The Little Ladies: The 12 Dancing Princesses

"There is a difference only you can make." -Olivia

The Little Ladies: The 12 Dancing Princesses is the tenth The Little Ladies film. It premiered on Nickelodeon on September 8, 2006 and it was later released to DVD on September 17, 2006. The film bears some inspiration from the Brothers Grimm fairytale The 12 Dancing Princesses. It follows the story of Princess Kayley and her 11 sisters as they go to a magical world where their wishes become true.

## Summary

In The Little Ladies: The 12 Dancing Princesses, Olivia will dance her way in your hearts in this very fun and enchanting all new adventure. Join Olivia as the pretty Princess Kayley and her 11 dancing princess sisters while they find an entrance to an amazing and magical world where wishes become true but when their dad is in danger of losing his kingdom and his life, Princess Kayley and her sisters should work together in order to save the day and their dad. They discover that the power of family can overcome all obstacles!

## Plot

Olivia plays Kayley, a princess with 11 sisters: Lynn, Luan, Luna, Leni, Lori, Lily, Lisa, Lola, Lana, Lucy and Lacy. Each princess is pretty and different but the 12 sisters have 1 thing in common: they all like dancing. They live in a castle with their widowed dad, King Titan. Titan loves his daughters but sometimes, he cannot understand them and feels like they must act like proper princesses. The girls' adventurous and free-spirited natures are viewed as unladylike and unproper by other royal society members and usually bring them to make rude comments about the princesses. This both disheartens and hurts Titan. While believing his daughters need a lady's touch, the king summons his cousin, Princess Emily to the palace to assist in raising them. However, Emily has her very own ideas which include getting rid of Titan and his daughters so she can take over the kingdom. She does her lessons with the girls but gives them gray gowns, she does not take the time to find out the girls' names, rearranges everything in their room and has a very strict bedtime rule. Sensing trouble, Kayley and her sisters attempt to reason with Titan but due to Emily's interference, the king does not believe them and says they should listen to his cousin. While trying to break the girls' spirits, Emily makes the princesses' lives very sad by stripping the palace of everything they like and having them practise proper behaviour. She also banishes singing and dancing from the palace when the girls were celebrating the triplets' birthday. Lonely with the changes, the princesses find comfort in their mom's favourite story which she gave to the girls when they were 5. It tells the story of a princess who discovered a magic kingdom where golden flowers grant wishes and could dance at a magic pavilion for 3 nights. It is said that after the 3rd night, the magical land disappeared forever. However, though the princess could not return, she had some magic to take with her forever. They later find out the story is real as Lacy, the youngest sees that her lily matches the lily on the floor. Kayley tells everybody to find a match on their book to a stone. Kayley attempts dancing from stone to stone: it does not work. She attempts dancing from eldest to youngest which is actually stone to stone only in an alternating up-down pattern. Lacy's stone does not work so she twirls 3 times just like the character int he story. They enter the magic kingdom and dance the night away. While dancing, Lacy, the youngest, falls down and scrapes her knee. Kayley dabs water from a close fountain on the cut and it heals while revealing that the water there is magical. Near the end of the night, the triplets sleep and the girls' shoes are worn out and they all decide to return. The triplets thank Kayley for their birthday and the girls sleep. The following day, the girls are sleepy and the princess finds their new dancing shoes worn through. While suspicious, Emily believes that they were out dancing with princes which to her means she would lose her chance to take the throne and rule the kingdom as planned. Meanwhile, the royal cobbler and Kayley's crush, Charlie comes to fix their shoes and sees that they are covered in golden dust. Kayley dances on the mosaic in the pavilion outdoors, the same dance that opens the magic door hidden inside their bedroom floor similar to the one in their bedroom. While together, Kayley asks Charlie to discover what Emily's true intentions are. The princess continues to deprive them of any enjoyment and prevents them from visiting or singing to their dad who has recently got sick. The doctor gives Flora a tonic for Titan which she disposes of while revealing that it is poisoning him. That nighttime, Emily tells the girls to be more awake tomorrow and wants no excuses. After leaving, has her footman, Bruno stand guard outside the princesses' room to discover where they go. The sisters sneak back to the magical world and dance into the night again. Meanwhile, Charlie finds out that Emily is stealing heirlooms from the palace and dealing with an apothecary presumably for the poison. He manages to return the gauntlet unfortunately, he has to sell his horse to get it. He hurries back to warn Kayley and her sisters. The following morning, the sisters are still sleepy and Emily demands to know why. Whens he gangs up on Lacy, the girls tell her the truth but she does not believe them and forces them into servitude. They spend the day raking the leaves when Lacy intentionally drops a basket of leaves, she runs away while crying. Kayley goes to comfort her. Lacy feels very sad that she is the baby of the family and has not found her talent but Kayley assures her that large or tiny, there is a difference only you can make. That nighttime, Kayley and Lacy go to visit their dad but overhear him and Emily speaking and they hear him say they are a burden though that is not what he said. Later, Emily demands the truth again but they tell her the same story. This makes Emily even more mad, she tells them tomorrow they will be cleaning the stables and she locks them in their room while accusing them of Titan's declining health. Hurt by her cruel words and due to a misinterpreted dialogue between the king and Emily, the girls cannot help but feel that she is correct and that their dad would be better off without them. Heartbroken and not knowing what to do, the princesses decide to come back to the magical kingdom, this time they will stay there. A furious Emily finds the sisters gone to the following morning and demands that Bruno find them. That evening, Charlie finally makes it back to the palace but discovers the princesses are lost. While determined to find Kayley, he sneaks in their bedroom. Remembering Kayley's dance pattern, Charlie enters the magical world and goes to report his findings to the girls. Unfortunately, Emily learns how to enter the magical world due to her monkey, Bo. After Charlie has found the girls, he tells them about Emily selling their mom's processions for poison. The girls currently understand what has been going on as well as Emily's true intentions. They discover they must return and assist their dad though they will not be able to come back to the magical kingdom ever again. Unfortunately, Emily was watching them and had Bo steal some wishing flowers, she returns to the palace and has Bruno destroy the mosaic that forms the gateway, trapping the sisters and Charlie in the magical kingdom. While more of the stones get destroyed, the more the location vanishes, trapping the girls. While thinking she has disposed of the princesses, Emily then tricks the weak King Titan into making her acting queen till he recovers. Trapped in the magical world, the girls and Charlie try to find a way out. Kayley discovers that only by dancing with Charlie can she open another entrance back to their world. While they dance, the couple and the other princesses float up into the sky while dancing and come back home. However, this new gateway leads to their mom's dance pavilion, identical to the pavilion in the magical world instead of their bedroom. Once back, the sisters and Charlie find out that Emily is now queen, new guards hired by Emily have been ordered to capture any of the princesses and the princesses overhear that their dad is dying. Using their talents, the princesses disable the guards and enter the palace to confront Emily. While ignoring Kayley's orders, Lacy enters the palace to assist but is seized by Bruno. Charlie and Kayley defeat the enchanted armour that defend Emily using the magic plants that she stole from the entrance to the magical pavilion but the princess has the upper hand when Bruno drags in Lacy. Noting that Kayley is the source of her sisters' resistance against her, Emily uses the plants to wish for Kayley to dance forever but as the dust comes near her, Kayley produces her fan and blows it back at Emily who begins dancing instead. Bruno soon joins her while attempting to assist and the 2 supervillains dance their way out of the palace and into the valley. It is revealed that Lacy saved some water from the magic pavilion. She gives it to her dad and heals the dying king. Titan explains that Emily was poisoning him and apologises to his daughters for not believing them. He now understands them and discovers they will do great things and become wonderful princesses by being themselves like their mom told him. The movie ends with everything made right as Kayley and Charlie dancing in their wedding.

## Cast and Characters

* Winona Ryder as Princess Kayley
* Susan Sarandon as Princess Emily
* Jessica DiCicco as Princess Lynn and Lucy
* Catherine Ashmore Bradley as Princess Luan
* Nika Futterman as Princess Luna
* Liliana Mumy as Princess Leni
* Catherine Taber as Princess Lori
* Grey DeLisle as Princess Lily, Princess Lola and Princess Lana
* Lara Jill Miller as Princess Lisa
* Shantelle Wright as Princess Lacy
* Egan Chan as Prince Charlie
* Fergus Faud as King Titan
* Gary Cal as Bruno
* Petey Colsward as Fatzo and Sentry 4
* Dina Waile as Tyla
* Gabriel Cote as Felix
* Tefferson Terrence as Royal Butler, Fabian, Sentry 1 and Guard 1
* Dave Kay as the Royal Physician and Sentry 2
* Johnny Hong as Ambassador to Montenegro

Other characters with no lines include:

* Queen Eleanor
* Prince, the beetle
* Belle, the spider
* Gerda, the caterpillar

## Places

* King Titan's palace
* Magic Realm

## Music

* The music from the movie was composed by Ariana Grande.
* The score features excerpts from Felix Mendelssohn's Symphony 4 including
* Movement 3: Con Moto Moderato
* Movement 1: Allegro Vivace
* The score also features another excerpt from Felix Mendelssohn's A Midsummer's Night Dream.
* Fairies' March
* Notturno
* Other songs performed in the film:
* Charlie's Song: a minus-one piece by Charlie for the princesses to dance to.
* Happy Birthday: a song the elder sisters sing to Lana, Lisa and Lacy for their birthday.
* Molto Giusto by George Chen, an acapella song sung by the princesses as a way to cheer up King Titan.
* Superhero by Katy Perry, the theme song for the film, played during the credits.
* You've Gotta Shine, written by Ariana Grande, lyrics by Anna Kendrick, produced by Lee Silverman.

## DVD Features

* Dancing in the Sky: The Making of The Little Ladies: The 12 Dancing Princesses
* Memory Ballerina Game
* Superhero Music Video
* Preview Gallery

## Awards

The Little Ladies: The 12 Dancing Princesses was nominated in Excellent Original Song to Ariana Grande and Anna Kendrick for the song You Gotta Shine in Daytime Emmy Awards 2007. The film was also nominated for Best Cartoon Film to Sheena Wighman and Jane Gwen, the producers and Best Direction to Fhemmy Tan both of categories from Leo Awards 2007. This film also wins both categories from Indonesian Movie Awards 2008.

## Trivia

* This is the very first The Little Ladies movie to be released under Universal Studios.
* Some of the princesses in the movie appear in The Little Ladies: The Island Duchess as visitors to Princess Auliana and Prince Robert's wedding.
* The 1st letters of the princesses' names appear in alphabetical order from eldest to youngest.
* Kayley's name was originally Kaitlyn as shown by this costume, this book and these trademarks.
* Princess Lola's name could have been Aloisa as the trademarks were filed the same day as her twin Lily. This is assuming the alphabetical naming scheme was still used.
* The same day, the trademarks for Princess Lynn, Princess Lucy, Princess Luan, Princess Luna, Princess Leni, Princess Lori, Princess Lana, Princess Lisa, Princess Lacy and Prince Charlie were filed, the trademarks for Princess Clarissa and Princess Kirsten also appeared. Most likely Clarissa and Kirsten were preliminary names for 2 of the sisters. The name Kirsten was used in The Little Ladies: The Pink Shoes.
* This movie marked the return of the New York Ballet Company since The Little Ladies: Swan Lake.
* This was the very first time 4 The Little Ladies movies were released in the same year.

## Mistakes

* While at the table, Luna is reading a book but her book is invisible.
* At the table, the collar of the 7 princesses is not seen.
* When Kayley arrives late, Luna's collar is another shade of violet.
* Luna's bow is often showed as brown.
* Lily's tutu is sometimes switched with her normal dress.
* When Emily and Bruno dance out of the palace, King Titan vanishes even though the blankets are shaped if though he was there.
* When the girls dance their very last dance on the very first nighttime, Lana, Lucy and Lacy are missing from the spot they are supposed to be sleeping in. Next second, they are shown sleeping on the stairs.
* When Kayley asks her sisters to match their books with the stones, Lana is lost. When they have found the stones, she appears again.
* When Lily greets Emily, her sleeves are pink instead of lavender.
* While dancing away from the magical realm, Princess Lily is lost.
* Technically, the triplets are a bit young for some of the dance moves they are shown doing.

## AKA

* Korean - 작은 숙녀들: 12명의 춤추는 공주들
* Chinese - 小淑女：十二位跳舞的公主
* Russian - Маленькие леди: 12 танцующих принцесс
* Japanese - リトル・レディース：12人のダンシング・プリンセス
* German - Die kleinen Damen: Die 12 tanzenden Prinzessinnen
* Filipino - The Little Ladies: Ang 12 Dancing Princesses
* Greek - Οι Μικρές Κυρίες: Οι 12 Πριγκίπισσες που Χορεύουν
* Spanish - Las señoritas: las 12 princesas bailarinas
* Hebrew - הגברות הקטנות: הוא 12 נסיכות רוקדות
* Hindi - द लिटिल लेडीज़: वह 12 डांसिंग प्रिंसेस