The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
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The Swan Princess
Family · Animation · Fantasy · 1994
The beautiful princess Odette is transformed into a swan by an evil sorcerer's spell. Held captive at an enchanted lake, she befriends Jean-Bob the frog, Speed the turtle and Puffin the bird. Despite their struggle to keep the princess safe, these good-natured creatures can do nothing about the sorcerer's spell, which can only be broken by a vow of everlasting love.
Movie details
The Swan Princess
“An enchanting classic destined to capture your heart and free your spirit.”
1994 Family · Animation · Fantasy 1h 29m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
6.4 / 10
28.9K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
50 %
Tomatometer
Metacritic
70 / 100
Metascore
TMDB
6.6 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
The beautiful princess Odette is transformed into a swan by an evil sorcerer's spell. Held captive at an enchanted lake, she befriends Jean-Bob the frog, Speed the turtle and Puffin the bird. Despite their struggle to keep the princess safe, these good-natured creatures can do nothing about the sorcerer's spell, which can only be broken by a vow of everlasting love.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over The Swan Princess?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
Spellbound
Animation · 2024
When a powerful spell turns her parents into giant monsters, a teenage princess must journey into the wild to reverse the curse before it's too late.
The Monkey King
Animation · 2023
A stick-wielding monkey teams with a young girl on an epic quest for immortality, battling demons, dragons, gods — and his own ego — along the way.
DuckTales: The Movie - Treasure of the Lost Lamp
Adventure · 1990
With his nephews and niece, everyone's favorite rich uncle, Scrooge McDuck, treks from his mansion home in Duckburg in search of the long-lost loot of the thief Collie Baba. But finding the goods isn't quite what it's "quacked" up to be! Their thrilling adventure leads to comical chaos, magical mayhem, and a lesson about what is far more valuable than money, gold and jewels.
Cinderella and the Secret Prince
Animation · 2018
Cinderella discovers a secret that could shake their world: an evil witch turned the prince into a mouse and replaced him with a look-alike. Cinderella and her friends must save the real prince and help him defeat the evil witch.
Rugrats Go Wild
Family · 2003
When the Rugrats find themselves stranded on a deserted island, they meet the Thornberrys, a family who agrees to help them escape.
The Swan Princess: A Royal Myztery
Family · 2018
Your favorite characters are back in an all-new royal adventure! It seems that a mysterious “Z” is appearing as a mark on the palace residents. Who is behind the mark and what does it mean? Princess Odette, Derek, Scully and all the Swan Princess friends work as a team to uncover the secret.
Frozen II
Family · 2019
Elsa, Anna, Kristoff and Olaf head far into the forest to learn the truth about an ancient mystery of their kingdom.
Smurfs: The Lost Village
Family · 2017
In this fully animated, all-new take on the Smurfs, a mysterious map sets Smurfette and her friends Brainy, Clumsy and Hefty on an exciting race through the Forbidden Forest leading to the discovery of the biggest secret in Smurf history.
Minions & More Volume 1
Animation · 2022
This collection of 10 short films produced by Illumination includes: From the "Despicable Me" franchise: Puppy (2013); Minion Scouts (2019); Training Wheels (2013); The Secret Life of Kyle (2017); Santa's Little Helpers (2019). From the "Grinch" franchise: The Dog Days of Winter (2019). From the "Secret Life of Pets" franchise: Norman Television (2016); Weenie (2016). From the "Sing" franchise: Love at First Sight (2017). From the "Lorax" franchise: Forces of Nature (2012).
Revolting Rhymes
Family · 2017
Two half-hour animated films based on the much-loved rhymes written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Richard Rich
Written by
Richard Rich · Brian Nissen
Jack Palance
Lord Rothbart (voice)
Howard McGillin
Prince Derek (voice)
Michelle Nicastro
Princess Odette (voice)
Liz Callaway
Princess Odette (singing voice)
John Cleese
Jean-Bob (voice)
Steven Wright
Mr. Lorenzo "Speed" Trudgealong (voice)
Steve Vinovich
Lieutenant Puffin (voice)
Court is in session
Put The Swan Princess on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.