Princess and Popstar

My kids and I wrote this review for the VeggieTales Princess and the Popstar that came out last month.  If you are still thinking about here were our early view thoughts (this was also posted on another site).  Enjoy.

(EDIT:  Hmm I meant to schedule this (okay I meant to post it just before the video came out) oh well BONUS POST for you!)


Princess and the Popstar by Veggietales is a very girly title that remarkably doesn't fall flat into the traps of other princess movies.  Setting out to answer the question, "Why does my friend have all the cool stuff when I don't?" we meet Princess and Vanna Banana, the Popstar.  Princess is a carrot who is the second youngest in a family of 7 (5 kids).  She is the last girl and has one little brother.  She feels crowded and longs to be her favorite singer, Vanna Banana.  Vanna Banana looks exactly like Princess, but she lives mostly on her own in a mansion.  She rehearses  shoots music videos, and never gets to play with anyone.  The girls meet, decide to trade places and live a day and a half as each other.  They do ok, enjoying each other's lives.  Even though the girls are unprepared to be in each other's places their parents seem mostly oblivious to the switch.  It's a bit hard to believe the parents aren't suspicious even though they talk to the girls and should be tipped off to something being up.  Vanna realizes she could never be Princess and there is a rush to the concert so the girls can switch back.  Some very typical veggie antics ensue and instead of ending with a big number on the stage, they end with a home-style farm party, which ended up being loved by my daughter.  

There are lots of lovely jokes, from Princess collecting milk and eggs to plant in the ground with flour and an apple so that "pie trees" can grow, to the guitarists only saying "Duuuude".  The first half of the story is very musical with both girls singing a lot.  This tappers off into more dialog driven story following the silly song.  This veggie's silly song is a big change.  Once again Archibald Asparagus gets to do the silly song.  While it was amusing and very well done, one of my daughters didn't really care for it.  Everyone else found it fun and the jokes within it were quite good.   The song over the credits is "You Never Are" by Francesca Battistelli, all three of my children were truly thrilled with this song and didn't stop dancing until it was completely over!

Overall it was a wonderfully fun, not overly pink, girl driven Veggietale.  It is my opinion that any kid could really enjoy it, the music is fun, the jokes are good, but not cliche.  This story feels like a truly original telling of Mark Twain's the Prince and the Pauper.  Occasionally, it felt like some of the smoothness was cut to keep the show short and it easily could have run another 15-20 minutes easily, especially in the beginning before the transition and when the girls first meet, however; part of what keeps Veggietales so wonderful is their short format.  As a Mom who has had enough of princesses I was very relieved by the fresh, real feeling of this movie.  My husband felt there were a few places where the interactions were weak, yet over all enjoyed watching it with us.  We all felt enriched and encouraged to be ourselves.  That God has made no mistakes in the way he made our lives for us.  Everything in our life is according to his plan and we are the perfect person for the life he has planned for us.

Version1 (6) Likes the movie.  Her favorite thing about the movie is that at the end each girl decided that they should be themselves and shouldn't wish to be each other.  She didn't like the part where they switched because she would find that really scary and it scared their moms.  The scary part was ok, because it was necessary for the movie.  At the start of the silly song, she liked Vanna Banana better.  The silly song with Archibald was weird and silly - it was good.  Delaura got the message of the movie, in liking your own life, God has a plan for your life, and not wishing for someone else's life.

Version2 (4) Likes the movie.  Her favorite thing was when the girls switched places and they switched their hair and clothes.  She didn't like when Princess was singing as Vanna, because her voice wasn't as good as Vanna's and it confused Mrs. Banana.  It was ok being in the movie though.  At the start of the silly song she liked Princess better, because she had a little brother like she does.  The silly song with Archibald wasn't as silly as with Larry - it was ok, didn't really like it.  She really liked the end of the movie when everyone was singing at Princess's house and there was a pie with candles in it.  Soraya lost the message of the story, but loved the singing and dancing in the movie.

Version3(1) Sat through lots of the movie.  He loved dancing and all the songs.