Anybody remember this one? I don't think I actually watched this loose adaptation of Swan Lake in full as a kid; at the very least, I actually remember watching one of the crappy DTV sequels more than the original.
Anyway, I viewed it recently and.... well, it's a pretty mixed bag. Here's my standard laundry list in pros and cons sections:
Pros
-The animation as a whole isn't up to the Disney or even Bluth standards, but it's fairly nice anyway, especially since this was made on a fairly low budget for an animated film. There's some cool effects work, the character designs are Disney-esque without being completely generic, and whoever animated the villain Rothbart clearly had the most fun.
-Speaking of, he's probably the most successful single element of the film. Jack Palance (sounding only a shade or two away from his GOR advisor) gives him a lot of gravelly gusto, and despite being a standard evil sorceror, I like that he has more political ambition. When Odette straight up asks him why he doesn't just take her father's kingdom with his dark magic, his reasoning that legitimate rule by marriage will be less stressful than constantly fighting to keep it post-usurping is pretty sensible.
-The climax with him turning into a demonic fruit bat of sorts is pretty neat, even though it's a blatant steal from stuff like Sleeping Beauty.
-He also gets the best song "No More Mr. Nice Guy", a jazzy little number with some fun visuals. Sadly, Palance himself doesn't get to sing, though the singer sounds pretty close anyway.
-John Cleese scores some laughs as Jean-Bob, the French frog who thinks he's actually a prince under a spell, as does Steven Wright as the deadpan, ironically named turtle Speedy. I also liked Mark Harelik hamming it up as Prince Derek's snarky advisor Lord Rogers.
Cons
-There was some debate over in the Disney thread recently about the possibly-rushed pacing of some of their animated films. Well, this legitimately has that problem. The film starts off nice with a good conflict between Odette and Derek, where they grow up together as squabbling kids, start to fall in love, and then he bungles things: she asks if there's anything else he likes about her besides her beauty, and his flabbergasted response is "What else is there?" Nice going, dumbass. This could've made for a more interesting film, but the story quickly forgets it. Rothbart comes back into the fray, puts Odette under his spell, and suddenly she's made her animal friends between scenes and singing about how only her true love Derek can rescue her.
What the shit, movie?
-The songs are..... eh. Again, Rothbart's is a neat diversion even if the lyrics get kind of silly, and that actually persists throughout the rest of them. None even come close to touching any of the Disney musicals around the same time period. This was David Zippel's first animated film as lyricist, and I'm so very glad he improved for his lyrical duties on Disney's Hercules and Mulan.
-There are too many side characters. Jean-Bob, Speedy and Rogers are fun, but there's Derek's queen mom, his fat sidekick, a Scottish puffin who Odette saves, Rothbart's hag sidekick, a short little chamberlain, and it just gets tiresome trying to keep track of all their antics after a while.
-The comedy, aside from the aforementioned good stuff, is weak as well, mostly rote slapstick and the like.
Any thoughts?
