Story Obssessed

This is a blog exploring everything related to story-telling: books, comics, movies, TV shows, and theater.

[storyobesessed]

RIP Adam West

Last Saturday we lost a great legend, Adam West.  He was best known for being the wonderful representation of Batman on the TV series in the 50′s, and was my personal favorite guest star on Family Guy.  He made me laugh hysterically every time and he will be sorely missed.

“ How many actors have a shot at being a part of something that became a part of pop culture? It's been very rewarding. I'm not getting the 20 million bucks for the new movies, but at least I'm getting warmth and recognition from people wherever I go.”

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Top 10 Disney Princesses

#1: Belle

Belle is my favorite princess for so many reasons.  I think that she is the most amazing role model and I defy anyone who says that she suffers from Stockholm syndrome.  If she did she would have changed her personality to fit the Beast and the opposite happens.  I think she is amazing because she is a romantic, a dreamer, a literary lover.  She is also so strong, it is really inspirational.  Do you know how hard it is to be the one person who is a forward thinker in a group of people?  She is the only person that sees Gaston as the sleezeball he is, even her father suggests that she should try to be with him.  And come on, how many people would honestly be able to not only keep their cool, but yell back at a huge terrifying beast?  She never backs down from her beliefs for one second.  She does everything she can to save her father and can love a person based on who they are inside, not based on their looks.  She is so amazing and inspirational, I love Belle!

“I want adventure in the great wide somewhere.  I want it more than I can tell.  And for once it might be grand to have someone understand.”

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Top 10 Disney Princesses

#2: Rapunzel

Maybe people do not typically think of Rapunzel as one of the strongest characters, she is not the best fighter, and is in fact probably the biggest dreamer of them all.  But to realize how strong she really is you have to look at her situation.  She was in an abusive relationship her entire life.  Mother Gothel constantly put her down to keep her in check, to keep her in her “rightful place” for her entire life.  And yet she still kept a sense of wonder and amazement at the world and managed to break out and explore it against her wishes, which if you have ever experienced an abusive relationship is truly amazing.  Breaking out of that cycle when she has literally known nothing else is truly incredible.  She stand up for Flynn to Mother Gothel and when she realizes what she has done, she never struggles with the love she once felt for her mom.  She fights back immediately, and in my book that makes her a major badass and a great role model for people out there who think that they cannot break out of the vicious cycle that is any kind of abusive relationship.

“I promise.  And when I promise something, I never ever break that promise”

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Top 10 Disney Princesses

#6: Ariel

I have always loved The Little Mermaid and Ariel and her beautiful hair and fun attitude. She is such a dreamer and that is so fun as a girl to watch.  She is probably the most rebellious of the Disney princesses, which is saying something because they are all rebels in their own ways.  As much as I love her, she is also so rebellious it borders on selfish because she does not think about how making a deal with Ursula would affect her father or her family at all.  She has tunnel vision about her own goals and again while I love her and she used to be my favorite ever, as an adult I can see more of the flaws in her.  She really does showcase the idea that a controlling parents actually ends up pushing their children away, often to do the thing that they did not want them to do in the first place!  (Even if in this case it was her father being overly paranoid and unaccepting of others unlike him)

“Watch and you’ll see, someday I’ll be part of your world”

[storyobesessed]

Top 10 Disney Princesses

#3: Jasmine

Jasmine is an amazingly down to earth princess considering that she grew up in the palace surrounded by riches and servants with little to no contact with the outside world.  That is why I find her so admirable.  How did she not end up a spoiled brat?  She expresses such an amazing feminist attitude, she wants to be seen as a person and not a tool to be married off to the first prince who can help her kingdom.  She is so admirable to me because when Aladdin becomes a prince, she rejects him until she figures out who he really is.  She sees the huge flaws in her society and she will not just go along with them.  

“How dare you?  All of you!  Standing around deciding my future!  I am not a prize to be won!”  

[storyobesessed]

Top 10 Disney Princesses

#4: Moana

She may be the newest Disney princess, but man is she awesome!  To me she embodies the things that I love about so many others on this list all in one.  She is brave, a dreamer and strong.  What I liked about her that made her different from the other princesses is while she felt the call of the sea and wished to travel, she also came to understand and love her home just as her father wanted her to.  I love this blend of being rebellious and still finding the love for her home and her people and wanting to grow to be the best leader that she can for them.  She is incredibly brave to stand up to a demi-god and a lava demon with little to no skills other than her ability to believe that she is there for a purpose that is bigger than herself that will save her people.

“I will carry you hear in my heart, you remind me that come what may I know the way.”

[storyobesessed]

Top 10 Disney Princesses

#5: Anna

Frozen gets a lot of hate I feel because it became so unbelievably popular, you could not look anywhere without seeing something about it.  Also because people tried to say it was the only Disney movie that focused on sisters (Lilo and Stitch)  the only one where it was not about just finding true love (Brave) and on and on.  However if you ignore what everyone is saying, I really do enjoy the movie.  And as much as I love Let it Go and the tortured Elsa, I think that Anna is really where it is at.  She is a dreamer too, but she is so spunky and determined I really love her for that.  She has been largely ignored by her sister and does not understand why, but she always stands by her side, believes in her, and is willing to die for her.  I love that she is trying to figure out her own way in the world, but she is sure in her convictions to help her sister and her kingdom.  

“You don’t have to protect me, I’m not afraid.  Please don’t shut me out again.”

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Top 10 Disney Princesses

#7: Mulan

Mulan pretty much defined the term “badass bitch”.  What I like about Mulan is like other Disney princesses she is unhappy being where she is, she does not fit in with what everyone thinks that she should be. But she also does not go on her journey to figure out about herself.  It probably gave her more of a push, but the reason that she went to join the army was to save her father from what she was sure was a certain death if he joined the army.  She has a hard time when she first gets into the army, not really knowing what she has gotten herself into.  But eventually she finds that she does not have to rely on brute strength when she is fighting but on her wits to succeed.

“When will my reflection show who I am inside?”

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Top 10 Disney Princesses

#8: Nala

I will not even argue with anyone who tries to say that Nala is not a Disney princess.  Of course she is, she is engaged to Simba, who is a prince, singing about being a king, who cares if she is a lion.  She is a strong badass bitch.  She loved getting in trouble with Simba as a child and grows up in the horrible world where Scar is in charge.  When she finds Simba, she immediately tries to convince him to stand up to Scar and save them all.  She is wonderfully headstrong, and she took a huge risk in the first place leaving Pride Rock to find someone to help with the horrible conditions under Scar’s rule.  She never backs down from what she believes in and that is really admirable.

“Why won’t he be the king I know he is, the king I see inside?”

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Top 10 Disney Princesses

#9: Merida

Merida is another princess that exudes strength and she is, well...brave!  She is basically the equivalent of a tomboy who prefers fighting and archery to being a proper princess.  Merida is awesome because she does not conform to the ridiculous rules of her society to marry just to keep the peace.  She is also unique because when she says she wants to marry for love she doesn’t actually have someone else in mind and never finds someone by the end of the film.  However, the whole film is about how although she is headstrong, she still has something to lean about being a leader from her mother.

“If you had a chance to change your fate would you?”

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I am counting down my list of the best Disney princesses.  I am basing it off of not just how much I enjoy them but by what incredible strong women they are.  Mind you this list is really hard because they are all inspirational in their own way.  

Top 10 Disney Princesses

#10: Pocahontas

Pocahontas is an amazing movie, and I have always felt this kinship with Native American culture and their connection to nature.  I love Pocahontas’s free spirit and her ability to see John Smith and the rest of the settlers simply as people while still maintaining a rightful fear of those who might harm her people.  She is beyond brave to jump in from of her father who is about to kill John Smith and by this act she herself manages to convince everyone to put down their arms (except for the bad guy of course) and try to get along with each other.  I like her because throughout she exudes a strength that is very becoming a leader.  In a way she does not change as a person, she just learns how to navigate in a situation that is new to her, and that shows her to be a great leader.

“I don’t know what I can do, still I know I’ve got to try”

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10 Amazing Period Movies

10: Sense & Sensability

I love Jane Austen.  I recently discovered the 2008 version of this story, and it is so hard to choose between this and the 1995 version.  I like different aspects from each film.  I loved Edward Ferras (ahh Dan Stevens) and Elinor in the newer one.  Although Emma Thompson was also amazing, I liked the love story and chemistry better in the 2009 version.  However the love story between Colonel Brandon and Marianne I thought was so amazing in the 1995 version.  Mostly because of the brilliance of Alan Rickman and Kate Winslet.  As far as secondary characters go, I found that I liked Willoughby more in the 2008 version (meaning that I hated him more like you are supposed to) and the score of secondary characters I enjoyed more in the 1995 version!

“I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way.”

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10 Amazing Period Movies

9: Captain America

I love so many movies from the WWII era, and while this is of course a superhero movie, it is also a period film.  I think that it gives a great representation of the simple charm of Steve Rodgers who was like so many in that time who had a great sense of national pride and wished for nothing more that to serve his country.  It is such a perfect film to set up his character and show how brave and kindhearted he truly is.

“ Whatever happens tomorrow you must promise me one thing. That you will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man. ”

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10 Amazing Period Movies

8: The Great Gatsby

You want a tragic love story this is it.  I grow to hate Daisy considerably by the end, but the journey is truly amazing and Baz Lurman again shows his brilliance in making such a beautiful film.  The cast is truly amazing led by the incredible Leonardo DiCaprio, who creates such a likeable character in Gatsby, who is by far the best person in the film, and the one who gets the short end of the stick in such a horrible way.

“ And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy. ”

[storyobesessed]

10 Amazing Period Movies

4: Chicago

The 20′s is such a fun and crazy period to do, and Chicago shows off some of the darker parts of it in such a light and fun manner.  The movie is centralized around a group of female murders and a snake of a lawyer and yet somehow you find yourself rooting for them.  That is truly the mark of an amazing story with such amazing characters and of course a truly spectacular soundtrack!

“ I don't mean to toot my own horn, but if Jesus Christ lived in Chicago today, and he had come to me and he had five thousand dollars, let's just say things would have turned out differently. ”

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10 Amazing Period Movies

3: Troy

I love the time period of Greek era with gods and amazing battles, and it does not get better than this movie.  I love that this story is told from both sides of the war, you love and hate people on both sides almost equally.  It shoes the true nature of war and also tells a classic tale in such a brilliant and hugely cinematic way.

“ You're still my enemy tonight. But even enemies can show respect. ”

[storyobesessed]

10 Amazing Period Movies

2: Anne of Green Gables

I have always loved the story of Anne of Green Gables.  She is such a fun loving and dramatic character who gets into all kinds of trouble and brings such a spark of joy and wonder to everyone that she meets.  She manages to win over everyone that she meets, no matter how much they hate her in the beginning and despite how cheeky she can be!

“Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.”