Seraherrera
The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity
Lidia Draper
Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
Ezmae Chang
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Bob
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Armand
nice. charming. for little children. or for who loves more than all memories of golden age. but like many second parts, it is only search to use a successful recipes. the result is not impressive. but boring. songs, story, evil wizard, funny animals, princess and his sacrifice for beloved husband are pieces from ordinaries puzzles. only the queen may be interesting appearances. but she is just spice. and not enough. and the error is to exploit a good story more that it is acceptable. slices of pink feelings, humor as protection circle, magic globe as prey, fight scenes as toasted images, delicate nuances and old formulas to create atmosphere and victory of good as fireworks are sweet but not more. a movie for joy of little children.
TheLittleSongbird
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.
x-aoife-x
the worst sequel I've ever seen. really awful songs which is upsetting considering how fantastic the first films score and story is! also, which ruins the film for me is the fact there is no John Cleese so jean bob might as well not even be in it and the new villains are dreadful. it is really annoying how that old woman type thing cant string a simple sentence together properly without repeating her words over and over and over again. but to be fair Uberta not shutting up is a little bit funny. but the fact it was her 50th birthday: why do they draw her looking like an 80 year old? i was going to give this a 1 but now i think... i might give it a 2. but still the story line is no where near as good as the first film . it is similar without the humour from certain characters. Overall i disliked this film entirely because of the disappointing music, the severe lack of voice talent: having changed the voice of prince Derek and jean bob, the new villains, disappointing storyline the annoying habits of some characters, and the very simple animation.
dwpollar
1st watched 7/31/2001-6 out of 10(Dir-Richard Rich): This sequel is in some ways better than the original because of it's simplicity. Rich took the characters from the original and placed them in a newer setting and different story with success. Yes, it is missing the star quality in the voices which is more noticeable with the Turtle(formerly Stephen Wright) than any other character, but there is a newness and freshness to this production that doesn't have the stinch of Disney imitation that was prevalent almost throughout in the original. There are only a few new songs, some are okay, others aren't very good, but even with this I didn't get the feeling that Rich felt like he had to overdo it. It seems like he was okay with letting the characters play out the story without crowding the production with overkill. Although I wasn't really looking forward to this sequel, I now hope to see the third entry to see the direction it goes.