Sounds of sword fighting and shouting are present in battle scenes. Sounds representing someone being choked. Some moments of peril and slightly scary and suspenseful moments.
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Strong themes of acceptance and teamwork over competition. Lessons about valuing love and family over power. Messages of following your heart, facing fears, dealing with grief, finding independence, and courage are present throughout. Underlying themes of responsibility, resourcefulness and bravery.
Positive Role Models
a lot
Both Rupert and Amir bravely embark on a quest to protect their people. They continually demonstrate their commitment to fairness, kindness, and loyalty. Joan is a brave and free thinking woman who charts her own path. Queens Atossa and Lavinia both model wisdom and self sacrifice. The two main characters listen to their intuitions and follow their instincts. Rupert and Amir's relationships represents normalizing queer main characters in modern-day fairytales.
Diverse Representations
a lot
This ensemble cast is full of brave and wise characters to root for, including several queer heroes and a variety of women in leadership roles. The three main heroes of the story, Rupert, Amir and Joan, are all queer. Strong women are featured as main characters throughout each season. Rupert and Amir have a loving relationship and plan to get married. Representation of the LGBTQ+ community in fairytales genuinely normalized without tokenization. Characters are portrayed as being from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. The actors who voice the characters represent an array of different racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Parents need to know that The Two Princes is a star-studded (Christine Baranski, Samira Wiley, Shohreh Aghdashloo) fantasy adventure that revolves around the forbidden romance between the princes of rival kingdoms as they partner up to confront a series of supernatural villains intent on destroying their home. The podcast reimagines the outdated fairytale standard by centering around queer characters and characters of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Themes center around acceptance, bravery, courage, and teamwork. Great audio and production quality make for an impactful story with some scary moments and instances of peril. Some edgy humor and sarcastic tone make this podcast appealing for slightly older kids and adults, but the story is wholesome and sweetly told.
Beautiful fantasy adventure with diverse characters .
We just finished season 1 and absolutely loved it! The story was exciting, the characters wonderfully mutli-layered and I loved the representation of love, of gender, of honour, of friendship and strength. My 8 and 11 year olds and I can't wait to listen to more. Younger audiences may find the content a little slow initially or harder to follow, but still a very fun listen.
THE TWO PRINCES is a modern fairytale that follows Prince Rupert (Noah Galvin) and Prince Amir (Ari'el Stachel) as they embark on a quest to break the curse that is slowly destroying their rival kingdoms, while simultaneously growing their relationship. The two must journey to the center of a fantastical forest where quicksand, giant wasps, and other dangers await. Meanwhile, the princes mothers, voiced by Christine Baranski and Shohreh Aghdashloo, band together to rescue the boys from the terrible fate that awaits them at the forest's heart with the help of the daring young knight named Joan (Samira Wiley). Other seasons center around the princes fighting to continuously protect their kingdom while also looking toward planning their wedding.
With lush sound design and scoring, this delightful adventure plays with the storytelling potential of narrative audio while recasting the romance of a traditional fairytale with queer protagonists. The cast of The Two Princes features a slate of beloved actors hailing from both the stage and screen -- Christine Baranski as the imperious Queen Lavinia, Samira Wiley in the fierce role of Joan, and Mathew Rhys flexing his comedy chops as Sir Percy.
Fans of YA fantasy will enjoy this podcast for its short, immersive episodes and snappy dialogue. The accomplished cast carries off even the stiffest of moments with gusto, making the show a standout among current audio fictions for this age group. With three seasons streaming on Spotify and an upcoming screen adaptation in production at HBO Max, this lighthearted adventure story is a crowd pleaser as much for its unabashed queer romance plot lines as for its fresh approach to the genre of kids fantasy. Parents may become just as immersed in the compelling story as their kids and may even find themselves listening on their own.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how The Two Princes highlights self acceptance. What do you love about yourself? What parts of yourself are more challenging to accept and how can you learn to embrace those parts as well?
Have you ever stood up to an authority figure? What did it feel like? What did you notice about the ways the main characters voiced their opinions and stood their ground with their parents?
How did this podcast change your view of what fairytales can look like? What elements were different about this fairytale than older fairytales? How would you want to see yourself reflected in a fairytale?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
suggesting a diversity update.
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
By Diana Baron-Moore
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
