Hans Christian Andersen Animated Classics: "The Princess and The Pea"

A classic story in animation form, with a hidden message that also appeals to adults.

Well here it is: a true classic on DVD. Either I wasn't looking hard enough or a DVD release was done quietly. Oh well, here's another classic from the great Hans Christian Andersen!

The Princess and the Pea starts with girls lining up for the Prince, to which he turns down all of them one by one. He's looking for the "perfect" princess to be his bride. His parents, who are king and queen of the castle, try to help him.

"When I marry, I want it related to love."
- Prince

This is reference to the historical fact that folks married for the sake of status, not for love. That's what the Prince was getting at. Besides, on this modern day, what's the point of marrying if it's not for Love? I'm sure folks in Hollywood would have something to say about that.

Having traveled all over the world with the help of his parents, the Prince's pickiness couldn't help find a girl to marry. Reasoning his claims, it's becoming more difficult for the parents to try and find the right girl for him. At night, the butler didn't want to open the door, as it is raining outside and someone is knocking during the night. Father King walks over to open the door, and inadvertently welcomes in a pretty girl all soaked from the rain and offers for her to stay in for the night. After drying up and getting ready, Father King tells Mother Queen about her and how she could be the perfect one for their son. Mother Queen has a special test to see if she's the one: a humble, dried garden pea. After stacking a whopping 20 mattresses, the pretty girl climbs up the ladder and tucks herself to sleep, while Mother Queen places the pea in-between the mattresses as a test to see if she's truly the one.

Next morning, the girl has breakfast with Father King and Mother Queen, admitting she didn't sleep well the night before. After a brief talk, the girl talks about how this "test" she's undergoing is ridiculous....until she met the Prince. Actualizing the event of "love at first sight," the prince quickly gets together with the girl, dancing gracefully together. The Prince comes to a realization of how this sweet girl made him feel comfortable and just right; No wonder he immediately asked to marry her! After passing the test, the girl kindly offers and accepts to marry the Prince next week.

Next is another classic Little Ida's Flowers starting off with Ida wanting to show her flowers to Carl. As Ida greets her dolls, she sees her flowers are withered. Another man, looking to be the Counselor, tells her there's no use reviving those flowers because they'll soon die anyway. It wasn't long when Carl tells Ida about the flowers dancing at night when no one is around—dancing at the castle outside the gates of the town to where all [castle] flowers and plants unwind and dance freely. When night hits, the flowers mingle, dance and live it up without any hang-ups. Suddenly, the old steward (same one from the previous film) hears some noise and checks what's going on; All the flowers hide for cover as the old steward leaves without seeing a trace of anything. Having learned about that, Ida then replaces the doll on the baby bed to replace it with her aging flowers. She tells the flowers not to wear themselves out when they go out dancing that night, as Ida goes quietly to sleep. In the wee hours of the night, Ida hears music playing and carefully peeps outside her bedroom door: her plants and dolls are alive and dancing! The disgruntled-looking doll gets invited to dance with the flowers but refuses, despite falling down after climbing out of the drawer Ida placed her in. The aging flowers tell the doll that they won't live long and hope that Ida will bury them so they can regenerate and "be young again." Hearing about it secretly, Ida goes right back to sleep knowing exactly what to do that morning. Waking up to a new day, Ida felt as if what she saw that night was a dream, but finds out it wasn't seeing her tea cup was drank from. Looking to bury her sweet flowers peacefully to order to have them grow young again, Counselor says there's no use because once their life is done, it's done. Carl kindly tells Ida she shouldn't believe him, as they both plant her flowers under the bright sunlight. As weeks went by, new flowers began growing rapidly blooming a full flower garden! Film ends with credits.

The Special Features includes quizzes and games to enhance the child's learning from the feature film, rhyming skills and visual analysis. Lastly, there is "Printable Activities" where you load in the DVD into a computer and print, but I didn't bother to take a look, nor did it say whether it's Windows and/or Mac compatible. If you like, check this out yourself, and email us about it.

The message behind The Princess and the Pea is quite simple: a partner who can be themselves and love you for who you are is what makes Love such a beautiful thing. Because it is a children's film, finding true love is more complicated than it looks. According to some dating experts, a woman's brain isn't fully developed and wired for the idea of marriage until they're 25 or over. While there may be some rare exceptions, this explains why those who marry early almost always end up in divorce; Those who date almost always break up later; And there are some who aren't meant to have a partner. Since the Prince's mother had to go through the testing of the lovely girl to make sure she was right for his son is a tradition that won't go away soon, or ever. The mark of a good partner solidifies when your parents meet them and how well they get along with them; That's just how it is. What if your parents don't like your partner? Chances are good that your parents are right: s/he isn't perfect for you. My parents knew that from some of the girls I dated in the past, and every time I look back, I couldn't believe how true it was. Good thing, otherwise I'd wallow in self-pity regretting how much time and money spent on a beautiful nobody (isn't that right, Ashley?). However, the Prince expressed some rapid impatience in wanting to find the right girl to marry which should tell you Love's "laws of physics" so to speak. If you've ever heard of the classic hit song "You Can't Hurry Love," you'll know exactly what I'm getting at here. Your friends, family and peers will often say, "the right one will come along" because, well, relationships can't be hurried. Unfortunately today's relationships, especially among youngsters between the ages of 13 to 23, are based upon partnership only. Real Love involves emotion and putting your soul in dedication to your significant other. How do you know that the other person is someone you're truly in love with? Will that be someone you want to spend the rest of your life with? Because there isn't a real, true explanation, nor it is some secret, I'll tell you how: you'll just know. I'm serious, you'll just know.

As for Little Ida's Flowers rings a very strong statement. The counselor portrays the pessimist messing with Ida's hopes and imagination, making her seem she's in wonderland filled with things scientifically impossible and nonexistent. Carl, the caretaker of Ida, was the nice man to lift up Ida and capitalize on her hopes and dreams with Ida taking good care of her flowers. If it weren't for Carl, Ida would bereave in the corner of her room, knowing that once her flowers died of old age, she won't see them blossom again—being sucked into the hole of no return where anyone and anything in it has never been able to come out. Let's not forget one fact: pessimists have a shorter lifespan (Note: look up the word "nihilist"). I personally know someone like this, and to even call him a "friend" is being too nice. No matter what, the goal to graduate college, to pursue the girl of my dreams (or so I thought she was—not anymore), all I get from him is "well, it won't happen because blah blah" and anything that deteriorates any glimmer of hope from where I stand. The result? Earned my college degree in 2010, found a beautiful sweet girl via online, landed a full-time job involving what I do best (video editing) and successfully managing this website. The key: cutting my friendship with him. Ida saw the glass half full thanks to Carl telling us one thing: surround yourself with positive people. Although we can agree that there exists things, belongings and people that aren't meant for us, that doesn't mean we should lose any hope. In fact, Hope is what keeps us alive; it keeps us going, to get up after a bad fall and not to quit. With Ida, she was able to see her flowers blossom into a young, beautiful new 'body' that's bright and vibrant.

Not too shabby for yet another great classic from the best Hans Christian Andersen himself. These films may not be interpreted immediately by the kids who watch it, but they will recall it as they mature and the message will stick.

Gee Whiz Quiz answers: #1 - B, #2 - D, #3 - A, #4 - C, #5 - D
Rhyme Time answers: #1 - D, #2 - B, #3 - C, #4 - D, #5 - C
Cast of Character answers: #1 - True, #2 - False, #3 - True, #4 - False, #5 - True, #6 - True, #7 - False, #8 - False
I See It! answers: Picture #3, Picture #3 (bottom left), Picture #1 (top left), Picture #4 (bottom right), Picture #3 (bottom left)

Kris Caballero

Founder of KCU Network and KCU Plus, Kris has been writing since he managed a personal blog made back in late 2005. Officially back to doing computer programming (software development) and video production, Kris enjoys reading books on Mathematics, Quantum Computing, Philosophy, playing old video/DOS games, digital video archiving, and listening to sports, public radio and classical music.

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