DISNEY PRINCESSES... AND ANASTASIA.

From Cinderella to Snow white to the doe-eyed Rapunzel, we know them all as princesses. Disney princesses to be exact, and though most who have had a swell childhood have most likely seen, read or heard of them all, there remains a princess who is a mystery to many, Anastasia Romanov.

Who is Anastasia? Until a week ago, I had absolutely no idea myself, well perhaps that's untrue, I did know of Anastasia but no, I did not know her, not truly. As a child, she was like big foot to me without of course the ever-existing humor behind its story but possessing just as much horror as it demanded. She was someone my sisters told me about, a far-off princess whose story was lost in the long list of fanciful fairy tales. They spoke of her with a certain seriousness and I knew her tale was a painful one, though they could not recall it, it must have been to not be included in the Disney princess Hall of Fame. So for sixteen years of my life, she's been the princess whose fairytale was too serious, too old and too sad to be a real princess story. Of course I was wrong, as you have probably figured out by now. I had misjudged her book by the rumour of a cover I had never actually seen. Don't fret. This isn't an article on how underrated Anastasia is and that is for two core reasons.

Firstly, this is because it simply is not the first neither will it be the last time a masterpiece has been shoved to the side, tossed into the endless box of forgotten treasures. It is common knowledge that genius is often neglected and mediocrity is often celebrated and so I reserve my comment on what is genius and not for obvious reasons.

The second reason is that though I'd love to fantasize about how indispensible I could prove to be to Disney and the entire animation industry, I do not and in fact cannot pretend to know what goes on in their expert minds. I do not feign some strong grounded knowledge on why exactly they would, intentionally or not, remove Anastasia from the princess list. Though I am not implying that they made the list to begin with but that they greatly influenced it, I cannot fathom for the life of me and you, dear reader, why they would exclude such an invaluable character.

This brings me to another matter I wish to inform you on, and this is that though Anastasia has undoubtedly gone up in my personal princess hierarchy, the purpose of this piece is not to praise or ridicule her hence this is not a marketing scheme to get you to watch something that for a long time has possibly not interested you. The choice whether or not to do yourself the kindness and good service of experiencing a princess that goes above and beyond social restrictions in a way that is unparalleled to any other princess to exist in Disney history is yours. On that note, I will say that if you have ever questioned the moral credibility of Disney princesses where character, misogyny and discrimination is concerned, you would be proud of the grit and raw determination alive in Anastasia Romanov.

Now for the real intention behind this post which is primarily about books and covers as I mentioned earlier with the mystery and suspense around Anastasia before I actually watched it. Consequently, it is about the ideas, notions and views we have on matters before we actually experience them.This is not far fetched for it is something most people fall prey to, including myself on some occasions. It is the trap of having strong opinions, in this case negative ones, about something which you know next to nothing of. From cartoons to books to people and situations, as humans it is not easy not to form thoughts of our own based on gathered information, whether or not that information is accurate or complete.

Don't get me wrong, having this is normal, in fact it is encouraged to have thoughts and opinions of your own for it is evidence of you having a mind that works well. However, my thoughts on this also involves a keyword "care", one must therefore take care when forming and sharing these thoughts and opinions. Quite like everything else in the world, it is important that people are careful, that they remain sensitive to the fact that it is impossible to know everything about everything. By doing well to feed our curiosity, knowing something of somethings, we might hope to be flexible enough to accomodate Anastasia in our Disney princess lists.