Princess Odette is hosting a music competition to celebrate Princess Alise’s birthday – the winner will sing at her grand birthday ball! Prince Li of Cathay has entered, but his sister Princess Mei Li has stowed away on his ship to seek help from Odette and Derrick for Chen, who has been cursed to live as a dragon. Lucas and Alise are reunited but Prince Li’s arrival makes Alise doubt her feelings. While Li and Lucas fight for Alise’s heart, Derek and Odette try to help Mei Li and Chen break the curse. Who will win the music festival and will Chen ever be free from his curse?
I haven’t seen any of the previous entries in The Swan Princess series but with “Kingdom of Music,” as far as direct-to-video titles go, it wasn’t half bad. The story centers on an “American Idol”-style contest with participants from all around the globe. Princess Odette (Nina Herzog) is hosting the competition and they are thrilled when Prince Li (Francis Huang), from the Cathay Kingdom, enters the contest but unbeknownst to Li, his sister, Princess Mei Li (Stephanie Sheh), stows away on his boat with the intention of asking Princess Odette and Prince Derek (Yuri Lowenthal) for help in breaking a curse that has turned her one true love, Chen (Alex Chen), into a dragon.
As the contest gets underway, Lucas hopes to win Princess Alise’s heart but Li unwittingly intervenes and her train of thought shifts from Lucas to the new handsome prince. While Lucas vows to win her back, Mei Li, who asks Odette and Derek not to make her brother Li aware of her presence, hopes that a cure can be found to turn Chen back into a human, once and for all. As the final night of the contest draws nearer, Lucas learns a few new tricks from Lord Rogers (Joseph Medrano) that he hopes will impress Alise and Li admits to his servant that he is in love with her. Once the curtain raises, the showdown commences and with time running out for Mei Li and Chen, Odette and Derek find a way to break the curse but will it be too late?
“The Swan Princess: Kingdom of Music” is perfect for young children and is filled with enough foot-tapping songs to keep them entertained but will probably bore the older kids. The movie packs a lot into its sparse 82-minute runtime including the importance of following one’s heart and being kind to others but the one distraction was the animation itself. I have played games on my Xbox One console with better graphics and considering that this franchise has amassed over $10 million since “The Swan Princess” premiered in 1994, I think Sony could put a little more effort into their animation, even for direct-to-video titles such as this. With the end of the movie stating “…to be continued,” Sony is obviously hard at work on its conclusion and I just hope the visual aspect is improved upon
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