The Paper Bag Princess

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Over the years, Munsch sometimes got letters from readers who wanted to know why the prince and princess didn't live happily ever after. "I [wrote] back and said, 'It does have a happy ending.' That's the ending it's supposed to have." —Robert Munsch, quoted in "It Does Have a Happy Ending", The Sunday Edition, CBC Radio, December 13, 2019

One of Canadian author Robert Munsch's most famous children's books, The Paper Bag Princess was written and published in 1980. The picture book stars Princess Elizabeth, who's vying to marry the handsome Prince Ronald. Unfortunately, an evil dragon snatches Prince Ronald and incinerates everything around Elizabeth in the process — including her clothes! Undaunted, Elizabeth finds an old paper bag, puts it on and pursues her prince.

She finds the dragon in his cave, and brings him out by appealing to his vanity: "Is it true that you are the smartest and fiercest dragon in the whole world?" When he says yes, Elizabeth cunningly puts him through a series of trials to test that claim. He's so exhausted by the end that he falls right asleep.

She then opens the door of the cave to find Prince Ronald — but instead of being grateful, he's criticizing her for her appearance: "You smell like ashes, your hair is all tangled and you are wearing a dirty old paper bag. Come back when you are dressed like a real princess." Elizabeth decides that she doesn't need a prince who'll treat her that badly, and dumps him, running off into the sunset to live life on her own.

The Paper Bag Princess is often cited as a classic feminist fairy tale for its subversions of gender roles, and is well loved worldwide, but especially in its native Canada. It received an Animated Adaptation in 1994, which expanded its story considerably.

We can't provide a copy here, but we can point you at a reading of the story by Robert Munsch himself.

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Tropes used in The Paper Bag Princess include:

• Action Girl: Elizabeth.
• All Men Are Perverts: Subverted, considering Prince Ronald is decidedly not pleased to see his potential love interest half-naked. Of course, it is a children's book and they're both still children.
• Censor Steam: Used after the dragon incinerates Elizabeth's clothes.
• Did Not Get the Guy: And it's played as a Happy Ending, to boot!
• Dude in Distress: What happens to Prince Ronald.
• Fridge Logic: The only thing that didn't burn up in Elizabeth's castle was a paper bag? How did that happen?
• Prince Charmless: Prince Ronald. Way more obvious in the Animated Adaptation, which establishes him as one of these from the beginning. In the book, it's only at the end that he reveals his true colours.
• Princess Classic: Princess Elizabeth, at least in the beginning.
• Save the Prince
• Ungrateful Bastard: Prince Ronald's reaction to being rescued.

The Animated Adaptation contains examples of:

• Adaptation Expansion
• Anachronism Stew:
  • Oh God, massively. In the first scene alone, the narrator drives by, chatting on his cell phone, while elves come out of trees!
  • Of course, as evidenced by the title, the book included an oh-so-historically-accurate paper bag.
• Fractured Fairy Tale: More so than the original book, the cartoon features parodies of "Goldilocks", "Hansel and Gretel" and other stories.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Elizabeth becomes this as a side effect of Ronald's jerkiness being obvious from the start.
• "I Am" Song:
  • The dragon continually raps about himself, and Prince Ronald basically echoes Elizabeth's song to establish his narcissism.
  • After losing Elizabeth at the end, Ronald has a reprise in which he sings about not being perfect, suggesting he may have experienced Heel Realization.
• "I Want" Song: Elizabeth sings a little ditty about her "perfect guy", Prince Ronald, in the beginning.
• Magic Skirt: That paper bag has a really high hemline and Elizabeth presumably doesn't have any underwear. (You know, it would really make more sense for her to wear it the other way around with the opening at the top.)
• Man on Fire: Poor Ronald.