The Swan Princess: Christmas – Swan Princess Christmas (2012)

Directed by: Richard Rich | 81 minutes | animation, adventure, fantasy, musical | Original voice cast: Elle Deets, Yuri Lowenthal, Doug Stone, Gardner Jaas, Clayton James Mackay, James Arrington, Catherine Lavine, David Lodge, Joey Lotsko, Brian Nissen

Who remembers ‘The Swan Princess’? Richard Rich’s animated film, who started his career in the Disney mailroom and worked his way up to directing ‘Frank & Frey’ (1981) and ‘Taran and the Cauldron’ (1985), was the first feature film he made after he had resigned from the studio. In the Netherlands, the film received a modest theatrical release, but thanks to the release of the film on video, the fan base grew. The songs were sung along verbatim (there will probably still be people who can recite the lyrics like that) and the story – which resembles ‘Beauty & the Beast’, but is actually based on the ballet Swan Lake – conquered many hearts . The film turned out to be good for two sequels, which were released directly to video (“The Swan Princess II: Escape from Castle Mountain” (1997) and “Swan Princess: The Mystery of the Enchanted Treasure” (1998)) and eighteen years later ( !) it’s time for a real Christmas special, ‘The Swan Princess Christmas’.

‘The Swan Princess Christmas’ is set just after the events of the main film, as it is the first Christmas that the still deeply infatuated Odette and Derek celebrate together. When the film starts, they are on their way to Derek’s family’s castle. Derek warns his lover about his mother because, he says, there are two Ubertas: the regular queen and the Christmas variant. And it is precisely for the latter that Odette has to fear, because she is expected to play a Christmas song, but she has no inspiration at all. We are also initiated into the ornament ritual, in which the Christmas tree is decorated with special pendants, which show a scene that once took place in the kingdom and where the Christmas feeling belongs. But of course it’s not all about singing Christmas carols and decorating trees, because that would just make for a boring movie. An old enemy targets Odette and Derek, and with the help of a measly black kitten, he tries to carry out his plan. The cat must lead Derek to a chest with a big R on it, which he must then open… It is where the ghost of Roughbeard (Rothbart in the original version) is hidden, and when Derek releases him, he can finally take revenge.

‘The Swan Princess Christmas’ is the first CGI movie in the series, and while the characters are still recognizable, it takes some getting used to for fans from the very beginning. There is little to complain about the quality of the animations, but the charming look that the first film had is missing. The same goes for the story, which clearly shows that inspiration hardly played a role in the making of this film, rather the desire to earn money. The plot consists of a sequence of action scenes and comedic fragments, and seems to have come about through the use of a template for children’s films: the old good versus evil. The sidekicks we already know from the earlier films, Puffin, Jean-Bob and Speed, are good for the funniest moments. And so ‘The Swan Princess Christmas’ is typically one of those films that you slide into your DVD player when you want to fix your tape undisturbed, do the laundry or make an important phone call. Your children will have fun with it, but you yourself will not miss much.