The Swan Princess: The Home Video Hit Makes Its 4K Debut (4K)

The Film:

Back in late 1994, a little animated film called "The Swan Princess," loosely based on Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" ballet, was released to mixed reviews and very little fanfare. Indeed, word of mouth at the time was not great, with the film doing rather poorly at the box office with a take of just under $10 million. However, most seem to believe that the reason for its under-performance was due to the overcrowding of big, popular films that season, including "The Santa Clause," "Star Trek: Generations," and perhaps most devastating to the film in question, a re-release of Disney's gigantic hit "The Lion King."

While the film was ultimately a failure in theaters, a rather interesting thing happened in that it found new life on home video, where its popularity grew immensely, leading to several direct-to-video sequels. Now, over three decades later, Sony Pictures has decided to honor this "little film that could" by giving it a stunning 4K upgrade and throwing in a couple of retrospectives, so now it's time to go back and see whether the initial reaction to it was closer to the mark, or if the home video crowd were the better judges of this little animated outing.

The film begins with King William (Voice of Dakin Matthews) and Queen Uberta (Voice of Sandy Duncan) coming up with a plan to have their children, Princess Odette (Voice of Michelle Nicastro) and Prince Derek (Voice of Howard McGillin), eventually marry in order to unite their kingdoms. Executing their plan is not easy, for their kids initially hate each other, and that's on top of having to deal with the evil sorcerer Rothbart's (Voice of Jack Palance) plans to take over the kingdom. Luckily, Rothbart's plot is discovered and he is banished, while Derek and Odette slowly grow to love each other as they grow older.

However, after Derek fails to come up with an answer as to what else he loves about Odette other than her beauty, she rejects him and leaves abruptly. On her way home, her party is attacked by Rothbart, who kidnaps her and kills her father. Before he dies, William is able to tell Derek about the "Great Animal" that attacked them, as well as Odette's disappearance, leading many to believe that she was killed, though Derek remains hopeful that she's still alive. Rothbart brings her to a lake and places a curse on her that has her turning into a swan during the day, with the ability to turn back into a human when the moon touches the lake at night. With Rothbart constantly hounding her to marry him so he can take over the kingdom, will she be able to break the curse and reunite with her true love?

From the very start, "The Swan Princess" may seem somewhat familiar with its standard matchmaking premise between the prince & princess, and indeed, that's hardly new even in the realm of animated children's fare, but as it goes on, you'll likely notice that feeling continue to linger as it delves deeper into its magical tale. As mentioned up top, it's very loosely based on the classic ballet "Swan Lake," though it obviously had to make quite a few changes and simplify things a bit for its intended audience, but in doing so, we end up with a story that feels a little too simple, and one that is fairly called somewhat generic, for what it basically boils down to is the old well-known set-up of a princess that needs to lift a curse to be with her true love.

Even with that stacked against it, it's hardly a bad animated effort. The classic animation is fantastic, the vocal cast is wonderful, and the music is fine, though it's also fair to say that it contains far more songs than it really needs to. It's mainly that, by the end of the film, you've discovered that the story is a mostly bland one, and more than a little trite. On top of that, even at a brief 80-ish minutes, one gets the feeling that the filmmakers had to do a fair amount of work to stretch their tale out to feature length, which explains the plethora of songs that seem to continually pop up.

November of 1994 was indeed a busy & crowded season at the movies, which certainly helps explain why "The Swan Princess" suffered at the box office at the time, at least in part. The thing is, several of those other films were quite successful, so one would have to concede that the film itself is partially to blame for the low turnout. That said, its resurgence on home video was truly something to behold, and more than a little ironic given that it plays more like something that would be a direct-to-video offering, as its many sequels would be. Now that it's getting a marvelous 4K release, those that have enjoyed watching it as home now have the opportunity to revisit it yet again in the best quality possible. It may be an overly-familiar & somewhat forgettable tale, but it clearly found its audience, and for them, this upgrade will ultimately be quite the blessing.

Video/Audio:

"The Swan Princess" comes to 4K in a 1.85:1, 2160p Ultra High Definition transfer of outstanding quality, presenting a beautifully sharp picture throughout its entire 89-minute duration that perfectly highlights its vibrant animation. Likewise, the 7.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack is marvelous, giving you all of the dialogue, sound effects, and music/songs in excellent quality. Overall, Sony Pictures has done a wonderful job in both departments for the film's new upgrade.

Special Features:

Looking Back at 25 Years of The Swan Princess (10 Minutes): A featurette that has the filmmakers reminiscing about the film.

The Swan Princess: The Original Making-of (27 Minutes): A vintage look behind the scenes.

Sing-Alongs (5 Songs, 16 Minutes)

Conclusion:

Richard Rich's "The Swan Princess" features gorgeous classical animation and a wonderful vocal cast, but sadly its story is rather bland, simple, and more than a little generic, making for a little animated outing that has its strengths & does the best it can with the material, but which ultimately ends up being an overly-familiar & quickly-forgettable experience.

Score: 3/5

Available on 4K starting tomorrow.

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