What I Stole From Disney: Part One

Or... Disney Easter Eggs in The Rose and the Balloon.

(And just so everyone knows... Spindle Dreams Easter Eggs coming tomorrow!)

Hey, it's Monday! And if you're anything like me, you need today to sit and recover from the weekend. That's the funny thing about weekends -- they somehow end up being super busy and more exhausting than they ought to be. My husband's birthday was this week, and we threw him a party with the two things he asked for: board games and pie. And then Sundays at church with an active 15-month-old is always tiring.

Anyway, it's Monday, so it's time for something fun and not-too-exhausting.

Many of you know that I like making nods toward the animated Disney classics in my retellings. I grew up watching all the best Disney movies, and I'm still a big fan of them. Particularly the fairytales, and particularly the musicals. I have most of the songs still memorized. And it's absolutely way too much fun to throw in Disney Easter Eggs in my books. Funny thing is, I've had people read through my books and not even realize that they're there. So, I decided to give you all a head's up on what to look for.

OR... if you think you're an expert fan on all things Disney, forget reading this post right now, get my books, and YOU tell me where I Easter Egged Disney.

So today, let's examine The Rose and the Balloon.

The first book in the Once Upon a Twist Tales, RatB is my take on a Beauty and the Beast story with hot air balloons and a million roses throw in. Where did I nod to Disney?

One of the things I knew I really wanted to do was mimic the famous scene where Belle discovers the rose. Even though I don't have a cursed prince, Dmitri is very, VERY protective of his rose. When he finds Janelle close to touching it, he (like Adam in the film) gets angry. The scene isn't word-for-word from the film (obviously, I couldn't do that; duh, plagiarism), but there are a few lines that I repeated for kicks.

Additionally, Dmitri forbids Janelle specifically from going into the West Wing. I don't think I need to explain that one any further.

While my retelling doesn't have any magic in it, I still wanted to nod to Disney's magic of animated household objects. Thus, the feather duster was born. While helping the twins pull off pranks on each other, Janelle makes a puppet out of a feather duster and has it dance about on its strings. This was probably my favorite nod to Disney in this book, not because Plumette is a favorite character from the film, but because it mimicked the heart of Disney's film. The household objects play such a huge part in the film that I didn't want to leave them out entirely.

Okay, raise your hand. How many of you knew that the prince's name in the film is Adam? I didn't until I was about 15. I couldn't steal that name for my prince character; THAT would be like stealing Abu's name from the other Disney film and sticking it on a street rat (*cough*Dickerson*cough). Not cool. Besides, my prince was already adamantly named Dmitri. Couldn't go back on that. So, Adam went to a minor character, just to make the real Disney character squeal with pleasure.

Something that Disney is famous for in its film version is THE LIBRARY. So many girls claim Belle as their favorite Disney princess because she loves books. I don't believe the library is a big deal in the original fairytale, but it didn't seem right to retell Beauty and the Beast and not have a library. So, my library, while not a big deal, is the setting for many of the book's key scenes -- namely those between Janelle and Dmitri. I won't detail those; you should read the book to find out.

Dmitri may be the "Beast" character (and is called a beast by Janelle), but he is definitely not beast-like in form. Instead, I decided it would be fun to insert a real beast/monster into the tale with the story Janelle tells Nicoline near the beginning on the novella. Whether this monster truly exists remains to be seen, but he was similarly modeled after the horrific things the Beast is expected to do in "The Mob Song" as sung by Gaston and the mad townspeople in the film.

Finally, any Disney fan would have recognized some of the dialogue in Janelle and Dmitri's reconciliation scene. Just another key scene that I loved from the film and wanted to nod to in the book. But again, can't say too much -- spoilers.

~*~

Did you catch all these Disney Easter Eggs in The Rose and the Balloon? What Easter Eggs are you expecting to see in Spindle Dreams? Comment below!

Important links to remember today:

• I guest posted on a sweet friend's blog here (Six Reasons to Retell a Fairytale)
• Find The Rose and the Balloon on Amazon

God bless!