Dora vs. Princesses

I am sad to announce that Ellie has discovered the Princesses. It all started with the Sleeping Beauty plastic heels that Peter got her. She had a couple of Princess things before, but she hadn't really been exposed to them. Now she is aware, and these darn Princesses are EVERYWHERE. Seriously. Grocery store, library, school, restaurants...

I'm encouraging her interest in Dora for several reasons. Number one: She said she wanted a Dora birthday party and I already came up with a lot of fun ideas. Number two: I think Dora has more moral values (sharing, learning Spanish, accepting differences, friendship) than Princesses (being pretty and having princes fall in love with you). Number three: I can't think of a number three, but the first two are good enough.

Peter has been fueling the Princess fire like crazy. Since the shoes (and a princess camera), he's gotten her a huge book full of Disney stories with all the Princesses on the cover (serves him right that all the stories are beyond her level and super boring, but she insists he read them to her), a Princess activity set with coloring books, dot-to-dot, stories, stickers, and markers (again, mostly beyond her level, but Sammy had fun coloring Snow White when he and Gina baby-sat), and the Cinderella DVD (we thought she'd fall asleep reading it, but she just kept asking questions, so Peter announced "The end!" at the part where the clock struck midnight, and she didn't even know any better).

As much as I like Dora better, there are some things that really bother me about the show. Some I've mentioned already, such as the proportions of Big Red Chicken changing to fit whatever need he plays in the show (Are they going to ride him? Big. Is he just hanging out with them? Not so big.). OK, it's mostly proportional stuff being inconsistent. And I mean from one frame to the next. Benny is stuck in a hole, but when he gets out, the whole is wider than he is tall. The other day, there was a dragon that cast this humongous shadow. He consistently had a shadow, although Boots and Dora standing next to him had no shadow. In fact, NOTHING had a shadow except for the dragon. I know these artists are working on a kiddie show, but are they really lacking that much integrity to only have a shadow for one character?! Really, people.

Sorry. I don't know what motivated this tirade. Don't anyone out there ever expose my child to Barbie. Ever.