The Princess and the Pea: Musical Hell Review #47 

11:08 Ya know, just once, I wish we could see a villain actually be SMART and leave the child with good parents that will make the kid happy and therefore less likely to try and get away from them and take their rightful place. If the kid is complacent and happy, the return becomes a much less likely threat.

Can we appreciate at least that Hildegarde (or however her name is spelled) instead of looking exactly like her mother actually looks like BOTH parents? Eyes, coloring, and mole of her mother, hair and face shape of her father.

A princess is a title not an ethnicity what do these fairytales not understand about this.

I'm a little pissed because the animation is so well done in places and crappy in others and the story doesn't help even it out.

If princesses are so sensitive to other people's feelings, shouldn't this apply to Hildegard? She's the niece of the king, so she's still a princess. Or are they using a different definition of princess?

Considering the fact that Daria was apparently forced to sleep in a barn on a bed of hay for most of her life, I don't think it'd make sense that she'd be bothered by a single pea that's under a stack of mattresses. If anything, she'd probably have the best sleep she's ever had regardless of how sensitive she is towards other people.

Honestly, I think my favorite retelling of the Princess and the Pea was the book by Gail Larson Levine (author of Ella Enchanted) where she lays out exactly how taxing it would be for someone to be sensitive enough to feel a pea under 20 mattresses. The heroine (who is born a commoner) can't do anything because she'd hurt herself doing anything other than embroidering, she can't wear anything not made of the purest silks because anything else would hurt her sensitive skin, she can't eat anything other than food made with the purest ingredients otherwise she'd get sick, etc. The point of the story was that the ONLY thing she could do was become a princess because her condition left her unable to do anything else!

If the pea thing was actually about the girl's "sensitivity to others' feelings", then wouldn't she lie and say that she slept great?

Darla looks like a bizarre amalgamation of every Don Bluth heroine.

You want an example of a good “childish villain”? Prince John from Robin Hood. He is childishly comedic and prone to tantrums... but his punishments are BRUTAL. He strangles his assistant, throws a whole village in jail, steals from a church and arrests the friar who runs it, and then plans to hang the Friar in order to set up an ambush on a fugitive who was obviously gonna stop this unjust execution (essentially intending to kill both the fugitive AND The friar). And that isn’t including the (unfortunately) cut ending where he planned to sneak into the church, where the fugitive has sanctuary, to assassinate the fugitive and the woman treating the guy’s wounds. (Why was this scene cut? It was a lot better than the original :/) All of this in a G-rated film, mind you.

*checks date film came out* ...You know, I was going to say how badly integrated the CGI is with the 2d animation was, but given that it came out in 2002 and was direct to DVD so would have had no appreciable budget, that's actually bloody impressive.

You ever think maybe getting abandoned/switched out in infancy and raised by peasants is actually a good thing for these kids? Think about it. They're raised in hands-on contact with the peasantry they're supposed to lead and protect, giving them a vital ground-up view of the kingdom. Because they aren't raised surrounded by luxury and bowed to by everyone, that reduces the chance they get a massive ego, and since the asshole adoptive parents make them do everything, that might instill a healthy work ethic. Not saying it's something I'd put Prince George through, but still.

I think this whole story would have worked better if, instead of swapping the babies, the bad guy arranged for the princess to be kidnapped. With his wife dead and his daughter vanished the king could have invited the niece to come to the palace as the next heir to the throne. That way the king wouldn't look so stupid for being fooled by the switch. Also, if they hoped to find the kidnapped princess it would make a lot more sense to research magical true-princess-detector tests.

I like how the totally nice king just drops the girl he raised and loved as his own daughter for a total stranger just because she isn't his bio one. I get it, this is a fairy tale set in a time where that's important, but come on. And Hildegard sounds way more compelling as a character if anyone with enough writing sense had seen the conflict that would arise from raising a girl with conflicting values plus constantly comparing her to her dead mother.

AU where Queen Marianna survives childbirth and almost immediately figures out that the Baby Swap has occurred and this plot just does not happen.

Great message in this film. You are evil by your blood not how you are raised or your personality

Okay I know I already commented on this video but my thoughts cannot be contained within one post: Hildegarde and Daria being born at the same time means that, very shortly after being declared rulers of the pig kingdom and vowing revenge, Helsa and Laird did the absolute NASTY out of rage. Anger-banged so hard it curled the ends of Laird's golden shoes. Went full Gordon Ramsay and made mushy peas through a stack of mattresses. LOVE that for them.

Please tell me Rollo is Prince of another kingdom, cause otherwise that means Rollo and Daria are cousins. Ew.

Give it this much, the animation is pretty decent. It's not Disney or dream works, but for church basement film production, it's pretty damn good

1:20 You're not the only one who finds the phrase "family values" eyebrow-raising. It's basically the callsign of the Helen Lovejoys of the world.

You know, if they'd had the scene if Rollo and Daria meeting _after_ the scene of him trying to find a princess, that would have been a lot less stupid.

Prince Rollo? You should totally meet his cousins, Princess Caramel, Lady Éclair, Prince Mint, Lord Hazelnut, Queen Fudge, and King Sticky Toffee!

The leading man is named Rollo? I guess the writers were a hard core fan of the caramel filled chocolate.

*Looks at Daria* Don Bluth's Thumbelina? The heck are you doing here? You're too good for this movie! ...The hell did I just say?

I literally said, "YEAH HAAA!" when I found this. I want a princess swap movie where the "lost princess" is not a super nice and perfect waif. "The Perfect Princess for Me" makes Rollo look like a superficial idiot. What is Rollo's relationship to Heath? Did his original parents just abandon him at a random kingdom? Funny review as always. Will you ever do The Scarecrow (2000) movie? It's in the same line as this. Disney rip-off with campy villains, odd musical moments, and bland romantic leads of Not!Belle and Not!Aladdin.

The Kingdom of the Heart scene seems like a bad attempt to copy Once upon a december from Anastasia.

Slight flaw in the premise: any woman who can’t tolerate the nuisance of a single pea underneath a stack of 20 mattresses, is not likely to survive the rigors of childbirth. Which just might be worth the king bearing in mind, considering HIS WIFE DIED IN CHILDBIRTH.

You know, the I Want song could have worked if the animation had the soaring energy to match the music. It sounds so grand and sweeping, but she’s leaning on a fence to sing. Her running through the fields, or sweeping cinematic camera movements, or anything to fill it with a zest for life.

I just noticed that, as well as the kingdom's emblem literally being a pea and a heart, Heath's crown is studded with small, round emeralds. All hail the Pea King!

“Any tradition that guarantees coronation day looks like a Black Friday door buster sale is a bad idea.” This is startlingly close to how Ottoman sultans were chosen. Most of the time, their sons were in different parts of the empire, and when word of the sultan’s passing was announced, they’d run to the capital to be the first one there and establish themselves as sultan and kill their rivals/brothers. This movie would’ve been much better with more fratricide.

For someone who eats 4 square meals a day plus snacks, Helsa is actually quite snatched in the waist with a shape that won't quit. Girl what is your secret?!?! Are the 4 meals just variations on chicken and broccoli?!?!?

....The name of the kingdom is Corazion? Did they seriously take the Spanish word for "heart", put an i between the z and the o, and go "yes this is a good name for the kingdom. i have never done anything wrong ever."?

I'm stealing "magical what's-it's-butt" as an insult.

Watching this in 2020, the second Game of Thrones reference hasn't aged that well... Oh, poor Diva from the past, you're in for a treat...

I do at least really enjoy how much Laird's voice actor, Ronan Vibert, hams it up. That is something you really need to do in a second-rate animated film like this, to at least make it memorable. It's also quite weird hearing him going at it like this after seeing him in Rome HBO, The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Borgias were he's usually has this very emotionless, sly and evaluating manner to his character. Eve Karpf and Nigel Lambert (Helsa and Sebastian) are also voices from my very British childhood. :D

So the two human male protagonists are named after candy?

Are we not going to talk about how the Kingdom of my Heart thing at 15:02 with the big empty space full of imaginary ghostly people is just a shitty Once Upon a December ripoff sequence?

With Sebastian trying to guide the pig, I'm surprised you didn't include the clip from the End of Time with the Doctor screaming out "WORST! RESCUE! EVER!"

I always love it when good family friendly productions also insist that goodness and evilness are 100% genetic.

"l am so stoked season 6 is here" oh you sweet summer child.

You should have mentioned that the original Broadway musical "Once Upon a Mattress" had music and lyrics by Mary Rodgers, the daughter of Richard Rodgers (as in "and Hammerstein") and was a vehicle for a comic genius named Carol Burnett as a princess named Fred--and a star was born. It's still a fun show.

Rewatching this is great, but I just thought of something that I want to see that could be interesting. What if the foster parents in these "situations" turned out to be a nice couple or maybe overtime grow to love their daughter wouldn't that be a change (and I am talking about in these types of stories with a switch and princesses) and the daughter for the most part in content with her life. Just thought since many foster/step parents within fairy tales are portrayed as evil. Wonderful video by the way :)

After fully seeing this movie, I have a slight rewrite of the ending that could've made Helsa a bit more likeable and built on that moment early on. Hear me out, when Daria is taken away by Laird, Helsa wants him to put her with a good family. Imagine this: when she finds out how her niece has been treated, she turns on Laird and reveals the truth instead of having the dog reveal that Hildegard is a fraud. It wouldn't completely fix the plot, but it would build on Helsa's bit of vulnerability.

Diva: makes two innuendos back to back Also Diva 5 seconds later: "Minds out of the gutter, please"

You know what would fix one of this movie’s major issues? Putting “Kingdom of the Heart” after “The Perfect Princess for Me.” The movie would still be deeply flawed, but at least Rolo would look like slightly less of a shallow idiot.

Drag this movie all you want but let us not forget the epic line of- "Sebastian has been telling me about the birds and the peas."

I feel like a black-and-white moral story can work if it's done well (like some Disney movies like The Lion King and Lord Of The Rings). This movie doesn't really try. Great review, by the way. :)

Overthinking It: Helsa is probably wearing a corset (well, technically a "pair of bodies," but basically a well-boned corset) under that dress, given that she's nobility and the visual style of the clothing here is more-or-less European Renaissance, with a few late-medieval headpieces thrown in. As a fat woman who's worn corsets, the general effect would be a smooth, somewhat thin-looking torso atop a large, Sir-Mix-A-Lot-pleasing derriere (which, in turn, would be FURTHER enhanced with a bumroll or bustle if it didn't look huge enough already). In other words, a fat woman in a corset and accurate late-medieval/early-Renaissance clothing looks...basically like Helsa. The only reason her dress isn't covered with tons of embellishment like a REAL noblewoman of the period is that elaborate clothing is hard to animate.

Why not make the helsa the nice one who try’s to talk sense into her husband who manipulates her and she cares about her niece and she wants to raise her daughter right but her husband is always watching but hey screw character development

The weirdest thing to me is how competent and fluid the animation is for this film.

I find their portrayal of Helsa a little insulting because, well, that’s MY body type. I’m not thin, I’m not fat, I’m just kinda average. And apparently that’s a bad thing

Awesome review--the "Donkeyskin" comment at the end cracked me up! :D Also, nice reference to "Once Upon a Mattress"--it's my favorite show I've ever been in (I played the Minstrel, who was cut out of the film).

This movie's logic is that one guy who changes the rules when you're playing on the playground so they can win everytime

A Utah based company? We're in MORMON territory!!!!

The animation looks really nice for having a meh storyline. Sebastian's adorable though. ^w^

9:50 Well, they're clearly aping Disney so they had to check off the "dead parent" cliche. 12:50 It would have been equally interesting if Daria had grown up to be wicked and mean while Hildegarde was charitable and kind and the "pea test" was ultimately proven to be stupid because despite being the true princess Daria was still a mean, spiteful b1tch. 15:00 So they're not just aping Disney, they're also aping Don Bluth.

Is it just me, or does Daria's design look just like Thumbelina and there's a bird guide? Wow, this movie not only rips off Disney but other Disney knockoffs as well. What a low. "Family Values" now that's a laugh. And wow these characters are idiots. I can't remember the last time I've seen characters act that stupid and generic. I refuse to refer to this movie as "The Princess and the Pea", because I enjoy that story and this movie has little to nothing to do with it. And even when it does, it's just painfully shoehorned in. It's more like "The Kingdom of Fools" or "The Good, the Bad, and the Moron".

family owned company promoting family values with a movie that is obsessed with being nice and promotes women's need to be near perfect to marry as her main value and encourages men to treat women as such? Yep. This is a mormon movie.

this movie reminds me so much of quest for Camelot in the animation department. the bad guy even sounds like the bad guy from that movie

Darria was shown to be worked to the bone. She would not have time to run a farm, take care of her slothful parents, befriend the "nice" animals and find a ruined cathedral. The first two items would take all her time, but that's my nitpick.

"Kingdom of the Heart" sounds a lot like Tanya's ballad from "An American Tale: Feival Goes West".

Yeah because Cinderella, and Vanessa from The Little Mermaid look so much alike!

This movie would've been awesome if the princess was MTV's Daria.

At least this Disney knock off is nice to look at unlike many other things like this.

I think that they confused how poofy a dress is with a characters weight and like... no...anyone can wear a hoop skirt

Honestly, part of me just wonders if whoever wrote this movie just had no idea how babies worked, or if there was some lack of communication between the writers and animators, since the way the story works and the dialogue would seem to indicate that Daria and Hildegard were switched very shortly after birth (Laird gets the news of Heath's wife's death and Daria's birth immediately after Hildegard was born, and I don't see why he'd wait so long to pull the switch), while the animation makes Daria out to be at least old enough to sit up on her own at the time. So, either someone thought a newborn baby could do all the stuff Daria was doing, or else someone didn't tell the animators that Daria was supposed to be younger in those scenes.

10:31... wait, is that baby sitting on a nest? Naked?! Ouch! So, so, so wrong (on top of everything else wrong with this scene and plot, of course).

20:06-:20:20 For me, that's basically like playing "Ride of the Valkyries" by Richard Wagner while trying to get a drink from the refrigerator.

Such a pity. This film has actually good animation for a DTV movie, and I like the idea of expanding the original short tale with a plot about betrayal, kings and succesions. Too bad the execution sucks.

"Upon a pea, atop of will be put twenty matresses, the maiden, shalt sleep. If she cannot sleep, it is that she is has the sensitivity of the function!" Peagent woman: Lemme try! *can't sleep because it is far more soft than she's used to* Pretender princess: Lemme try! *pretends to have disturbed sleep* Insomiac librarian: Lemme try! *is insomniac* Congrats, you made a trial legitimately anybody can pass without even knowing (I mean... At least in the original story the princess doesn't know anything and she has to state that she feels *something* under the mattress that disturbs her sleep.)

This animation style reminds me the Titanic movie with the rapping dog.

"You're not evil because you're fat. You're fat because you're evil."

Dear god. So many cute cartoon animal sidekicks! Guess the filmmakers thought they could just entertain the kids with cute animals over story… or the animators begged for cute animals to animate between its conventional human animation.

Those sections of Laird's song you played have such a similar rhythm to Poor Unfortunate Souls

This script feels like the writers were playing mad libs.

I'm about three years late on this one, and someone might have probably already pointed this out, but here we go anyway. The idea of having a hero/heroine who is really nice (like Daria and the king) isn't (in my opinion) that bad. If you do it right. Overly niceness can be an interesting trait. Let's say we have a character who has grown up being told that the most important thing is to be kind towards the people around you. This character takes that message to their heart and follows that through. The consequences though is that the character faces people who tend to walk over them, straight out bully them, or maybe just day or do things that hurt the character but the character is too afraid to tell them the truth. Okay, it's a little over the top maybe, but if you write the story right it can turn out pretty good. I do realise now that Cinderella is this type of character, who I believe is a better written character than anyone in this mess (even though she's not that deep). I guess the key is to make the character more fleshed out than just overly nice. Make them face the consequences of overly niceness, make them feel the pain that comes with their choice of never talking back. And maybe having a lesson to the kids that as great as it is to be nice towards all people around you (or animals), you need to stand up for yourself (and other people) even if it does hurt other people in the progress. Make them understand the balance of nice and rude. Maybe you could have a whole lesson about how no one is pure good or pure evil, especially since so many fairytales have the good vs evil theme. I don't know. Just me sharing my thoughts. Btw, I'm not a native english speaker, so if there are spelling mistakes or just weird frases, sorry for that.

15:25 When you try too hard to make your movie scene look like a gorgeously animated and written Anastasia scene but it turns out looking more like Alice in wonderlands acid trip on a acid trip.

Quick question: did Hildegard always know that she wasn’t Heath’s daughter, or did she learn at the end? Did that have much bearing on the plot? Was it left unaddressed?

I feel like Hildegarde is a spoiled brat, not just because of her mother feeding her the ways of deceit to get her way, but Heath isn't helping any since he's nice enough to just give her anything she wants. (And it's good in a way for her parents as her mother can enjoy spoiling her rotten and have none of the responsibility while Laird can watch his brother fall to ruin due to this rampant spending to keep the girl happy) In fact, the way he treats her and how we see other princesses later on, there's no promise his own daughter wouldn't have been just as bad without Helsa's help. And while it is dumb, Laird's claim that his rightful place was taken from him is reasonable especially when it turns out Rollo and Sebastian were technically conspiring against him. If there's one thing I'd change about the movie (again, there is a lot of things that need work but it tries) is why not just make Rollo Heath's son and Daria nothing special? Because Rollo in this is from another kingdom, but not only does the plot hinge so much on him finding a bride they even make it the climax. Why should Heath and Sebastian spend so much time helping him when, unless he married Hilda, it has no effect on this whole prophecy thing and saving the kingdom? "For science", sure. But if Heath was going to basically adopt him anyway by giving him the kingdom why not cut that out from the start? Since everyone else is posting ideas... So for him marrying Hilda as a plot point, to make it not incest, she could still be princess from the Pig Kingdom but instead of Laird being made the king of the pigs by Heath's order, he instead vowed his revenge and just went to the neighboring Pig Kingdom on his own. Then made nice with the widowed queen and her daughter and plot to expand the Pig Kingdom by marrying Hilda and Rollo to merge their lands (and all the food and riches to come with it) and Queen Helsa or Hilda would give him some kind of title or power or whatever to rule over. It would still work too with Heath's relationship with Rollo in that Rollo was a spunky brat who wanted to rule through kindness and justice but now that he's gotten older the whole "what happened to the boy I knew?" "Well that's just politics" quip or whatever still makes sense and Heath could still have his annoying constant comparison to mother / what mother would have wanted with Rollo as we later see how shallow the boy is in choosing a bride before meeting Daria. And Rollo finding a good woman is concerning to Sebastian because the prophecy thing means at some point during Heath's reign, the kingdom will fall, but they still aren't sure how or why. Well it turns out Laird and Helsa don't just want to merge the lands, they plan for the Pig Kingdom to overthrow / fully absorb Corizon (or whatever) which would destroy it. Daria and Rollo could know each other from her always entering town even though she's from the Pig Kingdom, her cottage isn't far from the border. So him seeing her in the woods when he tried to run from Hilda is less of a maiden in distress and more of someone he knows and cares for is walking into obvious danger. Only for them to find the ruins of the original PatP castle that had been destroyed during the wars and maybe it would be here we finally get the backstory instead of at the beginning. So she sings Kingdom of the Heart and Sebastian (being more or less Rollo's companion as is) flies down to tell them the story as he explains the stained glass pictures. That seems to spark an idea with the mattresses and Rollo thanks Daria for helping them as he and Sebastian take the load or mattresses to find a princess. Daria understands she's not a princess and he needs to marry someone who is, but the fact she loves him just adds to the heartache but little does she know that he loves her too but blah blah blah politics. Until his dad found out and wanted to send word to Rollo to forget the politics and just marry the girl. But of course that ruins ~the plan~ so Laird goes after Daria and things play out as they do.

Shouldn't Hildegard still have the royal birthmark? I know her biological dad isn't the king of the whole land, but he's still related to the royal family. The original one to be first in line in fact. So Hildegard is still technically a princess, so why doesn't she have the birthmark?

It's somewhat sitting that this movie gives me huge Thumbelina vibes

I got to interview Mark Swan (the director of this film) back in 2011 about this project . You can find the interview on my tumblr @redadoodles

Judging from the art style of the young prince, I wonder if the creators of the Princess and the Goblin had a hand in creating this film. It's just so familiar for some reason.

I agree it is annoying when writers confuse basic niceness with goodness and rudeness with evil. It's just unreasonable to expect people to be nice all the time. Even if they are genuinely good people, everyone's said or done inappropriate things at some point in their lives. It's our actions in important matters that are really count in the end.

I remember that my family used to get movies from Feature Films For Families. The only one that sticks in my head is one where a kid and his friends somehow get the capital to buy out their dad's toy factory and teleconferencing with him, giving him a job which is better about hours off and stuff. Also, his sister is a teen genius who has some kind of computer chip that gets put into their newest toy or something? It was a weird movie.

I've been curious about how bad this movie is since it looked like such a massive Disney knockoff when I first heard of it, so I'm glad to see your take on it. Without a doubt Once Upon a Mattess is the superior musical (it was also the last show I did in high school before graduating so I have more than a bit of a soft spot for it) Interesting how you mentioned Donkeyskin, I discovered that a few years ago and while I like the music (even though it's in French), I'd like to see you review that because of how weird and often messed up it is.

As much as I like this movie, I love your critique of it. It’s hilarious! “Our hero, everybody.”

one way they could have made the switch more believable was if the king was away on kingly duties overseas when his wife gave birth and he didnt come home until after the switch, and not have hilgrade have a mole on her face like her mother so the king doesnt look like such a idiot.

my father worked on this movie way back in the day as a musician I haven't seen this movie in years but i remember the boxcase being in the bottom shelf of our entertainment center for so long it's probably still there even

The animation in this one is so weird. It seems kind of okay for the first half, but then around the time we meet the grown up Daria, we start getting some INCREDIBLY blatant rotoscoping that makes everything just look bizarre. Also the art makes it hard to tell who's meant to be beautiful and who's meant to be ugly.

Knowledge of creepy fairy tales and a reference to the Order of the Stick? I love it.

I know I've heard that Raven somewhere before.... Professor Ambrose? Geeze, didn't expect a Wizard101 connection here.

The line "pea in her bed" made me giggle like a 5 year old

Will Quest for Camelot get a trial? It deserves SERIOUS judgment.

Actually this movie DID get a theatrical release but only briefly

I actually didn’t understand why the Princess in the green dress and curly red hair was a problem. She just likes to play practical jokes.

This seems like its great material for rewrite-style fanfiction authors. Take the characters, give them the development they should have had in the first place, maybe change how certain (all) plot points were delivered. I would love to see the "Daria is a witch" thing played around with. What if she really was a witch? How would that affect her claim to the throne? I want to see raised-poor-as-dirt Daria interact with spoiled-rotten-princess Hildegarde, especially before it's revealed that Daria is the real princess. I also want to see Kingman (whose name I have forgotten because he was pretty dang forgettable and generic) interact with Hildegarde. How would seeing his own daughter be raised by his mortal enemy affect him? Especially with his childish, somewhat possessive behavior.

Whoever voices Laird is so fricken hammy it's like he's actually voring the microphone as he shouts at 5:08

I remember watching this little flick once when I was in elementary school.............and thinking that it was a steaming pile even back then XD This was quite a pleasent treat to see someone tear this stupid and obscure little movie from my childhood apart. ;) Also it's increadible how this film is even more of a Diet-Disney copycat than Warner Brothers Diet-Disney animated films from the 90s.

Rollo is a perfectly acceptable name in my book because of Vikings.