Article Critique of Identity Politics:

This article was fairly well-arranged and seemed to be cited properly. I particularly liked the updated portion where they mentioned the 2016 The Atlantic article in regards to the Donald Trump presidential campaign. This signifies to me that the article is up to date and holds extremely relevant significance. There are parts of the article that seem vague and unprofessional. The phrase "since at least" in the first sentence of History is not very specific or helpful. There is also a line in the Intersectional critiques section that reads "when considering feminism, it is the narrative of white middle-class women that prevails."[1] This sentence seemed poorly constructed as well. It could easily be narrowed to a phrase like "because feminism has been associated with a largely white middle-class women identity narrative." This would need to be cited still. Overall, the article seemed professional and unbiased, and the sources looked like they were supportive and accurate.

Week 4: Potential articles to tackle

1) Expand on Islamism and the criticism and implications, especially in the past decade/new presidency. I believe I could find plenty of sources, but it would be more challenging to find unbiased sources. Although it is already fairly expansive, there are areas I can expand on.

2) Chennai: I would love to research more on Chennai, or subsections (like architecture or demographics, history or education). This would be extremely interesting and relevant to me since I will be traveling there in the summer. I believe there are many resources for this topic.

3) The Frog Prince (1986 film): I can expand on the plot of the film as well as the reception and response to the film. I think I would have a big impact on the plot area because it is completely blank. I would be able to find sources but the plot description would come almost solely from observing the film I believe.

One possible source? https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-3341726421/you-have-to-kiss-a-lot-of-frogs-toads-before-you


2/15/17

The page I will be editing is The Frog Prince (1986 film). I am going to add plot description to this film page. There are a few sources I can use to describe reviews and other synopses of the film. One possibility is the link I posted above.

Week 5 Draft Your Article

How I will improve the article:

I will enhance the lead section by explaining the popularity, critical reception, and plot expansion. I will do this by using resources like the one I posted above, as well as other critiques and scholarly sources about the film. I'd like to create another content point for "Plot" and give an in-depth description of plot, like other articles have done. If I can, I will also find information to expand on production as well. And maybe soundtrack if that information exists. More common films have rather extensive plot descriptions, so that is an edit I can definitely make about the film. I would like to watch the full film over spring break, in order to make some of my edits then or begin drafting my edits. I apologize for not expanding on my draft further right now, but I know I will have the time to properly expand on it over spring break. Furthermore, I will research the basis of the film since it is founded in the original fairytale of the Frog Prince.

DETAILED DRAFT/OUTLINE

Plot The Frog Prince begins with the protagonist Princess Zora rolling over and waking up in her bed. When she hears royal trumpets signifying an important announcement, she sings "Lucky Day" as she gets dressed. She holds onto her golden lucky ball, and carries it throughout her day for good luck. From there, Zora wanders through the castle to ask the Emissary about the morning royal announcement, and he scolds her for running through the halls. As Zora looks for her Uncle the King and her sister Henrietta, the royal chef also scolds her for meddling in his kitchen. Then, Zora is confronted by Henrietta and Henrietta's friend Dulcey in the hallway, where Henrietta lies to Zora, telling her that they are allowed to interrupt the King that day. After Zora leaves, Henrietta tells Dulcey she knows why the trumpets blared. She says that she intercepted a letter which declared that only one of the two girls is a true princess. Then, the scene cuts to the King, who reads that same letter to his advisors. The letter reads that Baron Von Whobble will inspect and declare the true princess at the Sunset Dance. The King is upset because he made a promise to care for both of his nieces (Henrietta and Zora) when his sister died. He then sings "A Promise is A Promise" with his royal advisors. Princess Zora interrupts the meeting to ask about the trumpet announcement, but becomes too shy to ask when the King gets upset at her for interrupting. After Zora leaves the King, she goes to find Henrietta and ask her why she lied earlier, since she was not allowed to interrupt, unlike what Henrietta had said. However, Henrietta ignores her question as she and Dulcey looks through a book of eligible bachelors. They make fun of a duke for having large ears, and then turn the page to see the Prince of Freedly. They call him handsome before reading that a witch put a curse on him and he's been missing for a year. When Zora asks to see, Henrietta banishes her from the room. That night at dinner, Henrietta arrives elegantly and is praised by the royal advisers. When Zora walks in dressed in a feathered cape, all of the advisors and Henrietta and Dulcey laugh at her for looking silly. As Zora realizes she is being made fun of, she flees from the room. Her Uncle, the King, watches sadly, feeling pity for his niece. Zora goes outside that night, wishing for someone to talk to at the edge of a fountain. After dropping her golden ball in the water, the water splashes from below, and a large fully-dressed frog emerges from the water. Zora asks "who are you?" in awe of the tall frog. To explain his abnormal physique, Ribbit sings "too tall frog" to Zora. Afterwards, Zora promises to be Ribbit's friend and take him home to the palace, in exchange for him retrieving her lucky ball from the fountain. They sneak past the guard, royal advisors, and Emissary to get to Zora's chambers. Zora tells Ribbit that she does not think she is beautiful or a lady, and Ribbit says he thinks she is ravishing and that if she looks in the mirror long enough, she will see what he sees. Then, the King knocks on Zora's door and Ribbit must hide so as not to be seen. The King tells Zora there will be a Sunset Dance and after reading the letter, she finds out only one of them will be princess. Ribbit then helps Zora become princess-like, teaching her how to dance and act ladylike. He then leaves because he needs to get back to the water, but promises to meet her by the fountain the next day. Zora gives him her lucky ball as a gift before he leaves. When Ribbit is back by the water, he admires the gift and sings about his newfound friend in "Friendship". When Henrietta spies Ribbit teaching Zora how to be a princess, she gets angry, afraid that she will lose her spot as princess. She convinces Dulcey to help kidnap Ribbit and bring him away from the water. They put him in a hole in the ground where they trap him and leave him without water, but Dulcey marks a map of where he is hidden. The next morning, Zora is happy and dressed nicely, and her Uncle notices the change. She goes to the fountain to meet Ribbit, but he's not there. Zora worries that he doesn't want to be her friend, and she sings "Have you forgotten me?" as she misses him. Henrietta tells Zora that she took Ribbit to the Woods of the Dark Heart and that he must be thirsty. Dulcey slips the map to Zora and tells her to hurry if she wants to still save him. Zora runs into her uncle, and convinces him that she must help her friend. He tells her that she can go but she must come back before sunset so that the Baron Von Whobble can see her. When searching the woods, Zora gets lost, and only finds Ribbit when her lucky golden ball shines bright from the trap. She pours water on Ribbit through the trap door to save him, and he slowly wakes up. Zora lifts him from the hole using a rope. The two hug, as Zora tells him that she's glad he's alright. She gives him a kiss on the cheek, which turns Ribbit back into the Prince of Freedly. He says there's no time to explain because they must get back to the palace, so they ask the lucky ball to get them back to the palace. The lucky ball makes a horse appear, which the two ride back to the palace. Dulcey tells Henrietta that she is a cruel person and that it would be better to be friends with Zora than her. Meanwhile, the King greets the Baron at the sunset dance, and attempts to stall the crowd so that Zora can make it back in time for the ceremony. When the Prince of Freedly and Princess Zora make it back to the castle, the Prince tries to bang on the gate in order for the guard to open it and let them in. As they struggle outside, Henrietta the eldest enters the room. All of the crowd gasps audibly at her beauty as she enters. Outside, the prince wishes on the lucky ball that they can enter, and thus, the guard is awoken and opens the gate. Once they make it through the gate, Zora's magic ball gives Zora a beautiful, clean dress. The Prince of Freedly bursts into the crowning ceremony and announces his identity, saying that only a true princess could break the frog curse. Since Zora did that, she must be the true princess. The Uncle the King lets a tear fall as he tells Zora how proud he is of her, and that she is beautiful because true beauty comes from inside. Thus, Baron Von Whobble crowns Zora the true princess, and her Uncle the King escorts her to dance with the Prince of Freedly. Ending the film, the two dance together in front of the whole ballroom, and Zora asks "Are you really the Prince of Freedly?" In response, he says, "Yes, but do you know what my friends call me?" Finally, she says "Yes I do. Ribbit."

Background

I will describe the origin of the story in further detail. There is already commentary that the film was filmed in Tel Aviv. I would like to expand on that. I will also expand on the background and original fairytale of "The Frog Prince" by Brothers Grimm. There is already a Wikipedia page for this collection of stories and adaptations, so I will be drawing from this page and making connections between the two.

Furthermore, I will describe the detail by connecting it to scholarly articles about the work and critical reviews about the film. There is information about the film on IMDB. I am not sure if IMDB is reputable enough information.

I have also found a few scholarly articles reviewing The Frog Prince and Brother Grimm but I am not sure if they are relevant.

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/172286/summary

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/243853/summary

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00332928708408758?journalCode=upyp20

I will enhance "Critical Reception" with the reception on sites such as IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, etc. Yahoo is already on as a critique site and so is AMG.

Some of the references portion also needs to be updated.

Response to Draft

Hi Stephanie!

I apologize for not having this done sooner. I've been super busy with work over Spring Break, work... I know, and I also had a really hard time finding this page to comment on. But anyways, here you go!

You have a really solid background and it looks great! The plot outline is pretty extensive and I like the fact that you have added quotes from the movie in there. I would really be interested in the production aspects of this movie, if they are available, and I think it would be interesting to see why they made this movie, if there are reasons besides making the money.

I would be interested to see if there are any connections/disconnections between the Brother Grimm's fairytale and the 1986 film. There surely had to be cuts or edits so maybe there is an interview about that. That would be an interesting section to put in the Plot category.

Can you explain a little more behind the idea to connect the story to scholarly articles? What specific topic are you looking for in these articles? Also, I would just watch out about how you incorporate the critical reviews of the film. Reviews are mostly subjective so I would just pay attention that you aren't leaning one way or the other. Also, I think IMDB would be more of a reference than an actual source. Like use it for brief information or a gateway to information but don't necessarily use IMDB directly; that's how I look at it, it could be different.

Looking over your sources, I like the 2nd one as that could be a good connection between the stories and society; how we look at these stories and what they teach us. I would stay away from the first source as that seems to deal more with poetry and the adaption of Grim stories into poetry than anything that this article would need. I'm not too sure what the last source is about and I would just look that over to see if the information in it is completely necessary for this article.

All in all, you seem to have a really great heading for where this article is heading and what your contribution will be. I look forward to seeing more of it!

  1. ^ "Identity politics". Wikipedia. 10 January 2017.