The Swan Princess Christmas

Recently I watched the animated classic 'The Swan Princess' which was made in 1994. The film and its sequels, 'The Secret of the Castle' made in 1997 and 'The Mystery of the Enchanted Treasure' made in 1998  were highly enjoyable and great childhood favourites. It was when I was searching for The Swan Princess, that I found out there was a new Swan Princess film, called 'The Swan Princess: Christmas'. I decided to give it a watch, since I loved the original 'Swan Princess' trilogy. Well, what can I say? This film was awful. Why was it awful? Well, here are the reasons. 

The previous three films were in hand-drawn animation. This one, was in CGI. Now, I'm not knocking CGI as there are some brilliant films which are made with computer animation. However, this CGI made the film look cheap and tacky, as if it were just put together for some badly made 3D computer game. The graphics are just not good at all, and Odette's eyes, well her eyes just look plain weird and at points can make her look pretty creepy.

Ugh! See what I mean? I can't imagine being a kid now and watching this. Odette would scare me. Although this is only for a few scenes, most of the time she actually looks all
right, but nothing compared to what 2-D animated Odette looks like. (If you want to see what 2-D Odette looks like, then check my previous post of my review of 'The Swan Princess'). Why did the have to ruin such a classic kids movie with this type of animation? I just do not know.

Moving on to the next reason why this film is just awful and can be very painful to watch in parts is the singing. As this film is set at Christmas there are a lot of Christmas songs, including the beloved traditional Christmas carols. But these songs have been given the auto tune makeover and really is agonizing. The first Swan Princess was a genuine musical film, now this? This just sounds exactly like a Bieber and One Direction fest. Bleugh. I suppose the target audience of young children like that kind of music, but what about the generation who was brought up on the first Swan Princess? I despair.

Okay, the plot goes like this: Odette and Derek are spending their first Christmas together at Queen Uberta (Derek's mother's Kingdom). The Kingdom is busy preparing for a Christmas Eve concert and Odette is doing various tasks to help other people in the Spirit of Christmas. Meanwhile, a black cat called Number 9 (he has lost all of his previous eight lives, hence his name) tries and succeeds to lure Derek to open the chest of the Forbidden Arts, which has Rothbart's ghost living in what I presume is hell. Rothbart manages to escape and haunt the castle as a ghost, while trying to figure out a way to get his human body back also known as come back to life. Rothbart is also weak, because the Spirit of Christmas overpowers the Forbidden Arts, but he will find a way to destroy Christmas. There are soon conflicts in the castle, especially between Lord Rogers and Queen Uberta and Derek and Odette will do everything in their power to stop Rothbart from destroying Christmas. It seems a good enough plotline, however it's not. It's really cheesy in parts and there is a scene in which their is a parody of Star Wars light saber fighting between Uberta and Rogers, which was just completely unnecessary and a really cringe worthy. Odette's animal friends Speed, Puffin and Jean-Bob are also in this film and honestly, apart from the cat, they were the best things about this pitiful excuse of a film.
You can watch this film with your kids if you want. If you're a fan of The Swan Princess however, trust me, this will be an hour and a half of your life which you will never get back.


If you want to buy it, The Swan Princess: Christmas is available on DVD. The Swan Princess, The Swan Princess: Secret of the Castle and The Swan Princess: Mystery of the Enchanted Treasure are all available on DVD.