“The Swan Princess” is the heartwarming story of the beautiful princess Odette, who is transformed into a swan by an evil sorcerer’s spell. Held captive at an enchanted lake, she befriends Jean-Bob the frog, Speed the turtle and Puffin the bird. Despite their struggle to keep the princess safe, these good-natured creatures can do nothing about the sorcerer’s spell, which can only be broken by a vow of everlasting love.
Back in 1994, “The Swan Princess” came out the same year as “The Lion King,” probably to fill in the gap between princesses. But “The Swan Princess” just doesn’t quite meet Disney standards, and honestly, I think the Barbie version of “Swan Lake” did a better job, which is pretty sad. Though I have two daughters running around my house and the Barbie movies allowed me to get many household chores done by entertaining the girls, the “The Swan Princess” barely allowed me to fold a load of laundry before the girls wandered off.
The problem with this animated film is the parts the writers didn’t like. They just glossed over them before moving on to happier parts of the classic story. I understand the movie is for kids but there are better ways to handle the creepy parts than a lack of information. The parts with Rothbart, an evil sorcerer, don’t offer enough information to help kids understand the plot. The rest of the movie follows suit.
As the opening narration starts, we meet King William, who seems in crisis from his lack of a child until his daughter Odette (Liz Callaway) was born. We never meet Odette’s mother, who probably died during childbirth, but we never get any information about the woman. For some unknown reason, a neighboring Queen (we never meet the king) and her son Derek are at the castle. One almost has to wonder if Odette and Derek are related, as so much is left to the imagination.
For whatever reason, everyone in the kingdom assumes Odette and Derek aren’t just destined for each other to unite the kingdoms but that they will fall madly in love and fulfill all their fairy-tale dreams. The two kids spend every summer hating each other until one summer when Odette shows up with curves and eyelashes, and then superficial Derek is ready to bring on the wedding. The evil sorcerer Rothbart kidnaps her and turns her into a swan by day and asks her to marry him by night when she transforms back into a princess. It’s no big surprise when Odette says no every night and waits for her prince to rescue her before taking matters into her own hands. Rothbart doesn’t give up easily and transforms one of his minions into Odette to trick the prince.
The whole movie lacks humor besides a few pond friends Odette makes as a swan. Add up a lack of plausible information, an egotistical prince with no redeeming quality, a couple with no chemistry, and a lack of laughter and poorly drawn characters, and you get one lackluster flick. I would tell you to skip this version of “The Swan Princess” as it’s not worth your time, but my eight-year-old daughter said to give it four stars because she enjoyed it. So, I’m compromising and not giving it the worse rating ever as kids definitely enjoy different entertainment than adults. Seriously though, don’t watch this one on family night, let your kids watch this in their room and you watch something, anything better in the living room.
In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Golden Globe®-nominated animated classic “The Swan Princess,” Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is making the fan-favorite available in brilliant high definition for the first time ever with a collectible anniversary edition Blu-ray and in 4K HDR on digital, both available on October 29th.
