Arielle Port started as a TV producer, developing content for Netflix (Firefly Lane, Brazen) and Hallmark (The Santa Stakeout, A Christmas Treasure) before transitioning into entertainment journalism. Her love of story went from interest to lifelong passion while at The University of Pennsylvania, where she fell in with a student-run web series, Classless TV, and it was a gateway drug. Arielle Port has been a Writer for Screen Rant since August 2024. She lives in Los Angeles with her boyfriend and more importantly, her cat, Boseman.
For more than 100 years, Disney has built one of the strongest brands in entertainment on princesses, fairy tales, and happily-ever-afters. From Snow White and Cinderella to Elsa and Moana, generations have grown up understanding the Disney formula: magical worlds, memorable characters, and catchy songs.
Once Upon a Time took Disney’s catalog of fairy-tale characters and remixed it, throwing characters from different stories together and reimagining their relationships in unexpected ways. While Snow White and Charming finding each other in every universe may be a tale as old as time, the Evil Queen finding true love with Robin Hood was not on anyone’s bingo card. Halfway through Once Upon a Time’s seven-season run, Disney capitalized on the show's popularity during its season 4 winter hiatus by introducing a low-stakes four-week fantasy comedy event in OUAT’s time slot. The result was Galavant, which took that same Disney storytelling formula and lovingly satirized it.
Galavant was, as actor Mallory Jansen herself reportedly described it, the “child of Monty Python and The Princess Bride.” Galavant basically takes the romantic fairy-tale adventure of The Princess Bride (and most of Disney’s archives) and filters it through the deliberately silly medieval parody of Monty Python.Galavant brilliantly skewered the fairy-tale fantasy conventions that were the core of Once Upon a Time in just eight excellent episodes. It only needed to bridge OUAT’s month-long holiday break, but it was so critically acclaimed that Disney gave Galavant a surprise second season.
Galavant Is The Perfect Irreverent Binge For Disney Princess Fans
Image via MovieStillsDB
Galavant lovingly embraces the Disney conventions it parodies rather than simply mocking them, acknowledging every trope and twisting it into something delightfully unexpected. There’s a heroic knight, an evil king, a beautiful princess, a loyal squire, romance, magic, and plenty of happily-ever-after potential, but almost none of them work the way they usually do.
Sir Galavant (Joshua Sasse) sees himself as the legendary knight destined to save the day, but his enormous ego and questionable habits frequently get in the way of his heroism. King Richard (Timothy Omundson) desperately wants to be the terrifying villain of a fairy tale, yet his insecurity and general pathetic nature make it impossible for him to succeed.
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From Steamboat Willie to Encanto · Eight QuestionsHow Well Do You Know Disney Movies?“When you wish upon a star…”
🐭Steamboat EraBlack-and-white Mickey
👑The PrincessesSnow White onward
🦁90s RenaissanceLion King & Aladdin
💡Pixar LampToy Story onward
❄️Modern EraFrozen & beyond
QUESTION 1 / 8MICKEY’S DEBUT
01
On November 18, 1928, Walt Disney premiered a seven-minute black-and-white short at the Colony Theatre in New York — the first Mickey Mouse cartoon released to the public, and one of the earliest sound cartoons ever made. Whistling Mickey at the helm of a riverboat became the studio’s first iconic image. Name the short.
✓ Correct! Steamboat Willie. Mickey actually finished production first on the silent short Plane Crazy earlier that year, but Walt and his brother Roy bet the studio’s entire future on retooling Steamboat Willie with synchronised sound — a brand-new technology that had only just appeared with The Jazz Singer (1927). The gamble worked: Steamboat Willie’s November 1928 release made Mickey an instant national icon and put Disney on the map. The short entered the public domain in January 2024, exactly 95 years after release.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Steamboat Willie. Plane Crazy was actually animated first (May 1928, silent) but didn’t find a distributor. The Gallopin’ Gaucho was the second Mickey short, also originally silent. The Karnival Kid (1929) is where Mickey first speaks. The breakthrough — the first publicly released, sound-synchronised Mickey short — is Steamboat Willie.
QUESTION 2 / 8DISNEY’S FIRST FEATURE
02
Walt Disney sank the studio’s entire balance sheet, plus a heavy mortgage on his home, into a project Hollywood derisively called “Disney’s Folly” — the first full-length cel-animated feature film ever made in English. It premiered December 21, 1937 at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles to a standing ovation. Name the film.
✓ Correct! Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). The 83-minute film cost $1.49 million — an enormous gamble at the height of the Depression — and grossed $8 million on its initial release, the highest-grossing sound film made up to that point. Walt won an honorary Oscar (one large statuette and seven small ones, presented by Shirley Temple). The film’s success funded the construction of Disney’s Burbank studio and effectively created the feature-animation industry.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Pinocchio (1940) is the second Disney feature. Fantasia (1940) is the third. Bambi (1942) is the fifth. Snow White was the bet-the-studio first — ridiculed in production as “Disney’s Folly” before becoming the highest-grossing sound film ever made up to 1937.
QUESTION 3 / 8DISNEYLAND OPENS
03
Walt Disney’s vision of a film-quality theme park opened to a chaotic, oversold “Black Sunday” debut — counterfeit tickets, a gas leak, and asphalt soft enough to swallow women’s heels. The Anaheim park was built on 160 acres of orange groves in just 12 months. In which year did Disneyland open?
✓ Correct! July 17, 1955 — press preview day, dubbed “Black Sunday” in Disney company lore. ABC broadcast a live two-hour TV special featuring Ronald Reagan, Bob Cummings and Art Linkletter (collectively winging the script as things went wrong). Disneyland was built on Anaheim orange groves Walt mortgaged his home to fund. Walt Disney World opened in 1971 in Orlando, six years after Walt’s death — that’s the date many people confuse with Disneyland’s opening.
✗ Wrong. The answer is 1955 — specifically July 17. 1948 is when Walt first sketched the concept. 1962 doesn’t mark a major Disney park milestone. 1971 is when Walt Disney World opened in Florida (six years after Walt’s death) — that’s the date most often confused with Disneyland’s. The original Anaheim park opened in 1955.
QUESTION 4 / 8THE 90s RENAISSANCE
04
The Lion King (1994) was pitched internally as “Bambi meets…” a particular Shakespeare play — and the parallels are unmissable: a young prince’s father is murdered by his uncle, who usurps the throne; the prince later returns to avenge him. Which Shakespeare tragedy provided the bones of the story?
✓ Correct! Hamlet. The internal pitch was famously “Bambi meets Hamlet” (or, in some retellings, “Hamlet with lions”): Mufasa is the murdered king-father (Hamlet Sr.), Scar is the usurping uncle (Claudius), Simba is the exiled prince (Hamlet), and even the ghost-on-a-cliff appearance plays out beat-for-beat. The Lion King grossed $968 million worldwide and remained the highest-grossing animated film for 16 years until Toy Story 3 broke the record in 2010.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Hamlet. Macbeth is the “ambitious wife pushes husband to murder the king” story (the closer Disney parallel there is the Frollo/Esmeralda dynamic in Hunchback). Othello is the jealousy tragedy. King Lear is the divided-kingdom tragedy. The Lion King’s bones are unambiguously Hamlet’s — ghost, uncle-murderer, exiled-prince and all.
QUESTION 5 / 8FROZEN
05
Frozen (2013) became the highest-grossing animated film at the time and won two Oscars including Best Animated Feature. Its standout song — performed by Idina Menzel as Elsa, written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez — won the Oscar for Best Original Song and dominated radio playlists for an entire year. Name the song.
✓ Correct! “Let It Go” — the Oscar-winning power ballad that fundamentally rewrote the film’s plot in production: Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez wrote the song so persuasively that the directors threw out the existing script and rewrote Elsa from villain to misunderstood protagonist. The song spent over 30 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, was translated into 41 languages for international releases, and its Idina Menzel single sold 10.9 million copies. Frozen grossed $1.28 billion and held the highest-grossing-animated-film record until its own 2019 sequel.
✗ Wrong. The answer is “Let It Go.” The other three options are also Frozen songs by the same Lopez/Anderson-Lopez writing team. “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” is the early childhood-montage number. “For the First Time in Forever” is Anna’s coronation-day song. “Love Is an Open Door” is the Hans/Anna duet. The Oscar-winning monster hit is “Let It Go.”
QUESTION 6 / 8PIXAR’S BREAKTHROUGH
06
In November 1995, Pixar — then a small Disney distribution partner founded by Ed Catmull, John Lasseter and Steve Jobs — released the world’s first fully computer-animated feature film. It became the highest-grossing film of 1995 in North America and won a Special Achievement Oscar for John Lasseter. Name the movie.
✓ Correct! Toy Story (November 22, 1995). Made for $30 million, it grossed $373 million worldwide and immediately rewrote what was possible in animation. Steve Jobs — who’d bought Pixar from Lucasfilm in 1986 for $5 million — took the company public a week after the film’s release at $22 a share, instantly making him a billionaire. Disney bought Pixar outright in 2006 for $7.4 billion in stock, making Jobs Disney’s largest individual shareholder. A Bug’s Life (1998) was the second Pixar feature; Monsters, Inc. (2001) the fourth.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Toy Story (1995). A Bug’s Life (1998), Monsters, Inc. (2001) and Finding Nemo (2003) are all later Pixar features. Toy Story was the studio’s first — and the first fully computer-animated theatrical feature in cinema history. Its release a week before Steve Jobs took Pixar public effectively turned him from struggling NeXT-era founder into a billionaire.
QUESTION 7 / 8THE BIG ACQUISITIONS
07
In a roughly seven-year span, Disney made a sequence of franchise acquisitions that transformed it from an animation studio into a global IP empire. Pixar (2006, $7.4B), Lucasfilm (2012, $4.05B) and 21st Century Fox (2019, $71.3B) bracket the era. The remaining major brand — bought in 2009 for $4 billion — brought Iron Man, Spider-Man and the Avengers under Disney’s roof. Name it.
✓ Correct! Marvel Entertainment, acquired August 2009 for $4 billion. The deal followed Marvel Studios’ first independent production (Iron Man, 2008) and gave Disney rights to over 5,000 characters — though crucially not Spider-Man (still under a Sony deal) or the X-Men/Fantastic Four (under Fox until the 2019 acquisition reunited them). Disney’s combined Marvel-Lucasfilm-Pixar-Fox portfolio is now the largest IP holding in entertainment history.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Marvel Entertainment. DC Entertainment is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery (since the 1969 Kinney/National acquisition). Image Comics and Dark Horse remain independent. Disney bought Marvel in August 2009 for $4 billion, two years after Marvel Studios’ first self-financed film (Iron Man, 2008).
QUESTION 8 / 8MOANA
08
Disney Animation’s Moana (2016) features Hawaiian newcomer Auli’i Cravalho as the title role and Dwayne Johnson as the demigod Maui. Its musical numbers — including “How Far I’ll Go” and “You’re Welcome” — were co-written by a Pulitzer- and Tony-winning Broadway composer who’d become a household name with Hamilton the previous year. Name him.
✓ Correct! Lin-Manuel Miranda — co-writing with Te Vaka frontman Opetaia Foa’i and composer Mark Mancina. Miranda’s Hamilton had opened on Broadway the year before (August 2015) and turned him into the rare Disney songwriter with crossover Broadway-rap credibility. Miranda has since become a Disney mainstay, returning for Encanto (2021), where his songs “Surface Pressure” and “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” topped the Billboard Hot 100.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Lin-Manuel Miranda. Stephen Sondheim wrote Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods and West Side Story’s lyrics — but never a Disney animated feature. Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote Cats, Phantom and Evita — also never a Disney film. Alan Menken is the great Disney Renaissance composer (Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin) but didn’t write Moana’s songs. Moana is Miranda’s, with Foa’i and Mancina.
The Castle Has Spoken · Final TallyYour Magic Kingdom Standing
👑
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True Disney royalty — or just a tourist with churros?
Magdalena (Mallory Jansen) initially appears to be the damsel in distress and Sir Galavant’s love interest waiting to be rescued, but she has little interest in either role. She’s far more concerned with power, luxury, and getting exactly what she wants. Even Sid the Squire (Luke Youngblood) gets an unexpected upgrade from the traditional loyal sidekick. Rather than simply following his hero around, Sid has ambitions of his own and is often more aware of the absurdity surrounding him than Sir Galavant is.
That affection for the source material is what makes the show so effective. It doesn’t laugh at Disney fairy tales from the outside; it understands why they work and then gleefully rearranges their pieces, including Galavant’s hilarious meta fourth-wall breaks. The result is a satire that doesn’t feel mean-spirited and is elevated by the talent behind it.
Galavant's Music Is What Makes It More Than A Parody
Image via MovieStillsDB
The writing in Galavant is sharp enough to stand on its own, but it wouldn’t be a Disney parody without music. Created by Dan Fogelman two years before he would go on to create This Is Us, the series had another major advantage: Alan Menken, the legendary composer who helped define the sound of the Disney Renaissance movies of the '90s.
Menken’s songwriting credits include The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and Tangled, making him the perfect choice for Galavant. The songs in Galavant aren’t simply jokes dressed up as musical numbers. They are genuinely catchy, advance the story, develop characters, and still deliver Galavant’s irreverent humor.
That balance is especially apparent in the show’s second season, which opens with a new theme song that essentially acknowledges the biggest joke of all: Galavant somehow got renewed. The cast sings about the show’s unlikely return, turning its own cancellation anxiety and modest status into part of the comedy.
It’s ridiculous, self-aware, and completely in keeping with the series’ willingness to break the fourth wall without losing its story. That is ultimately what separates Galavant from a simple parody. It knows the Disney musical formula well enough to recreate it with love, then uses that familiarity to subvert expectations. The songs prove that Galavant genuinely understands why Disney musicals work in the first place.
Galavant is available to rent or buy on Prime Video, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Joshua SasseGalavant
Timothy OmundsonKing Richard
