This is Andrew Rannells’ last appearance in season one of Princess Power. Obviously, I’m very much not the audience for this show, but from the handful of episodes I’ve seen, I feel that, while it’s not particularly sophisticated, it’s harmless enough entertainment for kids with a few lessons mixed in.
Rita calls on the other princesses to pitch in when she hosts a soccer game for a group of girls in the Raspberry “fruitdom.” One of the girls, Sena, is blind, and Rita goes over-the-top in trying to be helpful and accommodating, to the point that her friends need to stage a Nondisabled Savior intervention.
As seems to be generally true with the show, this episode’s message is bit heavy-handed, but it’s a valuable one. Rita is trying to be nice—Sena has never played soccer before, and Rita goes overboard trying to ensure everything goes perfectly for her. This extends to making up new rules on the spot to give her every advantage in the game, and when people call her out on it, she tries to insist that these are simply the rules for “Raspberry Princess Soccer,” as opposed to regular soccer. At one point, she cheerfully shouts, “Goal!” when one of Sena’s kicks goes wide. Kira, the goalie, asks, “…Is there a chameleon goal I’m not seeing?”
The other princesses, not to mention Sena herself, fully twig that Rita isn’t being nearly as helpful as she thinks she is. This is genuinely good line, in response to Rita’s insistence that she just wants Sena to feel special: “You’re making yourself feel special. You’re making Sena feel different.” And Bea gives Rita a bit of particular tough love, pointing out that her brace doesn’t make Rita treat her with kid gloves, so why Sena?
It's not perfect representation. After all, it’s a bit Very Special Episode to introduce a disabled character and immediately use them as an object lesson about the treatment of disabled people. And while it’s cool to watch the princesses later apply their problem-solving skills to making the game more accessible, it would’ve been nice to see them consult Sena about what sort of accommodations she might need. On the whole, though, it does a pretty decent job of getting this message across to kids.
King Barton is back to barely appearing. He only shows up at the very beginning of the episode, posing for a royal portrait with his husband and Bea, much to the energetic Bea’s dismay. “If you stopped moving, we’d have been done hours ago,” he reminds her, speaking stiffly through a plastered-on smile.
So, not much to say on Rannells here, but I do want to mention that these Netflix kids’ shows are on-point with their casting of gay dads. On Ridley Jones, you had Rannells paired with Chris Colfer, and here, he’s with Tan France. Not too shabby!
Final thoughts:
Recommend?
In General – For kids, maybe. It’s not great, but it’s cute and entertaining enough. As I said before, if you have kids who are into some combination of princesses, sports, fashion, or STEM, they’d probably enjoy themselves.
Andrew Rannells – Not a must. He’s amusing here and there, but there’s very little point to this role.
Warnings
Maybe a little “don’t try this at home.”
No comments:
Post a Comment