A list of shout-outs in Cursed Princess Club, organized roughly by episode.
Proceed with caution if you aren't caught up: Spoilers below are unmarked.
Shout Outs in Cursed Princess Club
- Princess Maria buys a "Cinderella's Secret" bustle to enhance her wardrobe, though she doesn't end up using it.
- Princess Maria also mentions she wants to "climb Blaine like Jack wants to climb a hunky bean stalk."
- In Episode 18
, the Pastel Royals play a game of Thirsty Thirsty Princess during board game night (an affectionate nod to "Pretty Pretty Princess"). - Princess Syrah was hit with a "Pinocchio" curse when she ate chocolates her boyfriend had purposefully poisoned.
- As shown in Episode 20, Princess Thermidora sings "Under the Sea" when she longs for her previous life as a beautiful lobster.
- Prince Frederick's favorite book is "The Tiniest Prince." Gwen sends him a copy in Episode 34.
- When best friends Pastel King Jack and Plaid King Leland reunite during Lance's birthday ball, they effortlessly perform the dance lift from Dirty Dancing.
- Prince Jamie's "protest garments" in Episode 61 were made by the same tailors who made The Emperor's New Clothes:Prince Jamie: And until these demands are met... I shall only wear my new protest garments!! These were sewn with the finest materials, by tailors who once made clothes for a highly respected emperor!!Guard 1: What the...Guard 2: ...He's very obviously just naked...
- Jamie also threatens to go out in public in his "protest garments", citing the bottomless brunch at Little Miss Muffet's Buffet as the first place he'll visit.
- In Episode 75, Monika protests President Calpernia's insistence that she should get rid of some of the clutter in her room by quoting Marie Kondo's famous line:President Calpernia: Okay but... why do you need to keep eight giant boxes labeled "cute rocks"?Princess Monika: BECAUSE THEY ALL SPARK JOY!!!
- In Episode 76, the Pastel Royals play a game of The Settlers of Narnia while waiting for Gwen to return from her extracurricular studies.Princess Lorena: Sweet, I drew the resource monopoly card again. Everyone, hand over all your Turkish Delight!
- In Episode 87, Prince Greyden of the Monochrome Kingdom makes an oblique reference to 101 Dalmatians while discussing his plan to dispatch his brother Whitney.Prince Greyden: Get me a serum to curse my big brother into a white tiger. After his transformation, have the guards slaughter him... and turn him into a pelt for me to wear at my coronation.Manservant: Um... Your Highness, with all due respect, why don't you turn him into something else monochrome, but smaller and less... deadly? ...Like a dalmatian?Prince Greyden: WHAT KIND OF FREAK WEARS A COAT MADE OF DALMATIANS?!!
- Leopold's artworks inspired by Jamie, seen in Episode 106, are all cheeky shout-outs to famous artists and artworks, including:
- An image of Jamie reaching for a donut, based on "The Creation of Adam" by Michelangelo Buonarroti.
- A technicolor pop-art print of marshmallow bunnies, similar to the Soup Can and Marilyn Monroe prints created by Andy Warhol.
- Princess Abbi's curse is reminiscent of the Japanese folk tale of Urashima Taro and the jeweled box he received from the princess of the Dragon Palace.
- Renee and her sister's curses are references to a story involving Old Mother Frost, about a girl who falls down a well and winds up in a meadow. She does a bunch of kind deeds there and gets the blessed with the ability to produce gold whenever she talks. The girl's cruel stepsister tries to go to the meadow but refuses to do any kind deeds, she gets Renee's frog curse.
- For the gala, Gwen sewed a Cinderella costume with a special dress that could transform from a servant’s rags to a sparkly ball gown, which she demonstrates for her siblings in Episode 114. Gwen's design borrows heavily from live action adaptations of Cinderella that use the "transforming dress" effect onstage (including a bandana that hides her crown and spinning to fluff out the hidden layers of the dress), popularized in recent years by William Ivey Long's work on the 2013 Broadway debut of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella.
- Maria and Lorena intend to go as Odette from Swan Lake and Thumbelina, respectively.
- One suggestion for Jamie’s gala costume was him as a giant marshmallow bunny — the fantasy sequence is him stomping around a flaming city with a sailor hat and neckpiece over his fat marshmallow bunny suit.
- Monika’s favorite book series is Turtles of the Round Table.
- After giving up her costume to Gwen, Maria is given a new costume by Blaine. The two do a couples’ costume as the two main characters of the musical "The Ogre of the Opera".
- When Saffron reunites with his family at the 32nd Pentennial Bippity Bop Gala in Episode Episode 123, his father and six unnamed male relatives are dressed as the 7 dwarves from Snow White (while a woman who appears to be his mother is dressed as princess Snow White).
- Many attendees of the Bippity Bop are wearing costumes that pay homage to other popular webtoons and web content. From Episode 121:
- A pair of dancers appear as characters from Miss Abbott and the Doctor — one wearing a long yellow dress, the other a white lab coat and head-mirror. Another pair are dressed as Rena and Zen from Kind Of Confidential.
- A pair of partygoers (seen behind Lorena and Lance during the opening dance) are dressed as Lucy and Graham from Gourmet Hound.
- A party guest is dressed as "Shen" of Shen Comix/ Bluechair, complete with yellow hoodie, orange wig, and a dab of blue paint on the nose.
- A trio of guests appear dressed as Navier and Rashta from The Remarried Empress, with one Navier complaining the other stole her costume idea (just like Rashta did in the source material).
- Two more guests appear as rainbow-haired Arcus from Acception and bull-horned Tan from The Witch and The Bull.
- Two guests who raise their eyebrows at Whitney's lackluster costume are dressed as the Fishball and the titular boyfriend of My Giant Nerd Boyfriend.
- A pair of guests in the entry hall are dressed as Bea and Lazareth of Brimstone and Roses, complete with bodypaint and fake horns.
- A party guest in the ballroom is dressed as Lyra of Siren's Lament (strapless yellow bikini top and ruffled mermaid-hem skirt), while two others standing in front of her are decked out as characters from Brass And Sass (gray school uniforms and a trumpet).
- Two guests seen behind Maria and Blaine after Bozart's opening speech are dressed as Lupe and Lina of Four Leaf.
- One of the Princels is dressed as the Therapy Gecko.
- In Episode 123 President Calpernia learns her spider security system has inadvertently been keeping mail from being delivered to the CPC. There's a quick series of flashbacks showing how her mailbox full of spiders frightened off multiple postmen, including one where the spiders are dressed as the Front Man and Guards from Squid Game.
- In episode 123, Whitney's looking at the mirror and thinking that his tiger stripes flaring red mean that he hasn't changed as much as he'd assumed and in his heart he's remained the same depraved, desirous person he always was regardless of his attempts to hide them to fit in with society may be seen as a shout out to Gully Foyle of The Stars My Destination, whose tiger-stripe shaped facial scars serve a nearly identical function.
- Episode 141 has two Whole Plot References:
- Princess Maria reads Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to Gwen in her magically-induced slumber. Gwen dreams of being led down a tunnel by a marshmallow bunny to meet members of the CPC as characters from the book. Prez is the Mad Hatter, Monica is the dormouse (or a dor-crow), and Whitney is the March Hare (or March Cat)
- Gwen also sees Humpty Dumpty sitting on a wall and taking the usual fall, but when she rushes over to help she's shocked to find her own face on the shattered fragments of Humpty's shell (an echo of how she had been seeing her face cracked and shattered in mirrors in her waking life).
- Lorena's final project as revealed in Episode 151 is titled "Defense & Defensibility", a nod to Sense and Sensibility.
- Prez references a famous line from Super Mario Bros. when the CPC gatecrashes King Leland's invasion of the Pastel Castle in episode 156:Princess Calpernia: Sorry, but your princesses aren't going to another castle!
- In Episode 169, the Plaid Queen repeats a phrase made famous by the Red Queen of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:Plaid Royal Guard: Your majesty, what would you like us to do with the former king?Plaid Queen: Off with his head.Plaid Parliament: ---?!Syrah, Jamie, Leopold: *GASP!*Aurelia: WHAT...?!Plaid Queen: *giggle* Just a little queen humor... He shall be detained and tried for his war crimes to the fullest extent.
