The Swan Princess (1994)

The Swan Princess is based off the ballet Swan Lake. It tells the story of Princess Odette who is captured by Lord Rothbart who wants to marry her so that he can become king. To keep her bound to him, he turns her into a swan, a swan that can only regain her human form when moonlight touches the lake she is confined to. She must lure her betrothed Derek to help her. It is a great movie.

God of the Golden Fleece by Fred Saberhagen

In Fred Saberhagen’s world, mortal men take on “the face” of a god and essentially become that god. In The God of the Golden Fleece, a man that started out as an assassin of Jason and the crew of the Argo loses his memory at the same time he seems to gain the “face” of the god Triton. Although he suffers from some amnesia throughout the entire book, he does remember that his goal now is to protect Jason and the Argo and help him in his quest to obtain the Golden Fleece. It was an interesting take on this ancient story and a fun read. Saberhagen is really quite good at taking classic stories and giving them new twists.

The Thief and the Beanstalk by PW Catanese

The interesting thing about PW Catanese is that he writes sequals to the original fairy tales, not retellings. The Thief and the Beanstalk is the sequal, of course, to Jack and the Beanstalk. It tells the story of Nick who breaks into an old rich man’s house who happens to be named Jack. Rumors state that Jack gained all his wealth from a trip up a magical beanstalk when he was Nick’s age. When Jack catches Nick trying to steal some of his hard earned plunder, Jack gives Nick a choice: be turned over to the authorities or climb the beanstalk himself and see if the giantess that had helped Jack is still alive. But when Jack climbs up the stalk he finds new foes awaiting at the top who want revenge on the folk below for Jack’s long ago deeds. Will Nick be a hero? Or will he die in the land above the beanstalk?

The Thirteenth Year (1999)

The Thirteenth Year was a Disney Channel Original Movie. It tells the story of Cody, a jock swimmer, who starts to develop strange powers when he is in the water. With the help of the class geek, Jess, he finds out that he is a merman and must return to the water in order to survive. This was one of my favorite Disney Channel movies and I watched it every time it came on TV. It is now available on Amazon instant video.