u/Crescentbrush

I'm surprised Disney never adapted this. Well, I suppose not THAT surprised in modern climate of preference for original films, but that chip on their shoulder seems to be the only problem. Between Jennifer Lee's statement of wanting to do a film about a mom and Josie Trinidad's emphasis on a mom story for "Hexed" (which I imagine is part of why Jennifer Lee greenlit the film), I'm surprised this was never on the table.

Here's what I'm thinking: Rather than simply covering the events of the story, the first act of the film ends with an alternate ending to the fairy tale, with the queen being unable to guess Rumpelstiltskin's name--or maybe she learns that name, but it's not his true name, and he takes her child. The story is about her venturing to rescue her child, knowing the only thing that can defeat/banish Rumpelstiltskin is knowing his true name.

I'm really digging a psychological idea of this film; several Disney films involve child abduction, but it mainly shows how it affects the child over the parents (if still alive), and I 100% think this should take heavy influence from the 1986 film with mind games and a shapeshifting antagonist. I've also had the idea that any time Rumpelstiltskin shapeshifts, he takes on a twisted version of previous Disney protagonists. Also removing romantic subtext; aside from it being a very hard sell to romantically tie the queen and the creature that stole her child and manipulated her, it's also another tag in the "recent Disney male love interests are trash who need to be changed" trope that I'm very tired of. I imagine the king can still be the love interest--though the foundation of this story would obviously need to be changed; the protagonist's father doesn't get her into a terrible situation, and the king doesn't threaten her with death several times and then marry her. Also, am I crazy for thinking they can take some influence from "The Legend of Zelda"? I think the protagonist can be one of the more mature, serious leads; she's used to a life of labor (in the fairy tale, she was a miller's daughter, though I could also see her as a farmer's daughter) and is kind of shocked by how she manages to win the hand of a prince, and then her child is stolen. It's a lot to take in--but when she locks in, she's ready to fight, and has some athleticism.

Concerning the setting, I think it can be pretty open; I think the fairy tale references the protagonist having blonde hair to reference the gold she's supposedly able to spin, but most of the European princesses are blonde. I'm ready for a dark-haired European princess. Perhaps a Slavic/Eastern European princess, or a Hungarian princess. Or we could do like "The Princess and the Frog" and adopt the story for a non-European culture. I'm not averse to another American setting, but perhaps that'd be too soon and feel too similar to TPATF.

For the creative team, I need the Anderson-Lopez team to have something else besides the "Frozen" franchise, and they made some of my favorite songs associated with fairy tale films. For directors, I'd definitely look at Trinidad or Lee to do it given their passion for a motherhood story (though I've heard on the "Frozen" fanbase that Jennifer Lee isn't that great, and with Josie Trinidad demoted to co-director for "Hexed," I'm curious as to what her creative voice is like).

Honestly it would be interesting to see if Disney could make a Disney princess film out of this; given how many of the princesses are marketed as role models and the whole Cinderella blue dress controversy was rooted in concerns of marketing a wedding dress to girls, I am curious if Disney would be controversial for having a Disney princess who's a mom (in her official theatrical film). Plus the age would be controversial as well; if she's around the age as many princesses, there's the whole controversy of "you're advertising for our daughters to have kids young" and if she's made older (ie 30s), then she feels "too mature" for the line. Screwed if they do, screwed if they don't.

Just made a new chat. Had 18 image credits. I didn't like the image I got, so I tried to regenerate it, and it said it had difficulties doing so. So I alter the image prompt, try again, and get a new image--but now I'm down to 11 image credits somehow.

Honestly I wanna look at my chat history to refresh my mind of the narrative/world (especially since I have several chats), but is there any way to do it without paying for a subscription?

This isn't to say my ideas are better than the OG or the reboot. But I did have these ideas for a while influenced by the comics, growing up with the 4kids dub, current canon, and personal preference:

1. Bloom--Tate McRae is the main influence for her design, and her home in Gardenia is inspired by Italy (I heard it may have been set in L.A., but trust me when I say American audiences can still enjoy something outside the USA). Plus she isn't royalty; I know it's common in girly media, but I feel like Bloom doesn't need to be a princesses--though I do think a storyline of her rebuilding Domino following "The Secret of the Lost Kingdom" would be impactful. But to contrast to her life with Mike and Vanessa, Oritel and Marion are well-off, perhaps moving around in noble circles, but not royalty. The dragon flame thing is also something random rather than it being something passed down to her family, as the creator of the world doesn't limit it's power to one family since absolute power corrupts absolutely. She's interested in arts and fairy tales, and is more of a loner because of this on Earth. This transfers to the Magical Dimension, since she's overwhelmed and now feels like she has imposter syndrome or is just having a mental breakdown. I'd also make her descended from witches AND fairies; I refute the idea that they're the same being, but just different morals. But the world is heavily biased against witches, and her heritage makes her weary of them in contrast to fairies. Her dual heritage meant her birth parents' (who were both fairies, but one of them did have witch blood mixed in there) marriage was hotly contested and she's ostracized AGAIN. This isn't really consolidated until she defeats Darkar, and until then Faragonda continues to pass her off as a regular fire fairy. She also thinks Daphne is her fairy godmother rather than her sister. Damian exists, but he isn't her sister since we have enough main character tropes going on. If she had an alternate winx aesthetic, I'd put her in cosmic colors with flames moving around it to symbolize the dragon's flame. NGL, I love to fancast Jodi Benson as her.

2. Stella--Based on Dua Lipa or Zara Larsson, Stella is a girl who was essentially raised to define herself by her relationship to others, raised to read people but ignorant of her parents' impending divorce. When they do divorce, it makes her more introspective and better at reading situations. As she heals, Brandon and the Winx are essentially her safe space, and she actually dives into school to keep herself distracted. I do think that down the line, Luna being with Allan and Radius being with Cassandra test her newfound resolve, but her friends inspire her on being strong for her family, her people, and herself. While still a glamorous popularity princess, she has a lot more restraint due to the responsibilities she holds and takes interest in charitable endeavors relating to children and mental health. She can't live in blissful ignorance now; she simply must make new happy memories with her family. Obviously her relationship with Brandon isn't an issue in the modern era, so the whole Sky/Brandon switch never happens, but he does feel insecure about not being enough for her and the fact that the tabloids already paint Stella as a vapid celebrity marrying handsome eye candy with no real pedigree. I'm feeling messy RN, so I kinda wanna throw a wrench in and reveal part of the reason her family got married was because Radius was royalty with no magic and Luna was a commoner with magical blood. They did care for each other, but the marriage was very much "encouraged." Her alt colors are silver and gold because the moon erasure is terrible; moon by magic, sun by royal blood. I do like the idea of her being Greek or Italian-influenced, particularly Ancient Greeks and Romans. Crazy that Andrea Baker never got to play her.

3. Aisha--Based on SZA and Megan Thee Stallion, she's the most athletic princess, and has a bit of a buffer build. She's never forced into an arranged marriage, but it is a big topic of discussion; when she does fall for Nabu, there's the convenience that he's from a noble family, as well as being a wizard. Nex and Roy can still be in the background as flirts for Aisha's affections, because why not? She loves being near water, and Bloom forms quick friendships with her due to being related to merpeople. Aisha herself is often called half-fairy, half-mermaid, and among the other girls with mixed heritage, it can sometimes be controversial. But she's determined to achieve diplomacy--but to keep less attention on her (tabloids, unwanted suitors, noble enemies), she goes by the alias Layla to attend Alfea as a regular girl. Given her physical skills, she's often seen as an unofficial leader, and encourages the girls out of their comfort zones (respectfully) and advocating for taking time for themselves as well as enjoying nature. She pretty much gets along with everyone, and is known for her support of environmental-related policies. I MIGHT imagine her as Malagasy-influenced in this version, and keep the aqua colors since Bloom is no longer in blue. I could see Cree Summer playing her.

4. Musa--I imagine a LOT of influence for her, mostly LISA, Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, and Rina Sawayama. I'd still keep her 100% Asian, though whether East or Southeast Asian, I'm unsure. I'm kinda torn on Japanese, Korean, or Thai, but that's just me. Coming from Harmony, it's very common for people to become musical prodigies, but they're stereotyped by others as not being hard-workers, which can be true, but not in Musa's case. Her mother encouraged her to work hard, but the discrimination led her father to abandon his personal musical goals, and when her mother died, her dad took her and the two left Melody, as he wanted to hide their heritage. But Musa still wants a musical life, and her not-so-healthy relationship with Riven (which I'd keep, but alter) reminds her of her conflict with her dad, making it frustrating but comforting in familiarity. There's even a point where she becomes a vocalist for Andy's band on Earth, aiming initially for a pop-punk sound but not being confined to being boxed in. Her style is feminine, but more likely than the others to aim androgynous (maybe that can cause another relationship conflict). I'd actually keep her in reds, and have Stephanie Sheh play her.

5. Tecna--Based on Demi Lovato, she's a princess in this version, since the canon is inconsistent with that (commoner in the show, princess in the comics), as well as an cyborg--I like the idea of people from Zenith being a "weird" evolutionary offset of fairies that gravitate towards technology, ostracizing them from the natural aspect of fairies and people stereotyping them as robots since they're known to be more controlled in their emotions. But it'd also work as representation if Tecna was a cyborg via prosthetics. As-is, she's the third child in line for the throne, but is the most practical royal, being the "reality" to Stella's reputation as perpetuating the "fantasy" of royal life. While aloof at first, she learns to open up to others emotionally--though at first, she's not a heavy nature-lover, putting her at odds with Flora and Aisha. She's the planner of the group, and also the one who harps on them about homework the most (helping Stella be distracted when her parents are going through a divorce). She also unexpectedly bonds with Sky since he's a royal, often coming to her for practical advice. I like a distorted green digital fairy form for her, and Kari Wahlgren playing her because I love British Tecna and Wahlgren did a great Emma Frost. I'm also thinking maybe Zenith is Scandinavian influenced. (Note: If you wanna go for LGBTQ+ rep, I could see Tecna could be nonbinary and answer to she/her and they/them pronouns, and I could imagine a storyline of enbyphobia and anti-digital sentiments making her ostracized.)

6. Flora--The sweetest fairy and my favorite! Based on Selena Gomez, Flora is from Linphea, which I'd say is heavily Latin-American influenced. For the sake of not committing cultural generalization, I'd say it's based mainly on one country; maybe Mexico or Brazil. IRL, I imagine her as mestiza with a large Indigenous genetic percentage (I keep picturing Yalitza Aparaicio as a visual influence), but maybe that's too stereotypical as the nature girl? I also imagine some black ancestry in there; always thought she was black when I was a kid (and technically there's nothing to disprove some distant ancestry to people with African phenotypes). She's the heart of the group in contrast to Tecna being the mind, often giving sage advice to others when they're down. She's very traditional and romantic, and has a lot of respect for Bloom given her holding the power of the creator. She and Helia are the first romance established, being childhood friends (I keep seeing Helia as Asian, so if Linphea is Latin-influenced, maybe he's Filipino-coded?) and planning to marry once graduated. Her FIRST priority is fixing Earth's environment when she first arrives, which would take at least a year; consider that a college-level thesis or something. She's the most popular of the winx who isn't a princess, and is very family-oriented, thus her sympathy for Stella and Bloom, as well as comforting Tecna due to her rather emotionally distant parents. Very traditional fairy design with various flowers (real and otherwise), perhaps making her color purple. Fancasting her VA as Maria Canals-Barrera.

I'd say Damian still exists, but he's either someone else's brother (maybe Tecna, Musa, or Flora's) or an unrelated fairy. If he had to be related to Bloom, I'd rather a cousin over a brother, since it feels too cliched, but this would still pull focus given the fall of Domino, so IDK. I'd say Mirta and Roxy are also there, though Mirta remains a witch and maybe redesign Roxy for a more unique look rather than looking similar to Tecna; maybe Pacific Islander, South Asian, or Native American from the USA or Canada?

Over this past hour, I've been getting them a lot. IDK if it's the model or what, but it keeps asking me to try again with regenerating a message or inputting a new one.

I'm pretty sure the answer is "no," but I wanted to try. I kinda went off on a tangent without making a duplicate post, and I wanted to go back to an older message and refresh from that starting point.

I started a chat that started on October, and I thought it'd be fun to mention my characters doing something for Halloween. However, despite being October 8th/9th, almost any time the dialogue is brought up, they say Halloween is tonight.

I have over 246,000 thanks to my subscription and wheel of rewards. Just curious how far it'd take me, how good the voices are, and how I should use it.

Nice to meet everyone! Honestly this isn't really a post of substance; just that I became a new fan of Rosalia. I wanna say I'd heard of her before, but I never gravitated to a song by her until I was on MTV's music channel (RIP) and heard "Berghain." The orchestral composition mixed with a pop song, as a film and pop fan, made it so amazing and cinematic. Usually I don't listen to music in languages I don't understand because I always wanna know what people are singing about or saying (this is what happens when hip-hop is popular and people focus more on beat than lyrics; my parents quickly ingrained in me to understand what I was singing). However, this was an experience I wanted to try, and this made me interested in listening to "Lux." And...I'm floored. Between this and Charli XCX's "Wuthering Heights" album, I'm just spoiled by cinematic pop.

And as someone who's an aspiring writer, my mind keeps trying to craft a story together when I listen to this. It's glorious.

I'm not talking about looking for new stories; I mean being able to look for certain things in the story I'm playing without having to scroll...and scroll...and scroll. You know? Like is there any way for me to make markers or something so I can reference a point in the story?

I was gonna include pictures, but I didn't wanna do all that. While I do have a longer list, here are a few of them I'd like involved in a Walt Disney Animation Studios film via directing, writing, or songwriting (because if it's not a musical, what am I doing here?). I decided to make the list of people who have never worked on a Disney film before--though they may have worked on another property adjacent to WDAS.

1. Matt Braly--I know this is essentially far-fetched seeing how Sony treated him, his concerns on Disney using AI, and him creating an independant animation studio, but one can dream, right? An epic Thai fantasy musical from Disney could be amazing.
2. Hikaru Utada--Kingdom Hearts fans know her for her songs being used on (or written for) the soundtracks for the video game series. While writing radio songs are different from the musical theatre we usually see for Disney musicals, I'd like to see Hikaru try. Or we could do a modern pop musical akin to KPDH, with Hikaru taking a songwriting role similar to Ejae.
3. Tomm Moore--I mentioned this on a post about Disney's scrapped "Tam Lin" idea and that Moore could be the head of it if Disney ever decided to revive it, but I'm sure he'd be game for an original work as well.
4. Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss--In the days when musicals lean more into the pop field, I think their musical "Six" was a glorious marriage of musical theatre and radio production. I'm curious to see how their animated venture with "Bad Fairies" pans out next year.
5. Scott Watanabe--A concept artist for several Disney films as well as "Kpop Demon Hunters," I'd love to see what ideas he comes up with if he was a director.
6. Guillermo del Toro--Someone who REALLY appreciates animation. If I recall, he plans to permanently move onto the animation side once done with a few live-action projects. Not sure how his macabre style would fit with Disney, but maybe it could work.
7. Michael Dante Dimartino and Bryan Konietzko--This mainly popped into my head due to the comparisons between "Raya and the Last Dragon" and Nickelodeon's "Avatar" series. NOT saying they need to head a story surrounding Asian cultures (optics and all that), but I'd like to see what cool ideas they could bring to Disney.
8. Iginio Straffi--Prooobably a controversial choice, given the fact that Disney sued him two decades ago and his reboot of "Winx Club" (and subsequent response) really rubbing fans--including myself--the wrong way, but I do still acknowledge the fact that at one point he was seen as the Walt Disney of Italy, and I'm curious if he has anything else that could be magical for a new audience.
9. Brenda Chapman--Yeah, I know it's kind of cheating since she worked for Pixar and gave us Merida (well, kind of; a lot of her vision was overhauled), but since I always maintain that "Brave" would've been better made with Disney than Pixar--though John lasseter was still CCO, so maybe it would've ended up the same--I'd like to see what she'd do with a Disney princess film actually made by Disney.
10. Jorge Rivera-Herrans--Maybe it's because I'm finally getting into "Epic: The Musical," but I do put him forward as a potential future Disney songwriter (though we are in need of more male-led musicals, so I put him forward for that, too).
11. Tetsuya Nomura--This isn't just a Kingdom Hearts thing, but also I recently learned that he was so moved by the 2012 musical "Les Miserables" that he wanted to make "Final Fantasy XV" (at the time a companion title known as "Final Fantasy Versus XIII") a musical video game. It didn't work out, and I weep for what we lost. I'd be curious to see what he'd do if directing a musical for Disney.
12. Beyonce--I continue to grieve the fact that Beyonce made a whole album inspired by a remake of a Disney movie and Lin-Manuel Miranda's talents were used for a prequel film (and the script was already completely written, which isn't the best for the songwriter since they need to have say on where songs go and how they influence the story). I'd love to see Beyonce make something like "The Gift" but for an original animated product by Disney

I was gonna add Hayao Miyazaki, but he said he's retiring once more.

I was thinking of this since the original "Aladdin" was set in China (though this has been debated), as well as the TV show "Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child" using China as the setting for the tale--with the voice actor of Shang playing Aladdin. So let's say Disney opted for a Chinese version of "Aladdin" to go with the original story. I imagine we wouldn't get another Chinese film so soon, so I wanna speculate on a few things:

1. It's less controversial. While "Mulan" had it's inaccuracies, it doesn't get the same sexualization/racism critiques that "Aladdin" gets (which is likely thanks to "Aladdin" being heavily inspired by Golden-Age Hollywood films that focused on the Middle East).
2. Most of the cast is Asian. Again, based on "Mulan," which had a predominantly Asian cast, in contrast to the Middle Eastern version of "Aladdin" that had a mostly white cast. It's possible that Lea Salonga is cast as Jasmine's speaking voice as well, if Linda Larkin is never considered.
3. Maybe we get the "Sinbad" movie after all, since that would be Disney's first ME movie (though I'll admit that probably wouldn't be enough incentive, but it's an idea).
4. Thomas Schumacher comes to Barry Cook with just the Scottish dragon idea since "Mulan" is off the table--though perhaps he doesn't end up taking up the idea since he mentions that he felt like Scottish films were done to death and not done well. Or maybe one of the other scrapped Disney ideas--ie Swan Lake, The Odyssey, or the Sinbad film--would be offered to him as an alternative. Depending on whether or not the Scottish film had a female character who would join the Disney princess line, Disney likely wouldn't bother to add Merida (not to say we can't have two Scottish princesses, but I feel like Disney wouldn't be as interested).
5. Suzi Yoonessi's Persian film might not have been cancelled. This is dependent on whether or not Disney makes Sinbad. Rumor has it that Yoonessi's film (which had been in production for 5 years before it got cancelled) was replaced by "Moana 2" after "WIsh" flopped--and since November 2024 was a slot Disny had for a while and it was confirmed "Moana 2" was made at the last minute, this seems true. In my mind, if Disney never had a Middle Eastern film, they'd probably hype it up at Destination D23 2023 to get people excited about the representation, making it impossible for them to cut the film after "Wish" flopped without ruining their promotion plans and upsetting fans.
6. Maybe "Raya and the Last Dragon" is taken a little bit more seriously. A rumor was that the film was originally East Asian before switching to Southeast Asian. Not sure if this is true or not, but if the only Asian princess before Raya that we have is Chinese, perhaps they are stricter with the Southeast Asian film from the get-go. No idea if they'd try to be more specific with the influences (they took inspiration from 8 countries and rolled them into one), but maybe they'd have stronger feelings about the cast being made up of SEA actors. Also if Merida never joins due to the Scottish film, Raya is either most certainly a musical or becomes a bigger deal for Disney by being a nonmusical princess film--which is debated for years on whether or not it should've been done.

Also worth noting we'd have one less Disney Princess (AKA my favorite), though Asian princesses would still have the largest minority in the line--well, just two of them. Plus Raya would be our first warrior princess (assuming no other films are made different from the OTL) and we'd have no princesses who are not connected to power via kings, chiefs, or princes...though considering we never got a civilian princess since Mulan, not much have changed; some people consider her inclusion to be a fluke anyway, and the argument only grows stronger if she never existed.

I tend to be specific when I talk about companies. When I'm talking about Walt Disney Animation Studios, I simply say "Disney." However, when I just say "Disney," people like to conflate Pixar, Marvel, and their acquired companies, even if context clues show that I'm only talking about WDAS. When did this start to happen, and do you use "Disney" loosely, or specifically?

My feelings with Walt Disney Animation have grown increasingly pessimistic with the 2020s--though knowing what I know now (no, that wasn't intended to be a reference), the 2010s wasn't exactly sunshine and roses, either. Both "Frozen" films have had rough productions, to put it lightly, but I still consider the first film one of my favorite Disney films and the second film a flawed masterpiece.

By the time the third comes out, Disney will have been in a bit of a weird spot; the decade has been very hit-or-miss with them, and their biggest success has eclipsed "Frozen 2" in terms of box-office success. "Frozen 2" itself has people divided with how it conveyed it's stories and messages (largely in part because the creative team was still working out the kinks and then had to backtrack at the last minute), leaving me with a few desires for the threequel:

1. Not rehashing story arcs--I'm gonna be very, very, VERY frustrated in if this is another story where Elsa's character focus is tied to her powers, if Anna is still acting codependent, and Kristoff is still just "the love interest" with no role besides being Anna's husband. Given the sneak peak D23 gave us (which I'm desperately hoping is just promo material and not an actual scene), I could be wishing for something that we're not gonna get. Obviously progress isn't linear, but for the third go-round, I'm looking for newer themes and ideas, and a more interesting angle for the characters.

2. A villain I can enjoy--Disney villains are very different from classical ones, post-Gothel; they're either plot twist villains or villains that don't get much attention--or in the case of Magnifico, poorly written. I don't want the villain to be hammy or theatrical in a cringe-y way. The preview for her (unless she's not the villain and she's a Matangi-like red herring) makes her feels very overdramatic in a way that may have worked for more classic-era Disney, but now just feels melodramatic to a modern audience. I don't want her to be obnoxious or goofy, but sinister and intimidating, someone that doesn't have to feel performative but substantive, you know?

3. Samantha to not be important--I wasn't there at D23, so I don't know what all they've said about Olaf's love interest, but I'm gonna be annoyed if they get a lot of development when the crux of the story is Anna and Kristoff's wedding. I'm still reeling about Kristoff's proposal being a big part of the second film, but he and Anna's relationship doesn't really grow because they have different priorities and are on different wavelengths (in another universe, Elsa would be the one in a relationship while Anna was single).

4. More fairy tale vibes--Maybe it's just me, but the sequel film didn't feel very fairy tale-ish to me. It felt fantasy, but not like a fairy tale. I'm not saying this would suddenly make the film "better" per se, but because of Disney's lack of fairy tale films since the first "Frozen" movie (hard to believe it's been 13 years).