The Swan Princess
The Story
The story of The Swan Princess is lifted from the famous ballet of Swan Lake, which tells the tale of a princess who is enchanted by a sorcerer to take on the form of a swan by day, only returning to her human form only at night. The only way this enchantment can be broken is if the princess finds true love. The Swan Princess takes that central story and gives it that fluffy modern touch, filled with earnest sweetness and heart. It reminds me of the type of storytelling Disney used to have in their earlier years (simple, classic and full of heart), which shouldn't be much of a surprise since it was made by Richie Rich, who used to work for Disney.
The main characters in The Swan Princess are Princess Odette and Prince Derek, who have been betrothed
by their parents King William and Queen Uberta respectively. Odette and Derek don't grow up the best of friends,
but when they reach adulthood see each other in a different light and fall in love. It looks like a marriage is
on the way, but when Derek accidentally says the wrong thing (praising Odette's beauty but little else), she
declares the whole thing off. Derek realizes he made a mistake and wants to fix things, but before he can, the
Wizard Rothbart has whisked Odette away without a trace.
Swans are brought into the picture as the method of imprisonment Rothbart uses on Odette. Technically, she is free to go off wherever she wants to, but he has placed a spell on her that transforms her into a swan by day. If at night she wishes to become human, she needs to sit on Swan Lake (Rothbart's hideout), and when the moonlight touches her wings, she will be transformed.
But neither Derek nor Odette are giving up. Derek believes Odette is still alive and seeks to find her, while Odette teams up with her new animals friends to figure out a way to get to Derek Of course, it goes without saying that all the good guys end up living happily ever after. (Or at least, until the sequels.)
It's a simple movie that promises nothing more that a sweet story, which it delivers. What The Swan Princess lacks in lip-synching and animation breakthrough, it does right with good music, great storytelling and plenty of heart.
There were two sequels to this movie made, which I will simply call The Swan Princess 2 and The Swan Princess 3 throughout this website. Both sequels deal with magicians who knew Rothbart when he was are alive, and are seeking to claim the power of the Forbidden Arts for themselves.
The Swan Princess trilogy has a few different releases over the years, I'm going to try and list out a few of them on this page. They won't be in accurate chronological order, because I can't be 100% positive about these sorts of things.
On the left here is
the first cover of The Swan Princess when it was first released on video. Most promotional
activity for the movie back in 1994 used this image, or something similar to it. People who got to
know (and perhaps fell in love)
with the movie back then should be able to recognise this image with a faint tang of nostalgia.
Some European DVDs still use this cover, which I think is one of the best they have, because the blue
colouring is beautiful and a whole bunch of characters (major and minor) are featured in it.
I feel that it captures the feel of the movie beautifully, and is a spiffy poster to boot.
Some video releases of The Swan Princess came with two "hidden" extras: a music video of Dreams Come True's Eternity and a brief The Making featurette. Both of these come on after the end credits, so if you have the movie on video, be sure to check if your version has these extras.
Later releases of The Swan Princess, whether on video or DVD, have different images from the original, some of which are below:
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The Special Edition DVD, which was released as part of the movie's 10th Anniversary, contains some new extras in the form of a read-along feature and some games. Many thanks to Prince for sending in the picture of the Collector's Edition video.
The Swan Princess 2, is known as either The Secret of the Castle or Escape from Castle Mountain. From what I can make out so far, the American title of the movie is Escape from Castle Mountain, but in most places in Europe and Asia, it's known as The Secret of the Castle. Anyway, this sequel was originally released on video in 1997, and has since also been released on DVD.
There are a few different covers for The Swan Princess 2, but the content is the same.
The Swan Princess 3 is in a similar situation with the previous sequel, in that it has two names. Depending on where you are, it's either known as The Mystery of the Enchanted Kingdom or The Mystery of the Enchanted Treasure. (Though "treasure" makes more sense in terms of the story.)
The movie was initially released direct-to-video in 1998, not long after The Swan Princess 2. It has since also been released on Special Edition DVD, though with what extras, I don't know, because I don't have this version.
Naturally, when films exist in a series, they tend to be released in sets. The Swan Princess trilogy is no exception, and there is a European 2-sided disc set containing all three movies and the sing-a-long (the most left cover). There is also another release (the mostly-white cover to the left here), although I don't have any other info of this release. On the far right below is a cover of an alternate double-feature DVD containing The Swan Princess and The Swan Princess 3.
