"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Thursday, September 21, 2023

The Book of Rannells: Princess Power: Season 1, Episode 7 – “Princess Shooting Stars” (2023)

More Princess Power: more super-earnest girl power friendship, more “not so much Andrew Rannells.”

For the first time ever, there’s going to be a “four-fruitdom celebration”, where folks from each of the princesses’ regions will come together and mingle. The girls are excited about this prospect and want to help make it a success. When Penny discovers that there’s going to be a rare meteor shower that night, they go all out to plan their stargazing get-together, but they have different ideas about what it should look like.

In the whale episode, the four princesses work together throughout, meeting obstacles but teamworking their way through them. Here, they’re not on the same page, and that very mild disagreement winds up causing a ludicrous amount of chaos. It strikes me that a better lesson for kids might’ve been to show that friends can disagree in healthy ways and still come to a resolution, even if it isn’t a sparkly “everybody wins!” one. But, what we get is what we get.

Also, why am I more bothered by the idea that two young girls construct a beautiful, operational Ferris wheel than by the fact that one of them flies a biplane?

There’s music in this episode too, but it’s mostly the same songs as in the previous one. And all the songs in both are sung in the background by the princesses, which drastically reduces the chances of hearing any singing from Andrew Rannells in this show.

Again, King Barton (along with the other “fruitdom” monarchs) only appears briefly. The adults bookend with the episode, where it turns out they have zero game when it comes to planning a big shindig. Their ideas include “silent opera” and a “royal essay-writing contest.” As Barton admits to the princesses, “Left to our own devices…we got nothing.” Not much to say here.

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