Five princesses against one Memetic Loser? This is going to be fun.
LEGO Disney Princess: The Castle Quest is an animated action/adventure crossover special developed by LEGO in collaboration with the Disney Princess franchise. The special premiered on Disney+ on August 18, 2023 as part of World Princess Week.
Tiana, Moana, Snow White, Rapunzel, and Ariel are off on an adventure as they are each unexpectedly transported to a mysterious castle. Shortly after arriving, they soon discover that Gaston has hatched an evil plan to take over all their kingdoms! The Princess characters must work together to solve challenges hidden deep within the castle walls and try to save their kingdoms from Gaston. Will bravery, quick-thinking, and teamwork prevail?
Tropes for this special include:
- Actor Allusion: Ariel and Moana are both teamed up for their respective challenge. Jodi Benson and Auli'i Cravalho have both played Ariel— the former having originated the role, and the latter having played it as part of the The Little Mermaid Live stage performance.
- Adaptational Badass: In his home movie, Gaston was utterly trounced by The Beast when he started fighting back, and had to beg for mercy. In this special, he manages to take King Triton (a literal God) hostage.
- Adaptational Dumbass: Ariel wasn't entirely as knowledgeable about the human world as she would have liked in her own movie (no thanks to having Scuttle as a teacher), but later media demonstrated that she was quick to learn exactly what they were and what they were used for. This time, her lack of knowledge on human things is exaggerated and it makes up half her personality.
- Adaptational Nonsapience: Surprisingly, Maleficent gets this; being shown as a simple beast rather than a “Mistress of All Evil”, and can even be tamed.
- Badass in Distress: Triton is locked in an aquarium that is slowly draining of water.
- Big Bad: Gaston is the main antagonist of this special, with him wanting to conquer all of the worlds for himself.
- Brick Joke: Snow White and her axe. She does get use for it in the final challenge.
- Bat Family Crossover: In this case specifically, the Disney Princess franchise, after Ralph Breaks the Internet (Albeit with only 5 princesses this time).
- Canon Foreigner: Of sorts. Gaston does have a LEGO Minifigure as part of a Target-exclusive Disney Villains set, but he's never been released as a LEGO Mini Doll. The special features a version of him in such a form.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Snow White is turned into one for the sake of comedy, trying to solve pretty much every problem with an axe, building a Humongous Mecha Powered Armor to wear when she realizes she's in the dark forest again (Which hilariously, breaks apart after one trip to the ground!), and talking to wolves.
- Company Cross References: Two in fact, mostly from Disney films that are not Disney Princess related: Smee working for Captain Iago and Flower the skunk.
- Curse Cut Short: Coming from Snow White, of all princesses.Snow White: ...And being nice to animals, you rotten, no-good-
(Dragon!Maleficent roars, cutting off Snow's plan to say something.) - Flanderization: As per usual for licensed LEGO animations, some of the characters are boiled down to a few defining traits for the sake of comedy.
- Ariel's misunderstanding of the names and functions of objects from the surface world becomes half of her personality, with her keeping a "scootieblot* " in her hair for digging holes and scratching her back, and thinking a "tuba-boom* " is an instrument ships play at each other.
- Gaston becomes even more self-centered and misogynistic, essentially becoming a power-hungry Manchild who cheats at the contest despite already thinking the Princesses don't stand a chance at beating him.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Flower for Snow White, Tiana and Rapunzel's team.
- Heel–Face Turn: Dragon!Maleficent, after Tiana healed her ripped wing.
- It's All About Me: Gaston is still as vain and egotistical as ever, with plenty of bragging about himself to go around.
- Motive Decay: In the original Beauty and the Beast, Gaston's only goal was to force Belle to marry him. This time, he's decided to take over the Disney Princesses' respective kingdoms (though considering he died thanks to stabbing Beast in the back and falling to his doom, he might have changed goals to avoid that happening again).
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Gaston is the main antagonist of Belle's story, but antagonizes Ariel, Tiana, Rapunzel, Snow White, and Moana instead of their respective foes of Ursula, Dr. Facilier, Mother Gothel, Queen Grimhilde, and Tamatoa. To be fair, this was a special that was based on a LEGO set featuring said five princesses...
- Shout-Out: The final challenge for the princesses brings to mind the Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour (Minus The Black Cauldron references).
- Sidelined Protagonist Crossover:
- Gaston; the Big Bad of Beauty and the Beast, is the main antagonist of the special, yet Belle does not appear in this special despite being an official Disney Princess.
- Iago appears in the special, while Aladdin is absent. In the case of the Disney Princess franchise, Jasmine is absent as well.
- Maleficent appears while Aurora, another Disney Princess, is absent.
- Non-Disney Princess examples include: Mr. Smee over Peter Pan and Flower the Skunk over Bambi.
