Tonight I rewatched an animated film that was a childhood favourite of mine, it was one of the few non-Disney animated films that came out during the 90’s and is based off the tale of Swan Lake I discussed before. I find it an interesting and charming adaption of the story, though it has a lot of humour as well! The scene with the Musicians dressed as animals always makes me laugh.
The introduction to the story is very cute, it shows how the young Prince and Princess, betrothed from birth are forced to spend every summer together, much to their displeasure! They tease and mock eachother through childhood, but this is a welcome change to other tales where the Hero and Heroine fall in love at first sight, having no history between them. However when they have grown and finally fallen in love, the Prince (who’s name is Derek, not Siegfreid) makes the fatal error of being unable to express why he loves Odette, all he can say is that she is beautiful and for this she turns him down.
The rest of the tale plays out as in the Ballet, though with a sweeter ending. It is visually a beautiful film, the painted backgrounds in particular are vivid and I adore Odette’s swan form. Some of the musical numbers are lovely, such as ‘Far Longer than Forever’ which is also the theme to the film. However I find a few of the more jazz-like numbers towards the end a bit over the top, verging on the ridiculous. They may be humorous to others though.
In all, it is a beautiful and mostly faithful adaption of the tale, with its own individuality and sense of humour. I think I love it even more than when I first saw it. It is every bit as romantic and sweet as the more famous Disney Princess films.
March 11th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
There are two sequels to the movie:
“The Swan Princess II: Escape from Castle Mountain” and “The Swan Princess: The Mystery of the Enchanted Kingdom”.
The first one was definitely the best one because its an adaption of the actual story but the second on is quite funny too!
I haven’t seen the third one but I’d really like to ^-^
March 11th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Ooooh! I know this movie! I have also seen the sequel to it! It really brings some childhoodmemories back! Because of the DVD’s I can’t watch all the old movies, because they are on VCR (which we don’t have anymore XD)
March 12th, 2008 at 1:06 am
Aww, I remember one summer I watched this everyday, I’m sure I still have it somewhere…
March 12th, 2008 at 3:11 am
I loved it because Odette and Derek had a back story, as opposed to most of the other princesses who had little interaction with their princes.
I loved this movie (though I still for the life of me don’t understand the reasoning behind changing his name to Derek. I guess Seigfried is too much for young children?).
March 12th, 2008 at 3:30 am
I love this movie too! You have inspired me to force my Prince to watch it with me. Lol.
March 12th, 2008 at 5:02 am
Ohh, it’s so wonderful that you’ve posted about this! It’s the very film that came to Anousenka’s mind while reading your original Swan Lake post ^_^ It’s actually the only version of Swan Lake that Anousenka has seen as of yetsies, heehee ^_^ She’ll be sure to watch it againsies! :D
♥ Anousenka ♥
March 12th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Haha, I’ve always loved Odette’s dress!
I watched the first one again this morning before going to work, and I fully intend to catch up on the whole trilogy.
March 12th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
I didn’t really like this film since I found the animal characters and the songs really annoying but this really does bring back memories from my childhood. :D My sister and her best friend always sang This is my idea when they were little.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Coucou^^
I love this movie too. In French, the princess is named Juliette and the Prince Arthur. I don’t know why … maybe Odette is a very very old name not really glamorous …
bisouus