Movies - The Swan Princess

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	Movies - The Swan Princess

A 1994 film based on the ballet "Swan Lake". This was the last film to rely on traditional hand drawn animation. Starring the voices of Jack Palance, Howard McGillin, Michelle Nicastro, Steven Wright and John Cleese.

Plot

As children, Prince Derek and Princess Odette are forced to spend their summers together by their widowed parents, who hope that the two will eventually develop a relationship that will make marrying them as adults easier, thus uniting the two kingdoms. And as children and adolescents, Derek (McGillin) and Odette (Nicastro) can't stand each other, but as young adults they begins to see each other in a different light and fall in love with each other. But one night things take a bad turn when Derek unintentionally offends Odette, who then refuses to marry him if he can't prove that he loves her for who she is and not just her beauty. Odette and her father King William are then attacked by Lord Rothbart (Palance), a vengeful sorcerer who was cast out of William's kingdom when he plotted against the king; Rothbart kills William and kidnaps Odette, placing a spell on her that turns her into a swan during the day and night, and can only regain her human form when the moonlight touches the lake to which she is bound. Only a vow of love from Derek can set her free, or marrying Rothbart, thus giving him her father's kingdom.

While everyone else believes Odette dead, Derek refuses to give up hope and sets out to find his missing love, which involves a hunt for "the Great Animal... which is not what it appears to be". With the aid of a patient turtle, an Irish puffin and a slightly delusional, love struck frog (who thinks that a kiss from a beautiful maiden will turn him "back" into a prince), Odette manages to get Derek to the lake, where he sees her resume her human form. With Rothbart approaching, Odette urges Derek to escape after explaining the spell to him, and he tells her to come to a ball his mother is preparing, and there he will make the vow before the world that will set her free. But Rothbart has already caught on to their plan and, taking advantage of the fact that the night of the ball will have no moon, he locks the swan form of Odette in his castle and then transforms his hench-woman into the form of Odette to send to the ball, so that when Derek makes the vow to her instead, it will kill Odette.

Despite the efforts of her animal friends to get her out of the castle, Odette is too late to get to the ball to warn Derek, who is tricked into making his vow to the wrong woman, thus setting in progress Odette's death. Rothbart then shows up to gloat about his victory, sending Derek on a mad rush to get to Odette, whom he finds dying by the lake. Rothbart then challenges Derek to a duel to save the life of Odette, and transforms himself into a giant winged monster. With some help from his friend Bromley, Derek manages to kill the Rothbart monster with an arrow shot. At first it appears that Odette is still lost, but after Derek professes his love and admiration of her compassion and soul, Odette reawakens. The two are then married, and all ends happily.

Trivia

The scene where Lord Rothbart does one armed push ups during his song was a reference to when Jack Palance, who did Rothbart's voice, won his Oscar for best supporting actor for his role as Curly in City Slickers, when, at age 73, he dropped to the ground and performed one armed push ups for the audience.

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Movies - The Swan Princess

Plot

Trivia

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