Making a List

Not that kind of list, denizens.  I have everything I need or I want and Santa is focusing on the littlest member of the clan, while being certain that the rest have socks and underwear to last a life time.

No, this list is for FlapJilly.  Her grandfather and I were sitting on Douglas, disgruntled viewers of gender stereotyped advertising on every channel we tried.  All the little girls were in pink... sparky pink... and most of them had tulle.  The ones with the biggest smiles were wearing tiaras or fairy princess wings.

Though Little Cuter went through a fairy princess stage in second grade, I think it had more to do with her friendship with Rachael than any real infatuation with spangles. Her wedding dress came from J Crew; it had pockets in lieu of lace. The notion of success through princess-ness is not part of her repertoire.

FlapJilly may have different ideas on the subject, and those will have to be treated with respect.  With that in mind, I started to make a list of Acceptable Princess Movies.

The first, most obvious, undisputed champion is Princess Bride.  True, Buttercup spends most of the movie being kidnapped and rescued and kidnapped and rescued, but it's the most quotable movie in our family pantheon, it's a good introduction to Christopher Guest, and the lessons it teaches are fairly perfect: sportsmanlike behavior, dedication to a cause, respect for genius, and, of course, believing in true love.

Next, I went to one of my classic Top 10 - Roman Holiday.  Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck and William Wyler and Rome.... what could be bad? as G'ma would say.  There is deception on both sides of the romantic equation, just as there is attention to duty and to a job well done. There are downsides to every career, princess-ing included, but Audrey manages to squeeze in one weekend of motor scooters and ice cream cones and haircuts before sucking it up and moving on with her life. 

SIR and Little Cuter treated us to Frozen on one of our visits.  I remember that it was beautiful and that the animation was incredible but I'm having a hard time recalling the story.  The kids were enthusiastic about it, and perhaps I will be, too.  But I've seen Princess Bride and Roman Holiday dozens of times; this list is too important to be added to randomly.  Ask me in a few years, after I've had time to watch again, and again, and again.

I know we'll watch Cinderella, because all those early Disney movies should be watched.  Big Cuter opines that in the first Star Wars Princess Leia is brave and heroic and he is my life line on anything Skywalker so I'll include it for sure. 

But that's as far as I can go.

There are Queen Movies we can watch when she's older, films like Elizabeth and Essex, but that list can wait for a while.  Can you think of others? 

It was a nice way to spend an afternoon, thinking back on movies that made me smile.  If you're so inclined, I'd love to know what you'd recommend.