What I Stole From Disney: Part Two

Or... Disney Easter Eggs in Spindle Dreams.

(Read Part One here: Disney Easter Eggs in The Rose and the Balloon.)

If there's anything that'll grab my attention as I'm scrolling through my blog feed, it's someone announcing a post about Disney. Whether that's a movie review, character spotlights, hilarity loaded with gifs, whatever... anything on Disney makes me want to click and read through the whole post. So that may or may not be the reason we're doing two Disney-related posts as part of Spindle Dreams's release.

Easter Egging Disney in The Rose and the Balloon was very easy, very natural. I was super familiar with the film, so I knew most of what I wanted to do in my little nods. And the rest of the eggs just popped up naturally as I was writing.

Sleeping Beauty, however, was not as familiar to me. I'd watched the film a few times, but not in recent history when I was working on the novella. So, I actually went back and watched it again, just to see what I could see.

So, what Easter Eggs are we looking at, exactly?

While rewatching the film, I quickly knew that one of my all-time favorite scenes is the Once Upon a Dream song and sequence. While Aurora sings with the animals in the woods, Prince Philip hears her song and determines to find out who belongs to that lovely voice. However, in the process, Philip's valiant stead, Samson, accidentally loses his rider to a low-hanging branch and returns to find him dripping in the river. When he apologetically approaches, Philip flicks water at him and says, "No carrots." Although I love Tchaivovsky's score, THAT is the single greatest moment in the whole film. I knew it had to be in the book.

The only difference was, my Samson did it on purpose.

And on that note, I do believe it's safe to say Samson was the biggest thing I've stolen from Disney yet. I tend to really love Disney animal sidekicks, and Samson from Sleeping Beauty doesn't get enough love from fans. My Samson was all too eager to run wild and gain a fanbase of his own. He's stubborn, mischievous, and lovable. And my absolute favorite part of writing this book.

And poor, poor Felix. His constant habit of losing his boots and going around in his stockings is also a nod to the film. After falling in the river, Philip pulls his boots and cloak off to dry and the animals steal them to go dance with Aurora. When Philip finally meets the mysterious Brier Rose, he's in his stockings still. And does the whole romantic dance with her still in his stockings.

And in case anyone is wondering, yes, Inga's dream is a not-so-subtle nod to the Once Upon a Dream sequence.

One of the big parts of Disney's film are the three good fairies: Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. My novella doesn't have any magic in it, and sadly there are no fairies either, but I still kinda wanted to nod to them since they were so fun in the movie (even though they basically stole Aurora's screen-time). In my Sleeping Beauty research, I found one adaptation of the fairytale that had the Beauty awaken by a dog licking her hand (she'd been sent to sleep by a piece of flax getting stuck under her fingernail). So... putting these two pieces of information together, we ended up with Merryweather, the good-natured, copper-colored, protective pup.

This next Easter Egg isn't as noticeable, and I'd be surprised if anyone caught it before I admit it here. Normally, I allow my characters to name themselves. Oftentimes, they come to me with names and I just go with it. Marita, however, was willing to work with me, and she's actually named after the original voice actress from the Disney film, Mary Costa. Adding "ita" onto a name in Spanish lends it the meaning of "little" -- which I thought was appropriate, considering Marita was my little Sleeping Beauty.

Felix's nightmares are also a nod to the film. In fighting Maleficent to get to Aurora, Philip encounters a hedge of thorns that the dragon sets ablaze. There was no fire mentioned in the original fairytale, but that scene was always a piece of nightmares for me. Felix's nightmares came to be through combining that fire with the idea of reoccurring dreams the romantic, cartoon couple sings in Once Upon a Dream.

~*~

Be on the lookout for those Easter Eggs and a whole lot more when you read Spindle Dreams! We're inching closer and closer to the release date. Don't forget Friday is the special day!

Important links to remember today:

• My amazing friend and fairytale enthusiast, Christine, reviewed Spindle Dreams here
• Add Spindle Dreams on Goodreads
• Twitter countdown to the release!

God bless!