The other night I finished a long day of work, came home, and decided to spend my evening watching The Swan Princess, and it was a fantastic decision.
I’ve loved this movie for a long time, so it had me smiling from the opening music notes and I enjoyed the cartoon from start to finish. But as someone trained to think critically about the media I’m consuming and pick apart stories, particularly fantasy stories aimed at kids, I had a lot of thoughts about this movie.
In thinking about the stories we tell little girls, the matter of agency is regularly brought up. We’ve presented a princess as a potential role-model, and we have ask ourselves “Is this princess a passive object in this story, or is she a protagonist in her own right? Who drives the action? What message are we sending to kids with this movie?”
Well… there’s good news and there’s bad news
The Bad News:
Oddette doesn’t do a whole lot. Prior to being kidnapped, most of her actions are dictated by her father up until she says “No” to Prince Derrick’s marriage proposal. Post kidnapping, Puffin does most of the planning that drives her attempt to find Derrick and escape from Rothbart, and gets her out of her cell to try and stop Rothbart’s evil plan. She also forgives Derrick too quickly after she’s kidnapped–we may know that he froze in the moment and has deeper feelings for her, but she asked, when he proposed, “is beauty all that matters?” and he said “what else is there?”. That’s not a guy you want to share eternal love with.
Which brings us to…
The good news:
Derrick fucks up twice. And both times it’s because he’s blinded by superficial things, and fails to look deeper. This isn’t a love at first sight story–the characters suffer when Derrick 1) Can’t think of any reason to marry Oddette other than her beauty and 2) Feels like there’s something off when presented with a fake, but doesn’t investigate past a surface “she LOOKS like Oddette, there fore she must BE Oddette.” It isn’t until the very end, as Oddette is dying in his arms, that Derrick finds words to express his love for her as a person, and in my interpretation it is that more than his slaying of Rothbart that saves the day.
There’s a lot of focus on appearances not being something you can make solid judgements by. King Williams warning “It’s not what it seems” is repeated over and over as Derrick tries to track down The Great Animal that kidnapped Oddette, and when Oddette finally finds him in the forest, as a swan, he nearly kills her, thinking that this swan might be the monster in disguise. Appearances are deceiving.
And I am so proud of Oddette, every time I watch the movie, for saying “No” to Derrick. The most significant action she takes the whole film is her standing up for herself and insisting that no matter how beneficial it is to the kingdom, no matter how attractive she may find Derrick, she will not marry him if all he sees in her is physical appearances.
She also is being supported by friends, which I think is really important. Jean Bob may want something from her, but Puffin and Speed are there to help because they care about her. She won support by being friendly and kind and helping others.
And may we talk about the supporting cast for a moment? The engenu pair are fine and dandy, but the characters who make the film are Jean Bob and Rogers. As I was looking into the film’s history a bit online, I read that John Cleese turned down the role of Zazu in The Lion King to voice Jean Bob, and if that rumor is true, I’m so glad he did. Not that the Lion King isn’t an amazing movie, but The Swan Princess wouldn’t have been the same without him. I love Rogers for his sense of humor and sarcasm, and his fantastic facial expressions. They are the best.
Overall, it’s a movie that I’m happy to claim as my favorite animated princess movie, coming in high above anything Disney made. Shrek get’s judged in a separate category in my mind, or the competition would be a little tougher. And don’t even mention the sequels. THOSE DON’T EXHIST.
Stop exploiting great movies I loved for six disappointing sequels that pale before the original work and earn oodles of extra money. It’s not cool ok? Ok.