"The Royal Christmas Tree is much more than a tradition... Every ornament in our tree is a memory. A memory of kindness, or of a thoughtful deed. The ornaments represent centuries of goodness. A timeless record of the best we've done throughout the years gratefully hung upon our tree. And, so it goes, this Christmas, new ornaments will honor new deeds of kindness. And each unique creation holds within it the very spirit of Christmas."
I have a confession to make... It actually is not that easy to find 25 royalty-related Christmas movies for a blogathon. Things were much easier back in 2016 when my Christmas marathon's theme was Old Holywood. A lot more movies, and I actually don't remember any single one of them not being great. This time around, it isn't quite like that... There aren't so many options, and the movies that I can get my hands on are sometimes quite repetitive, not so carefully crafted as one might expect...
For those reasons, I was happy to include a somewhat obscure animation like "The Swam Princess Christmas" in the mix, and I didn't expect too much of it to begin with... That introduction, however, about the kingdom's tradition of a Royal Christmas Tree completely won over my heart.
The movie follows the story of Princess Odette and Prince Derek as they celebrate their first Christmas together. It is the fourth movie in the "Swam princess" series. I haven't seen any of them, but I am familiar with the story of the "Swam Lake" ballet, and from what I could gather these movies are loosely based on that. Here, Odette and Derek (what happened to Siegfried?) head to Queen Uberta's castle, where Derek is tricked into opening a magic chest and releasing an evil spirit.
The ghost is called Rothbart and his goal is to destroy the Christmas Spirit. The Christmas Spirit is the only thing more powerful than Forbidden Arts, as this will give him the power to be revived in bodily form. In the beginning, Rothbart isn't very powerful. However, he is capable of casting small spells that cause animosity between people on the streets. The more arguments he causes, the less of the Christmas Spirit there is everywhere. Carollers stop singing, friends start arguing, and nobody helps each other anymore. As all of this happens, Rothbart's power increases.
Odette fights back trying to bring the Christmas spirit back. She takes the queen to the woodcutter's village and shows her how much good a simple selfless act can do. Earlier she'd brought a choir of children to the castle... These small things add up and help bring the Christmas spirit back, much to Rothbart's dismay. He counters by creating a special lightbulb for the Christmas Tree. When the lights are switched on, the bulb will help him drain all the power that he needs.
Overall, I think this movie had great ideas, but the execution of those ideas was less than perfect. The concept of the Royal Christmas Tree is beautiful, but after the introduction it almost becomes a detail, insignificant to the plot. In my opinion, the animation would also be much better if they'd used traditional 2D drawings, but that's just my personal preference, it might not be everybody's cup of tea.
In spite of its faults, it's a pretty cool movie, and I was at the edge of my seat during the countdown to light up the tree. I love the idea of the Christmas Spirit being stronger than dark magic, and that the heroes are threatening to Rothbart precisely because they have that rare capacity to keep the Christmas spirit all year round
 |
| The Royal Christmas Tree... |
The Swam Princess Christmas | USA | 2012 | Direction: Richard Rich | Screenplay: Yuri Lowenthal | Cast: Jennifer Miller, Joseph Medrano, David Lodge
No comments:
Post a Comment