The Swan Princess and the Secret of the Castle [G]

It’s been a year since Rothbart died and Derek and Odette have been living quite happily. But lately Derek has been more attentive to the kingdom than to his wife and other loved ones. He’s had reason enough to be though: someone has been setting a series of traps to ensnare the prince and it’s soon revealed that the Forbidden Arts that Rothbart had been working on is still hidden in Derek and Odette’s castle. Sorcerer and betrayed partner of Rothbart, Claudius, turns out to be the perpetrator of the traps, trying to remove Derek from the kingdom so that he can get the Forbidden Arts and make the kingdom his own. 

The fact that this movie only runs for an hour indicates that it’s a bit of a failure right from the off. None of our favourite voices from the first film revive their roles, the songs aren’t as memorable and enchanting, the script was pretty damned half-hearted and silly, all in all this was a rather epic failure of a sequel. You have to wonder why in the hell did they even bother? 

It’s been a year since Rothbart died and Derek and Odette have been living quite happily. But lately Derek has been more attentive to the kingdom than to his wife and other loved ones. He’s had reason enough to be though: someone has been setting a series of traps to ensnare the prince and it’s soon revealed that the Forbidden Arts that Rothbart had been working on is still hidden in Derek and Odette’s castle. Sorcerer and betrayed partner of Rothbart, Claudius, turns out to be the perpetrator of the traps, trying to remove Derek from the kingdom so that he can get the Forbidden Arts and make the kingdom his own. 

There were so many things that didn’t gel with this movie. For a start, the script began rather well but then stumbled and gave up halfway through. The comedic punch lines were pretty dumb and degrading: there was only one that I rather liked. The characters don’t have the same flare and loveable-ness that they had in the fist one, particularly the central comedic trio of Puffin, Speed, and Jean Bob: their punch lines and “funny parts” were just stupid, not to mention that John Cleese no longer provides the voice of Jean Bob (cries). 

To give the film its dues though, the song from the villain, Claudius, was actually quite good: the first rock and roll villain’s song that I’ve ever seen in an animated film. Most villains get sinister, cynically witty, grandiose, or seedily jazzy songs to sing, but Claudius gets real rock and roll. Where’s the justice in that? He wasn’t even that much of a villain; definitely didn’t deserve a song! But the song he got was good, so that’s an up. 

Featuring the voice talents of Michelle Nicastro, Douglas Sills, Jake Williamson, Donald Sage Mackay, Doug Stone, Steve Vinovich, Joey Camen, James Arrington, and Christy Landers, The Swan Princess and the Secret of the Castle is a pretty big failure of an attempt at a sequel. Filled with music, comedy, magic, action, drama, and romance, it’s pretty bad (she says laughing to herself).