The Swan Princess: Escape from Castle Mountain (1997)

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The first Swan Princess has a few flaws, but is a memorable and surprisingly good film. The first sequel, Secret of the Castle, showed good promise, but has too many flaws that prevent it from surpassing the original. The animation tries to be true to that of the original, but has at times very flat backgrounds and awkward character animation. The voice acting was okay, but hardly anybody who took part in the original returned. In fact only Michelle Nicastro as Odette and Steve Vinovich as Puffin return, both doing good jobs, and a notable absentee is John Cleese as Jean Bob. He made the first movie, and although the new voice actor did his best, Jean Bob just wasn't as funny, as the new voice actor just lacks Cleese's comedic talent. I personally thought Clavious was not a very effective villain at all, he was too over the top, and as a villain, his motives weren't very clear, while Knuckles was unnecessary. Also I am still not keen on Prince Derek, he isn't charismatic enough, unlike the typical princes we know and love from Disney classics such as Little Mermaid and Sleeping Beauty. The best character was easily Uberta, the only really convincing character in a very unconvincing sequel(Odette is a mixed bag, she is still beautiful and brave with some feist but she has little to do). She was so funny, especially her line "NOONE SPOILS MY BIRTHDAY!" The incidental music lacked the beauty of the original and seemed hackneyed(the nod to No Fear during the orb chase scene was nice though), and the songs while somewhat a pleasant listen are definitely inferior, with the exception of "Magic of Love", the only song to try and attempt to be similar to the original. The singing voices didn't match the voice actors either. Odette's voice was perfect and angelic, but Clavius's singing couldn't be more different. His speaking voice was high pitched and over the top, but his singing voice was a Mick-Jagger like, raspy rock and roll vocal that didn't suit the character at all. The villain's dialogue was sometimes eye-rollingly cheesy(though the rest of the script was charming with a lot of funny lines), with the exception of "don't you ever shut up?" and the story was slow and predictable at times, with occasional flashes of invention and humour(like the chase for the orb, Jean briefly being turned into a prince and nobody sees and believes him afterwards and Uberta being turned into different animals), but on the whole was cardboard thin. In conclusion, a few good moments save an otherwise weak and unconvincing sequel. 5/10 Bethany Cox.

When I was a little girl, I absolutely adored The Swan Princess, it was reliving the same fairy tales of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella, the princess and her prince who saves the day is always a timeless story that will never die, well, hopefully. But I figured that I would check out the sequels for The Swan Princess to see what they were like and unfortunately, this is the typical cartoon sequel that just disappoints more than entertains. The only character I found still very amusing was the Queen, she was very funny in this movie and had the best part. But with the voice changes, they were noticeable and also bothered me quite a bit, I don't mean to be picky, just it was too weird for me. The story also was just more or less borrowed from the first Swan Princess, just the villain in this movie is following Rothbart's footsteps.Odette and Derek are about to celebrate their one year anniversary, but Derek has been too preoccupied with fighting for his kingdom to keep it safe. With his mother's birthday also coming up, he forgets about that since there is a new villain in town, Clavious, who is hoping to go above and beyond where Rothbart's powers went and kidnaps the Queen on her birthday. But Odette must change back into her swan self in order to help Derek fight him and save his mother.The Swan Princess 2 is of course more than alright for the kids, that I never mind, it's good clean fun for them. The reason why these sequels are disappointing though is because it is usually just for the kids, that is the audience they aim for, but it's more enjoyable when the jokes and story can be enjoyed by everyone. Now there are a few laughs and giggles here and there, but this wasn't as clever in my opinion to the first Swan Princess. I would recommend it for the little one's, but if you're looking for a fun cartoon movie, I'd recommend staying with the first Swan Princess.4/10

I was disappointed with the sequel to the Swan Princess. I can see what they were trying to do with the story, show how married life was going for Odette and Derek but the story wasn't interesting enough to hold my attention and it seemed to cover the same bases as the original.It isn't funny. The only bit I found humorous was when Jean-Bob was turned into a prince and then back into a frog and no-one saw it happen and he was trying to convince them that it really did.The villain is rubbish and the animation isn't as impressive as the first film.The Queen is a very irritating character and instead of cheering with Derek to rescue his mother, you're hoping that the villain puts a spell on her voice box to stop her talking.It is a shame because I really liked the first movie but it didn't live up to my expectations.

What else can I say? The animation is very simplistic and the story is extremely lacking in plot. The characters are pretty obnoxious and I even found myself hoping something bad would happen to Odette just to spice things up. No such luck.