The Swan Princess: Royally Undercover (Video 2017)

The Swan Princess: Royally Undercover (Video 2017). 1h 19m | G

“Of the u0026#39;Swan Princessu0026#39; films, the best one is by far the first one which is still a flawed but enjoyable film now. The following sequels u0026#39;Secret of the Castleu0026#39; and u0026#39;Mystery of the Enchanted Kingdomu0026#39; were not great and had a fair bit wrong with them but had components too that made them watchable.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026#39;The Swan Princess Christmasu0026#39; was hugely disappointing and a terrible film in general, it looked bad when advertised and the film was even worse. u0026#39;A Royal Family Taleu0026#39; is a marginal improvement over that film but was a big royal mess still, and while u0026#39;Princess Tomorrow, Pirate Today!u0026#39; was also a marginal improvement that was also not saying much. Despite low expectations, watched u0026#39;Royally Undercoveru0026#39; last night, and, while a long way from a great film, it is by far the best of the CGI-animated u0026#39;Swan Princessu0026#39; films and perhaps the best sequel since u0026#39;Mystery of the Enchanted Kingdomu0026#39;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eLike u0026#39;Princess Tomorrow, Pirate Today!u0026#39; the best thing about u0026#39;Royally Undercoveru0026#39; is the character of Alise. She is not the sickly sweet character of u0026#39;Royal Family Taleu0026#39; but instead a charming, feisty and very likable and relatable character with a strong personality that puts most of the regular u0026#39;Swan Princessu0026#39; characters to shame. Her chemistry with Lucas is charming enough.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eReally liked that Jean-Bob, Speed and Puffin had more to do than the previous three CGI-animated films and having a few amusing moments. The best of the supporting characters is Rodgers, he doesnu0026#39;t look creepy this time round and is fun and actually useful and important to the plot rather than just background, he is also the best used since u0026#39;Mystery of the Enchanted Kingdomu0026#39;. Really liked the bit between the king and Odette, which saw some nice background, and the scene in the corridor between Alise and Odette. Some of the voice acting is decent, particularly Jayden Isabel (Alise), Elle Deets (Odette) and Kirk Thornton (Count Antonio). Rodgers and Speed also fare well.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNot all the voice acting works. Faring worst are Jennifer Miller who is rather shrill and Yuri Lowenthal who voices Derek with a lack of real enthusiasm. Clayton Jamesu0026#39; accent doesnu0026#39;t sound consistent either, there are too many times where he doesnu0026#39;t sound authentically French.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe animation and the story were also mixed to me. The animation does have a little more colour and polish this time around, looking less like a video game from 20 years ago than the previous three CGI-animated u0026#39;Swan Princessu0026#39; films. Itu0026#39;s still not particularly good however, fluidity and attention to detail is still not great while there are blocky character movements, complete lack of fluidity, at times creepy facial expressions, backgrounds that make plastic feel like they have more life and the incredibly flat colours.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eStory-wise, u0026#39;Royally Undercoveru0026#39; is easy to follow and is more eventful than the previous three CGI-animated u0026#39;Swan Princessu0026#39; films, the spy stuff was fun and cool and a nice attempt at doing something different (if occasionally muddling the story), Alise and Lucasu0026#39; chemistry keeps things afloat nicely and it was great to have some of the regular u0026#39;Swan Princessu0026#39; characters having more to do as well as the positive messaging being done more tastefully. However, some of it is repetitive and the Uberta-Antonio plot goes nowhere.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026#39;Royally Undercoveru0026#39; feels a little more u0026#39;Swan Princess-yu0026#39; than u0026#39;Princess Tomorrow, Pirate Today!u0026#39;, but does feel too much of the Alise show and like a few episodes of a television show strung together. Again, Odette and Derek while not completely side-lined are underused, one does miss the chemistry between Odette and Alise that was the only thing that worked in u0026#39;Royal Family Taleu0026#39; and Odette is a little on the dull. Nothing compared to Derek who has always been as wet as a drip but seems to be getting wetter with each instalment. A bright spot in the first three films of the franchise, Uberta is now annoying.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOnce again, the music makes no effort to be true to the style of the original film, something that the first two sequels did try to do, the incidental music doesnu0026#39;t always flow or fit, is sometimes paced ploddingly and has a real habit of drowning out the dialogue. Also could have done without the songs, not only were they forgettable and irritating but they were ill-placed and actually felt completely out of place within the setting and for u0026#39;The Swan Princessu0026#39; franchise in general.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe script flows badly, is cloying rather than heartfelt and, while there are some amusing moments and at least it doesnu0026#39;t go over childrenu0026#39;s heads or seem inappropriate, some of the humour is witless and largely childish and unfunny. While his chemistry with Alise is great Lucas lacks an interesting personality of his own, while the villains are too archetypal, generally lack menace and are bland.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn conclusion, lacklustre but much better than the previous three CGI-animated u0026#39;Swan Princessu0026#39; films. 4/10 Bethany Cox”