The Swan Princess (1994)
The Swan Princess is a 1994 American animated fantasy film[1] based on the ballet Swan Lake. Featuring Michelle Nicastro, Howard McGillin, Jack Palance, John Cleese, Steven Wright, Sandy Duncan, and Steve Vinovich, the film is directed by former Disney animation director Richard Rich and scored by Lex de Azevedo. The film was distributed by New Line Cinema in the United States and by Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International outside the US. It was released theatrically on November 18, 1994, and grossed $9.8 million against a $21 million budget, becoming a box-office bomb, partly due to struggling competition with a re-release of The Lion King (1994). The film later became popular through home video releases and has since been followed by a series of direct-to-video sequels starting in 1997.[4][5]
The Swan Princess (1994)
William and Uberta put their plan into action. Unfortunately, this fails as Derek and Odette hate each other as children and later as teenagers, but when they reach adulthood, they do fall in love. However, Derek can't think of anything besides Odette's beauty that he loves her for, causing her to reject him, and she and her father leave disappointed. On their journey home, they are ambushed by Rothbart, who got his powers back and transforms into a "Great Animal", kidnapping Odette and fatally injuring William. Derek arrives on the scene and the dying William tells him about the Great Animal ("It's not what it seems"), and that Odette is gone. After searching and finding no sign of Odette, the entire kingdom assumes that she is dead. Uberta tries to encourage her son to find another princess, but Derek is determined to find Odette, believing that she is still alive somewhere.
Derek and his best friend Bromley practice hunting every day in preparation to face the Great Animal, with help from Uberta's valet, Lord Rogers. Elsewhere, Rothbart is keeping Odette captive at the mysterious Swan Lake. After she refuses to marry him, he has cast a powerful spell that turns Odette into a swan during the day, while she can temporarily return to her true form at night if she stands on the lake when the moonlight touches it. During her captivity, she befriends a turtle named Speed, a French frog named Jean-Bob, who claims to be a prince, and an Irish puffin named Lieutenant Puffin.
Puffin and Odette (in her swan form) fly together to find Derek. By chance, they stumble upon Derek in the woods as he is searching for the Great Animal. Derek mistakes Odette for the Great Animal (having deduced that the creature is a shapeshifter) and tries to kill her. The ensuing chase leads Derek to Swan Lake, where he witnesses Odette reverting to a human when the moon rises. The two share a loving reunion, and Odette tells Derek that to break the spell, he must make a vow of everlasting love and "prove it to the world". Derek invites Odette to the ball at the castle the following night, hoping to declare to the world of his love for her. After Derek leaves however, Rothbart arrives, having heard the whole conversation, and tells Odette that she will never make it to the ball, for there will be "no moon" on that night. To make matters worse, Rothbart transforms his cheerful hag sidekick, Bridget, into a doppelgänger Odette, so as to fool Derek to make his vow to the wrong woman, which will kill the real Odette. On the night of the ball, Rothbart imprisons Odette (in swan form) in the dungeon of his castle, along with Bromley, whom he had found in the woods the other night, while the disguised Bridget arrives at the ball and dances with Derek, who is unaware of her true identity.
Afterwards, Derek tearfully confesses his love to Odette, realizing that it's the person Odette has become that he loves about her, and she comes back to life; the spell on her is broken by Derek's love. Derek and Odette get married and they, along with Rogers, Bromley, Uberta, King William's servants, and the animals move into Rothbart's former castle. Meanwhile, Bridget redeems herself and falls in love with Uberta's lackey, Sir Chamberlain, Puffin becomes the general of an army of swans, Odette kisses Jean-Bob who goes into convulsions but does not turn into a prince, and Odette and Derek live happily ever after.
"The Swan Princess" reveals itself as a film of our politically correct times in an early scene, where a prince makes the mistake of telling a princess she is "beautiful." Is that all? she asks. What else am I? The prince is at a loss for words: "What else is there?" And so the princess huffily marches out of his life, and into all sorts of dire predicaments, simply because the prince - whom she has known since childhood - could not think to say that she was also clever.
This is, I think, progress; beauty has long been the only attribute of princesses in fairy tales, aside from a certain vapid wistfulness. And Princess Odette, the heroine of Richard Rich's full-length animated cartoon, is a smart young lady, although not smart enough to stay away from the magical spells of the evil Rothbart, who desires her father's kingdom and hopes to win it through fraud, by stealing her hand in marriage. His spell turns her into a swan, who can only be seen as a princess when the moon is upon the lake.
The beautiful princess Odette 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.
so many people shitting on this in the reviews why do you hate fun? there is a puffin with an irish accent for absolutely no reason. a princess beauty pageant. the prince (who is literally called derek) wears thigh high boots for the whole film even in the ball scene. this is a camp masterpiece
Cherry, Atticus, and their friends are sent away from Ever After High and must meet Princess Odette and Prince Derek to help them with their story in order to save the future of the Fairy Tale boarding school. While there, they meet the duo and soon encounter the evil sorcerer Rothbart who has plans for them, including turning Odette into a swan and many other adventures after.
Sir Rothbart, also known as Lord Rothbart, The Great Animal, or simply Rothbart for short, is the central antagonist of The Swan Princess film series, serving as the main antagonist of the 1994 animated fantasy film The Swan Princess and the 2012 computer-animated fantasy film The Swan Princess Christmas and a posthumous antagonist in The Swan Princess 2 and The Swan Princess 3 (he appears in the latter via flashback). He is a despicable court enchanter who kidnapped and changed Princess Odette into a swan. In Tchaikovsky's ballet, Swan Lake, he is based on the sorcerer, Von Rothbart, who transformed the actual princess into a swan whilst also planning to have his own daughter marry the prince. He is Princess Odette and Prince Derek's arch-nemesis.
Many years later, Rothbart returned, having gotten his power back, as shown in The Swan Princess 3. It is revealed that his other ally named Zelda helped him regain his power and he betrayed her afterward, in a similar manner as he did with Clavius. With his new powers, Rothbart transformed himself into a chimeric monstrosity known only as the "Great Animal" and fatally injured William before kidnapping and placing his daughter, Princess Odette, under a spell, turning her into a swan every day, and she can only turn back into a human if she is on the lake when the moonlight touches it. Every night, Rothbart asked Odette to marry him, so he can be king legally, but she refused.
At Swan Lake, Rothbart turns Odette into a swan again and traps her inside a cage made of roots. He then casts a spell on the moonlight, so that when it touches Odette's wings, she will turn into a golden, swan-shaped Christmas ornament forever. Derek arrives to rescue Odette and battles Rothbart, who has assumed the form of the Great Animal again. At first, Derek is overpowered, but then Odette starts singing "Seasons of Love" which weakens Rothbart until he eventually bursts into flames and was no more.
However, Derek (Howard McGillin) only expresses love for Odette's (Michelle Nicastro) beauty and she and her father leave disappointed. On their journey home, they are ambushed by Rothbart, who got his powers back, and transforms into a "Great Animal" with his new powers, kidnapping Odette and fatally injuring William. Derek arrives on the scene and William tells him about the Great Animal ("It's not what it seems"), and that Odette is gone. After searching and finding no sign of Odette, the entire kingdom assumes that she is dead. Uberta encourages her son to find another princess, but Derek is determined to find Odette, believing that she is still alive. Derek and his lifelong chap Bromley (Joel McKinnon Miller) practice hunting every day in preparation to face the Great Animal, with help from Uberta's head butler, Lord Rogers (Mark Harelik).
Elsewhere, Rothbart is keeping Odette captive at Swan Lake. He has cast a powerful spell that turns Odette into a swan during the day. At night, she can become human temporarily if she is on the lake when the moonlight touches it. Every night, Rothbart asks Odette to marry him so he can rule William's kingdom legally, but she refuses, then the moonlight leaves the lake, and she turns back into a swan. During her captivity, she befriends a turtle named Speed (Steven Wright), a French frog named JeanBob (John Cleese), who claims to be a prince, and an Irish puffin named Lieutenant Puffin (Steve Vinovich).
Puffin and Odette (in her swan form) fly together to find Derek. By chance, they stumble upon Derek in the woods as he is searching for the Great Animal. Derek mistakes Odette for the Great Animal (having deduced that the creature is a shapeshifter), and tries to kill her. The ensuing chase leads Derek to Swan Lake, where he witnesses Odette's change from swan to human when the moon rises. The two share a loving reunion, and Odette tells Derek that to break the spell, he must make a vow of everlasting love and "prove it to the world". Derek invites Odette to the ball at the castle the following night, hoping to declare to the world of his love for her. Derek leaves just as Rothbart arrives and doesn't know the warlock overheard the whole conversation. Rothbart tells Odette that she will never make it to the ball, for there will be "no moon" on that night. Further, Rothbart transforms his cheerful hag sidekick, Bridget, into Odette, hoping to fool Derek to make his vow to the wrong woman, which will kill the real Odette. On the night of the ball, Rothbart imprisons Odette (in swan form) in the dungeon of his castle, along with Bromley, whom he had found in the woods the other night. Bridget, in the form of human Odette, arrives at the ball where she dances with Derek, who is unaware of her true identity. 041b061a72