Pretty in Pink-ish

If you need a sweet and frothy confection to de-stress at the end of a long arduous day, keep this one on your DVR to peek in on as needed. It will surely do the trick. There are no worries about hard to explain motivations and plot points or frustrations about things occurring in the story that would never or should never happen in real life. The characters do not sabotage themselves with dopey mis-communications or by jumping to unfounded and disastrous conclusions with life altering consequences at stake. It’s just one Non-Grimm-like  big pink perky sparkles fairytale. And does not aspire to be anything else. And that makes it OK in my book. Perfectly fine. There is a place for these type of stories, while I acknowledge that they are not for everyone.

9-year-old Princess Rose of Bella Moritz is afraid to get back up on the horse (literally) after a fall off the horse 3 weeks before she will be bound by tradition to ride a horse in a procession through the country for the Order of the Lily. In order to restore her self confidence, her father, Prince Henry, thinks it would be a good idea for her to talk with another princess to encourage her and assure her that she is a brave girl who can do hard things. So where will he take her for this pep talk from another royal? No not to his cousins in Androvia or Glasswick, England.  But where else but “Once Upon A Time Land” in the Emerald Amusement Park in far off Virginia, America? There they meet Lacey who plays the amusement park Princess Sweet Pea and all three of them form an immediate connection. Since Lacey/Sweet Pea tells Rose about her experiences with horses when she was a little girl and gets her to ride a horse on a merry-go-round, Prince Henry decides that she is the woman who can help his daughter ride a royal steed in the traditional parade. She better be, because if P. Rose does not greet her subjects from a horse, but in disgrace from the royal carriage, he has agreed to cede control of his daughter’s education to his stuffy old-fashioned mother. That means semi-imprisonment away from normal life in the isolated castle, rather than her regular school where she can be with other children her own age.

Also the Wicked-ish Queen (at least we are led to believe she is kinda wicked) will take his decision to hire Lacey to help his daughter as a sign of bad judgement and will not go through with her planned abdication of her throne. The Prince wants to free the crown of the hide-bound traditions that are holding the monarchy and his country back and for sure does not want to be condemned to his current ceremonial role with no power for years to come. Ahem, we’re looking at you, King Charles of England. But are we worried? Heck no, we are not worried! Because we know there is No Way In Hell that spunky American Lacey will fail in her assignment to get the brave little princess to ride in that parade! Plus, even The Queen, being the loving grandmother she is, sees that Lacey is doing a great job andplus they bond over Maeve Binchy books, of all things. Even when Lacey flees back to America (Skipping the Ball!!!!) because the bad guy, the head of something or other, whispers discouraging words in her ear, we are not worried because his villainy is overheard by the nice governess.

Lacey is played by Nichole Sakura whom I really liked for her wholesome girl-next-door looks and vibe. I also liked William Mosely who played the prince. He was cute and did nothing to irritate me although I was not a fan of his mop-top hairstyle especially when he put a baseball cap on top of it. Young Francesca Europa was a perfectly refined little princess, and half the time, I couldn’t tell whether Emily Swain, as the Queen,  was smiling or frowning  which actually turned out to be a plus. I also liked that at the end Lacey doesn’t react to her broken romance by crying inconsolably and drowning her sorrows in junk food and ice cream. No she gets busy applying for Master’s programs so she can get her advanced degree in psychology with an emphasis in equine therapy. Six months later, after she is fetched back to Bella-Moritz, she is running such a program when she accepts Prince Henry’s proposal of marriage.  Thus ends the semi-trilogy of movies about 3 princely cousins finding their happy Hallmark destinies. Next stop? The Spring into Love series. The first one of which marks the long-hoped-for return of the wonderful Steve Lund after a lengthy and rather mysterious absence from Hallmark Land.