in short, it's awesome!!

"Ella the girl of the cinders...

Did the wash and the walls and the winders,
But she landed a prince that was brawny and blue eyed and blonde.
But I honestly doubt that
She could ever have done it without that
Crazy lady
With the wand.
Cinderella had outside help,
I have no-one but me;
Fairy godmother, godmother, godmother...where can you be?
I haven't got a fairy godmother...I haven't got a godmother...
I have a mother...a plain, ordinary woman."

Cinderella always has been and always will be my favorite fairy tale. Ever After to Ella Enchanted (the book...don't even get me started on the movie "version"); Disney to Rodgers and Hammerstein...and almost everything in between. Don't ask me why. But it's the reason I bought this mug. The 'Once a Princess, always a Princess' phrase I could take or leave...but it's a Cinderella mug and that sold me!


Alas, I am still waiting for my Prince Charming...