Review of The Swan Princess (1994) by Kellie V — 11 Dec 2018

My favorite non-Disney princess movie by far and it is all thanks to Odette. I feel like she competes pretty well even with Disney princesses. She's smart, vivacious, courageous, and confident. The classic moment that everyone knows is right at the beginning when she challenges Derek by asking him what he loves about her beyond her beauty.

When he has no other answer, she leaves him because she has too much self-respect. Of course, she then is immediately captured. I'm sure she forgets all about how shallow Derek is now that he is her sole chance of survival.

Nevertheless, she never loses heart and actually does something to try to end her captivity. Something else that sticks out to me is the scene where Derek (whom we can all agree is pretty idiotic and his only real value is his athleticism) is chasing Odette in her swan form because he believes she is the "great animal" that he's been chasing.

It is such a different dynamic than I expected from a princess movie and really makes this movie unique IMO. There are other merits to the movie, like the score and the animation, but that's all been talked about.

Its a beautiful movie (if somewhat lacking in the classic Disney magic) but I think Odette really makes the movie worth watching.