I've always been curious to see how the Disney knock-off movies from the 1990s fared. By the way, Disney knock-off is an accurate description. I mean, I wish I had the technology to capture screenshots so that I do a side-by-side comparison of certain scenes, because several scenes from The Swan Princess look pretty damn close to scenes from Sleeping Beauty. I mean, there's the scene where Prince Derek looks down at the baby Odette...parallels the opening scenes of Sleeping Beauty pretty well. Later in the movie, the Prince fights through the forest, waving his sword wildly...and all I could think of was Prince Philip fighting the briars.
Which reminds me!
Eeeew.
What a friggin' goober. Seriously. Princes are supposed to be sensitive, charming, compassionate, clever...but most importantly, good looking. Prince Derek looks like a chipmunk to me. Look at those teeth! Also, I swear that half the time it didn't look like his eyes were pointing in the same direction. Don't even let me get started on that Prince Valiant haircut...
Yeah, Odette, I'd cry too if that was my Prince Charming...
It actually wasn't a bad movie. I mean, it wasn't good either, but it wasn't bad. The animation actually looked pretty good at times, like the swirling water that appeared during Odette's transformations. The songs were pretty forgettable, but other than Rothbart's bizarre number they weren't terrible.
I was disappointed that the story didn't do more with the Odette/Odile dichotomy. The tension between the two versions of the swan has always been the highlight of the ballet. The false Odette in The Swan Princess barely registers, and rather than the sexy vamp we're usually treated to, it's just an old woman in disguise. Lame.
