Based on the ballet Swan Lake. The original Swan princess begins its first part of the story through a five-minute song sequence, "This is my idea". Within this we see a young Princess and Prince, Derek and Odette being forced by their parents to spend every summer getting to know each other in the hope they will one day fall in love and marry. Merging two kingdoms together.
Eventually, they both realise they are in love with dance and proposal. But when Derek freezes at Odette's question of why he loves her. She fleas from his mother's castle.
Unknown to everyone, evil sorcerer Rothbart plans to take over King William’s kingdom and Odette's escape on a cold, dark stormy night is perfect to put his plan into action.
For he spent years mastering the Forbidden Arts only to fail, now he wants revenge, he acts upon this by his killing William, kidnapping Odette, and attempting to gain the kingdom by forcing Odette into marriage.
Odette refuses this proposal so Rothbart casts a transformation spell. Meaning Odette remains a swan by day human by night, but only when there is a full moon.
Luckily she gains some animal companions such as Speed the turtle, Puffin the puffin bird & Jean Bob the frog who do everything in their power to help her break the spell.
Derek meanwhile spends the rest of the film trying to find then save Odette despite everyone believing Odette to be dead.
Whilst this is all going on Odette as a swan and Puffin go looking for Derek, discovering him searching for the Great Animal. They create a plan to give him the chance to speak with human Odette.
She confides in him that the only thing to break the spell is an open declaration of true love.
Knowing Queen Uberta is holding a ball at the place the very next night Derek tells Odette she needs to intend. For that is where he will make his vow.
Rothbart overhears this plan, so has Odette thrown into a dungeon. Using his powers of transformation to turn a woman named Bridget into a copy of Odette. It is she who arrives at the castle. Although Odette's animal friends free her from the dungeon so she is able to fly to the castle, She is too late for Derek has already made his vow causing Rothbart's spell to start killing Odette.
Derek after realising his mistake runs after Odette. Following her back to Swan Lake, where Odette transforms back into a princess just before dying in Derek's arms.
Furthermore, a battle rages amongst Rothbart and Derek. Odette's animal friends along with Derek's best friend Bromley assist him in his quest to destroy Rothbart.
Derek, still heartbroken confesses to a dead Odette that Odette he loves her for her kindness and courage. Queen Uberta is thrilled when Derek's heartbroken conversion lifts the curse allowing her to finally put all her years of wedding planning to use. At the end of the film, Derek and Odette finally marry going onto later adopt a little girl named Elise after rescuing her
from a fire.
The Swan Princess has stolen the hearts of many hundreds of fans worldwide, but this wasn't always the case.
Disney's held back Lion King release meant bad things for the swan Princess leaving it to only make around $9,771,658 against a $21 million budget.
Despite the odds, they then went on to win
"The Film Advisory Board Award of Excellence", "the Parents' Choice Award", a "Golden Globe" for best original song and many more. Nest animations The Swan Princess took over four years to create having needed over 275 animators and artists bring thousands of cells to life.
Swan Princess's original creator & producer, Seldon O. Young is humbled by how many people have admitted handing down the lessons of the Swan Princess to their own children & believes this speaks volumes on how well the story has lived.
Seldon also told me that when he began this journey there were dreams of having a "great theatrical run" but they never dreamed things would "go on so long," especially after the release of the original failed to make a profit during its time in the box office.
Now 25 years on the swan princess is taking on a whole new generation. Having gone on to have a run of another seven films,
recently releasing a new 4K ultra version of the original. Whilst having a ninth film and live-action in the works.
Creating a live-action allows for new talent to be showcased both behind & confront of camera.
Along with friends Seldon's daughter, Laura Young produced the project.
There is always a reason for us loving the stories we grew up with maybe even more so as we get older and begin to understand them from a different perspective.
history has a tendency to repeat itself, especially when reaching milestones, this is when people begin to reflect upon how much something truly means to them.
Seldon's daughter Laura who has worked as a Swan Princess producer for a number of years has been enthusiastic about the prospect of getting to develop a Swan Princess live action. As it has been a dream for the Swan Princess team for a number of years. She also told me she is "especially happy with how it is being received by audiences all over the world"
Laura feels the importance of keeping all of the much loved Swan princess elements but modernising it for the modern audience. And says no music for a possible live-action has been confirmed yet but she would like all original music to be included if a live-action was to get the go-ahead.
Dark fantasy, horror Director Colton Tran who has been working alongside Laura for ten years was also on hand to help with this ambitious project.
Finding working on the live-action "a different challenge" but told me it was "cool" to be able to bring a story that is originally an animation to life. He also spoke of being "able to bring a darker side" to the project by adding mist within the end sequence.
As with any project, especially a popular one it is always important to have someone shoot behind the scenes footage. For this works really well for social media campaigns and promotion. Filmmaker Beau Stine was on set to make this happen.
Stine told me he enjoyed being apart of observing this well-loved tale coming to life and feels that it's special effects "looked amazing" with the final edit exceeding his expectations. However
felt his biggest challenge just like any shoot involving BTS footage was to be prepared enough to "capture every great moment but to do so in a non-invasive way.''
keeping in mind that the actors, director and crew are doing their best. Stine believes that being "Mindful of the energy and production process is key".
Portraying Prince Derek was Utah's very own. actor, musician & stuntman James Gaisford is trained to ride horseback, regularly partakes in his own stunts & is up for any challenge.
was the perfect fit for a young Prince Derek.
As a child, he regularly played the role of Derek in his back garden. As well as being experienced at playing "Catch & fire" One game which resulted in an arrow to the leg.
James's favourite part of the filming was getting to live out his nine-year-old childhood dream. Saying a close second would be London Kress's portrayal of Princess Odette saying "She is such a sweet person and really emulates her character"
If a live-action was to go into works Gaisford plans to partake in all his own stunts and is interested in exploring more of the themes imitated by the Swan princess's extensive back catalogue.
I have come to the end of my blog, I know it has been extremely long with an awful lot of text so If you have stayed with it a massive congratulations. This is one of the longest things i have posted on here or attempted to write since regaining the ability so thank you for sticking with me through this journey.
Also, I would like to a massive thank you to Seldon Young, Eden Young, Laura Young, Colton Tran, James Gaisford and Beau Stine for their involvement. I always feel so apprehensive about asking people questions in case they get annoyed. But I've come to realise that if people don't want to answer they just simply won't respond.
I've been friends with the youngs & Colton for a number of years, it's one thing asking your friends questions but a whole other asking for help for people who you don't know. Or in this case who you know from social media but don't actually know. But everyone was so nice and these turned out to be some of the most interesting insightful interviews I've had the pleasure of doing so far.
So thank you again to all involved it means so much and a massive thank you to everyone who has read to the end.
Links:
Concept trailer: https://youtu.be/8GbC5hVuS3s
Swan princess website: https://swanprincessseries.com/
Colton's website: https://www.coltontran.com
Beau's website: https://www.beaustine.com/
